World Cup R3.1: Polgar beats Karjakin

Judit Polgar defeated top seed Sergei Karjakin on the first of the World Cup's third round. Vassily Ivanchuk lost his first game, with White against Emil Sutovsky. The other decisive results were Grischuk-Morozevich 1-0, Kamsky-Nepomniachtchi 1-0, Jakovenko-Jobava 1-0 and Dominguez-Lysyj 1-0.

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 3.1

Logically, the rating differences in the third round are even smaller and so it wasn't surprising to see the drawing percentage going up even further. On the first day, only six out of sixteen games ended decisively. Judit Polgar inflicted the first loss upon rating favourite Sergey Karjakin. The Russian tried the Berlin Wall, and opening in which Polgar once defeated Garry Kasparov. Polgar-Karjakin Khanty-Mansiysk, 2011 White has just played the typical e5-e6 break and traded this pawn for the one on c7. Now her queen's bishop goes out hunting. 22. Bb8! a6 23. Ba7 Bd8 24. Nc3 24... Kf7 Deciding to give up a pawn. 24... Ne7 25. Na4 Nc8 seems to fail to 26. Bxb6 Nxb6 27. Nxb6 Bxb6 28. Rd6 However here 28... Bc8! 29. Rxb6 Kd7! threatens to trap the rook. After 30. b4! (or 30. a4 Kc7 31. a5 Rd8 32. Kf1 Rd1+ 33. Ke2 Ra1 34. b4 cxb4 35. Rxb4 Rxa5=) 30... Rh5! Black should be able to draw the ending. 25. Na4 b5 26. Nxc5 Bc8 27. cxb5 axb5 28. a4 bxa4 29. bxa4 Re8 30. Rb1 g5 31. Bb6 Be7 32. a5 Bxc5 33. Bxc5 Re6 34. Rb6 Ng7 35. Be3 Nf5 36. Rb8 Re8 37. Ra8 37... Bb7? After this it's clearly lost. Black should have tried 37... Nxe3 38. fxe3 Bb7 39. Ra7 Re7 40. a6 Bc6 41. Rxe7+ Kxe7 with some drawing chances. 38. Ra7 Re7 39. Bc5 Rd7 40. a6 Bc6 41. Rxd7+ Bxd7 42. Nd2! 42... Ke6 The difference with the line starting with 37...Nxe3 is that here after 42... Ne7 43. Bxe7 Kxe7 White has 44. Ne4 Bc6 45. f3 and the knight prevents the black king from walking to the a-pawn and his kingside can't move. 43. Nc4 Bc6 44. Nb6 Nd6 45. Bxd6 Kxd6 46. a7 Kc7 47. a8=Q Bxa8 48. Nxa8+ Kb7 49. f4! 1-0

Our new nickname for Judit Polgar: 'endgame queen' - she's played wonderful endgames lately

Another big gun stumbled: Vassily Ivanchuk. It was his first loss and it happened against Emil Sutovsky. Ivanchuk-Sutovsky Khanty-Mansiysk, 2011 35. Nxa3? White had to play 35. Bxf6+ Kxf6 36. Nxa3 but after 36... exf3! 37. Bxf3 Bxa3 38. Be4 Bb4 Black can still torture him for long. 35... Bc5+! A very annoying and in fact winning Zwischenzug. 36. Kc3 Bxa3+ 37. Bc4 37. Kb3 Rc1! 37... b5 38. Kb3 bxc4+ 39. Kxa3 c3 40. fxe4 Rb8 0-1

Emil Sutovsky thinking, his opponent Vassily Ivanchuk in the background (l.)

The game between Grischuk and Morozevich was a great clash, in which White went for a gambit line in the French. In the middlegame he won back the pawn and things were about equal, but towards the first time control Morozevich started to make mistakes. Playing the white pieces in a Grünfeld, Kamsky won an excellent, straight-forward game against Nepomniachtchi. Jakovenko won a wonderful ending against Jobava and Dominguez outplayed Lysyj in another Berlin Wall.

Alexander Morozevich went down against Alexander Grischuk

Games round 3.1

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