SundayChessTV
GM Pentala Harikrishna was the highest-rated player to leave the FIDE World Cup on Friday after failing to level the score vs. GM Amin Tabatabaei. GM Magnus Carlsen and GM Radoslaw Wojtaszek played another tense draw and will go to tiebreaks along with six other matches.
In the women’s section, both GM Aleksandra Goryachkina and GM Nana Dzagnidze managed to come back after a loss. In a match between two former world champions, GM Alexandra Kosteniuk eliminated GM Mariya Muzychuk.
Eight Indian players had traveled to Sochi for the open section of the FIDE World Cup. After the second day of round four, only one of them is still in the tournament. GM Vidit Gujrathi left GM Jeffery Xiong without a chance in the second game, as he found two difficult moves in this critical position, with Xiong needing win:
The other Indian grandmaster still playing was Harikrishna, who suffered an upset defeat in the first game. He seemed to be getting pretty close to winning with the white pieces but even though Tabatabaei was down a pawn for most of the endgame, it might have been a draw all along:
GM Haik Martirosyan, GM Kacper Piorun, and GM Sam Shankland also drew their second game to reach round five. Only two players managed to level the score: GM Nodirbek Abdusattorov and GM Pavel Ponkratov.
Abdusattorov won an endgame vs. GM Vasif Durarbayli in textbook style, where he quietly played against White’s worse pawn structure:
Ponkratov’s win was quite different. After their great game the other day, he and GM Etienne Bacrot again played a very sharp battle where the French GM was initially OK out of the opening:
The FIDE World Cup said goodbye to one of its youngest participants at the start. The 15-year-old GM Praggnanandhaa R. initially was well prepared in a sharp but also very theoretical Four Knights Sicilian but GM Maxime Vachier-Lagrave had looked into it even deeper. The Frenchman came up with a very strong positional queen sacrifice and it was hard to defend after that:
The Iranian GM Pouya Idani had a good run, but GM Jan-Krzysztof Duda was just too strong on Friday. The Polish GM slowly but surely outplayed his opponent in a Petroff middlegame:
Six matches saw two draws in both classical games. We’re picking two very interesting games from those, starting with the world champion.
After catching his opponent slightly off-guard in the opening, Carlsen got a promising attacking position, especially after Wojtaszek accepted a pawn sacrifice. Like the day before, Carlsen was winning at some point but failed to convert.
At some point, he was two pawns down and in serious time-trouble but on the board he had things under control. On a positive note, by drawing this game and reaching the tiebreaks, Carlsen already slightly improved upon his run at the 2017 World Cup.
The other draw that shouldn’t be missed was GM Velimir Ivic vs. GM Dmitry Andreikin. Ivic, an 18-year-old grandmaster from Serbia, played an excellent game and reached a winning attack, but then couldn’t find his way out of the checks:
Results round 4
| Fed | Player | Rtg | – | Fed | Player | Rtg | G1 | G2 | TB |
| GM Carlsen, Magnus | 2847 | – | GM Wojtaszek, Radoslaw | 2691 | ½-½ | ½-½ | . | ||
| GM Grischuk, Alexander | 2778 | – | GM Korobov, Anton | 2683 | ½-½ | ½-½ | . | ||
| GM Karjakin, Sergey | 2757 | – | GM Artemiev, Vladislav | 2704 | ½-½ | ½-½ | . | ||
| GM Vachier-Lagrave, Maxime | 2749 | – | GM Praggnanandhaa, R | 2608 | ½-½ | 1-0 | . | ||
| GM Duda, Jan-Krzysztof | 2738 | – | GM Idani, Pouya | 2614 | ½-½ | 1-0 | . | ||
| GM Harikrishna, Pentala | 2730 | – | GM Tabatabaei, M. Amin | 2613 | 0-1 | ½-½ | . | ||
| GM Vidit, Santosh Gujrathi | 2726 | – | GM Xiong, Jeffery | 2709 | 1-0 | 1-0 | . | ||
| GM Andreikin, Dmitry | 2724 | – | GM Ivic, Velimir | 2582 | ½-½ | ½-½ | . | ||
| GM Vitiugov, Nikita | 2724 | – | GM Svidler, Peter | 2714 | ½-½ | ½-½ | . | ||
| GM Esipenko, Andrey | 2716 | – | GM Dubov, Daniil | 2714 | ½-½ | ½-½ | . | ||
| GM Shankland, Sam | 2709 | – | GM Jumabayev, Rinat | 2637 | 1-0 | ½-½ | . | ||
| GM Fedoseev, Vladimir | 2696 | – | GM Kovalev, Vladislav | 2637 | 1-0 | 1-0 | . | ||
| GM Bacrot, Etienne | 2678 | – | GM Ponkratov, Pavel | 2629 | 1-0 | 0-1 | . | ||
| GM Haik Martirosyan | 2632 | – | GM Brkic, Ante | 2592 | 1-0 | ½-½ | . | ||
| GM Durarbayli, Vasif | 2625 | – | GM Abdusattorov, Nodirbek | 2634 | 1-0 | ½-½ | . | ||
| GM Piorun, Kacper | 2608 | – | GM Sindarov, Javokhir | 2558 | 1-0 | ½-½ | . |
In the women’s tournament, four out of eight matches will be decided in Saturday’s tiebreaks. The four players who can enjoy a rest day are GM Valentina Gunina, GM Anna Muzychuk as well as former women’s world champions GM Tan Zhongyi and GM Alexandra Kosteniuk. The latter won a very nice game against another former women’s world champion:
Goryachkina and Dzagnidze survived the scare of the first day as they both beat their opponents convincingly with kingside attacks. Dzagnidze only needed 27 moves to force tiebreaks:
Results round 4
| Fed | Player | Rating | Fed | Player | Rating | G1 | G2 | TB | |
| GM Goryachkina, Aleksandra | 2596 | – | GM Stefanova, Antoaneta | 2463 | 0-1 | 1-0 | . | ||
| GM Lagno, Kateryna | 2559 | – | IM Assaubayeva, Bibisara | 2389 | ½-½ | ½-½ | . | ||
| GM Muzychuk, Mariya | 2550 | – | GM Kosteniuk, Alexandra | 2472 | ½-½ | 0-1 | . | ||
| GM Muzychuk, Anna | 2527 | – | IM Paehtz, Elisabeth | 2466 | ½-½ | 1-0 | . | ||
| GM Dzagnidze, Nana | 2523 | – | IM Shuvalova, Polina | 2489 | 0-1 | 1-0 | . | ||
| GM Tan, Zhongyi | 2511 | – | IM Khademalsharieh, Sarasadat | 2494 | ½-½ | 1-0 | . | ||
| IM Kashlinskaya, Alina | 2488 | – | IM Saduakassova, Dinara | 2483 | ½-½ | ½-½ | . | ||
| GM Batsiashvili, Nino | 2487 | – | GM Gunina, Valentina | 2437 | ½-½ | 0-1 | . |
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:
