FIDE Chess World Cup: 3 Russians, 1 French in Semis

The World Cup semi-finals is underway in Tromso. The two ratings favorites in their matches – Peter Svidler and Fabiano Caruana – lost in rapid chess against Dmitry Andreikin and Maxime Vachier-Lagrave respectively in the tiebreaks on Sunday.

Peter Svidler lost the first game and didn’t manage to even the score in the second. Fabiano Caruana drew with White against Maxime Vachier-Lagrave but lost the second game. Three Russian players – Vladimir Kramnik, Dmitry Andreikin and Evgeny Tomashevsky – plus Frenchman Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, will play in the semi-finals.

Playing with Black, Maxime Vachier-Lagrave made a smart opening choice in the first game and managed to equalise quite easily. He was unsure if he chose the most precise way to make a draw but it seems Black was in no real danger during the whole game.In the second game, Fabiano Caruana chose the Dutch Defence but Black got a passive position without counterplay. White’s main idea was to push e4 at the right moment and when he finally succeeded in carrying out his plan, Black’s position collapsed.

Fabiano Caruana lost his chance to qualify for the Candidates via the FIDE World Cup. Maxime Vachier-Lagrave will play against Vladimir Kramnik, who knocked out Anton Korobov the day before.

Dmitry Andreikin successfully followed the same scenario as in the previous match against Sergey Karjakin. After two draws in classical chess, he won the first rapid game against Peter Svidler. Neither Karjakin nor Svidler could level the score. In the second game, Andreikin forced a draw in a better position and went through to the semi-finals. Peter Svidler, the winner of the World Cup in 2011, had to bow out of Tromso.

Dmitry Andreikin will now play against Evgeny Tomashevsky. Both players are from Saratov (Russia). The fight in the semi-final matches will be very tough as only two out of the four players will qualify for the Candidates Tournament in March 2014.

Time controls and rules

The time control for each two-game match is 90 minutes for the first 40 moves followed by 30 minutes for the rest of the game, with an increment of 30 seconds per move starting from move one. If the score is equal, there are two rapid chess tiebreak games, played at a rate of 25 minutes for each player with an increment of 10 seconds per move. If the score is still equal, then two accelerated games will be played, with a time control of 10 min + 10 sec. If the score is still equal, two more games will be played at 5 min + 3 sec. If the winner is still not determined, then a final Armageddon game with 5 minutes for White and 4 minutes for Black, with a 3 sec increment after move 60, will be played. In this game Black, has draw odds (i.e. he wins if the game is drawn).