Anton Kovalyov booked his flight home for tomorrow, but the Canadian grandmaster will have to stick around after beating 2004 World Champion Rustam Kasimdzhanov in World Cup Round 1 tiebreaks. That was the second sensation of the day, after 2009 World Cup winner Boris Gelfand fell to Chilean IM Cristobal Henriquez. Elsewhere the favourites largely lived up to their reputation, although the likes of Grischuk and Jakovenko were tested to the limit. One match went all the way to Armageddon, with Armenia’s Gabriel Sargissian drawing with Black to oust Poland’s Mateusz Bartel.
Anton Kovalyov can start to dream - if he now beats Sandro Mareco a match against Fabiano Caruana most likely awaits | photo: official website
If previous knockouts have taught us anything, it’s that the advantage of the top players decreases less than you’d imagine either when you play fewer games or play them faster. It turns out – and it perhaps shouldn’t surprise us - that the higher rated players are simply better at all forms of the game and know how to make their class tell… though of course it doesn’t always work out that way!
Let’s take the four stages of the Round 1 tiebreaks in order:
16 of the 24 matches that went to tiebreaks were decided in the first two 25 min + 10 sec rapid games.
David Navara faced some tough local opposition! | photo: official website
2:0 winners
There were clean sweeps for ten players, including a host of star names: Navara, Tomashevsky, Fressinet, Nepomniachtchi, Inarkiev, Vitiugov and Radjabov. The latter knocked out 14-year-old Sam Sevian after a great fight, with the US talent sure to be back to challenge in later years.
Sam Sevian impressed on his World Cup baptism of fire, but couldn't defeat the Azerbaijan no. 1 | photo: official website
It was a very good day for Azerbaijan in general, as Gadir Guseinov proved his opening day win against Maxim Matlakov had been no fluke with two more victories.
Gadir Guseinov is rated 2634, making him his country's no. 6 | photo: official website
The most amazing whitewash, though, came in the Bruzon – Vidit match. Young Indian star Santosh Gujrathi Vidit recently inspired us to publish the article 5 incredible missed mates, after blundering mate-in-1 in the Lake Sevan tournament. We don’t really want to rub any salt in his wounds… but it was quite an achievement to do the same against Cuba’s Lazaro Bruzon… twice! (or at least, one and a half times)
Vidit was the one pressing but was short of time when he went for 38...Nf4??, which ran into the unfortunate cold shower: 39.Ng4 mate
To be fair, the second game was the kind of mishap that could happen to anyone forced to push for a win at all costs. After move 54 he had winning chances, after move 55 it was drawn, after move 56 he was losing, and after move 57...
Life is cruel!
1.5:0.5 winners
Russia's Vladimir Fedoseev and the arbiter had different ways of approaching the match with India's Adhiban | photo: official website
Lu Shanglei (Moiseenko) and Wang Hao (Perunovic) shrugged off their losses the day before to continue to represent China in the event. There were also wins for Onischuk (Volokitin) and Fedoseev (Adhiban).
Hou Yifan's never-say-die attitude could take her far in Baku | photo: official website
Hou Yifan was another 1.5:0.5 winner, though she again walked a tightrope and needed some astonishing cool-headedness to turn the first game around and then survive a seemingly crushing attack in the second:
The first sensation of the day, though, was a loss for perhaps the most experienced and successful player of such events in the field – Boris Gelfand.
Boris Gelfand is still in the Top 20, and to defeat him in the kind of event he specialises in was no mean feat for Henriquez | photo: official website
It would surely all have been very different if the 47-year-old had converted a huge advantage in his first game in Baku, but he let that slip in time trouble, and after two more games in which neither side could make an extra pawn tell it all came down to game 4. Boris was already on the back foot with the white pieces when he went for 24.f3?!, giving up a pawn to allow his bishop out of its cage:
Though understandable, the extra activity never compensated for a pawn and weakening the king, and later the Israeli went on to blunder a piece as well. That should take nothing away from Cristobal Henriquez Villagra, though! The Chilean IM earned a big pay-day and a match with Julio Granda by playing the remains of the game with absolutely surgical precision. Gelfand was never given the slightest glimmer of hope.
