Shocks on opening day of Round 2

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FIDE World Cup 2009 (Rd2 Day2)

Shocks on opening day of Round 2

IM Malcolm Pein - Thursday 26th November 2009

Here were some major shocks in game one of the second round matches at the FIDE World Cup taking place at Khanty Mansisk in Siberia. Three of the top seeds were defeated but they can save themselves by winning the return and taking the match to a Rapid Chess tiebreaker.

None of the leading six players won. Boris Gelfand and Vugar Gashimov were held to draws and the next four boards were all upsets. The outstanding game was played by the teenage Philipino Wesley So who defended a dangerous attack from Vasily Ivanchuk and kept his extra material for his finest result to date.

Tommi Nyback of Finland surprised Peter Svidler with a tactical shot and the black king was forced to walk while Konstantin Sakaev hasd prepared an interesting idea involving a voluntary king walk against Teimour Radjabov's King's Indian.

Nyback 1-0 Svidler

Morozevich 0-1 Laznicka

Sakaev 1-0 Radjabov

Ivanchuk 0-1 So

A disaster in the first Blitz playoff game.

G Sargissian (2676) - Li Chao (2596)

World Cup Khanty-Mansiysk (1.7)

English Opening

1.c4 Nf6 2.Nc3 d5 3.cxd5 Nxd5 4.g3 g6 5.Bg2 Nxc3 6.bxc3 Bg7 7.Rb1 0-0 8.Nf3 c5 9.0-0 Nc6 10.Ba3

(10.Qa4 Karpov-Korchnoi Game 28 WCC Baguio City 1978; 10.c4 also looks more accurate)

10...Qa5 11.Qc1 c4!? 12.Qb2

(12.Nd4!?)

12...Bf5 13.Rbc1 Be4 14.Ne1 Bxg2 15.Nxg2 b5 16.Rb1 Rab8 17.Ne3 Rfd8 18.Rfd1 Qc7 19.Qc2 a5 20.Qe4 e6 21.Bb2 Ne7 22.a4 Nf5 23.axb5 Nxe3 24.Qxe3 Rxb5 25.Ba3 Re5 26.Qf3 Red5 27.Qe3 Qd7 28.Rb2 h5 29.Ra2 Kh7 30.Bc1 Qb5 31.Qf3??

Li Chao

Gabriel Sargissian

Position after 31.Qf3??

The longest match in the first round went to sixteen games with Varuzhan Akobian of the USA defeating Russian Pavel Tregubov after two games of Classical Chess, four of Rapid Chess and ten Blitz games. The tie break lasted nearly ten hours and there were some terrible blunders

V Akobian (2624) - P Tregubov (2642)

World Cup Khanty-Mansiysk (1.1)

Anti Dutch

1.d4 f5 2.Nc3 Nf6 3.Bg5 d5 4.Bxf6 exf6 5.e3 Be6 6.Bd3 Nc6 7.Nge2 Qd7 8.a3 0-0-0

(Black plans a kingside attack with his bishops and pawn mass but White's attack is quicker)

9.Na4! g6

(9...Nxd4 10.Nxd4 Qxa4 11.Nxe6)

10.b4 Ne5 11.Nc5 Nxd3+ 12.Qxd3 Qe8

(Unpleasant but 12...Bxc5 13.dxc5 Rhe8 14.0-0 g5 15.Nd4 leaves White in control)

13.a4 Kb8 14.0-0 Bc8 15.Rfb1 h5 16.a5 Rh7 17.c4 dxc4 18.Qxc4 h4 19.h3 g5 20.b5 Rd6 21.d5! Qf7 22.Nd4 Qxd5

Pavel Tregubov