The Chess Mind

It's somewhat confusing, and I have no idea how FIDE's plan is supposed to fit with Topalov's "2700 + money = World Championship match" proclamation (see here, reason 2), but the first step of FIDE's 2005-2007 World Championship cycle starts today (Sunday). The FIDE World Chess Cup is a 132-player knock-out event (sort of) taking place in Khanty-Mansyisk, Russia, and will continue until December 18.

The top 10 finishers here will move on to the Candidates' Matches, where they will meet Kasimjanov and the five highest-rated players not already seeded into the next round. (What happens if the players (e.g Kasparov and Kramnik) don't accept? Do they move down the rating list, or take more from the World Cup?) Of these 16, the final four move on to the actual championship event, where they will join Topalov, Anand, Svidler and Morozevich.

Will it all come to pass? How will this work with Topalov's "2700s welcome!" proposal/proclamation? How, if at all, will Kramnik fit into this? I have no idea, but at least we have some great chess to look forward to over the next three weeks!

We're on round 2 now, but for those who haven't closely followed the World Chess Cup so far, here is a quick report on some of the highlights.

2700s

All the 2700s made it through to the second round, though a few were nicked for a draw along the way. (The rounds consist of one player having White the first day, the other playing taking White the next day, and then increasingly rapid tie-break game pairs the next day. If four tie-break games don't settle the match, they play an "Armageddon" game: White gets 6 minutes to Black's 5, but Black wins the match unless White wins the game.) Thus entering round two, all of the following are still alive and kicking:

Ivanchuk (who lost his first game in round 2 to Topalov's second, Cheparinov)
Bacrot
Aronian
Grischuk (who defeated Gaston Needleman - remember him?)
Gelfand
Shirov
Radjabov
Ponomariov
Tiviakov

Prodigies

It's hard to delineate who exactly gets in here, but the following list (hopefully) catches all those 18 and under.

Needleman - lost (to Grischuk)
Radjabov - won (over Flores)
Adly - lost (to Ponomariov)
Wang Hao - lost (to Malakhov)
Kuzubov - lost (to Moiseenko)
Nakamura - lost (to Ganguly - and 2-0!)
Balogh - won (over Karjakin)
Karjakin - lost (to Balogh)
Carlsen - won (over Azmaiparashvili)
Wang Yue - won (over Asrian)

Americans

Kamsky - won (over Jun Zhao)
Kudrin - lost (to Eljanov)
Nakamura - lost (to Ganguly)
Shulman - won (by drawing in the Armageddon game with Zvjaginsev)
Stripunsky - lost (to Areshchenko)
Onischuk - won (over Popov)
A. Ivanov - won (over Granda Zuniga)
Kaidanov - lost (to Felgaer)

There has been a lot of very interesting, fighting chess; for now, I'll highlight two games that caught my eye. The first is Nakamura's second loss to Ganguly, and the second was Miroshnichenko's game two tragedy against Korneev. (Hat tip to Chess Today for the second example.)

Curious? Click here for those games; for those interested in all of the games (unannotated), click here.

The second round is now complete, and we're down to our final 32 competitors. Most of the favorites are still in action, but a number of big names have been shown the door. The most prominent of these was the number 1 seed, Vassily Ivanchuk, who was crushed in his first game with 19-year old Topalov second Ivan Cheparinov and couldn't come back in game two, but there were others: Viorel Bologan lost to Zahar Efimenko, newly crowned World Junior champ Shakhriyar Mamedyarov lost to Evgeniy Najer, and original FIDE K.O. champ Alexander Khalifman "lost" (i.e. drew with White in the Armageddon game) to Yuri Shulman.

Recapping based on our three categories of 2700s, "prodigies" (players 18-and-under), and Americans, here's where things stand:

2700s: All remain but Ivanchuk, leaving us this list:

Bacrot
Aronian
Grischuk
Gelfand
Shirov
Radjabov
Ponomariov
Tiviakov

Prodigies

Radjabov defeated Kazhgaleyev (2.5-1.5)
Balogh lost to Areshchenko (.5-1.5)
Carlsen defeated Ammonatov (1.5-.5)
Wang Yue lost to Smirin (2.5-1.5)

Americans

Kamsky defeated Bocharov (3-1)
Shulman "defeated" Khalifman (3.5-3.5 - that's two consecutive rounds in which Shulman has advanced by drawing the Armaggedon game!)
Onischuk lost to Bruzon (2.5-1.5)
A. Ivanov lost to Lautier (.5-1.5)

For a full list of results, click here.