Young Iljiushenok was as hard to beat as his surname is to spell... | photo: official website
Elsewhere there were six ties that finished in all draws and one shocking exchange of wins. The shock wasn’t that Dmitry Jakovenko won the first game against his young compatriot Ilia Iljiushenok, but the way he capitulated in the second by taking a 6 minute 36 second think before going for 14…Rf8??!
Despite some fireworks he was objectively lost after 15.Nxh7, while the computer favours Black after 14…0-0. One Twitter user had a theory:
That left only 14 players and 7 matches that needed accelerated tiebreaks, but the two 10-minute + 10 second games only produced another two winners.
Igor Lysyj marched an army of four connected passed pawns up the board against Constantin Lupulescu to win the first game and then easily won the second as well when his opponent overpushed. Eltaj Safarli, meanwhile, went down in a blaze of glory against Csaba Balogh:
22…Rxb3+?!! Sergey Shipov, commentating in Russian, was convinced this beautiful attack was winning for Black and the only problem was Eltaj had so little time to think. Our silicon friends say otherwise, but it’s still great fun to play through and see why. Safarli then misplayed a promising attack and could have lost the second game as well, though Balogh settled for a draw by repetition to take him into the next round.
Not every Azeri player could make the second round, though at least Safarli kept the crowd entertained | photo: official website
Bartel and Sargissian swapped wins, but while the other games were all drawn there was amazing resistance from Yusup Atabayev against Grischuk and Iljiushenok against Jakovenko (check out this crazy ending, which could have gone either way).
If Grischuk was on Twitter he might repeat Giri's #smooth hashtag - for Atabayev it's not every day you draw six games in a row against one of the world's very best players | photo: official website
The looming threat of Armageddon has a wonderful way of focusing minds, and this is where all but one of the remaining five matches ended. The floodgates opened for Grischuk and Jakovenko, who crushed their opponents with the white pieces and then refuted wild attacks in the next games, with Grischuk winning in 19 and Jakovenko in 23. Grachev and Motylev – same country, same rating! – had seemed inseparable...
...but first Motylev pressed with Black in Game 7 and then he won a smooth technical victory with White in Game 8.
Kovalyov is only months younger than Kasimdzhanov was when he won the World Championship | photo: official website
There was still time for one late sensation, though. 23-year-old Anton Kovalyov is a talented grandmaster who, despite being born in Ukraine, has already managed to play for both Argentina and now Canada. He looked in trouble against former World Champion Rustam Kasimdzhanov in both the final 10-minute game and the first blitz game, but the Uzbek grandmaster couldn’t find a way to exploit Kovalyov’s hopelessly stuck bishop:
In the final game it was Kasimdzhanov whose pieces got tangled up, with 24.Qb5! posing too many problems:
So the winner of the 2004 World Championship (also a 128-player knockout) will have more time to prepare Fabiano Caruana’s assault on the World Cup.
Will it ever end? | photo: official website
At least he wasn't alone:
That just left one pairing facing the ordeal of a last sudden-death game. Players are divided over whether it’s best to have Black, less time and need only a draw, but it worked out perfectly for Armenia’s Gabriel Sargissian. He took refuge in a slightly worse endgame and had sufficient technique to ensure a draw – in fact, he came closest to winning the game. Poland’s Mateusz Bartel is one of the 64 players who have now left the 2015 FIDE World Cup.
It all came down to this... | photo: official website
For some players “tiebreak day” was a chance to recharge their batteries:
No such luck for the tiebreak winners, though, since Round 2 starts tomorrow, with mouth-watering ties wherever you look. A few that stand out include:
Watch the first game of FIDE World Cup Round 2 at 12:00 CEST on Monday.
You can also watch all the games in our mobile apps:
See also:
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