Breakfast tomorrow: World Cup round 4

Peter Svidler leads Alexander Grisckuk 2-1 for the World Cup title.  Svidler has White and the two Russians are friends: a quick draw is not out of the realm of possibility.  Both players have already secured a slot as one of the eight candidates for the next world championship.

Vassily Ivanchuk leads Ruslan Ponomariov 2-1 in the match for third place.  To me, the Ukranian matchup is more fascinating: Ivanchuk has not been a Candidate in the classical cycle for twenty (!!) years, and in 2002, he lost a match to the teenaged Ponomariov for the pre-unification "FIDE World Championship" title.  The winner automatically qualifies for the 2013 Candidates, while the loser is very unlikely to earn an invitation.  Ponomariov managed to apply some pressure in today's game, but never came close to converting a pawn-up endgame.

Catch up on previous rounds at The Week in Chess, and follow the pre-dawn action at the official site!

The bishop also moves backwards

I don't know whether it's fair to call a blunder in a blitz game one of the biggest in chess history, but this game (played just a couple hours ago) led to Vassily Ivanchuk's elimination from the World Cup.

Alexander Grischuk and Peter Svidler, both of Russia, will play for the World Cup title. Ivanchuk and Ruslan Ponomariov, both of Ukraine, will play for third place and automatic qualification to the next World Championship cycle. Follow the action here, beginning well before dawn on Friday.

A heartbreaking loss for Ivanchuk!

World Cup catchup

Moiseenko-NavaraWorld Cup 2011White to move
A week ago today: David Navara had just reached an easily winning position in the difficult Q vs. R ending, and the 50-move rule was no longer a problem.  But Navara offered a draw...on purpose!

Lubomir Kavalek explains this act of sportsmanship.

The World Cup's knockout format can  lead to some rather random results, which would have been particularly unfortunate given that this event is being used to qualify three players for the World Championship.  But the four quarterfinalists are all among the world's elite: Grischuk faces Ivanchuk, and Svidler faces Ponomariov.  The winners automatically qualify for the 2014 World Championship cycle; the losers play a match, the winner of which also qualifies.

Someone had to lose the match between fan favorites Gata Kamsky and Peter Svidler. Kamsky had the honor of losing to the most beautiful move of the World Cup:

Svidler's point after 26...Re2!! was that 27.Qxe2 loses to 27...Qg3! (The immediate 26...Qg3 is met by 27.Nc6, stopping the mate threat.) Someone (I don't remember who) described the combination as worthy of Frank Marshall.  Edit a few days later—aha, it was Mig.

Early risers are urged to check out Game 1 of the semifinals tomorrow morning at the excellent tournament website! If you hear Russian, don't panic: there is an English-language simulcast.

Shipov on Game 6

Good stuff.

Candidates quarterfinals complete

Grischuk upsets top seed Aronian, and Kramnik somehow survives against Radjabov.  English-language coverage is spotty at best: I'll add links later today.  In the meantime, here's an English translation of Shipov's commentary on yesterday's Topalov-Kamsky game.

Semifinals pairings: Kamsky (USA) vs. Gelfand (Israel), and Kramnik (Russia) vs. Grischuk (Russia).  Play begins this Thursday.  The survivor will challenge Vishy Anand for the world title next year.

Chess can be a cruel game

You can play like a genius for 84 moves, and throw it all away in time pressure:

Grischuk-Nakamura, Tal Memorial 2010

(finished just a few minutes ago)

Black to play and win

There are two reasonable ways to threaten mate on g3: 84....Qe1 and 84...Qf3.  Both moves have problems: after 84...Qe1, White can try to set up a stalemate defense by allowing ...Qxg3 and running the king to h1.  After 84...Qf3, 85.Nxe5+ seems to force a draw: or does it?

Which move would you choose?

Linares midpoint

Topalov is +2 after beating Grischuk today; nobody else is above breakeven.  Details at TWIC.

Anish Giri annotates the epic Topalov-Grischuk battle on ChessBase.

catching up on Linares

The big news: Carlsen, who's taking a breather this year, will play in 2011! (Somehow, Carlsen is beginning to make a Fischeresque imprint on the game: he's the biggest presence even when he's not playing.)

The Ciudad de Linares tournament has been the unofficial tournament championship for over two decades. This year's event is shorter and somewhat weaker, but any event with Aronian, Topalov, Gashimov, Grischuk, Gelfand, and Vallejo is still incredibly strong. Topalov and Grischuk lead with +1 after 3 rounds. Let's catch up via ChessBase:

Round 3
Round 2
Round 1

Grischuk - Mamedyarov, World Blitz (Day 1)

White to play and win