I've attached several games that caught my eye. First, there's Ivanchuk's loss, in which he is rather impressively outplayed by the young Bulgarian. Next, there's Gelfand's win in the rapid games against Felgaer. Black's big idea in the Slav, opposed to the Queen's Gambit Declined, is to get the light-squared bishop outside the pawn chain. That's the theory, but practice doesn't always cooperate, as you'll see. Next, we'll take a look at a brutal Erenburg-Sakaev game; finally, we'll take a quick look at Khalifman's missed chance at the end of his Armaggedon game with Shulman.

The news is that there's very little news. Of the round's 16 matches, only five have finished after the two regular games:

Aronian d. Areshchenko (1.5-.5)
M. Gurevich d. Shirov (1.5-.5)
Ponomariov d. Xu Jun (2-0)
Sakaev d. Tiviakov (2-0)
Malakhov d. Sokolov (1.5-.5)

The Shirov loss is an upset, of course, but not that big an upset, as Mikhail Gurevich is a very strong player. The decisive game from this match is linked here, together with today's Dreev-Harikrishna game. Dreev's opening play really impressed me with its forcefulness and creativity - even if, unfortunately for Dreev, Harikrishna's persistent defense saved the draw.

Good games, and I'm sure there will be many more tomorrow as we reach the final 16.

As reported here, eleven of the third round's sixteen matches went to tiebreaks; the results are in, and here are the pairings for round 4:

Bareev-Carlsen
Bacrot-Lautier
Vallejo-Aronian
Grischuk-Kamsky
Dreev-Gelfand
Gurevich-Malakhov
Sakaev-Rublevsky
van Wely-Ponomariov

It's a nice collection of players, and one we'll get to enjoy for the duration (it's single elimination with respect to the contest for first place, but even the defeated continue on so that each place from one to sixteen can be precisely determined. Thus the losers of the matches listed above will in effect contest their own mini-tournament for 9th-16th places; the losers of two straight matches compete for 13th-16th while the winners fight for 9th-12th, etc.)

Who will make which brackets? I predict that Bareev, Lautier, Aronian, Grischuk, Gelfand, Gurevich, Sakaev, and Ponomariov will win their matches in round 4.

Finally, I conclude this grab-bag post by commending the tournament website to my readers, where they can find interviews (in English) with many of the participants: Onischuk, Khalifman, Ivanchuk, Sadvakasov, Malakhov, Carlsen (on video as well as text), etc. It's worth a look, especially as some of the interviewees are largely unknown in the English-speaking world.

Round 4 is in the books, and while the first two sub-rounds were relatively tame, there were, as the kids like to say, quite a few humdingers in the tiebreak games. I'll present some of those games in a later post, for now, here are the results of round 4, the pairings for round 5, and a look at my predictions for both rounds:

Round 4 Results:

Bareev defeated Carlsen 2.5-1.5
Bacrot defeated Lautier 2.5-1.5
Aronian defeated Vallejo Pons 2.5-1.5
Grischuk defeated Kamsky 1.5-.5
Gelfand defeated Dreev 3.5-2.5
Gurevich defeated Malakhov 2.5-1.5
Rublevsky defeated Sakaev 1.5-.5
Ponomariov defeated van Wely 2-0

I got six right, missing only on the Bacrot-Lautier and Rublevsky-Sakaev matches. Not too bad, but as I largely went with the higher-rated players, not all that impressive, either.

For round 5, we have the following breakdown:

For places 1-8:

Bareev-Ponomariov
Rublevsky-Bacrot
Aronian-Gurevich
Gelfand-Grischuk

For places 9-16:

Carlsen-Lautier
Kamsky-Sakaev
Malakhov-Dreev
Vallejo Pons-van Wely

Predictions for the top bracket: Ponomariov, Bacrot, Aronian and Grischuk. (I know, I'm really going out on a limb by picking all the higher-rated players.) As for the lower bracket...I don't know how much the players care at this point, so I'll refrain from prognostication.

