World Cup: Round 3, Day 3: Down to the Sweet 16

Today's rapid games were very lively, and I hope the readers will take the time to replay some of the games. Let's note some of the highlights:

Round 3.3 (the first of the four rapid rounds):

Judit Polgar may have inferred from her win yesterday that Boris Gelfand has what boxing fans call a glass jaw; if so, she was mistaken. She threw the kitchen sink at him - the exchange, pawns, etc. - and he took it, held on, and won.

The next four boards were draws: Gashimov-Li Chao, Svidler-Naiditsch, Laznicka-Bologan and Jobava-Grischuk. Svidler-Naiditsch was a lot of fun though, a wild Catalan where White gave up the queen and a pawn for a couple of rooks. The material and the play remained imbalanced throughout, and ultimately it was Svidler who had to prove the draw.

Jakovenko beat Areshchenko very quickly in a Najdorf line involving a White queen sac. The culprit was Black's 22nd move. 22...Rc5 was probably necessary, to continue with ...Rxd5; after 22...h6 23.Rg1 Black was simply lost and resigned two moves later.

Bacrot-Wang Yue was a dull draw between two of the most, um, solid players in professional chess.

Eljanov-Malakhov confirmed the adage that in a bad position, all moves are bad. White was quickly reduced to woodshifting, and his final move, 31.Be1, walked into the crushing 31...Bxf4! Since the "best" move, 31.e4, leaves White in a hopeless position after 31...Rxe4! 32.Nxe4 Qxe4 33.Rc3 Bf5 anyway, it didn't really matter.

Karjakin also won, outplaying Navara with Black.

Finally, Caruana-Alekseev was a draw, a Modern Benoni that caught my eye due to Black's curious knight maneuver. After move 16, the knight from g8 had taken the following route: g8-f6-g4-e5-c4-a5-b3!

Round 3.4:

There were four draws this round: Gelfand-Polgar (quick and quiet), Naiditsch-Svidler (a very exciting game with Black's king under constant pressure; it was generally equal but White missed a chance with 52.Qe8+ Qf7 53.Qxe5), Areshchenko-Jakovenko (pretty even throughout in an Exchange Ruy ending) and Alekseev-Caruana (a neo-Archangelsk that had the sniff of Black home prep).

Two of the wins were pretty amazing, but not for the moves played. That's because there weren't any! Li Chao-Gashimov and Wang Yue-Bacrot were both won by Black, automatically, because the Chinese players didn't make it to the board at time. The zero-tolerance rule strikes again.

In the real games, Bologan-Laznicka was won by Black in a Hedgehog when White got sloppy. 20.a4 was ambitious but refuted by 20...a5 21.Ba3 d5! Bologan quite possibly saw it and counted on 22.Ncd5, but at the end of the long tactical sequence ending with 31...axb4 Black was winning, and won. Grischuk was better throughout against Jobava, but the win wasn't in the bad until 37...Rc6??, losing the rook to a simple two-mover. Malakov won again over Eljanov after the latter's panicky 32...Qe7 took him from a slightly worse middlegame to a lost ending. Finally, Karjakin also doubled up on Navara with a nice win in a Ruy.

Round 3.5:

Polgar was completely outplayed in the opening and early middlegame against Gelfand, so she went unashamedly into desperation attack mode. Unfortunately for her, Gelfand was again up to the challenge, won the game, and ended the match. Gelfand wins, 3.5-1.5.

Li Chao showed up on time for his third rapid game with Gashimov, but lost again anyway. Gashimov wins, 3.5-1.5.

Svidler went to the well one time too many, playing the same queen sac line of the Catalan against Naiditsch. Naiditsch varied first, but more importantly improved his handling of the middlegame, and Svidler went down with shocking ease. (Perhaps this is what happens when career 1.e4 players try changing?) Naiditsch led 2-1, with game four still to come.

Laznicka won a study-like ending with pawns against a knight, completing his upset of erstwhile 2700 Bologan. Laznicka wins, 3.5-1.5.

