2015 World Chess Cup (Baku, Azerbaijan)

2015 World Chess Cup September 10th-October 4th, 2015 (Baku, Azerbaijan) Match Scores (Round #2)
Bracket 1
1	Topalov, V		BUL	1½-½	Zhigalko, S		BLR
2	Wang Hao		CHN	½-1½	Lu Shanglei		CHN
3	Radjabov, T		AZE	3-1	Smirin, I		ISR
4	Nisipeanu, L		ROM	1½-2½	Svidler, P		RUS
Bracket 2
5	Aronian, L		ARM	1-3	Areshchenko, A		UKR
6	Vovk, Y		UKR	3½-4½	Wei Yi		CHN
7	Navara, D		CZE	½-1½	Guseinov, G		AZE
8	Inarkiev, E		RUS	½-1½	Ding Liren		CHN
Bracket 3
9	So, W		USA	2-0	Balogh, C		HUN
10	Le Quang Liem		VIE	2½-1½	Vitiugov, N		RUS
11	Vachier-Lagrave, M		FRA	1½-½	Sarigissian, G		ARM
12	Nguyen Ngoc Truongson		VIE	2½-3½	Tomashevsky, E		RUS
Bracket 4
13	Villagra, C		CHI	0-2	Granda, J		PER
14	Armentiev, V		RUS	½-1½	Wojaszek, R		POL
15	Leko, P		HUN	1½-½	Wen Yang		CHN
16	Motylev, A		RUS	1-3	Giri, A		NED
Bracket 5
17	Caruana, F		USA	1½-½	Mamedov, R		AZE
18	Kovalyov, A		CAN	1½-½	Mareco, S		ARG
19	Mamedyarov, S		AZE	2½-1½	Hou Yifan		CHN
20	Sethuraman, SP		IND	1½-½	Harikrishna, P		IND
Bracket 6
21	Karjakin, S		RUS	4-2	Onischuk, A		USA
22	Lysyj, I		RUS	2½-3½	Yu Yangyi		CHN
23	Andreikin, D		RUS	1½-½	Korobov, A		UKR
24	Bruzon, L		CUB	½-1½	Kramnik, V		RUS
Bracket 7
25	Grischuk, A		RUS	3½-2½	Fedoseev, V		RUS
26	Ipatov, A		TUR	0-2	Eljanov, P		UKR
27	Ivanchuk, Vassily		UKR	1½-½	Rodshtein, M		ISR
28	Amin, B		EGY	1½-2½	Jakovenko, D		RUS
Bracket 8
29	Adams, M		ENG	5-4	Laznicka, V		CZE
30	Melkumyan, H		ARM	½-1½	Dominguez, L		CUB
31	Fressinet, L		FRA	3½-4½	Nepomniachtchi, I		RUS
32	Shankland, S		USA	1½-2½	Nakamura, H		USA
Drum Coverage | Round 1 | Round 2 | Round 3 | Round 4 | Round 5 | | Semifinals | Finals |

Official Website: https://www.bakuworldcup2015.com/
All PGN Games (TWIC): https://www.theweekinchess.com/
Rules and Regulations: https://www.fide.com/FIDE/handbook/WorldCup2015Regulations.pdf

The second round is complete. After tense tiebreaks with blunders, swindles and missed opportunities, most of the favorites went through. Levon Aronian, who is not only a rating favorite, but also a favorite of many fans, exited the tournament after losing to Alexander Areshchenko. This would be the only major upset of a top player.

The tiebreak games were all hotly-contested and Wilder-Laznicka match went to the Armageddon game. However, the most thrilling match award would have to go to Wei Yi versus Yuri Vovk encounter. The rapid games were relatively equal, but the 10’+10″ heated up. They repeated the a sharp line in the French, but in this case Wei Yi sacrificed an exchange for what seemed like adequate compensation. Perhaps there were better continuations missed, but as time pressure became a factor the Chinese prodigy began to falter and fell on the sword to a vicious counterattack. There were a couple of occasions when Wei Yi made a move with one second left on the clock.

In the second 10-minute encounter, Vovk played a very unambitious London System with the idea of securing a draw to advance, but quickly allowed black to equalize. Perhaps Vovk missed his chance after 23…Qg5?! 24.Rxf8? (24.h4!) Rxf8 when black’s attack is too strong. In time pressure, white collapsed after 25.Nb6?? Nxb6?? (25…Bxd4+) 26. cxb6 (26.h4! again) Nxc1 27. Rxc1 Bxd4 28.Bxa6? f4 29.exd4 f3 threatening mate and the rook. In the final chance for Vovk, he stayed with the French Defense, but Wei Yi played the Exchange Variation and held, but not before some scary moments. Wei Yi will face Areshschenko next!

