He was the only player who made it to the final 16 in all eight FIDE World Cups since 2005, won it in 2011, and reached the final in 2015. This year, the fifth round was the final station for Svidler.

Shankland had played two World Cups but never got further than the second round. This year, the 29-year-old GM from Berkeley, California made it to the final eight players.

QUARTERFINALS HO!

— Sam Shankland (@GMShanky) July 26, 2021

“I was sort of torn, because I was in some way unhappy to play with him, just because, as opposed to other players of his level, in practice he’s a guy who is very hard to actually beat,” said Shankland. “But I was also happy to play with him because he just doesn’t play boring chess approximately ever. I was looking forward to playing some fun games.”

The second game was definitely fun for him because he won it, but also because it was quite sharp. Part of that was because of his third move, h2-h4. In an attempt to avoid the most targeted preparation, Svidler did not play the move 4…Nc6, which he recommends in his latest course on the Grunfeld, but instead steered into direct King’s Indian waters.

Shankland lost his opening advantage at some point, but on move 24 Svidler made a big mistake, when Shankland calculated accurately and found the refutation. He’ll play either GM Maxime Vachier-Lagrave or GM Sergey Karjakin next, who drew their second game in just six minutes to go straight to tiebreaks.

“They’re both tremendous rapid players up to the point where they might be more dangerous in the rapid than in classical,” said Shankland.

The other player who can get the popcorn ready and watch the tiebreaks from his hotel room is Vidit. The Indian grandmaster won his black game vs. Durarbayli, whose light-squared bishop got horribly side-lined in a Ruy Lopez and his pressure on Black’s backward d6-pawn did not provide enough counterplay. 

#FIDEWorldCup is over me. Very interesting and tense games happened. I gained a lot of experience. I will keep learning!
I appreciate everyone’s support! It was great to hear from many people. I wish success to my opponent @viditchess in the next rounds.

— Vasif Durarbayli (@durarbayli) July 26, 2021

Incidentally, this means we already know two participants of the 2022 FIDE Grand Prix. A total of 24 players will be playing in it, including the top-eight finishers of this FIDE World Cup.

By advancing to the quarterfinals of the FIDE World Cup, Vidit Gujrathi 🇮🇳 and Sam Shankland 🇺🇸 booked their places in the 2022 FIDE Grand Prix Series.

But if they reach the #FIDEWorldCup final, then instead of the Grand Prix they’ll qualify directly for the Candidates! pic.twitter.com/unMnUhJqxR

— International Chess Federation (@FIDE_chess) July 26, 2021

GM Haik Martirosyan, one of the young and upcoming grandmasters in this World Cup, got very close to booking a direct ticket to the quarterfinals as well. Like Durarbayli, he had a terrible minor piece (a knight, in his case) in his game with GM Amin Tabatabaei where he only needed a draw. Ironically, he shouldn’t have traded that knight:

GM Velimir Ivic’s fairy-tale tournament is still alive as he also held the draw in game two vs. GM Vladimir Fedoseev. It’s always nice to see the Zaitsev variation of the Ruy Lopez as it reminds of some of the most brilliant Ruy Lopez games in world championship history between GM Garry Kasparov and GM Anatoly Karpov.

The game between GM Jan-Krzysztof Duda and GM Alexander Grischuk was quite sharp and ended a bit similar as their first game with White giving a perpetual check on the black king:

Not mentioned were the games Esipenko-Carlsen and Piorun-Bacrot, where no player got a significant advantage and the draws were agreed before the time control. This means we’ll have six tiebreak matches in the open section on Tuesday.

Results round of 16

Fed	Player	Rtg	–	Fed	Player	Rtg	G1	G2	TB
	GM Carlsen, Magnus	2847	–		GM Esipenko, Andrey	2716	½-½	½-½	.
	GM Grischuk, Alexander	2778	–		GM Duda, Jan-Krzysztof	2738	½-½	½-½	.
	GM Karjakin, Sergey	2757	–		GM Vachier-Lagrave, Maxime	2749	½-½	½-½	.
	GM Vidit, Santosh Gujrathi	2726	–		GM Durarbayli, Vasif	2625	½-½	1-0	.
	GM Svidler, Peter	2714	–		GM Shankland, Sam	2709	½-½	0-1	.
	GM Fedoseev, Vladimir	2696	–		GM Ivic, Velimir	2582	½-½	½-½	.
	GM Bacrot, Etienne	2678	–		GM Piorun, Kacper	2608	½-½	½-½	.
	GM Haik Martirosyan	2632	–		GM Tabatabaei, M. Amin	2613	1-0	0-1	.

The women’s tournament will only see one tiebreak as GM Anna Muzychuk and GM Nana Dzagnidze drew both their classical games.

Second seed Lagno did not survive the quarterfinals as she went down against former women’s world champion Tan, who found a fantastic pawn sacrifice in the endgame:

Gunina had to win on demand vs. Kosteniuk but never really got close to an advantage until she ended up losing again. Goryachkina had an easy day at the office as Saduakassova blundered a tactic as early as move 22: 

Results quarterfinals

Fed	Player	Rating		Fed	Player	Rating	G1	G2	TB
	GM Goryachkina, Aleksandra	2596	–		IM Saduakassova, Dinara	2483	½-½	1-0	.
	GM Lagno, Kateryna	2559	–		GM Tan, Zhongyi	2511	½-½	0-1	.
	GM Muzychuk, Anna	2527	–		GM Dzagnidze, Nana	2523	½-½	½-½	.
	GM Kosteniuk, Alexandra	2472	–		GM Gunina, Valentina	2437	1-0	1-0	.

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.

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Previous reports:

• FIDE World Cup R5.1: Kosteniuk, Martirosyan Only Winners
• FIDE World Cup R4.3: Carlsen, Ivic Among Final 16
• FIDE World Cup R4.2: Dzagnidze, Goryachkina Force Tiebreaks; Harikrishna Out
• FIDE World Cup R4.1: Goryachkina, Harikrishna Among 10 Players In Danger Zone
• FIDE World Cup R3.3: Giri, Mamedyarov Out; MVL Survives In Armageddon
• FIDE World Cup R3.2: Caruana Knocked Out
• FIDE World Cup R3.1: Dzagnidze, Mamedyarov, Yu In Trouble
• FIDE World Cup R2.3: Dominguez, Firouzja Out On Wild Armageddon Day
• FIDE World Cup R2.2: Nihal, Praggnanandhaa Among Qualifiers For Round 3
• FIDE World Cup R2.1: Covid-19 Hits, Aronian Withdraws
• FIDE Worlc Cup R1.3: 14-Year-Old Murzin Through
• FIDE World Cup R1.2: 28 Matches Go To Tiebreaks
• FIDE World Cup R1.1: Chilean Brilliance