World Cup Results: Round 1, Sub-Round 2
Most of the big favorites finished off their foes, but quite a few matches are headed for tiebreaks tomorrow, while some matches were won by the higher-rated players.
On boards 1-14, the favorites won and can take tomorrow off. On board 15, heroic defense by David Smerdon let him stay alive against Leinier Dominguez, and they're going to tiebreaks. On board 16, we had our biggest upset of the first round, as Chinese prodigy Yangyi Yu upended Sergei Movsesian 1.5-.5. Two other 2700s will be playing tomorrow: David Navara, who lost today to Darwin Laylo, and Etienne Bacrot, who has drawn twice with Friso Nijboer. Another upset worthy of note is that of former 2700 Bu Xiangzhi, who lost 1.5-.5 to Yannick Pelletier.
Turning to the U.S. results, our guys have followed "tradition" and generally left the scene.
Tomashevsky - Ivanov 1.5-0.5
Friedel - Wang Hao 0-2
Jobava - Robson 1.5-0.5
Hess - Motylev 0.5-1.5
Kamsky - Antonio 1.5-0.5
Onischuk - Flores 1.5-0.5
Smirin - Ehlvest 1.5-.0.5
Shabalov - Baklan 1-1 (Shabalov led, lost game 2)
Savchenko - Shulman 1-1
Akobian - Tregubov 1-1 (Akobian also lost game 2, losing an elementary rook ending)
If I've counted correctly, 19 matches are going into playoffs, so there will be plenty of action tomorrow. The full standings are here, while you can find a number of games, with my brief comments, here.
Reader Comments (6)
Dennis,
Interesting comments on Nakamura and London vs. World Cup... An additional idea to throw into the mix: Khanty-Mansiysk is way the heck out there in the middle of Siberia. Nakamura is the guy who routinely skipped Corus to play in Gibraltar in part because the weather and atmosphere was nicer than Netherlands in the winter. London in November is not the greatest, but surely it beats Siberia!
UD (and everyone): Please place comments in the relevant posts, and only there. Thanks.
did akobian make it through to Pono or is he out?
Out.
Akobian's in!
Whoops, I'm wrong! Yes, I just saw that too...it looks like the tiebreak rules I saw were completely mistaken. Wow, what a match.