GM Emil Sutovsky seemed confused at various points in the tiebreak fast-moving games. In the Vitiugov-Le Quang Liem second rapid game, Sutovsky kept stating that Vitiugov was winning and that he was poised to advance when in fact black was fine.

In the complicated position on the left, there are serious complications with the heavy pieces. Sutovsky became excited at 39.Qxg7+ when after Qxg7 40. Rxb7+ Ke6 (40…Kf8 loses) 41. Rxg7 Rh2+ 42. Kg3 Rxf3+ 43. Kxf3 Rxb2 when black is better. The Vietnamese player ultimately picked off all of white’s weak pawns and took the match.

Nguyen-Tomashevsky was also a thrilling encounter as the knight ending was filled with thrills and spills as the Vietnamese player held on despite the Russian misses several winning opportunities.

Hikaru Nakamura defeated his compatriot Samuel Shankland.
Photo by Paul Truong.

In Nakamura-Shankland, there was a bit of inspiration after the world’s #3 player won a technical rook ending in the rapid tiebreak match. It’s always very tough to face a friend or teammate in a knockout competition. Nakamura’s reflective Facebook post.

Michael Adams, at age 43, continues to plod on after a tense victory over Laznicka in the Armageddon match. He is the elder statesman in the tournament and showed his blitz experience in the final game. Onto round three!

Alexander Grischuk has been inconsistent in the last year. Less than a year ago, he had reached a career-high Elo of 2810 and #3 in the world. However, after lackluster results followed in the FIDE Grand Prix series, a winless World Team Championship and poor results in both Grand Chess Tour events, he is sitting on a “live” rating of 2757. Losing to Pavel Eljanov is nothing to be ashamed of, but the Russian actually missed a clear win after his perpetual zeitnot problems haunted him again.

It is easy to point out where someone missed a win and 100% of the time if you gave this position to Grischuk as a puzzle, he would see the winning move in half a second. However, when the clock is ticking loudly, nerves make the mind miss easy wins and even a mate-in-one (see Santosh-Bruzon game). In the position on the right, Grischuk was in severe time pressure in a tense struggle. The a-pawn commands black’s attention, so he must deliver a checkmate if he decides to remove the blockade. After Eljanov’s 37…Rg6, Grischuk played 38.Kh4? (38.a7!+-) Qb4? 39.Kh3? (39.Qf5!+-) and Eljanov played 39…Rg5 but still had no more than a draw. After 52.Ra5 white has a fortress draw, but moves later executed a self-mate problem with 55.Kd4?? Qd5+ 56.Ke3 Ke5… mate next move.

With three players remaining for USA, Fabiano Caruana was the first to get on the board with a smooth with over an overmatched Anton Kovalyov. While this game lasted 61 moves, Caruana held a positional grip for most of the game until he decided the time was right to seize the initiative with the f4 idea. However, Kovalyov decided to go first, but 42…f5 immediately exploded in his face. Caruana temporarily sacked the exchange for a pawn, won it back and pocketed the pawn. Black’s position in total shambles and it turned into a rout.

Sergey Karjkin has been in good form,
but formidable figures lurk in his shadows.

Sergey Karjakin seems to be on form. In yet another Sicilian, the Russian faced a Tamainov in a very unorthodox way with 1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 e6 3. d4 cxd4 4. Nxd4 Nc6 5. Nc3 Nf6 6. Nxc6 bxc6 7. e5 Nd5 8. Ne4 Qc7 9. f4 Qb6 10. c4 Bb4+ 11. Ke2. What??? Is this Wilhelm Steinitz? Nevertheless, Karjakin was all over Yu Yangyi and ended up with a growing positional advantage. He kept slowly squeezing his prey like a boa constrictor, then hit with the killer blow 38.Rxd7! It ended the matter.

While 75% of the games were drawn, there were few short ones, but there were several interesting encounters. Check on So-Le, Radjabov-Svidler and Topalov-Lu. In the latter game, Topalov had arrived at a completely winning position, but the Chinese player slipped away. After Lu played 30…Nf3, he peered at Topalov as he thought. He must’ve had a feeling the Bulgarian was losing his way. If you want a nice laugh, got over the Granda-Wojtaszek game!

