World Cup R2: Ivanchuk, Morozevich, Radjabov sent home

After so many upsets yesterday, it was almost inevitable that some of the top seeds had to leave the World Cup after round 2. And indeed: Alexander Morozevich, Vassily Ivanchuk and Teimour Radjabov are out. Morozevich was beaten by Laznicka again, Ivanchuk couldn't create winning chances with Black against So and Radjabov was held to a draw by Sakaev. Svidler is still in the race after beating Nyback in a fine game.

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).

Round 2, day 2

When Alexander Morozevich refused to participate in the FIDE Grand Prix Series, early 2008, he basically limited his options in the current World Championship cycle to his participation in the World Cup. However, after easily defeating Khaled Abdel Razik from Egypt in the first round, Morozevich didn't stand a chance against Czech Republic's 2nd player, Viktor Laznicka.



In a must-win situation with Black, the Elo-favourite tried a kind of Benoni set-up with a knight on e7, but with simple developing moves followed by strong miniplans (b2-b4, Nf3-h2-g4) Laznicka held a nice advantage, and then easily countered Black's attacking ideas on the queenside. Morozevich is out, and the strange thing is: the 2-0 for Laznicka is fully deserved.



Except for his lost final against Ponomariov in 2002, Vassily Ivanchuk hasn't done very well in FIDE knockout events. Still, it comes unexpected to see the brilliant Ukrainian having to leave Khanty-Mansyisk already after round 2. But as so often he has himself to blame: his impractical decision yesterday to decline the draw in heavy timetrouble cost him the full point. After his strong defence in game 1, Wesley So didn't flinch today either and easily held the draw with the white pieces using the Exchange Slav. Perhaps there was one moment where Ivanchuk could have hoped for more (with 33...Qe2!) but that was it.



Radjabov was the third top GM who can book his flight back home already. Azerbaijan's number 2 player had to win with the white pieces. He went for 1.d4, got a 5.Bf4 QGD and 'of course' castled queenside. In the early middlegame Radjabov decided to swap queens to reach a better ending, but as could be expected from an experienced Russian grandmaster like Sakaev, he didn't make any big mistakes and simply held the rook ending (the Rp-R was always a draw).



As you'll remember, Peter Svidler also lost yesterday, but this top GM did manage to level the score by winning an excellent Ruy Lopez with White against Nyback (check his great moves 33 and 34!). After draws in the first game, Gelfand and Gashimov went through smoothly today by beating Amonatov and Zhou Jianchao respectively. Well, smoothly isn't the correct word in the case of Gelfand, who erred on move 36 and 37 and could have been eliminated if Amonatov would have found 40...Kg7!.

Even better did Jakovenko, Wang Yue, Wang Hao and Bacrot, who all won their matches 2-0. Like Svidler, Eljanov and Fedorchuk managed to come back from yesterday's loss against Inarkiev and Shirov respectively.

The surprise of the first round, Yu Yangyi, also went through to the third: he defeated Bartel 0.5-1.5. Grischuk, Motylev, Kamsky and Naiditsch went through with the same score.



Tomorrow there will be tiebreaks in the following matches: Svidler-Nyback, Ponomariov-Akobian, Eljanov-Inarkiev, Timofeev-Karjakin, Fedorchuk-Shirov, Dominguez-Caruana, Vachier-Lagrave-Meier, Fressinet-Alekseev, Tomashevsky-Khalifman, Navara-Shabalov, Smirin-Malakhov, Areshchenko-Rublevsky, Milos-Vitiugov, Bologan-Cheparinov, Pelletier-Li Chao and Nisipeanu-Polgar.

Some round 3 matches are already known: Jobava-Grischuk, Mamedyarov-Wang Hao, Wang Yue-Bacrot and So-Kamsky.

All photos by Galina Popova | courtesy of FIDE

Games round 2, day 2

Game viewer by ChessTempo




Players in bold have reached the third round; players in italics have been eliminated.

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

Links

• Official website
• Games in PGN