2009 World Cup

The 2009 World Cup started yesterday in the Russian oil town of Khanty-Mansiysk. Of the 128 players, one is representing Chicagoland, our own Yury Shulman, with a FIDE rating of 2623. His first round match is against Boris Savchenko (2644) of Russia, a very tough pairing. Shulman and Savchenko drew both games, yesterday and today. They will have a rapid elimination tomorrow.

Other US results:  

• Gata Kamsky (2695) eliminated Rogelio Antonio, Jr., (2574) of the Phillipines 1.5-0.5;
• Alexander Onischuk (2672) beat Diego Flores of Argentina 1.5-0.5;
• Alexander Ivanov (2539) lost 0.5-1.5 to Evgeny Tomashevsky (2708) of Russia;
• Josh Friedel (2551) was shut out 0-2 by Wang Hao (2708) of China;
  
• teenager Robert Hess (2572) lost 0.5-1.5 to Alexander Motylev (2695) of Russia;
  
• fellow teen Ray Robson (2567) lost 0.5-1.5 to Baadur Jobava (2696) of Georgia;
• Jaan Ehlvest (2606) was eliminated 0.5-1.5 by fellow US Swiss super-GM Ilia Smirin (2662) of Israel;
• Varuzhan Akobian (2624 goes to 1-1 tiebreak with Pavel Tregubov (2642) of Russia;
• and Alexander Shabalov (2606) is headed for playoffs after a 1-1 tie with Vladimir Baklan (2655) of Ukraine.

The top two US players (Kamsky and Onischuk) are safely through to Round Two; Shabalov, Akobian, and Shulman are still alive in Round One, and the other five have been eliminated.  Tough weekend for the USA! (Teenager Fabiano Caruana of Italy and Brooklyn is also through to Round Two; Hikaru Nakamura passed up the World Cup to play in the London Chess Classic.) Good luck to Yury, who has a great track record in World Cup playoffs!

Photos and more games at the USCF website.