The final position of Granda – Wojtaszek sums up the game nicely… #blockade https://t.co/HBTmxm9zJT #c24live pic.twitter.com/r9W8aTE308

— chess24.com (@chess24com) September 17, 2015

Shakhriyar Mamedyarov is certainly a hometown favorite in this tournament. As the only Azeri remaining in the competition, he was motivated against American Fabiano Caruana. “Shakh” proceeded to create a sensation with a scintillating victory after a brutal kingside mating attack. After Caruana resigned, the crowd in the viewing let out roar and excited Azeris came and whisked him off to an excited press conference. This may have been a proud moment given the pressure of playing in front of fans as a national hero. Meanwhile, Caruana falls behind, yet knowing that he has already qualified for the Candidates, pressure will not be great.

In Mamedyarov-Caruana, white tried a pseudo-Trompowsky Attack creating a weird structure. Caruana’s kingside was already weakened before he played 13…Nh5!? Those who remember when Bobby Fischer played this against Boris Spassky in a Modern Benoni will recall the horror the spectators felt after realizing that Bxh5 would shred the kingside. However, more is known about this plan today and black has been able to get good compensation including that brilliant Fischer win.

After 13…Nh5, white did follow with 14.Bg5 Qd8?! 15.Bxh5! The difference here is black does not have f7-pawn which normally protect e6 and g6 squares. Caruana tried to close the position with 20…e5, but it didn’t help. Shakh was able to probe the light squares after 26.g3! hxg3+ 27.Nxg3 Rg8 28.Nh5! (diagram above). The attack was swift, but with no less pain for Caruana whose was probably saying a prayer for his king. Too late. Death was imminent.

All of white’s pieces were barreling down the kingside while the black army could do nothing but watch the white pieces encircle the black king. The white queen slid up with 39.Qh5 and delivered the coup de grace. Thunderous applause could be heard in the viewing room and Shakh was whisked away from the playing room.

Another interesting game was Svidler-Topalov and Sicilian Rossolimo that turned into a type of Maroczy Bind. Topalov assumed the flexible and solid hedgehog setup which is incredibly hard to squash and black has all types of ideas centering around dangerous pawn breaks. However, Topalov played 17…h5?! which can’t be that good in this position. The idea is …h4-h3 softening up the a8-h1 diagonal. This idea fizzled and white soon won that pawn.

The game carried on with each side nursing passed pawns with two rooks and a queen guarding their advance. In a complicated finale, white was able to blast open the kingside after 55. h5! Svidler stated that he was surprised Topalov took the pawns so fast. Sure enough… black’s king was soon being assailed from all sides. In an unlikely ending Topalov allowed mate on the board.

Instructive lesson in Topalov’s hedgehog, but quills not sharp enough against Russian bear. Photos by Eteri Kublashvili (for FIDE).

Ding-Wei was absolutely crazy… a theoretical, tactical anti-Grunfeld that was difficult to evaluate. In the post-mortem, Ding gave an impressive display of analysis showing lines at dizzying speed. The complexity of the game was mind-blowing! It would remind one of computer chess. Word is that Chinese are incredibly tactical and if you can understand the positions below you’ll get an idea of how complicated the game was.

18.Rh4! was another computer-like move which saved the initiative white. Both sides were walking a tightrope in the position and after the stunning 29.Nd6+!! cxd6 30.Rxh7 white has created a dangerous h-pawn that would decide the game. Powerful game by the Chinese #1! Below is the post-mortem. Get your aspirin ready!

Hikaru Nakamura bolted ahead of Michael Adams 1-0 after the American powered to victory. Something went wrong in the opening for Adams as Nakamura seized tremendous initiative. In the double rook ending, black’s pawns were scattered and king unsafe as white hit at every target with reckless abandon. After winning material, Nakamura pushed his pawn majority through on the kingside and wrapped up the win.

Ultrawow, didnt hear bout this one, thanks Chessdrum, ole Naka went wit da trickie 2handed slam dunk!!! lol

The stage is set. A total of 120 players have been eliminated! What remains resembles an elite tournament of some of the world’s top players with Hikaru Nakamura being the top seed. However, it is a knock-out format which increases the chances that each person in the field has a chance to win. Peter Svidler is the lowest-rated player at 2733 (live) in the last eight and 16-year old Wei Yi being the youngest.c

In today’s four tiebreaks, there is a lot at stake with the $10,000 extra for advancing and two seats in the Candidate’s tournament in March. Nakamura has already qualified and Anish Giri will qualify by rating. For players like Peter Svidler, this would be the only chance and the Russian is looking to repeat his 2011 World Cup win.

