Chess World Cup 2017 Round 3 Tie Breaks - Tblisi

The carnage among the top seeds did not stop during the tie breaks. Number three seed Fabiano Caruana and fifteenth seed Ian Nepomniachtchi were both eliminated after the first two 25’ + 10” rapid games.

Of the sixteen players due to contest round 4, there are only seven of the original top seeds that were expected to be there.

We had 8 of the 16 round three matches going through to tie breaks. Luckily nobody had to face the gauntlet of the Armageddon game. However, of those 8 matches, 5 were decided in the first phase of two rapid games consisting of 25’ + 10”. A further 2 matches were concluded in the second phase of two rapid games consisting of 10’ + 10”. That left Aronian against Matlakov to be concluded in the third phase of the tiebreak system that consisted of two blitz games of 5’ + 3”.

With round three now completed, in addition to the three players from the 12 remaining top 16 seeds that faltered in the classical games (see yesterday’s blog), another two stumbled in the tie breaks and are packing their bags. Before we analyse some of the more interesting games from the tie breaks, let’s look at how each of the top 16 seeded players scored in round one:

Magnus Carlsen (1) lost to Xiangzhi Bu 0.5-1.5

Wesley So (2) beat Francisco Vallejo Pons 1.5-0.5

Fabiano Caruana (3) lost to Evgeniy Najer 1.5-2.5

Vladimir Kramnik (4) lost to Vassily Ivanchuk 0.5-1.5

Levon Aronian (5) beat Maxim Matlakov 4.5-3.5

Hikaru Nakamura (7) lost to Vladimir Fedoseev 0.5-1.5

Maxime Vachier-Lagrave (8) beat Aleksandr Lenderman 2.5-1.5

Alexander Grischuk (9)beat David Navara 3.5-2.5

Liren Ding (11) beat Santosh Gujrathi Vidit 2.5-1.5

Anish Giri (13) beat S.P. Sethuraman 4-2

Ian Nepomniachtchi (15) lost to Baadur Jobava 1.5-2.5

Svidler, Peter (16) beat Alexander Onischuk 1.5-0.5

Caruana,Fabiano (2799) - Najer,Evgeniy (2694)

FIDE World Cup 2017 Tbilisi (3.4), 11.09.2017

1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 a6 4.Ba4 Nf6 5.d3 b5 6.Bb3 Bc5 7.c3 d6 8.Nbd2 C77: Ruy Lopez: 3...a6 4 Ba4 Nf6, unusual lines [8.Bg5 h6 9.Bh4 Bb6 10.Nbd2 0–0 11.0–0 Be6 12.Re1 Kh7 13.Bc2 Ne7 14.d4 Ng6 15.Bg3 Re8 0–1 (33) Grischuk,A (2761)-Mamedyarov,S (2800) Paris 2017] 

8...Bb6 9.Nf1 Ng4N 

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[9...h6 10.Ng3 0–0 11.0–0 Ne7 12.a4 Rb8 13.a5 Ba7 14.Nh4 Bg4 15.Qe1 Be6 0–1 (37) Suarez Pousa,D (2395)-Godena,M (2533) Pula 2004] 

10.d4 The position is equal. 

10...exd4 11.h3 Nge5 Hoping for ...dxc3. 

12.Nxd4 0–0 13.Ng3 Nxd4 14.cxd4 Ba5+ 15.Kf1 Nc4 16.Kg1 [16.Bc2=] 

16...c5 17.d5 [17.Bxc4= bxc4 18.Be3] 

17...f5³ 18.exf5 Bxf5 19.Nxf5 Rxf5 20.Bc2 Rf7 21.Qe2 Qf8 22.Be4 Re8 23.f3 Qe7 [23...Bd8µ] 

24.Rb1 Qe5 25.b3 Nb6ƒ 

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And now ...Bc3 would win. Black is pushing. 

26.Qd3? [26.Bb2³ Qf4 27.Rd1] 

26...Bc3? [26...c4–+ is more deadly. 27.bxc4 Nxc4] 

27.Be3µ c4 [27...g6µ Strongly threatening ...Nd7. 28.h4 c4] 28.Qd1? [White has to play 28.bxc4³ bxc4 29.Qc2 Nxd5 30.Bxd5 Qxe3+ 31.Qf2] 

28...Nd7–+ 29.bxc4 Nf6 [Weaker is 29...bxc4 30.Qe2µ] 

30.h4? 

