SundayChessTV
World Champion Magnus Carlsen made it to the fifth round of the FIDE World Cup on Saturday as he defeated GM Radoslaw Wojtaszek in the second game of the round-four tiebreak. A surprising name among the final 16 is 18-year-old GM Velimir Ivic, who knocked out GM Dmitry Andreikin. In the women’s section, all (rapid) rating favorites won their tiebreaks.
Both in the open and women’s sections, half of the round-four matches needed to be decided in tiebreaks. Nonetheless, it was a relatively short day of tiebreaks where none of the matches went to the blitz stage.
Carlsen was one of the players who only needed two games to go through. While he didn’t survive round four at the 2017 World Cup and couldn’t convert promising positions in his two classical games, the world champion made a good impression in the rapid.
Carlsen, who did admit that he was a bit nervous for these tiebreaks, started with a comfortable draw as Black vs. Wojtaszek and then outplayed his opponent as White.
Putting the knight on the rim on move 18 was a mistake, according to Carlsen: “At least practically speaking then it’s very hard to hold.”
Carlsen’s opponent in round five is an interesting one: GM Andrey Esipenko, the 19-year-old Russian grandmaster whom he lost to at Wijk aan Zee this year. It was the first 10+10 game where Esipenko made the difference vs. his compatriot GM Daniil Dubov.
Esipenko is one of five Russian players who made it to the final 16 and two of them are former World Cup winners. GM Peter Svidler, who won 10 years ago in Khanty-Mansiysk, beat his former second and fellow townsman in St. Petersburg GM Nikita Vitiugov, who played an interesting novelty in the Sicilian that was played the day before in Carlsen-Wojtaszek.
In 2015, Svidler lost a dramatic World Cup final to GM Sergey Karjakin, who went on to win the 2016 Candidates and qualify for a world title match with Carlsen. Karjakin knocked out GM Vladislav Artemiev, despite starting with a loss in the first rapid game. After coming back, he won a nice endgame in the first 10+10:
Another former World Cup finalist from Russia didn’t make it to the next round. Andreikin surprisingly lost both games to the revelation of the tournament so far, Ilic. As was pointed out on Twitter, this player’s full name reminds of another, quite famous Serbian grandmaster: GM Dragoljub Velimirovic.
Wait, Velimir Ivic is his full name? I thought everyone was just calling him by his last name, Velimirivic!
— Kostya Kavutskiy (@hellokostya) July 24, 2021
After spoiling a win the other day, Ivic immediately made up for it by winning the first rapid game. The final phase was quite exciting in time trouble where Andreikin continued playing a queen down because there were some stalemate ideas:
Annotations by GM Dejan Bojkov will be added soon.
A very fighting match was GM Vasif Durarbayli vs. GM Nodirbek Abdusattorov, who played a total of six games against each other and drew none. It was Abdusattorov who took the lead in the rapid games, but Durarbayli came back and then won both 10+10 games.
Here’s Durarbayli’s must-win in the second 25+10 game:
Results round 4 tiebreaks
| Fed | Player | Rtg | – | Fed | Player | Rtg | G1 | G2 | TB |
| GM Carlsen, Magnus | 2847 | – | GM Wojtaszek, Radoslaw | 2691 | ½-½ | ½-½ | 1½-½ | ||
| GM Grischuk, Alexander | 2778 | – | GM Korobov, Anton | 2683 | ½-½ | ½-½ | 1½-½ | ||
| GM Karjakin, Sergey | 2757 | – | GM Artemiev, Vladislav | 2704 | ½-½ | ½-½ | 2½-1½ | ||
| GM Andreikin, Dmitry | 2724 | – | GM Ivic, Velimir | 2582 | ½-½ | ½-½ | 0-2 | ||
| GM Vitiugov, Nikita | 2724 | – | GM Svidler, Peter | 2714 | ½-½ | ½-½ | ½-1½ | ||
| GM Esipenko, Andrey | 2716 | – | GM Dubov, Daniil | 2714 | ½-½ | ½-½ | 2½-1½ | ||
| GM Bacrot, Etienne | 2678 | – | GM Ponkratov, Pavel | 2629 | 1-0 | 0-1 | 1½-½ | ||
| GM Durarbayli, Vasif | 2625 | – | GM Abdusattorov, Nodirbek | 2634 | 1-0 | 0-1 | 3-1 |
The 8 players to reach the quarterfinals of the FIDE World Cup will earn the right to participate in the 2022 FIDE Grand Prix Series, taking another shot at the qualification for the Candidates tournament.
More about the Grand Prix series: https://t.co/V9cXGBQqE6#GrandPrixFIDE
— International Chess Federation (@FIDE_chess) July 24, 2021
There were no surprises in the women’s tournament, where three clear rating favorites won convincingly and a very close match rating-wise, between IMs Alina Kashlinskaya and IM Dinara Saduakassova, was won by the Kazakh player.
Another player from Kazakhstan, the talented 17-year-old IM Bibisara Assaubayeva, leaves the World Cup after losing to GM Kateryna Lagno. This match was decided in the first rapid game, where shortly before the end Assaubayeva missed a chance to play for stalemate and continue the game.
Results round 4 tiebreaks
| Fed | Player | Rating | Fed | Player | Rating | G1 | G2 | TB | |
| GM Goryachkina, Aleksandra | 2596 | – | GM Stefanova, Antoaneta | 2463 | 0-1 | 1-0 | 2-0 | ||
| GM Lagno, Kateryna | 2559 | – | IM Assaubayeva, Bibisara | 2389 | ½-½ | ½-½ | 1½-½ | ||
| GM Dzagnidze, Nana | 2523 | – | IM Shuvalova, Polina | 2489 | 0-1 | 1-0 | 2½-1½ | ||
| IM Kashlinskaya, Alina | 2488 | – | IM Saduakassova, Dinara | 2483 | ½-½ | ½-½ | 1-3 |
The FIDE World Cup takes place in the Galaxy Leisure Complex in Sochi, Russia, until August 6, 2021. Each round consists of two classical games and, if necessary, a rapid/blitz tiebreak on the third day. The Open section began round two with 128 players and the women’s section, 64.
Previous reports:
