The FIDE World Cup started two Saturdays ago in Tbilisi, the Capital City of the Republic of Georgia. This is a Knock-Out (KO) event involving 128 players. All 128 players are lined up according to their rating and for the first round the no. 1 seed is matched against no. 128, no. 2 against no. 127, etc. Since a lot of the matches went into tie-break let us do a quick review of the rules:
The time control is 90 minutes for 40 moves, then 30 minutes for the rest of the game, with a 30-second increment from move 1. If the score is tied the players then play two 25-minute + 10-second increment rapid games, then two 10+10 games, then two 5+3 and, finally, Armageddon, where White has five minutes to Black’s 4 but a draw qualifies Black for the next round.
After two rounds there are 32 players left to fight for the $120,000 first prize and the top 2 slots who will automatically be seeded into the Candidates tournament, the next step towards the world championship. Match-ups for round 3 are:
Top Half:
Magnus Carlsen NOR 2827 vs Bu Xiangzhi CHN 2714
Peter Svidler RUS 2756 vs Alexander Onischuk USA 2682
Maxime Vachier-Lagrave FRA 2804 vs Aleksandr Lenderman USA 2565
Alexander Grischuk RUS 2788 vs David Navara CZE 2720
Vladimir Kramnik RUS 2803 vs Vassily Ivanchuk UKR 2727
Anish Giri NED 2777 vs SP Sethuraman IND 2617
Levon Aronian ARM 2802 vs Maxim Matlakov RUS 2728
Daniil Dubov RUS 2666 vs Vladislav Artemiev RUS 2692
Bottom Half:
Wesley So USA 2792 vs Francisco Vallejo Pons ESP 2717
Ian Nepomniachtchi RUS 2741 vs Baadur Jobava GEO 2702
Hikaru Nakamura USA 2781 vs Vladimir Fedoseev RUS 2731
Anton Kovalyov CAN 2649 vs Maxim Rodshtein ISR 2695
Fabiano Caruana USA 2799 vs Evgeniy Najer RUS 2694
Richard Rapport HUN 2675 vs Li Chao CHN 2745
Yuriy Kuzubov RUS 2688 vs Wang Hao CHN 2701
Ding Liren CHN 2771 vs Vidit Santosh Gujrathi IND 2702
Already eliminated in the first two rounds are big names like Vishy Anand (who has been involved with the world chess championship since he won it the first time in 2000), Sergey Karjakin (the defending champion here) and the Chinese prodigy Wei Yi.
A quick count shows 10 Russians, five Americans, four Chinese, two Indians, and one each from Hungary, Georgia, Armenia, Norway, France, Czech, Ukraine, Holland, Canada, Israel and Spain. It has been some time since Russia has won the World Chess Olympiad, but obviously when it comes to bench depth they are still unrivalled. Take a look at this game from one of their rising stars.
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Fedoseev, Vladimir (2731) — Bacallao Alonso, Yusnel (2573) [B13]
FIDE World Cup 2017 Tbilisi GEO (1.2), 04.09.2017
Fedoseev had lost his first game to the Cuban GM by attacking too wildly. Now it is win or go home time for him.
1.e4 c6 2.d4 d5 3.exd5 cxd5 4.Bd3 Nc6 5.c3 Qc7 6.h3 Nf6 7.Nf3 g6 8.Na3 a6 9.Qe2 Bf5 10.Bxf5 gxf5 11.Nc2 e6 12.Ne3 Ne4 13.Nd2 h5 14.0–0 Bd6?!
Black should have castled queenside to get his king out of the e-file. It is as if he was provoking White to “wildly lash out” again. Well, fine.
15.Nxd5! exd5 16.f3 0–0–0 17.fxe4 fxe4
Actually it looks like Black is the one who is getting a dangerous attack becaue of the open f-file to White’s King. He did not count on Fedoseev’s coming sacrifice though.
18.Rf5! Qd7 19.Rxd5! Bh2+ 20.Kxh2 Qxd5 21.Nc4
Threatening a knight check on b6.
