Wednesday, December 2, 2009

World Chess Cup Round Four


Wesley So, Caruana, Vachier-Lagrave, Bacrot, and Grischuk eliminated after tiebreaks

The fourth round of the 2009 World Chess Cup was concluded on Wednesday with extremely interesting tiebreak matches. Earlier, Sergey Karjakin, Peter Svidler and Shakhriyar Mamedyarov qualified for the next level by winning the classical control matches by 1.5-0.5 each.

Wesley So said in an interview that "to his mind he plays tiebreaks better than classical games". Today he started aggressive and tried to complicate matters in the first game with black pieces. But Malakhov calmly rejected all attacks and converted into a winning endgame.
In the second game Wesley tried a sharp variation against Malakhov's reliable Chebanenko Slav, but black did his homework on time and maintained a roughly balanced position. Seeing that the possibilities are limited, Wesley tried to force in a reduced endgame and Malakhov used the chance to score another win.


The young Filipino was probably downhearted when the third game had started, and somewhere in the middlegame he resigned when white breached to the 7th rank.
Nevertheless, this is a fantastic result for the future chess star and we expect to see him shining again at the upcoming Corus Wijk aan Zee.

world cup Wesley Malakhov

Wesley So and Vladimir Malakhov

Fabiano Caruana had a difficult task to find a path through the second-seeded Vugar GashimovMaxime Vachier-Lagrave and Etienne Bacrot are packing the bags after losing the tiebreaks to Boris Gelfand and Ruslan Ponomariov respectively. in the quest for quarterfinals. Gashimov won two rapid games, then drew the third and marked an end to Caruana's fantastic run at the World Cup. Thus, both Azerbaijan players go to the next round, while the Frenchmen

The quarterfinals are starting on Thursday, with Chessdom live commentary and live game computer analysis.

world cup Pono Bacrot

Ruslan Ponomariov and Etienne Bacrot

world cup Maxime Gelfand

Maxime Vachier-Lagrave and Boris Gelfand

world cup Vugar Ilya

Vugar Gashimov and respected Russian journalist Ilya Odessky

Round four final results:

Vachier-Lagrave Maxime (FRA) - Gelfand Boris (ISR) 3.5-4.5
Gashimov Vugar (AZE) - Caruana Fabiano (ITA) 3.5-1.5
Shirov Alexei (ESP) - Svidler Peter (RUS) 0.5-1.5
Laznicka Viktor (CZE) - Mamedyarov Shakhriyar (AZE) 0.5-1.5
Karjakin Sergey (UKR) - Vitiugov Nikita (RUS) 1.5-0.5
So Wesley (PHI) - Malakhov Vladimir (RUS) 1-4
Bacrot Etienne (FRA) - Ponomariov Ruslan (UKR) 2.5-3.5
Grischuk Alexander (RUS) - Jakovenko Dmitry (RUS) 3-5

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