World Cup: Alekseev, Movsesian & Wojtaszek Eliminated in Tiebreaks

Evgeny Alekseev of Russia, Sergei Movsesian of Armenia and Radek Wojtaszek of Poland are the strongest players to get eliminated in the tiebreaks of the FIDE World Cup's first round. Alekseev lost to Baskaran Adhiban of India, Wojtaszek went down against Alexander Fier of Brazil and Sergei Movsesian couldn't do it against local hero Jon Ludvig Hammer.

On Tuesday almost half of the field, 56 players, entered the playing hall with the same thought: this could be the last time, or I'll be staying here for at least another two days. Many lower-rated players booked their return tickets for Wednesday, and all of them would be happy to change it!

Only one Norwegian grandmaster needed to do just that: Jon Ludvig Hammer. While he got "hammered" most of the time at the Norway Chess tournament back in May, in Tromsø he managed to eliminate one of the 2700 grandmasters: Sergei Movsesian, who switched back to the Armenian federation last year.

In his interview with ChessVibes Hammer admitted that his piece sacrifice in the first rapid game was not correct, but it worked:

Another upset was seen in the match between Evgeny Alekseev (Russia, 2710) and Baskaran Adhiban (India, 2567). After the two exchanged wins in the rapid section and drew both "semi-blitz" games (10 minutes plus 10 seconds increment, but played with rapid rules so e.g. an illegal move does not immediately lose), the first real blitz game (5 minutes plus three seconds increment) saw a dramatic finish. Alekseev missed several wins, including a mate in four with 52.Bd6, and even lost on time.

After this dramatic affair. Alekseev didn't stand a chance in the second game:

The talk of the town was the match Teimour Radjabov (Azerbaijan) vs. Jorge Cori (Peru). It was already quite an achievement for the 17-year-old Peruvian grandmaster to reach the tiebreaks, and he even won the first rapid game:

Radjabov then levelled the score:

What happened next was food for discussion for the rest of the day: Cori forfeited his first blitz game for arriving too late at the board! He decided to appeal, because he had heard the arbiter saying that the next game would start 6:50 ("six fifty") while the actual starting time was 6:15 ("six fifteen"). Initially Cori withdrew his appeal when he was told that, in case he would lose, he would not get back the obligatory $500 deposit. But then Susan Polgar sponsored the money, Cori filed it anyway...

but eventually the appeal was rejected by the Appeals Committee.

The two young Chinese IMs who had made such a good impression were both eliminated by 2700 opponents. Especially Lou Yiping put up a great fight as he managed to draw both rapid games with Gata Kamsky. The U.S. Champion then won with Black, and drew with White.

Michael Adams drew his first game with Wan Yunguo, and then won with a typical knight sac:

Hou Yifan can join her compatriots on the way back to China; she lost to Alexei Shirov despite winning the first rapid game:

Shirov won the next rapid game with White, and also the two 10+10 games. In the interview below, the Latvian GM admits that he was surprised how he managed to win the first one:

Alexandr Fier of Brazil beat Radek Wojtaszek 1.5-0.5 in the rapid games, which can also be called an upset. Here's the first game, and another interview:

Two matches were decided in the Armageddon game: Evgeny Tomashevsky beat Alejandro Ramirez with White, and Julio Granda Zuniga won with Black against Hrant Melkumyan.

The pairings for round 2 (Wednesday, 3pm local time) are Lysyj-Aronian, Caruana-Yu Yangyi, Kobalia-Kramnik, Grischuk-Swiercz, Sasikiran-Karjakin, Nakamura-Safarli, Filippov-Gelfand, Kamsky-Shimanov, Matlakov-Mamedyarov, Dominguez-Onischuk, Dubov-Ponomariov, Wang Hao-Dreev, Bologan-Svidler, Adams-Kryvoruchko, Granda-Leko, Morozevich-Leitao, Ragger-Vitiugov, Giri-Li Chao, Robson-Ivanchuk, Radjabov-Bruzon, Nguyen-Andreikin, Korobov-Jobava, Ortiz Suarez-Vachier-Lagrave, Shirov-Wei Yi, Hammer-Navara, Bacrot-Moiseenko, Adhiban-Fier, Jakovenko-Eljanov, Vallejo Pons-Le Quang Liem, Areshchenko-Felgaer, Fressinet-Malakhov and Tomashevsky-So.

FIDE World Cup 2013 | Round 1 tiebreak results

Held every two years, the World Cup is part of the World Championship cycle. The winner and the runner-up will qualify for the 2014 Candidates Tournament. The World Cup takes place August 10th-September 3rd in Tromsø, Norway. Photos by Paul Truong courtesy of the official website; games via TWIC.