Chess World Cup: B. Adhiban and Krishnan Sasikiran advance to second round

Former National champions B. Adhiban and Krishnan Sasikiran have made it into the second round of the Chess World Cup being played in Tromso, Norway.

Pitted against a higher-rated rival, Adhiban displayed top form to beat Evgeny Alekseev of Russia 5-3, winning in the blitz tie-breaker while Sasikiran prevailed over Constantin Lupulescu of Romania 2.5-1.5, cruising past in the second rapid game to reach the round of 64.

Parimarjan Negi lost to Yuri Kryvoruchko of Ukraine in the mini-match. Parimarjan lost 2-4 but won the first rapid tie-breaker as black. He blew it with white pieces in the return game.

Adhiban’s victory turned out to be the second biggest upset in the World Cup so far after Wei Yi of China had beaten Ian Nepomniachtchi of Russia. Adhiban showed a lot of determination and played his heart out to beat Alekseev, a member of the top 50 club it he world rankings.

It started with the rapid tie-breaker wherein Adhiban drew the first blood but lost the return game. The stage was thus set for two 10-minute games that ended in draws.

Alekseev missed out on a clear advantage in the subsequent five-minute blitz game and ran out of time and in the second blitz game. Adhiban picked up as many as three pawns before the Russian called it a day.

Sasikiran gave a perfect display of technical chess to outplay Lupulescu. Playing the white side of a Queen pawn game in the second rapid tiebreaker after drawing the first, Sasikiran weakened the king side with some precise moves in the middle game and launched an attack on the king side to knock down a pawn for no compensation. The rest was child’s play for the seasoned Indian.

Negi was unlucky yet again. In the normal games, he had won the first with black but could not make a draw as white and in the second too, it was a similar story. Winning with black with a fine combination, Negi got a balanced position again as white but missed out in the endgame to let Kryvoruchko level the scores again. In the next set of tie-breakers, Kryvoruchko won both games.

Sasikiran has a tough challenge to tackle in Sergey Karjakin of Russia in the next round of this USD 1.6 million event. Adhiban will take on Alexander Fier of Brazil, in what is expected to be an even contest.

According to the regulations of the World Cup tiebreaks two rapid games are played at a rate of 25 minutes for each player with an increment of 10 seconds per move. If the score is still tied, two accelerated rapid games are played with a time control of 10 min + 10 seconds. If the score is still deadlocked, two blitz games are then played at 5 min + 3 seconds.

Finally, if a winner has still not been determined, a sudden death Armageddon game takes place with 5 minutes for White and 4 minutes for Black with a 2 sec increment after move 60. In that game Black has draw odds (i.e. he wins if the game is drawn).

A total of 15 players were eliminated after the tie-breaks. In general, the favourites won their matches: Peter Svidler, Michael Adams, Alexander Morozevich, Dmitry Andreikin, Anton Korobov, Jobava Baadur and Alexei Dreev all went through to the next round.

Georgian GM Jobava Baadur defeated Ukrainian GM Martyn Kravtsiv 2-0. But there were also a few shocks on the cards as a few of the rating favourites were unexpectedly knocked out of the World Cup at this stage.

Norwegian GM Hammer defeated Armenian GM Sergei Movsesian in the first game of the playoff and drew the second game, thus eliminating his more experienced opponent. Brazilian GM Alexander Fier defeated an opponent more than one hundred points higher rated, Polish GM Radoslaw Wojtaszek.

Women’s World Champion Anna Ushenina lost the first rapid game but could have upset Peter Svidler in the second. She missed her chance and the Russian player won the match.

A total of 13 rapid matches finished drawn, so 26 players continued their battles at the 10 min + 10 sec time control. Gata Kamsky, Alexei Shirov, Teimour Radjabov, Ruben Felgaer, Rafael Leitao, Eltaj Safarli, Viktor Bologan, Yuriy Kryvoruchko and Alexandr Shimanov were successful at that stage. Kamsky only managed to win the fifth game against Chinese IM Lou Yiping.

Yifan and Shirov exchanged victories in rapid and continued their match. The Latvian player proved to be stronger at the 10 min + 10 sec time control. Despite the final outcome, the former Women’s World Champion showed great play in the event.

Jorge Cori forfeiture

After two draws in the classical games Azeri GM Teimour Radjabov struggled against GM Jorge Cori (Peru) in rapid – each won a game. The spectators were waiting for an exciting continuation at the 10 min+10 sec time control.

Surprisingly, Cori didn’t appear in time for the first game. One second after the start of the round, Teimour Radjabov stopped the clock, signed the score sheet and left the playing hall, while Jorge Cori was running to the playing hall.

Using the advantage of the white pieces, the Azeri player didn’t have any problem drawing the second game. After the end of the match GM Cori from Peru made an appeal. The decision of the Appeals Committee has been published on the official website.

Cori said he had heard wrong the start time and rushed to the hall only after seeing the players walk in via the live internet feed. A little less than two minutes later Cori came to the playing hall and tried to explain what had happened.

It was also another unfortunate day for Russian GM Alexander Riazantsev, who lost against Argentinean GM Ruben Felgaer. Four matches remained to be decided in blitz. Two Russian GMs Zvjaginsev and Alekseev were defeated by Polish GM Swiercz and Indian GM Adhiban respectively, while players on the two remaining boards reached Armageddon games.

Many participants of the tournament and spectators came to watch Tomashevsky versus Ramirez and Melkumyan versus Granda Zuniga in the playing hall. Playing white Evgeny Tomashevsky defeated his opponent and Granda Zuniga, who just needed to make a draw to advance.

The second round of the World Cup starts at 3 pm local time on 14th of August. 64 participants will continue playing but as before only half of them will advance to the next stage. You can watch the live broadcast of the Chess World Cup 2013 at the official website.