In today’s tiebreaks, the Ding-Wei match would be the attraction. There were a lot of superlatives used to describe the talent of the two Chinese and their style of play. After Giri won both of his tiebreak games against Radaslow Wojtaszek, he mentioned that he had analyzed games from the Chinese league and found the games fascinating. That would be the consensus of the classical games. The two rapid games were drawn but the second The first blitz game had a bizarre computer-like opening. After 10. Qf4 Nh5 11. Bxf7+ Kh8 12. Qg3!? Rxf7 (12…Nxg3 13.Ng6+ hxg6 14.hxg3 mates.) 13. Nxf7+ Qxf7 14. Qd6.

This game continued its weird play and none the commentators knew what was going on. In addition, time pressure was afoot and both players were scrambling. After some very sharp tactical play, Ding played 28…Nc4 29. bxc4 Qxc3 30. Qxf4 Qb4+ 31. Ka1 Qc3+ Draw. In the second blitz, Ding Liren repeated the English Opening he tried in the second rapid. He was able to work up an advantage, but ended up frittering away the advantage and losing the match.

In Jakovenko-Eljanov, the Ukranian won the match on the strength of a nice, clinical victory in the second game. Sergey Karjakin won his match on the strength of his well-played first game. That leaves two Russians in the final eight. There was talk about Russians being dominant after placing eight players in the last 32, but of course knockouts are far different. The results show the parity and there is clearly no dominant power in world chess today.

Today’s first game of the quarterfinals was all about Pavel Eljanov. The Ukrainian upended the American star with a display of powerful play from a Catalan. Hikaru Nakamura, from which kinetic energy radiates in his play, tried to catch his opponent napping. On 15…Bh7!? white had a bit more play in the center. Eljanov uncorked 20.Nxb7! ultimately giving up two minor pieces for a rook and two pawns.

The problem with Nakamura’s pieces was the mobility. The knight and bishop were not able to work harmoniously until it came to stopping the a-pawn. Eljanov played 31.Rab2! seizing the b-file and his rooks were soon pillaging the queenside. While black was running out of the moves, the white king made a sudden dash to weave a mating net around the black king. Eljanov missed mate a couple of times, but it was a superb show of creativity and power play. Nakamura will be forced to win and if he does so, he will get the new nickname “The Comeback Kid”.

In Mamedyarov-Karjakin, the Azeri crowd was anticipating another fallen black king, but the Russian fought and fought and fought staving off what appeared to be a certain loss. After torturing Karjakin for hours, Shakh played 69.f3? giving black a chance to get the pawns off the board. Then he let the trapped black rook out of prison and the game flat-lined to 0.00. The support for Mamedyarov is increasing and the President of Azerbaijan Chess Federation Elman Rustamov weighed in,

“The main reason of my coming today is to support Shakhriyar Mamedyarov. I met him before the game and wished him success in the upcoming match. I really wanted him to know that we believe in him and all of us really want him to gain success in this tournament, though I understand this is a very hard tournament and that the best players in the world play here. Everyone wants to succeed in this World Cup, so the competition is very tough”.

Will Shakh come through?

Not the game of the day, but fireworks expected tomorrow and Wei Yi-Svidler!

Peter Svidler broke out on top when Anish Giri mis-evaluated a complicated Ruy Lopez. After Giri’s 32.g5? hxg5 33.Ne3 Rxa2 it is unclear what the follow-up plan was. White was simply two pawns down with no semblance of an attack. The game ended at time control when Giri tried for 37. Nh6+ Kg7 38. Nf5+ Kg8 39. Nh6+ Kg7 40. Nf5+. After Giri made time control, the Russian responded 40…gxf5, but after 41. Qh5 Ng6, white had nothing on the h-file and conceded. It was a disappointing loss for Giri who is forced to win tomorrow to force a tiebreak.

Pavel Eljanov has clearly been the best player in Baku and his form continued against Sergey Karjakin. In this first game, he may have missed an opportunity to break out ahead 1-0 in the match after winning a pawn and pressing for the win. On 62. a6 Ne5 63. Rxf6+ (63.a7 Nxc6 64.a8(Q) Rxb6=) 63…Kxf6 64. Nd5+ Ke6 65. Nxb4 Nd7 66. Nd3 Kd6 67. a7. White rushed to attack the pawns, but black was in time to liquidate and force a draw.

Sergey Karjakin upended Pavel Eljanov after coming back from a 1-0 deficit in the rapid. Eljanov had broken ahead after some missteps by Karjakin. After the greedy 25…Qxa4 the black queen became overloaded and eventually had to cede material. After that it was a smooth win. In the second rapid, perhaps Eljanov took a risk in playing sharply. His strategy almost worked, but he got a cramped position.