Remember: annotated games coming later tonight!

There were many interesting games in round 4, but offering serious annotations to all of them goes well beyond what I have the time for. I have offered some commentary for six of the games, however, and that should at least serve as a nice snack for the chess-hungry among you. Have a look!

The trend was reversed in this round, with lots of decisive games leading to few tiebreaks. In the top group, all four games were decisive, allowing Ponomariov, Bacrot and Aronian to advance and Grischuk to reach a tiebreak against Gelfand.

In the 9th-16th place group, only one game was decisive, but three of the matches have been completed: Carlsen won his game and the match, and will be joined by Kamsky, Malakhov, and the winner of the van Wely-Vallejo Pons playoff Sunday morning.

Results:

Ponomariov defeated Bareev (1.5-.5)
Bacrot defeated Rublevsky (1.5-.5)
Aronian defeated Gurevich (1.5-.5)
Grischuk-Gelfand: tiebreak

Carlsen defeated Lautier (1.5-.5)
Kamsky defeated Sakaev (1.5-.5)
Malakhov defeated Dreev (1.5-.5)
van Wely-Vallejo Pons: tiebreak

I'm 3-0 so far in the predictions for this round, 9-2 overall. (The rating system works!)

Getting caught up here...

In my pre-tiebreak report for round 5, I noted that six of the eight matches had already finished. In the top half, Ponomariov, Bacrot and Aronian had advanced, leaving only Grischuk and Gelfand in need of a tiebreaker. Likewise, Carlsen, Kamsky and Malakhov won their matches in regular time, leaving only van Wely and Vallejo Pons in need of extra games.

The results: after two draws in the rapid games, Grischuk won both blitz games, staying alive in the race for first and putting my prognostication record at a healthy 10-2. Meanwhile, Vallejo Pons won 1.5-.5 in the rapid games and thus stayed alive in the hunt for a Candidates' spot.

The pairings for round 6 were therefore as follows:

1st-4th

Ponomariov-Grischuk
Aronian-Bacrot

5th-8th

Bareev-Rublevsky
Gelfand-Gurevich

9th-12th

Carlsen-Malakhov
Vallejo Pons-Kamsky

13th-16th

van Wely-Lautier
Sakaev-Dreev

As things stand with FIDE at the moment, the top 10 players will be seeded into the Candidates' matches. The battle for 13th-16th is thus moot, apart from whatever financial incentives the players have, and likewise, aside from bragging rights, for the 1st-4th and 5th-8th matches. The really desperate, bloodthirsty chess should come in the 9th-12th brackets, as the winners of this round's matches are IN and the losers OUT.

Here are the round results so far, leading into the tiebreaker coming up in a few hours:

Ponomariov-Grischuk 1-1
Aronian defeated Bacrot 1.5-.5

Bareev-Rublevsky 1-1
Gelfand defeated Gurevich 2-0

Carlsen-Malakhov 1-1
Vallejo Pons-Kamsky 1-1

van Wely-Lautier 1-1
Dreev defeated Sakaev 1.5-.5

[Note: All the games of the 1-1 matches were drawn.]

My expectation is for an exciting but sloppy tiebreak round: I think the players' fatigue (the event is well into its third week) will facilitate plenty of blunders.

And then there were two...or ten, depending on how you want to look at it.

The finalists are set, as Ponomariov defeated Grischuk 2-0 in the rapid games and will meet Aronian in the finals, starting in a few hours. Meanwhile, in the less prestigious but more significant matches, both "Wonderboy" Magnus Carlsen and former prodigy Gata Kamsky overcame losses in their first rapid games to win in the blitz games, ensuring themselves a spot in the coveted top ten - and thus a spot in the Candidates' matches.

