Chess World Cup 2017 Round 2 Game Two - Tblisi

An interesting fact emerged at the end of game 2 of round 2 of the 2017 chess world cup in Tblisi. Round 2 has 22 matches going through to tie breaks. That is the exact same number as the first round.

Conversely that means that only 10 matches were finalized on the second game of round 2. Interestingly 5 of those 10 decisive matches involved one of the top 16 seeded players. However two of those five decisive matches were upsets.

We all knew that Anand had a massive uphill battle in game two against Kovalyov. But, it was not to be, Kovalyov held the draw with the white pieces and advanced to round three.

What I was not expecting at all was the most recent World Champion qualifier, Sergey Karjakin, to crash out against Daniil Dubov. That puts two of the top seeds out of the tournament after only four days of play.

Two further interesting facts to come out of the classical games in round two were that number five seed Levon Aronian had been held by Yifan Hou. I was, however, surprised to see the opening choice by Anton Demchenko with white against Vladimir Kramnik. Kramnik had won game one, yet Demchenko was playing for the draw with white directly out of the opening – even though the draw that resulted put him out of the tournament.

Let’s analyse a couple of the decisive games:

Dubov,Daniil (2666) - Karjakin,Sergey (2780)

FIDE World Cup 2017 Tbilisi (2.2), 07.09.2017

1.c4 Nf6 2.Nc3 e5 3.Nf3 Nc6 4.g3 d5 5.cxd5 Nxd5 6.Bg2 Bc5 A29: English Opening: Four Knights Variation with 4 g3 

7.0–0 0–0 8.d3 Bb6 9.Nxd5 Qxd5 

XABCDEFGHY
8r+l+-trk+(
7zppzp-+pzpp'
6-vln+-+-+&
5+-+qzp-+-%
4-+-+-+-+$
3+-+P+NzP-#
2PzP-+PzPLzP"
1tR-vLQ+RmK-!
xabcdefghy

10.b4! e4 [Of course not 10...Nxb4 11.Bb2²; 10...a5=] 

11.Ng5² Qd4 12.Ba3N aiming for b5. [12.Be3 Qxb4 13.Nxe4 Bxe3 14.fxe3 1–0 (53) Nakamura,H (2792) -Karjakin,S (2773) Saint Louis 2017] 

12...e3 13.b5 exf2+ 14.Kh1 

XABCDEFGHY
8r+l+-trk+(
7zppzp-+pzpp'
6-vln+-+-+&
5+P+-+-sN-%
4-+-wq-+-+$
3vL-+P+-zP-#
2P+-+PzpLzP"
1tR-+Q+R+K!
xabcdefghy

14...Ne5! Hoping for ...Re8. 

15.Bxf8 Kxf8 16.a4 a5 is the strong threat. 

16...a5 17.bxa6 Rxa6 18.a5! Ba7 19.Qc1 Qd8 20.Qf4! h6 

XABCDEFGHY
8-+lwq-mk-+(
7vlpzp-+pzp-'
6r+-+-+-zp&
5zP-+-sn-sN-%
4-+-+-wQ-+$
3+-+P+-zP-#
2-+-+PzpLzP"
1tR-+-+R+K!
xabcdefghy

 21.Ne4! [Much worse is 21.Qxe5 hxg5 22.Ra4 Rd6=] 

21...Qe7 22.Nc3 g5 

XABCDEFGHY
8-+l+-mk-+(
7vlpzp-wqp+-'
6r+-+-+-zp&
5zP-+-sn-zp-%
4-+-+-wQ-+$
3+-sNP+-zP-#
2-+-+PzpLzP"
1tR-+-+R+K!
xabcdefghy

23.Qc1! Ng4 24.Nd5!‚ White is out for blood. 

24...Qxe2 25.Qxc7 Rc6 26.Qd8+ Qe8 [26...Kg7±] 

27.Qxe8++- Kxe8 28.d4 Kd8 [¹28...Bxd4 29.Ra4 Ba7] 

29.h3 White has a decisive advantage. 

29...Nf6 30.Nb6 [But not 30.Rxf2?! Nxd5 31.Bxd5 Bxd4±] 

30...Rc2 31.Nxc8 Precision: White = 94%, Black = 57%. 1–0

Carlsen,Magnus (2827) - Dreev,Aleksey (2648)

FIDE World Cup 2017 Tbilisi (2.2), 07.09.2017

1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 d6 3.Bb5+ Nd7 4.a4 Ngf6 5.Nc3 g6 [5...a6!? 6.Bc4 Ne5 7.Nxe5 dxe5²] 

6.a5 

XABCDEFGHY
8r+lwqkvl-tr(
7zpp+nzpp+p'
6-+-zp-snp+&
5zPLzp-+-+-%
4-+-+P+-+$
3+-sN-+N+-#
2-zPPzP-zPPzP"
1tR-vLQmK-+R!
xabcdefghy

 B51: Sicilian: Moscow Variation (3 Bb5+) without 3...Bd7 

6...Bg7 7.a6N [7.0–0 a6 8.Bc4 0–0 9.d3 Nb8 10.Nd5 Nc6 11.Nb6 Rb8 12.Bd2 Bg4 13.h3 Bxf3 14.Qxf3 0–1 (46) Carlsen,M (2855)-Topalov,V (2761) Paris 2016] 

7...0–0 8.0–0 The position is equal. 

8...e6 9.d3 Qb6 10.axb7 Bxb7 11.Re1 Rfd8 12.Ba4 h6 13.h3 d5 14.e5 Nh7 15.Bxd7 Rxd7 16.d4 

XABCDEFGHY
8r+-+-+k+(
7zpl+r+pvln'
6-wq-+p+pzp&
5+-zppzP-+-%
4-+-zP-+-+$
3+-sN-+N+P#
2-zPP+-zPP+"
1tR-vLQtR-mK-!
xabcdefghy

 Black must now prevent Na4. 

16...cxd4 17.Ne2 d3 18.Qxd3 d4 19.Nexd4 g5 20.c3 Nf8 21.Nh2 [21.h4!?] 

21...Ng6 22.Qg3ƒ Black is under pressure. 

22...Nh4 [22...a5=] 

23.Nhf3± Nxf3+ [Better is 23...Bxf3 24.Nxf3 Nf5] 

24.Nxf3 Rd3 25.h4 gxh4 26.Qxh4 Bxf3 27.gxf3 Rxf3? 

XABCDEFGHY
8r+-+-+k+(
7zp-+-+pvl-'
6-wq-+p+-zp&
5+-+-zP-+-%
4-+-+-+-wQ$
3+-zP-+r+-#
2-zP-+-zP-+"
1tR-vL-tR-mK-!
xabcdefghy

[27...Qb7±] 28.Bxh6+- White is clearly winning. 

28...f5 [¹28...Qxf2+ 29.Qxf2 Rxf2] 

29.Bxg7 Kxg7 30.Kh1 Precision: White = 76%, Black = 40%. 1–0