World Cup Tblisi Round 1 Game 2

Round one of the knock out world cup of chess consists of 128 players. Included in that number are 19 of the top 20 on the FIDE ELO list – just Topalov is missing from that list. Even World Champion Magnus Carlsen is there.

Of the 128 players, we have 40 GM’s that are rated 2700+. That represents two thirds of the players expected to go through to round 2 based on rating. Of those, let’s take a closer look at who is being held over to the tie breaks on day three of round one, and which 2700+ players will be cashing their six thousand euro cheques after getting eliminated after only two games.

Held over for tie breaks(14):

Etienne Bacrot (2728); David Howell (2701); Vassily Ivanchuk (2727); P. Harikrishna (2741); Dmitry Andreikin (2708); Sergey Karjakin (2780); Francisco Vallejo Pons (2717); Evgeny Tomashevsky (2710); Ian Nepomniachtchi (2741); Yangyi Yu (2750); Baadur  Jobava (2702); Vladimir Fedoseev (2731); Michael Adams (2738); Yi Wei (2748);

Going home (1):

Pavel Eljanov (2734);

Let’s take a look at a few select games from the first two days:

Eljanov,Pavel (2734) - Lenderman,Aleksandr (2565)

FIDE World Cup 2017 Tbilisi (1.1), 03.09.2017

1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nc3 Bb4 4.Qc2 0–0 5.a3 Bxc3+ 6.Qxc3 d5 7.Bg5 dxc4 E36: Nimzo-Indian: Classical: 4...d5 5 a3 

8.Qxc4 b6 9.Rc1 [9.Rd1 Ba6 10.Qa4 h6 11.Bh4 Qd7 12.Qc2 Qc6 13.Qxc6 Nxc6 14.Bxf6 gxf6 15.Nf3 1/2–1/2 (72) Morozevich,A (2675) -Navara,D (2737) Biel 2017] 

9...Ba6 The position is equal. 

10.Qa4 Qd7 [10...c5 is interesting. 11.dxc5 h6 12.Bh4 bxc5 13.Nf3 Qe7] 

11.Qxd7 Nbxd7 12.Bxf6 Nxf6 13.e3 Bxf1 14.Kxf1 Rfc8 15.Rc6 Nd5N 16.Nf3 Ne7 17.Rc2 f6 18.Ke2 Kf7 19.Rhc1 c6 20.Ne1 Ke8 21.Nd3 Kd7 22.g4 g5 23.h4 h6 24.Rh1 Rh8 25.e4 Ng6 26.h5 Ne7 27.Ke3 Rhf8 28.f3 a5 29.Rhc1 Ra7 30.Rc3 Rg8 31.b3 Rf8 32.Nb2 Re8 33.Nc4 Ra6 34.Kf2 Rd8 35.Rd3 [35.f4!±] 

35...Ke8 36.e5 f5 37.Nd6+ Kf8 

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[37...Kd7±] 38.d5 [38.f4!+-] 

38...cxd5 39.Rc7 [39.Nb5±] 

39...b5!² 40.Nxb5 [40.Nb7!? Re8 41.gxf5²] 

40...Rc6 [40...fxg4!= 41.Nd4 (41.fxg4 Nc6=) 41...Nf5] 

41.Nd4± Rxc7 42.Nxe6+ Kf7 43.Nxc7 Endgame KRN-KRN [Better is 43.Nxd8+± Ke8 44.Ne6 Rc2+ 45.Ke1] 

43...d4² 44.Nb5 Rd5 [44...fxg4² 45.Rxd4 (45.fxg4 Nc6=) 45...Rb8] 

45.e6+± [Don't play 45.Nxd4?! Nc6=] 

45...Kf6 [45...Kf8±] 

46.Nxd4+- Rd6 [46...Ke5 is a better defense.] 

47.b4 axb4 [¹47...f4 48.bxa5 Rd5] 

48.axb4 f4 49.b5 Ke5 50.Rd2 [Not 50.Nc6+ Nxc6 51.bxc6 Rxc6+-] 

50...Kf6 [But not 50...Rxd4? 51.Rxd4 Kxe6 52.b6] 

51.Ke1 Nd5 52.Re2? [52.Kd1+-] 

52...Ne3= 53.e7 Kf7 

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54.Rd2? [54.Rxe3= and White stays safe. 54...fxe3 55.Nf5] 

54...Rxd4!–+ Black is clearly winning. 

55.Rb2 Rd7 56.b6 Strongly threatening b7. 

56...Rb7 57.Ke2 Nd5 Precision: White = 62%, Black = 39%. 0–1

Carlsen,Magnus (2827) - Balogun,Oluwafemi (2255)

FIDE World Cup 2017 Tbilisi (1.1), 03.09.2017

1.e4 d6 2.d4 g6 3.Bc4 Nf6 4.Qe2 Nc6 5.Nf3 Bg7 6.0–0 B06: Modern Defence 

6...Bg4 7.c3 0–0 8.h3 The position is equal. 

