World Cup R2.1: Almasi, Bacrot, Shirov and Vallejo in danger zone

The first day of the World Cup's second round in Khanty-Mansiysk saw fifteen decisive games, and seventeen draws. Zoltan Almasi, Etienne Bacrot, Alexei Shirov and Paco Vallejo are in the danger zone after losing to lower-rated opponents.

General info

The 2011 FIDE World Cup is a 128-player knock-out taking place August 27-September 20 in Khanty-Mansiysk, Siberia. The tournament delivers three participants for the next Candidates tournament/matches, as part of the new World Championship cycle. Except for the final, all rounds have 2-game matches at the FIDE time control: 90 minutes for 40 moves followed by 30 minutes to finish the game, with a 30-second increment from the first move. In case of a 1-1 tie, on the third day of the round there's a tie-break with rapid games and if necessary blitz games and an Armageddon. More info here.

Round 2.1

Vassily Ivanchuk started his World Cup with three wins

With the rating differences decreasing, more games tend to end in draws. In the second round of the World Cup the drawing percentage was 53,1%, so a bit more like we're used to in super-tournaments. Furthermore, a big number of these games ended rather quickly (move number between parentheses): Ni Hua-Ponomariov (12) Drozdovskij-Caruana (15), Gupta-Shakland (15), Ivanov-Lysyj (18), Kasimdzhanov-Kamsky (16), Svidler-Nguyen Ngoc Truong Son (21), Vachier-Lagrave - Bu (22) and Adams-Nielsen (23). At the other end of the scale there was Alekseev-Ivanchuk, the longest game of the round. From a Caro-Kann, Chuky outplayed his opponent in an ending and won a pawn. However, with only one rook for each and opposite-coloured bishops, the game should have ended in a draw.
Alekseev-Ivanchuk Khanty-Mansiysk, 2011 Black has just put his king on d8 and now White errs with 96. Kg4? 96. Bg4 is still a draw and of course White can also repeat moves with 96. Rd7+ Ke8 97. Rh7 although no doubt Ivanchuk would have tried 97... Kf8! when 98. Bc8 seems to be the only move. 96... Be5 97. Rd7+ Ke8 White resigned because of 98. Rd1 Rg3+ and 99... Rg1-+. The biggest drama, however, was seen in the game between Spanish speaking players Vallejo (Spain) and Bruzon (Cuba). Vallejo-Bruzon Khanty-Mansiysk, 2011 White is completely dominating and the natural 44. Rg7! was easily winning. Perhaps Vallejo didn't play it because after 44... Nd3+ 45. Kf3 White isn't threatening to take on g6 yet (due to a knight fork), but in fact Black is more or less in Zugzwang here, e.g. 45... b5 46. a3. 44. Rc6 Nd3+?! 44... Re4+ was more tenacious. 45. Kg3 Re3+ 46. Kh2? 46. Kg4! Nc5 47. Nf3! indirectly defends c3 and after 47... Re4+ 48. Kg3 Re3 49. Kf2 White is still winning. 46... Nf4! Now the ending is very hard to win. 47. Rxb6 Rh3+ 48. Kg1 Rxc3 49. Rxa6 Nh3+ 50. Kf1 Nxg5 51. a4 Kf7 52. a5 Ne4 53. Rb6 Nc5 54. Rc6 Na4 55. Rd6 Nc5 56. Ke2 Ra3 57. Nc6 Ne6 58. a6 g5 59. a7 g4 60. Rd7+ Kxf6 61. Rb7 g3 62. Rb3 Ra2+ 63. Kf1 63. Kf3 g2 64. Rb1 was much easier. 63... g2+ 64. Kg1 Nf4 65. Kh2? Now White even loses. The only move was 65. Rg3, e.g. 65... Ra1+ 66. Kf2 g1Q+ 67. Rxg1 Nh3+ 68. Kg2 Nxg1 69. a8Q Rxa8 70. Kxg1=. 65... Ra1 66. a8Q 0-1

The dramatic game Vallejo-Bruzon

Besides Vallejo, the other players who lost their first games to lower rated opponents were Zoltan Almasi, Etienne Bacrot and Alexei Shirov. The latter is famous for his spectacular games, but this time he was on the losing end against the reigning European Champion: Potkin-Shirov Khanty-Mansiysk, 2011 22. f5! Killing. 22... Nxe5 22... Qxe5 23. fxe6 fxe6 24. Nxe6! Rxe6 25. Qf3+-. 23. Bf4 Bd6 24. Nc6 Nxc6 25. Bxd6 Qa7 26. f6! gxf6 27. Rxf6 Ne7 Many moves win, but 28. Rxf7! was nice. 1-0

Games round 2.1

Game viewer by ChessTempo

Photos © FIDE | Official website

Links

• Official website
• Live games
• Games in PGN via TWIC