FIDE World Cup 2009 (Rd3 Day3)
Win or bust in Round 3
IM Malcolm Pein - Thursday 3rd December 2009
Only three of the eight fourth round matches ended in normal time as the stakes were raised at the FIDE World Cup being staged at Khanty Mansiysk in Siberia. Peter Svidler, Shak Mamedyarov and Sergei Karjakin all won 1.5-0.5 but the other matches ended 1-1 after two draws and go to speed chess tie breaks.
Only three of the eight fourth round matches ended in normal time as the stakes were raised at the FIDE World Cup being staged at Khanty Mansiysk in Siberia. Peter Svidler, Shak Mamedyarov and Sergei Karjakin all won 1.5-0.5 but the other matches ended 1-1 after two draws and go to speed chess tie breaks.
Round four losers take home $20,000 and winners are guaranteed at least $8,000 more. The winner takes home $80,000 after FIDE's 20% cut.
The tournament has been a disaster for the Chinese players. Nine of them started but none have made the last sixteen. Two of their number were suffered in the third round under this silly FIDE regulation that forfeits a late arrival at the board.
Wang Yue and Li Chao arrived two minutes late for the second game tiebreaks against Vugar Gashimov and Etienne Bacrot respectively. They were having a smoke in a room set aside for the purpose by the organisers. The arbiter gave them a three minute warning and a one minute warning although what language he did this in has not been reported. The Chinese cannot really complain, there were some ridiculous defaults at the last Chinese championship.
Win or bust for Black in this Blitz game.
P Svidler - A Naiditsch
World Cup Khanty-Mansiysk (3.8)
Ruy Lopez
1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 a6 4.Ba4 Nf6 5.0-0 Be7 6.d3 d6 7.c3 Bg4 8.Nbd2 Qd7 9.Re1 g5!?
10.Nf1 0-0-0 11.h3 Bh5 12.Ng3 g4 13.Nxh5 Nxh5 14.hxg4 Qxg4 15.Ng5! Qh4
(15...Qxd1 16.Bxd1! attacking the knight is the clever point)
16.Qf3 Rhg8
(16...Bxg5 17.Qf5+)
17.Qf5+ Kb8 18.Nf3 Qg4 19.Qxg4 Rxg4 20.Bb3 Rdg8
(20...Nf4 21.Bxf4 Rxf4 was better)
21.Bxf7 Nf6
(21...Rxg2+ 22.Kf1 does not help)
22.Bxg8 Rxg8 23.g3 d5 24.exd5 Nxd5 25.Nxe5 1-0
Baadur Jobava went out in a third round playoff but played some nice games in the early rounds.
B Jobava - E Iturrizaga
World Cup Khanty-Mansiysk (2.2)
Queen's Indian
1.d4 Nf6 2.Nf3 e6 3.c4 b6 4.a3 Ba6 5.Qc2 Bb7 6.Nc3 c5 7.e4 cxd4 8.Nxd4 Nc6 9.Nxc6 Bxc6 10.Bf4 Nh5 11.Bd2 Qc7 12.Nd5 Qb7
(12...exd5 13.cxd5 regains the piece with advantage)
13.Bd3 Bd6 14.0-0 Qb8 15.g3 exd5
(15...Nf6 16.Nxf6+ gxf6 17.Bc3 Be5)
16.exd5 Bb7 17.Rfe1+ Kd8
(Maybe Black should have gone the other way with 17...Kf8)
18.Bc3 Nf6 19.b4 Qc7 20.Qb2 Kc8
(With his extra piece cut out of the game Black has problems)
21.Bxf6 gxf6 22.Qxf6 Rd8 23.Rac1 Bf8 24.c5 bxc5 25.bxc5 a5 26.c6! dxc6 27.dxc6 Ba6 28.Bf5+ Kb8
Eduardo Iturrizaga
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Baadur Jobava
Position after 28...Kb8
29.Qxd8+! Qxd8 30.c7+ 1-0
30.c7+ Qxc7 31.Re8+ Bc8 32.Rxc7 Kxc7 33.Rxf8 with a won endgame
There are still spectator tickets available for the London Chess Classic at Olympia but the weekend of the 12th and 13th is filling up rapidly.
See www.londonchessclassic.com for more details. The field includes Magnus Carlsen, Vladimir Kramnik, Hikaru Nakamura, Nigel Short and Michael Adams. Having checked the Live Rating list I have established that the tournament will be just below 2700 average.