Those are the results that really count; here are the full results:

1st-4th bracket:

Ponomariov defeated Grischuk 3-1
Aronian defeated Bacrot 1.5-.5

5th-8th bracket:

Bareev defeated Rublevsky 2.5-1.5
Gelfand defeated Gurevich 2-0

9th-12th bracket:

Carlsen defeated Malakhov 3.5-2.5
Kamsky defeated Vallejo Pons 3.5-2.5

13th-16th bracket:

van Wely defeated Lautier 3.5-2.5
Dreev defeated Sakaev 1.5-.5

Pairings for the 7th (and last) round:

For 1st/2nd: Ponomariov-Aronian
For 3rd/4th: Grischuk-Bacrot
For 5th/6th: Bareev-Gelfand
For 7th/8th: Rublevsky-Gurevich
For 9th/10th: Carlsen-Kamsky
For 11th/12th: Malakhov-Vallejo Pons
For 13th/14th: van Wely-Dreev
For 15th/16th: Lautier-Sakaev

Comment on Carlsen: This is a very impressive result for Carlsen, whose results had been disappointing from early 2004 through the summer of this year. His results picked up in the fall, however, and now he has done what higher-rated prodigies Radjabov, Nakamura and Karjakin all failed to do: qualify for the Candidates. It's not likely, in my opinion, that he'll break Ponomariov's record for the youngest FIDE champion (18 years old plus change), but at least he has a chance.

Comment on Kamsky: Welcome back!

As mentioned a few posts ago, Aronian defeated Bacrot by a 1.5-.5 score, thereby qualifying for the finals of the ongoing World Chess Cup. That's how things go in a knockout event: some win, some lose, but the tragedy of the match was that Bacrot resigned in what looks like an objectively drawn opposite-colored bishop ending. The drawing tendencies of such endings are well known, and even if they don't guarantee a draw, they do give the weaker side a healthy push towards the safe haven.

But it doesn't work if you resign first! Have a look here, mourn for Bacrot, and learn some lessons - about opposite-colored bishops, of course, but also that you shouldn't resign until you're sure your opponent knows how to win in the final position.

As usual, most of the matches will be settled in tiebreaks. Many of those matches featured non-games, which, though disappointing for the spectators, is understandable for the players at the end of a long tournament without any (guaranteed) days off.

1st/2nd: Ponomariov and Aronian are tied at 1, but after two real, hard-fought games.

3rd/4th: Grischuk and Bacrot are also tied at 1, but after two non-games.

5th/6th: Ditto Bareev and Gelfand.

7th/8th: Rublevsky defeated Gurevich, winning their first game after his opponent blundered.

9th/10th: Carlsen and Kamsky are tied after a pair of fighting games. Carlsen won the first game with a sustained attack following a speculative knight sacrifice, while Kamsky outplayed his young opponent in the rematch.

11th/12th: There are various scenarios which might allow an extra player from this event into the Candidates' matches, so the battle for the 11th spot could turn out to be extremely important. That spot goes to Malakhov, who defeated Vallejo Pons in their first game with a fine positional effort and then held the draw comfortably in the sequel.

13th/14th: First van Wely and then Dreev won with the White pieces, sending yet another match to overtime.

15th/16th: Finally, Lautier and Sakaev mailed in a pair of short draws, so we'll see them tomorrow as well.

In my last post on this tournament, I noted that Rublevsky and Malakhov won in "ordinary time", leaving the other six matches headed for tiebreaks. Those results, along with those of the already-finished matches, were as follows:

1st/2nd: Aronian defeated Ponomariov, 3-1
3rd/4th: Bacrot defeated Grischuk, 2.5-1.5
5th/6th: Bareev defeated Gelfand, 3.5-2.5
7th/8th: Rublevsky defeated Gurevich, 1.5-.5
9th/10th: Kamsky defeated Carlsen, 3-1
11th/12th: Malakhov defeated Vallejo Pons, 1.5-.5
13th/14th: Dreev defeated van Wely, 2.5-1.5
15th/16th: Lautier "defeated" Sakaev, 3.5-3.5 (Lautier drew the Armaggedon game with Black.)

Congratulations are in order to the top 10, and perhaps Malakhov too, who is liable to sneak in if any of the other players, whether from here or elsewhere, choose to drop out of the process. Also, special "props" are in order for first prize-winner Levon Aronian. Early in the year he broke the 2700 barrier, but expressed some doubts about his "super-GM" status: he wasn't sure he could maintain that rating against the elite players. Yet in his last three individual events, Aronian has two victories and a close second place to his credit, and the chess world has someone new to really watch out for.