The World Cup is Underway
Wondering what to do with yourself (as a chess fan!) in the period between the now-completed Tal Memorial and the London Chess Classic? Fear not: the World Cup is underway! Participants include practically every strong GM rated below 2760, including Gelfand, Gashimov, Svidler, Morozevich, Radjabov, Ivanchuk, Ponomariov, Grischuk, Jakovenko, Wang Yue, Eljanov, Karjakin, Mamedyarov and Shirov.
In the American contingent there's Kamsky, Onischuk, Ehlvest, Shabalov, Shulman, Akobian, Ivanov, Friedel, Robson and Hess. (Hmm, notice any big absences?)
There are 128 players in this massive event taking place in Khanty-Mansisk, and it's run on the same knockout system as the last one (won by Kamsky, who beat Shirov in the final) and on the old FIDE knockout championships too, for that matter. Unlike the FIDE championships, however, the winner of this is not world champion, but achieves a spot in the Candidates' matches. Much more info, including complete pairings and the live games in progress, here.
Reader Comments (15)
Absences? Nakamura, of course. He ceded his spot to to play in London.
Aaaand first surprises: Shirov, Dominguez Perez, Vachier-Lagrave and Alekseev drew their games already, all against pretty weak (2700-wise) opponents. Jet lag? Other top board games are either still in progress, or won by the super-GM.
Shirov seems to be somewhat out-of-form recently. I hope he finds his usual form soon.
wow someone actually played 1. f4 against Karjakin.... only to be manhandled in 15 moves!
[Event "World Cup"]
[Site "Khanty-Mansiysk RUS"]
[Date "2009.11.21"]
[Round "1.1"]
[White "Rodriguez Vila,A"]
[Black "Karjakin,Sergey"]
[Result "0-1"]
[WhiteElo "2508"]
[BlackElo "2723"]
[EventDate "2009.11.21"]
[ECO "A03"]
1. f4 d5 2. Nf3 Nf6 3. g3 g6 4. Bg2 Bg7 5. O-O O-O 6. d3 c5 7. Nc3 d4 8.
Na4 Nbd7 9. c4 Rb8 10. Rb1 b6 11. b4 Qc7 12. bxc5 bxc5 13. Rxb8 Qxb8 14.
Qb3 Qc7 15. Bd2 Bb7 0-1
I don't understand why he resigned there though he is worse.
Uff: Yes, I know, I just mentioned the London event seven minutes before I wrote this post. The reason I brought it up wasn't ignorance or amnesia, but that although the London tournament is very prestigious, Nakamura is forgoing a chance to fight for the world championship.
Kajetan: It's not like they're drawing with me, for goodness' sake. (That would be embarrassing.) They're a little surprising, maybe, when the higher-rated player has White, but the sky hasn't fallen yet - not even a little bit.
Daniel: It's far more likely that he didn't resign there. (Especially since the position is far closer to equal than anything seriously great for Black.) Many of the game scores came out alright, but a good chunk of them were partial or corrupted. If the game ended at that point, it's probably because White's cell phone rang or something like that.
Some nice games today. Morozevich demolished his opponent tactically like a master demolishes a junior, Svidler had to work really hard (66 moves!) to beat this ugly thing they call the French Defence, while Ivanchuk, playing the black side of the thing, made the French look unfrenchy and fun. Nisipeanu, as always, provided great entertainment -- well worth a look!
Anyone know why there is no Polgar game in the TWIC scores?
Dennis: sure, but still, I don't quite understand it -- if you're a 2750, known for fighting chess, usually in the top 10 for the last several years and playing for a place in the Candidates, do you really take an easy draw against a 2500 GM? At least Shirov could've made more effort. Looks like he went for a draw with black to win with white, but things happen -- e.g. if he blunders in the second game (which of course I hope he doesn't), he will lose his match. I'm sure Svidler, even though more tired, is more pleased with himself right now than Shirov. Well, we'll see tomorrow.
Kajetan: I think I read in Chess Vibes (or maybe was it Chessdom...?) that Pavasovic (Polgar's opponent) couldn't make it on time to Khanty-Mansiysk for the first game.
I wouldn't agree about Shirov. He's known for playing wild chess, not necessarily for his fighting spirit. He's not a wimp, but he takes a reasonable number of relatively easy draws. Anyway, you don't just get to win because you want to, even against a lower-rated player, and there's the further issue that these k.o. events aren't just about winning matches, they're about having enough energy for match after match after match. In light of Shirov's tremendous successes in these k.o. events over the past decade, I'm going to assume he knows how best to shepherd his energy.