21…Kb8 22.Bf4+ Ka7 23.a4 Ne7 24.Rf1 Ng6?
[24…f5 is already an “only” move]
25.Bc7 Rdg8 26.Ne3 Qd7?! 27.Qc4!
With the idea of Qc5+ followed by Ne3–c4–b6.
27…Nh4 28.Rxf7 Rxg2+ 29.Nxg2 Nf3+ 30.Kg3 Qc8 31.Kf2 Rg8 32.Nf4 Ng5 33.Qc5+ Ka8 34.Nd5 e3+ 35.Ke2 1–0
As one of the favorites Wesley So is not taking too many risks in the early rounds, just playing in the style of Vassily Smyslov (the 7th world champion) — “I will play 40 good moves. If you play 40 good moves, we will draw.” Of course, anything less than good will be punished mercilessly. Take a look at his first round game against the Colombian IM Joshua Daniel Ruiz Castillo.
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Ruiz Castillo, Joshua Daniel (2377) — So, Wesley (2792) [B19]
FIDE World Cup 2017 Tbilisi (1.1), 03.09.2017
A few years back IM Jovanka Houska wrote a book on the Caro-Kann. She recommended a line of play for Black which has come to be known as the “Houska Variation.” The following game by Wesley So is an excellent advertisement for the standard themes laid out by IM Jovi in that book.
1.e4 c6 2.d4 d5 3.Nc3 dxe4 4.Nxe4 Bf5 5.Ng3 Bg6 6.h4 h6 7.Nf3 Nd7 8.h5 Bh7 9.Bd3 Bxd3 10.Qxd3 e6 11.Bf4 Qa5+
Jovanka Houska: ‘Firstly, if White does not drive the queen back then Black will have achieved his first aim which is to discourage castling queenside. When the h-pawn has been pushed all the way to h5, normally the last thing White wishes to do is house his monarch on that side of the board, so to continue with the most aggressive plan he must chase the lady away.
‘Our second aim is that by encouraging White to drive our queen away we have provoked the advance of the c-pawn. As I encourage us to castle kingside, this means that a pawn on c3 or c4 is within touching distance of our pawn on b7. It only takes one move for us to either open lines or to close the position completely.’
12.Bd2 Bb4
Jovanka Houska: ‘The most provocative approach. To retain any advantage White should avoid any simplification of the position, so he must either consent to Black’s wish and push the c-pawn forward one square, which is by far the main move, or play 13 Ne4.’
13.a3?!
A step in the wrong direction. As explained above White must avoid exchanges.
13…Bxd2+ 14.Qxd2 Qxd2+ 15.Nxd2 Ngf6 <D>
POSITION AFTER 15…NGF6
Time to shake hands and agree to the draw? No! Black is solid and White’s pawn on h5 is weak. Wesley proceeds to demonstrate that equal does not mean draw.
16.0–0–0 Ke7 17.Nde4 Rad8 18.Rhe1 Nxe4 19.Rxe4 Nf6 20.Re5 Ng4 21.Re2 Rd5 22.c4 Rd7 23.f3 Nf6 24.Re5 Rc8 25.Nf5+ Kf8 26.Ne3 Rcd8 27.Nc2 b6 28.Rde1 Rd6 29.c5 Rd5 30.cxb6 axb6 31.g4 R5d6 32.b4 Nd5
Going for 33…c5 34.dxc5 bxc5 35.bxc5 Rc6.
33.Kb2 Nf4 34.R1e3 f6 35.R5e4 e5 36.dxe5 Nd3+ 37.Kc3 fxe5 38.a4?
Better is 38.Kb3, avoiding Wesley’s …Nd3–f2–d1+ idea.
