World Cup: Gashimov, Gelfand, Jakovenko, Malakhov and Ponomariov also through

After Karjakin, Mamedyarov and Svidler, today five more players qualified for the World Cup's quarter-finals: Gashimov, Gelfand, Jakovenko, Malakhov and Ponomariov. Pairings for tomorrow's 6th round: Karjakin-Mamedyarov, Gelfand-Jakovenko, Ponomariov-Gashimov and Svidler-Malakhov.

The FIDE World Chess Cup takes place November 20th-December 15th inn Khanty-Mansiysk, Russia. It's a seven-round knockout with six rounds of matches comprising two games per round. The final seventh round consists of four games.

Round 1 (November 21-23): 128 players	Round 5 (December 3-5): 8 players
Round 2 (November 24-26): 64 players	Round 6 (December 6-8): 4 players
Round 3 (November 27-29): 32 players	Round 7 (December 10-14): 2 players
Round 4 (November 30-December 2): 16 players

The time control is 90 minutes for the first 40 moves followed by 30 minutes for the rest of the game with an addition of 30 seconds per move from move one. Games start at 15:00h local time (11:00 CET).

Tiebreaks round 4

The biggest surprise perhaps on this last day of round 4 was the elimination of Alexander Grischuk by his compatriot Dmitry Jakovenko. The reason is that this elimination took place in a (dramatic!) blitz phase, where Grischuk, as an ex-World Blitz Champion, should be considered the favourite. (Last month he finished shared 5th at the World Blitz together with Svidler and Ponomariov, who are still in the race in Khanty-Mansiysk.)

After their two very quick draws in the classical games, the four rapid games all were fairly equal as well. But then the fireworks began In the first blitz game, Grischuk was clearly less concentrated than Jakovenko, probably missing both the Nd7-b6-d5 manoeuvre and the Qd3+Rb1 idea. Although he missed a mate in three on move 42, Jakovenko had no trouble winning the ending two pawns up.



However, in the second game Grischuk came close to levelling the score. 55.Re3? was a big mistake that allowed 55...Bd3!, locking up the rook.



58...Kf2 is curtains here, but instead Grischuk collapsed and created a self-mate a problem composer would be proud of. An unfortunate anti-climax of this match between two very strong Russian players.



Of the other tiebreak matches, only Gelfand-Vachier-Lagrave reached the blitz games too, and these were no less dramatic. It's hard to say why the young French grandmaster refrained from the obvious 55.c6 in the first one, which would have given excellent winning chances. Instead, Gelfand grabbed his chance to activate his king and save the game. In the second blitz game Vachier-Lagrave simply got crushed.



Caruana started strongly against his Gashimov; his bishop sacrifice was entirely correct.



However, here he missed the strong follow-up 21.Qf5+! Rf6 22.Qd3! after which 22....Re6 is forced. White can win the piece back with a drawn position or continue attacking with 23.Rd1 Be7 24.Qxh7. In the game the Black king just walked away; 25...Qe8! was nice though 25...Qg8 is the same. In game 2 Caruana was outplayed while in game 3 Gashimov drew a pawn ending, showing his knowledge of the theory of corresponding squares.



To our surprise, Wesley So lost all three rapid games against Malakhov, and so the three youngest players left the World Cup today. The first was simply a very strong game by Malakhov, but in the second So got a promising position out of the opening. Perhaps 13.e6 was a bit too much however, and far in the endgame the Philippine avoided move repetition to even lose a drawn position. Winning with Black against Malakhov's ultra-solid 1.d4 game was too much to ask.



After some missed chances yesterday, Ponomariov did knock out Bacrot today. The match was decided in the 4th rapid game, which started fine for the French GM. Black is at least equal after 30...axb4, and 39...h5? was unnecessary. 43.Ke3! would have won quicker but when Bacrot missed 45...Ra5 it was over anyway.



The pairings for tomorrow’s 6th round are Karjakin-Mamedyarov, Gelfand-Jakovenko, Ponomariov-Gashimov and Svidler-Malakhov. These quarter-finals, as well as the semis, will still be played over two classical games only. The final will consist of four.

All photos by Galina Popova | courtesy of FIDE

Tiebreak games round 4

Game viewer by ChessTempo

Round 2	Round 3	Round 4	Round 5	Round 6	Round 7
Shabalov (2606)
	Navara (2707)
Navara (2707)
		Karjakin (2723)
Karjakin (2723)
	Karjakin (2723)
Timofeev (2651)
			Karjakin (2723)
Sakaev (2626)
	Sakaev (2626)
Radjabov (2748)
		Vitiugov (2694)
Vitiugov (2694)
	Vitiugov (2694)
Milos (2603)
Cheparinov (2671)
	Bologan (2692)
Bologan (2692)
		Laznicka (2637)
Morozevich (2750)
	Laznicka (2637)
Laznicka (2637)
			Mamedyarov (2719)
Milov (2652)
	Mamedyarov (2719)
Mamedyarov (2719)
		Mamedyarov (2719)
Wang Hao (2708)
	Wang Hao (2708)
Ganguly (2654)
Meier (2653)
	Vachier-Lagrave (2718)
Vachier-Lagrave (2718)
		Vachier-Lagrave (2718)
Yu Yangyi (2527)
	Yu Yangyi (2527)
Bartel (2618)
			Gelfand (2758)
Amonatov (2631)
	Gelfand (2758)
Gelfand (2758)
		Gelfand (2758)
Polgar (2680)
	Polgar (2680)
Nisipeanu (2677)
Iturrizaga (2605)
	Jobava (2696)
Jobava (2696)
		Grischuk (2736)
Grischuk (2736)
	Grischuk (2736)
Tkachiev (2642)
			Jakovenko (2736)
Sandipan (2623)
	Jakovenko (2736)
Jakovenko (2736)
		Jakovenko (2736)
Rublevsky (2697)
	Areshchenko (2664)
Areshchenko (2664)
Sasikiran (2664)
	Bacrot (2700)
Bacrot (2700)
		Bacrot (2700)
Wang Yue (2734)
	Wang Yue (2734)
Savchenko (2644)
			Ponomariov (2739)
Akobian (2624)
	Ponomariov (2739)
Ponomariov (2739)
		Ponomariov (2739)
Motylev (2695)
	Motylev (2695)
Najer (2695
Li Chao (2596)
	Li Chao (2596)
Pelletier (2589)
		Gashimov (2758)
Gashimov (2758)
	Gashimov (2758)
Zhou Jianchao (2629
			Gashimov (2758)
Caruana (2652)
	Caruana (2652)
Dominguez (2719)
		Caruana (2652)
Alekseev (2715)
	Alekseev (2715)
Fressinet (2653)
Khalifman (2612)
	Tomashevsky (2708)
Tomashevsky (2708)
		Shirov (2719)
Shirov (2719)
	Shirov (2719)
Fedorchuk (2619)
			Svidler (2754)
Nyback (2628)
	Svidler (2754)
Svidler (2754)
		Svidler (2754)
Naiditsch (2689)
	Naiditsch (2689)
Onischuk (2672)
Zhou Weiqi (2603)
	Kamsky (2695)
Kamsky (2695)
		So (2640)
Ivanchuk (2739)
	So (2640)
So (2640)
			Malakhov (2706)
Inarkiev (2645)
	Eljanov (2729)
Eljanov (2729)
		Malakhov (2706)
Malakhov (2706)
	Malakhov (2706)
Smirin (2662)

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