8...Bxf3! 9.Qxf3 e5 10.Rd1 Qe8 [10...Nd7 11.Be3 Qe7 12.Na3 Nb6 13.Bb5 f5 14.Bxc6 bxc6 15.exf5 e4 16.f6 Rxf6 0–1 (61) Bacrot,E (2718)-Ponomariov,R (2714) Beijing 2014] 

11.d5 Ne7 12.Qe2N [Predecessor: 12.g4 Nd7 13.Qg2 f5 14.Nd2 Nf6 0–1 (42) Johansson-Timman,J Stockholm 1972] 

12...Nh5 13.Bb5 Qc8 14.Na3 a6 15.Ba4 f5 16.Bc2 f4 [16...fxe4= 17.Bxe4 Qd7] 

17.Qg4 Qxg4 18.hxg4 Nf6 19.g5 Nd7 20.Nc4 b6 [20...h6=] 

21.b4 h6 22.gxh6 Bxh6 23.g4 Nf6 24.f3! Bg5 25.Kg2 Kg7 26.a4 Bh4 27.Bd2 g5 28.Rh1 Ng6 29.Kf1 Rh8 30.Ke2 Bg3! 31.a5 b5 [31...bxa5!= 32.Nxa5 Rh4] 

32.Na3± Ne7 33.c4ƒ White is really pushing. 

33...c6 34.dxc6 Nxc6 35.Bc3! [And not 35.cxb5 Nd4+ 36.Kd3 Rhd8µ] 

35...Rxh1 [¹35...Na7 36.cxb5 Rhc8] 

36.Rxh1+- bxc4 37.Nxc4 

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37...Rb8? [37...Ne8 38.Rd1 Nc7] 

38.Nxd6 Kg6 39.Nf5 Precision: White = 58%, Black = 54%. 1–0

Solomon,Kenny (2398) - Caruana,Fabiano (2799)

FIDE World Cup 2017 Tbilisi (1.2), 04.09.2017

1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 a6 4.Ba4 g6 5.0–0 Bg7 6.c3 d6 7.d4 Bd7 8.Re1 Nf6 9.d5 C79: Ruy Lopez: Steinitz-type lines with 3...a6 4 Ba4 Nf6 5 0–0 d6 [9.h3 b5 10.Bc2 0–0 11.Nbd2 Re8 12.a3 h6 13.Nf1 Nh5 14.Be3 Kh7 15.Qd2 Qf6 16.N1h2 Rad8 1–0 (68) Dominguez Perez,L (2739)-Van Foreest,J (2612) chess.com INT 2017] 

9...Ne7 10.c4 h6 [10...b5!? 11.Bb3 c5²] 

11.Nc3 White is slightly better. 

11...0–0 12.Bc2 Nh7 13.b4N [Predecessor: 13.a4 f5 14.exf5 gxf5 15.Ra3 Ng6 16.Ne2 1–0 (32) Gabrielian,A (2555)-Yandemirov, V (2378) Moscow 2014] 

13...f5 14.exf5 gxf5 15.Bb2 [15.a4=] 

15...Ng6³ 16.Ne2 Ng5 17.Ng3 [17.Nxg5= remains equal. 17...Qxg5 18.Ng3] 

17...Nxf3+!µ 18.Qxf3 e4 19.Qb3 Bxb2 20.Qxb2 Qg5 21.Qc1 a5 22.b5 Ne5 23.Qxg5+ hxg5 24.Rac1 Kg7 25.Bb1 b6 26.Rc3 Rh8 27.h3 Rh4 [¹27...Kf6 28.Bc2 Rh4] 

28.Kf1 [28.f3µ] 

28...g4 [28...Rah8–+ 29.Bc2 g4 30.hxg4 Rxg4] 

29.hxg4 Rxg4 30.Bc2 [30.Nh5+µ was necessary. 30...Kf7 31.g3] 

30...Rh8–+ 31.Bd1 Rg5 32.Kg1 Be8 33.Bc2 [33.Nf1µ might work better.] 

33...Bg6 34.Kf1 Rg4 35.Ke2 Rh2 36.Rg1 f4 37.Nxe4 

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37...f3+! 38.Ke3 With the idea g3. [38.gxf3 Rxg1] 

38...fxg2 [Less strong is 38...Rgxg2 39.Rf1µ] 

39.f3 Rh3 40.Nd2 Rh1! 41.Kf2 

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41...Rxg1! [Not 41...Rd4 42.Nb3³] 

42.Kxg1 Rd4 43.Nb3 Rxc4 44.Rxc4 Nxc4 45.Bxg6 [¹45.Nd4 Bxc2 46.Nxc2] 

45...Kxg6 46.Kxg2 Endgame KN-KN 

46...Kf5 47.Kg3 Ke5 48.f4+ Kxd5 Black is clearly winning. 

49.Kg4 [¹49.Kf3 Na3 50.f5] 

49...Ke4 50.Kg5 a4 51.Nc1 d5 Precision: White = 36%, Black = 82%. 0-1