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[30.Qd3 Nxe4 31.fxe4] 30...Nxe4 31.fxe4 Qxe4 32.Rh3 bxc4 33.Rc1 Be5 34.Qa4 [34.Qc2 only move. 34...Qxc2 35.Rxc2] 

34...Rc8 35.Qxa6 [¹35.Kh1] 

35...Rff8 36.Qa4 Qxd5 37.Qc2 c3 38.Rd1 Qc4 39.h5 Ra8 40.Ra1 

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[¹40.Qb3 Rfc8 41.h6] 

40...Rab8 41.Bc1 Qf1# Precision: White = 31%, Black = 54%.[¹41...Rf1#]  

0–1

Matlakov,Maxim (2728) - Aronian,Levon (2802)

FIDE World Cup 2017 Tbilisi (3.7), 11.09.2017

1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 c5 3.d5 g6 4.Nc3 Bg7 5.e4 d6 6.Nf3 0–0 7.h3 Nbd7 8.Bd3 a6 9.a4 E90: King's Indian: Classical: Early deviations and 6 h3 [9.0–0 e5 10.a3 Rb8 11.b4 Qc7 12.Bd2 b5 13.cxb5 c4 14.Bc2 axb5 15.Qe2 Nh5 16.g3 Ndf6 1–0 (38) Malakhatko,V (2511)-Zozulia,A (2309) Feffernitz 2017] 

9...b6 10.0–0 e5 11.a5N 

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 White is better. [11.dxe6 fxe6 12.Bc2 Ne8 1–0 (32) Mazara,A (2250)-Ferragut,A (2215) Cuba 1998] 

11...bxa5 12.Qa4 Rb8 13.Qxa5 Qe7 14.Rb1 Nh5 15.Bg5 f6 16.Bd2 Nf4 17.Bc2 f5 18.Bxf4 [18.Kh2²] 

18...exf4= 19.exf5 Ne5 20.Nxe5 Bxe5 21.f3! Qg7 

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 ...Rxb2! is the strong threat. 

22.f6 Qxf6 23.Ne4 Qh4 24.Qe1 g5 [Black should play 24...Qxe1³ 25.Rfxe1 Bf5] 

25.Kh2 Bf5 [25...Qh6!? 26.Nxc5 g4=] 

26.b3? 

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[26.Qxh4= gxh4 27.b3] 26...Qh6!–+ 27.Bd3? [27.Qe2 g4 28.Kh1] 

27...g4! 28.fxg4 Bxg4 aiming for ...f3+. 

29.Nf2 [¹29.Rf3 Bxf3 30.gxf3] 

29...f3+ 30.Kg1 fxg2 31.Nxg4 

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31...gxf1Q+ [¹31...Qxh3 32.Rf5 Bd4+ 33.Qe3 Bxe3+ 34.Nxe3 Qxe3+ 35.Kh2 Kh8 36.Rg1 Rxf5 37.Bxf5 Qf4+ 38.Kxg2 Rg8+ 39.Bg4 Rxg4+ 40.Kh3 Rxg1 41.b4 Qh6#] 

32.Bxf1 Qg6 Threatens to win with ...h5. 

33.Kh1 Rbe8 34.Rd1 h5 35.Bd3 Qg7 36.Nxe5 Rxe5 37.Qh4 Hoping for Rg1. 

37...Rg5 38.Qe4 Rg3 39.Qe6+ Kh8 40.Be4 

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40...Rf6 [¹40...Rg8 41.Qxg8+ Kxg8 42.Bf5 Qe5 43.Rg1 Rxg1+ 44.Kxg1 Qxf5 45.Kg2 h4 46.b4 cxb4 47.c5 dxc5 48.d6 b3 49.d7 Qxd7 50.Kf2 b2 51.Kf3 b1Q 52.Kg2 Qd2+ 53.Kf3 Qf5#] 

41.Qc8+ Qf8 42.Qd7 Rf1+ 43.Kh2 Qf2+ Precision: White = 32%, Black = 63%. 0–1