As for Polgar's game, there wasn't one. Rather unusually, her opponent, Dusko Pavasovic, withdrew due to injury!
Dennis: It's clear that you had London and Nakamura in mind when you mentioned wrote "absences?"
So, why do you think he would choose London over World Cup? Distaste for FIDE tomfoolery? Desire to play against Carlsen and Kramnik? His time to shoot for WC has not yet come? Hoping to qualify for candidates by rating or wild card?
Regarding Shirov's draw: Statistically, the expected score against a 200 points lower-rated opponent is 0.76 points - so also from that perspective, a draw (with black) is not really a sensation or disaster. As white proposed, maybe forced lots of early exchanges, one could even question his motivation: Did Kunte just want to avoid losing ELO, and is otherwise happy with the prize money ("appearance fee") he will get even if he loses tomorrow? Obviously it is a different story if such a (non-)game followed after a previous victory with the black pieces ... .
In Svidler's case, the rating gap was 330 points. And at least one player will be less happy than Shirov: Movsesian (2718) who lost against Yu Yangyi (2527).
My opinion regarding Nakamura: "Desire to play Carlsen and Kramnik" may play a role - when he accepted the London invitation he may not have known yet that he will get another chance at Corus 2010. And regarding the World Cup, he would have had slight chances of winning and qualifying for the candidates tournament (I would say noone's chances are better than 10%). On the other hand, he also had something to lose: a rather early elimination would cost him ELO as well as prestige/reputation ... .
Dennis: you're right, his results in such tournaments do speak for themselves! It's just my this-time-unfulfilled hopes of seeing yet another Shirov brilliancy speaking, so I'm not being objective.
Regarding Nakamura's absence, I agree with Thomas. As history shows, every strong player can win a knock-out tournament, so chances are pretty slim for everyone. Perhaps he'd play if it was the World Championship, not just a place in the Candidates, that was at stake. Since it's the latter, and even if he won the Cup, he wouldn't be the favourite in the Candidates anyway, he may have decided that it wasn't worth it.
Looking at the bright side, the Classic only gained entertainment value thanks to Naka's creative mind participating.
I think Nakamura accepted the London invite over this because it was financially in his best interest to do so: breaking into the super-GM dog-and-pony show makes tons more money than playing in second-tier events, even if you win them. Guaranteed money. Losing rating points in the World Cup would not have been a concern. Rather, as KW notes, the chances for any particular player to win isn't very high, and only a win guarantees anything beyond a payday.
On the other hand, here's an argument for playing in the World Cup: Nakamura's style will always make him attractive to super-GM tournament organizers, so the only question is the rating. But that's going to be an issue whether he plays in London or Khanty-Mansisk. If he played in the World Cup and did great, and his rating went up, he'd still be desirable to organizers. If he plays in London and does poorly, and his rating goes down, he'll fall out of the super-GM queue. Meanwhile, chances to make serious progress in the hunt for the world championship are few and far between - the last one of these was two years ago.
I wouldn't say he made a bad decision, just one that has cons as well as pros.
Dennis, while I agree with your overall post, I would question two of its points:
Is London financially (much) more attractive than the World Cup?
First prize before taxes is 25,000 Euro, the "realistic" third prize is 10,000 Euro - plus possible extras such as the 10,000 Euro brilliancy prize (plus unknown appearance fee?).
At the World Cup, first prize is 120,000 USD - hard to say what's realistic, Round 4 losers play eight classical games (one more than in London) and get 25,000 USD.
Is the World cup a "second-tier event"?
Let's look at Vachier-Lagrave's possible pairings, as he is very close to Nakamura in terms of current rating: He is rating favorite in the first two rounds. Then he could face Movsesian, followed by Gelfand and Grischuk, then any of Karjakin-Radjabov-Morozevich. What would his (or Nakamura's) chances be to get that far or beyond? Personally I would give him/them at most 50% odds in any of those matches.
So the World Cup is a second-tier event only if everything without the top5 players is second-tier - a possible but rather extreme view!?
I wasn't claiming that the World Cup was a second-tier event, but that those are the normal fare for strong GMs outside the privileged Wijk aan Zee-Linares-Dortmund etc. cycle. Financially, it behooves a player to get in with that select company as soon as possible and to stay there - it's the difference between having to fight it out for peanuts and being a made man. The World Cup is fine and has some nice prizes (though I'm guessing based on past events that FIDE is taking 20-25% off the top from each player's winnings), but that's a biennial event at best and not a regular payday. So when the organizer of a super-event comes calling, it makes a lot of sense to say "Yes, thank you" and try to become a permanent member of that club.