World Cup R5: Karjakin & Malakhov start with wins

Sergei Karjakin and Vladimir Malakhov have excellent chances to reach the semi-finals of the World Cup. On the first day of round 5, Karjakin beat Mamedyarov with White in an Open Ruy Lopez while Malakhov beat Svidler with Black in a Chebanenko Slav. Both Gelfand-Jakovenko, and Ponomariov-Gashimov ended in a draw.

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 5, day 1

Only four boards, and eight players are left in Khanty-Mansiysk. By the way, the round 4 losers went home with US $ 20,000 each (tax already deducted), while the players still in the field will be dividing a total (net) sum of $ 352,000. (This round's losers will earn US $ 28,000, the losers of the semis US $ 40,000, the runner-up US $ 64,000 and the winner US $ 96,000).



Shakhriyar Mamedyarov started with wins in all first four rounds, but today he lost game 1 against his first higher-rated opponent, Sergey Karjakin. Shakh's opening choice was a surprising one, since according to the database he played the Open Ruy Lopez only 11 games before, the last time in December 2004. Besides, Karjakin's preparation looked much better too.



15...0-0 was a deviation from a previous Karjakin game, but already with 18.g4! White had a clear advantage. Black just held on in the endgame, but White was always clearly on top. It seems that the last phase of the rook ending contains a few mutual mistakes:

49.f3! is winning on the spot here because of Zugzwang. After 49.Rf5 the move 49...g4 was absolutely necessary, but 49...Rb2? allowed the pretty 50.f4! and the pawn always queens.

In this group of eight, Vladimir Malakhov is a relatively unknown grandmaster since he's never played in a super-tournament, but as we mentioned before, the Russian has been a 2600-high GM for a long time (and now even 2700+). More concretely we're talking about the FIDE rating list of April 2002, when Malakhov passed the 2650 border and never went below!



This little intro makes it less of a surprise that Malakhov beat Svidler today, and we might add in an excellent game. Svidler went for 1.d4, despite the fact that his opponent's Chebanenko Slav has been looking very solid in this World Cup. After the opening the game got more and more interesting with every move, with Svidler sacrificing material for an attack, and Malakhov just taking everything because he had seen something very nice at the end of a long variation.

The move 27...g5! was necessary here but after 28.Qh5 d2 29.f6 Qxf6! 30.Bxd4 Qxd4+ 31.Kg2 it looks like White is winning...

...except for Malakhov's final move: 31...dxe1N+! and Svidler resigned.



Gelfand was probably caught in preparation by Jakovenko and got nothing out of the opening. In a long and tiresome event like this it's not a bad idea to take an early draw, even with White. And that's what Gelfand did.



Ponomariov-Gashimov was a fascinating battle. The Sicilian Dragon has been theoretically under a cloud for years against 1.e4, and in this respect its counterpart against 1.d4 is the Benoni. However, the new top 10 player Vugar Gashimov has been using it successfully for quite a while now.



Perhaps the opening needs such a strong player to be playable, because also in this game White got the upper hand. However, it looks like Ponomariov missed a few chances and therefore Gashmov's Benoni draw was a narrow escape today.

29.f3! would have won because 29...Rxd5 can be answered by 30.Nb4! Rc5 31.N2d3. In the game 29.Nd3 Qf7 was played, where 30. g5! Nxg5 31.Na7! Rb8 32.Nxc8 Rbxc8 33.Rxc8 Rxc8 34.f4 would have trapped the knight.

All photos by Galina Popova | courtesy of FIDE

Games round 5, day 1

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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