World Cup Reaches Round 4

The 2009 Chess World Cup reaches the fourth round today, with the 16 remaining players fighting for a place in the quarter-finals.

There have been some high-profile casualties along the way but many of the big-hitters still remain, including top seed Boris Gelfand (pictured), who knocked out the last surviving female player, Judit Polgar on tiebreaks in round three.

Both remaining Chinese competitors were also eliminated in round three, but neither helped their cause by losing the second of their rapid tie-break games by default after failing to turn up in time for the start of their game.  They were busy smoking and were two minutes late!  FIDE's new rules indicate an automatic default if a player is not seated and ready to play at the start of a game...

The first games of round four have now been completed, and the tension is clearly rising, with only two decisive results today.  Peter Svidler and Shakhriyar Mamedyarov both won their games with the black pieces, putting them in a very strong position going into game two.

The two junior players still remaining, Fabiano Caruana (aged 17) and Wesley So (aged 16) both drew their games today.