Jobava got nothing and had nothing against Grischuk, but down one and with his last White, he had to try and try and try. Persistence paid off when Grischuk lashed out with 61...b5 and further erred with 68...Kh7. Despite these errors, he had another chance to save the game (maybe) with the spectacular 74...Qe8!! - but this is hard to find 74 moves into one's third game of the day after a week of chess. The point is that after 75.Qxg6 there's 75...Rb2+!, taking advantage of the loose queen on g6. Black isn't in great shape after 76.Ka4 Ra2+ 77.Kxb4 Rb2+ 78.Ka3 Ra2+ 79.Kxa2! Rf2+ 80.Kb3 Qxg6 81.Ra8+ Rf8 82.b7 Qe8 (forced) 83.Rxe8 Rxe8 84.Nf3 Rb8 85.Nxe5 Rxb7+ 86.Kc4 Rc7 87.Kxd4. Missing this, White won and equalized the match score.

The battle of the enkos was drawn, so going into the fourth rapid game Jakovenko led Areshchenko 2-1.

Bacrot, like Gashimov, built on his forfeit win, winning the battle of paint drying against grass growing. Wang Yue played the Petroff, Bacrot one-upped (or one-downed) him with 3.Nxe5 d6 4.Nf3 Nxe4 5.Qe2, and got absolutely nothing. (Shock, horror.) Wang Yue miscalculated when he played 28...c4 though, and after the tactics ended with 36.Bxc3 had a lost ending for his troubles. Bacrot converted, winning the game and the match. Bacrot wins 3.5-1.5.

Eljanov was down 2-0, but he was absolutely winning against Malakhov in a crazy game three. He missed some easier wins along the way, but with 47.Re1 the point still would have been his for the taking. Instead, he played 47.Qd7??, allowing the drawing 47...Re2! (48.e8Q Rxe8 49.Qxe8 Qb7+ with perpetual). The game was abandoned here: a draw would make sense, but TWIC reports it a win for Black - perhaps Eljanov was so disgusted with himself he chose to resign instead. It doesn't matter: Malakhov wins the match either way, and there aren't even any rating points at stake. Malakhov wins 4-1.

I'm not 100% sure that the last match was won with a 4-1 score, but the Karjakin-Navara match definitely was. Karjakin won with Black and advanced to round 4. Karjakin wins, 4-1.

Finally, Caruana made his paisans happy with a win over Alekseev and took a 2-1 lead.

Round 3.6:

Grischuk-Jobava was a quick draw, sending their match to blitz games.

Alekseev-Caruana was a draw too, but this was a near-miracle for Caruana. (47.f7, for instance, should do the trick.) Caruana wins 3.5-2.5.

Jakovenko beat Areshchenko with Black, finishing off their match convincingly. Jakovenko wins 4-2.

In the fourth remaining game, Svidler needed to win with Black to save the match. He did it, but not without a little help at a crucial moment. 37.Rh4!! is a move that will haunt Naiditsch for a while, as it wins almost right away. If the queen stays on the a1-h8 diagonal, it is lost, but if it retreats the other way, say to c5, then 38.Rf4+! is a killer: 38...Nxf4 39.Qh7+ and 40.Qxe7#, or 38...Ke8 39.Rxf8+ Kxf8 40.Qh8+ Kf7 41.Qh7+ Kf8 42.g6. Naiditsch was probably in serious time trouble at this point, because from here on his position deteriorated in a hurry, culminating with his blundering a rook in an already lost position.

Blitz Rounds:

The two matches to reach this point ended quickly and one-sidedly, with Svidler and Grischuk winning two easy games each against Naiditsch and Jobava, respectively. So: Svidler wins 5-3 and Grischuk wins 5-3.

On to the sweet 16! Here are the pairings, with the players' ages in parentheses:

Gelfand (41) - Vachier-Lagrave (19)

Grischuk (26) - Jakovenko (26)

Laznicka (21) - Mamedyarov (24)

Vitiugov (22) - Karjakin (19)

Gashimov (23) - Caruana (17)

Ponomariov (26) - Bacrot (26)

Svidler (33) - Shirov (37) (A pity this match is happening so soon.)

So (16) - Malakhov (29)

Who ever said chess was a young man's game?

Speaking of the games, you can download them from this page.

Comments

[Thomas]

Bacrot can be, and usually is a "solid" player, but his games can also get exciting - even out of uninspiring openings: did you note his first rapid game against Nijboer (round 1) and his double win against Sasikiran in round 2? I agree that there is a high probability for a "boring" game if two solid players face each other.

And yes, Naiditsch was down to less than a minute when things got complicated in his last rapid game against Svidler. A matter of taste if he should be praised and/or have eyebrows raised for his ambitious play when a draw would have been enough - it seems he declined several obvious drawing continuations, maybe he didn't see them with the clock going tickticktick .... .