It didn’t appear that the Ukrainian was playing to draw out his old compatriot, but instead tried to seize a queenside initiative. However, white was able to maintain composure and had more activity with an open file and a nice bishop. Meanwhile black was pinned down to the defense of a weak pawn. Unfortunately, black had weaknesses on both flanks. At this point, white’s rook dominated, mopped up the kingside and the score was level.

In the first blitz, white was in control of the game, but overlooked a bishop shot after 42.h4 Bf6! This attacked a pawn, but also created a deadly threat… which Eljanov missed. After 43.h5? Bh4! white was suddenly in trouble and black began picking off pawns with the fleet-footed queen. Eventually white had no blockade and no perpetual check. Four pawns down, Eljanov resigned. The second blitz game was a type of Dzindzi-Indian (named for GM Roman Dzindzihashvili) where black gives up the strong bishop to cripple white’s pawn structure. It worked like a charm!

Eljanov unfurled the Dzindzi-Indian (diagram #1) and got the type of position he wanted. After black applied pressure, white’s position crumbled and pawns started dropping. After 52…Kxg6 (diagram #2) there are many ways to win. Eljanov could not find a way.

Black dominated the middlegame with a tremendous grip and an x-ray on white’s weaknesses. Soon white’s position was crumbling and black started picking off pawn after pawn until he was three pawns up!! Amazingly, it would not be enough. How does black NOT win this game?? Somehow black botched it as his time began to whittle away. Three pawns ups turned into three pawns up with opposite colored bishops.

Then black dropped a pawn, shuffled his king around and allowed white to establish a blockade. In the interim, the position repeated three times and Karjakin claimed a three-fold repetition!

Arbiters conferring with the players.

After the arbiter intervened, they replayed the entire game, checked the position in question and confirmed the claim. Disappointing end for Eljanov who worked hard to get a chance to extend the match. It was not to be! Karjakin will face Peter Svidler who was commenting on the games and was still analyzing the position when the claim was upheld. The all-Russian final assures two spots in the candidates tournament for the Russians.

What’s more amazing than Peter Svidler winning is that fact that Sergey Karjakin is playing in the final. The Ukrainian-Russian has not played particularly solid in the last couple of rounds and was close to being ousted by Pavel Eljanov on a couple of occasions. This time his lackluster play was punished in 29 moves.

Appropriately, Svidler used Eljanov’s of 1.Nf3, who used it effectively against Karjakin. Instead of a Reti or an English, it turned into a type of King’s Indian Attack… only the center was wide open after 9.exd5!? Given that unique character of the position, black misjudged the position and after 13.Bg!? f6 14.Bd2 e5 15.Rc1! Rf7 black’s queenside is already under pressure.

Ultimately, white’s 16.d4! amplified black’s problems and 20.Qb3 Rb8 21.Rb1 Qd7 22.Rec1! black’s game was on edge. In a mode of panic 22…Qe6? lost immediately to 23.Nc5! and after a couple of spite checks, Karjakin resigned. Karjakin has not impressed in the last two matches, but he has qualified for the Candidates which was the ultimate goal. There are three more games in this mini-match, but things look very grim for Karjakin.

Certainly… fatigue has officially set in the finals of the 2015 World Cup as the match is now tied after both players have traded blunders in the match. The games have been of an uncharacteristic nature given the tension of the moment. Both players have qualified for the Candidates, but there is an extra US$40,000 on the line… US$120,000 for the winner and US$80,000 for the runner up.

After Peter Svidler’s tragic loss yesterday, he still had a good opportunity to clinch the match with a draw. Perhaps there was a bit of a shock when Sergey Karjakin traded queens in the opening and went into the middlegame with a slight advantage. It would be difficult to squeeze the position against a quality opponent, but maybe Karjakin has spotted a weakness. After 13.Nd6+! white saddled black with an isolated d-pawn and bore in on the d5-square. These types of positions are very difficult to defend for black, but there was no reason to believe that the 7-time Russian champion would not hold it.

Things must be bad if you have to fianchetto your rook. After Svidler’s 17… Bg7 18.Bxg7 Rxg7 (ugh!) Karjakin played 19.Bb5! and continued his work on the light squares. Black’s rook would become the bane of his position remaining in a defensive stance. Fast forward to 37.Kd4 It is clear that white has a large advantage in space. In addition, Svidler nerves are completely shattered at this point. It was actually 44.Kd4! that showed the critical nature of black’s position.

As play continued, it was clear that he was not only trying to salvage a draw and the match, but was seeking to avoid the tiebreak which would find the momentum swinging in Karjakin’s favor. However, the house of cards fell on black’s position. Black dropped a kingside pawn, the white king and rook were dominating the black king and the passed g-pawn was sprinting toward the queening square. Too much.