38…Nf2 39.Rxe5 Nd1+ 40.Kc4 Nxe3+ 41.Rxe3 Rd5 42.Rc3 Kf7 43.Ne3 b5+ 44.axb5 cxb5+ 45.Kb3 Rd3 46.Nf5 Kf6 47.Kc2 Rd2+ 48.Kc1 Rd1+ 49.Kc2 R8d2+ 50.Kb3 Rd3 51.Ne3 Rb1+ 52.Kc2 Rxc3+ 53.Kxc3 Ke5 54.Nf5 Rf1 55.Nxg7 Rxf3+ 56.Kd2 Kf4 57.Nf5 Kxg4 58.Nxh6+ Kxh5 59.Ng8 Rf7 0–1
The World Cup is basically divided into two 64-player halves and at the end the winner of the top half faces his counterpart on the bottom. The problem is that both Carlsen and Karjakin were placed in the top half (Wesley is at the bottom). Kramnik pointed out that if Carlsen & Karjakin both reached the semifinals (meaning the top 2 of their half), and both of them are favorites to do that, then the semifinalists of the bottom half would automatically qualify for the Candidates’ tournament.
This is a defect in the system which has to be addressed in the next World Cup. Here in Tbilisi though one of the “problems” was eliminated in the second round as Sergey Karjakin was upset by GM Daniil Dubov. He forgot his preparation in a very sharp variation and fell to a bad loss.
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Dubov, Daniil (2666) — Karjakin, Sergey (2780) [A29]
FIDE World Cup 2017 Tbilisi GEO (2.2), 07.09.2017
1.c4 Nf6 2.Nc3 e5 3.Nf3 Nc6 4.g3 d5 5.cxd5 Nxd5 6.Bg2 Bc5
Remember the Anand vs Caruana game from the Sinquefield Cup? My comment then was that 6…Bc7 was quite a rate move as the bishop really has nothing to do on c5 and later on has to retreat back to e7. Anyway, having said that, an elite player like Caruana wouldn’t play it without first determining for himself that it is worth a punt. Well, now Karjakin plays the same move. Let us see what happens.
7.0–0 0–0 8.d3 Bb6 9.Nxd5 Qxd5 10.b4 e4 11.Ng5 Qd4
Both players admitted after the game that they had studied this line deeply.
12.Ba3
Dubov: “I do not think that this novelty leads to an advantage if he plays correctly, but at least Black needs to remember a lot of stuff.”
12…e3 13.b5 exf2+ 14.Kh1 Ne5 15.Bxf8 Kxf8 16.a4 a5 17.bxa6 Rxa6 18.a5 Ba7?
Both players were blitzing out their moves and it is only here that Karjakin paused for 15 minutes as he could not remember what to play. Correct was 18…Rxa5! 19.Rxa5 Bxa5 20.Qc1 Bb6! 21.Qa3+ Ke8 22.Nxh7 Bg4 23.Qf8+ Kd7 Black’s attack is very dangerous and White has to take a perpetual.
19.Qc1! Qd8 20.Qf4 h6 21.Ne4 Qe7 22.Nc3
[22.Nxf2? Rf6!]
22…g5?!
Probably a mistake, but I’m not sure what should be played instead.
23.Qc1 Ng4 24.Nd5! Qxe2 25.Qxc7 Rc6
Actually the best move, but it leads to a simplification, which is what Dubov wanted. With time trouble approaching Karjakin should have sought complications with, for example, 25…Be6.
26.Qd8+ Qe8 27.Qxe8+ Kxe8 28.d4! Kd8
[28…Bxd4 29.Ra4 Ba7 30.Nb6 Rxb6 31.axb6 Bxb6 32.Ra8! Kd7 33.Rc1 Bc7 34.Bh3 f5 35.Bxg4 fxg4 36.Rd1+ Bd6 37.Kg2 wins easily]
29.h3 Nf6 30.Nb6 Rc2 31.Nxc8 1–0
There are no more chances. 31.Nxc8 Kxc8 (31…Rxc8 32.Rxf2) 32.Rac1 Rc7 33.Rxc7+ Kxc7 34.Rc1+ Kb8 35.Rb1 the end.
Bobby Ang is a founding member of the National Chess Federation of the Philippines (NCFP) and its first Executive Director. A Certified Public Accountant (CPA), he taught accounting in the University of Santo Tomas (UST) for 25 years and is currently Chief Audit Executive of the Equicom Group of Companies.
