“Somehow I managed in a completely crazy game,” Karjakin started his interview after beating Shankland. The now 31-year-old Russian player, who recently lost his record of youngest-ever GM, hasn’t lost his ability for making comebacks.

World Cup history has shown that one should never write off Karjakin. Most of us will remember his 2015 final, where he was 0-2 down after two classical games with GM Peter Svidler, came back, then was 1-2 down in the rapid, again came back and ended up winning.

Shankland knew this of course, but couldn’t avoid losing his black game after his splendid victory with the white pieces. It was the first loss for the American player in the tournament. Karjakin had won on-demand before in this World Cup as well, in the rapid segment of his match with GM Vladislav Artemiev.

Sergey Karjakin is an absolute legend. The amount of times this man has won on demand is insane. #FIDEWorldCup

— Benjamin Bok (@benjamin_bok) July 29, 2021

The first surprise came from Shankland, who had played the Sicilian three times in Sochi but switched to the French for a game where he only needed a draw. After two and a half minutes of thought, Karjakin decided to surprise his opponent as well and played 2.d3, the prelude to the King’s Indian Attack.

Half a century after a young GM Bobby Fischer played it a few times and with success, Black’s best defense schemes have been worked out and the system has lost its punch from a theoretical perspective. However, when facing it unprepared it can still be tricky.

Shankland’s early push of the a-pawn was rare, but eventually just a transposition into the mainline. The typical scenario ensued, with attacks on opposite sides, in this game with a target (or “hook”) for both White (pawn h6) and Black (pawn a3).

White often tries to sacrifice a piece on h6 in such cases, but if Black is prepared for it they’re usually OK. Instead, Karjakin went for the slower plan of preparing g4-g5.

“I felt like it’s very interesting and also if you have to win you don’t really have a choice, you have to do something like this,” said Karjakin. “Maybe objectively, he was completely fine, I believe, but at the same time in a practical game, he blundered once, and then he was just lost. It means the position was very tense.”

At some point during the game, commentating GM Ben Finegold quoted Fischer and that turned out to be prophetic: “The kingside attack usually beats the queenside attack. Mate is more important!”

Karjakin got to deliver checkmate indeed as Shankland graciously allowed it to be executed at the board—pure class from the American grandmaster.

Learn a young Bobby Fischer’s pet system Learn to play the King’s Indian Attack in GM Dejan Bojkov‘s recently published Lesson series!

The Karjakin-Shankland match is the only one that will go to tiebreaks. The winner will be facing Fedoseev in the semifinals, who managed to trick Tabatabaei deep in the endgame.

In a very drawish endgame, the 26-year-old-grandmaster from St. Petersburg decided to continue playing as he was enjoying more active pieces and a better pawn structure. Despite these minimal advantages, he was not expected to convert this endgame until the 20-year-old Iranian player suddenly fell into a trap.

When Tabatabaei grabbed the poisoned pawn on g3, a fist-pumping Fedoseev might have forgotten for a moment that he wasn’t playing online:

A curious moment at the #FIDEWorldCup yesterday: Vladimir Fedoseev fist pumped when Amin Tabatabaei fell for his trap. Thoughts? 🤔 💪 pic.twitter.com/ONAQhx7dH7

— Chess.com (@chesscom) July 30, 2021

“Maybe this was on camera; I really couldn’t believe that this happened,” said Fedoseev, who joined Chess.com’s Russian broadcast afterward where he said that Tabatabaei wasn’t offended by it.

The other semifinal is set and will be played between Duda and Carlsen. It was never really in doubt that the world champion would move on to the next round, especially when he got a rock-solid position out of the opening.

Despite that, Carlsen thought Bacrot’s opening was a good choice since the Frenchman got a comfortable position, using a setup Carlsen himself had played as Black as well. “I think I responded kind of meekly and I was a little bit worse, for sure,” said Carlsen.

After lots of little maneuvering from both sides, Bacrot went wrong on move 31. He took a pawn, expecting a trade, but Carlsen played a knight move instead.

“I’m almost completely sure he missed 32.Ne7,” said Carlsen, who could start playing for two results from that moment: “I felt I was already playing with house money then.”

Realizing what was going on, Bacrot offered a draw as a way of resigning the match, but his opponent declined. “It was a bit too late maybe, for that,” smiled Carlsen. “I understand that I win the match by accepting but I thought my position was just too winning.” 

For the fourth time in this tournament, Carlsen will be facing an opponent that’s younger than him. Duda was already the first Polish player in World Cup history to make it to the quarterfinals (GM Radoslaw Wojtaszek made it to the round of 16 in 2015) and now the 23-year-old player from Wieliczka even made it to the semis.

A fun fact revealed by Duda was that he actually missed his normal means of transportation to the venue (perhaps because of preparing until the last moment before leaving the hotel room?) and instead “hitchhiked” together with the Carlsen family.

Kudos to @MagnusCarlsen for giving me a help/ride today!
It’s his contribution to my todays win 😉
In return we will spend together at least Sunday and Monday.#DudaDziękuje pic.twitter.com/Jt7pM1ROEA

— Jan-Krzysztof Duda (@GM_JKDuda) July 29, 2021

His game with Vidit indeed needed lots of preparation as it saw a highly topical line in the Moller defense of the Ruy Lopez, which Vidit had also played in the previous round in a game where he beat GM Vasif Durarbayli. Duda afterward said that he wanted to “play something else” and actually intended to make a draw. In the official broadcast, he showed an amazing variation and if Vidit had known it, the draw would have been agreed quickly.

Position after 20.Kg1.

Here, Duda wanted to test Vidit in the line 20… O-O 21. Nxf7 Qe7 22. Nd2 and now Black needs to find the remarkable sequence 22…d5! 23. Qxg2 Qe3+ 24. Kh1

24…Kxf7! and it’s equal. As people in the early days of the internet used to say, “w00t!”

Vidit, however, played 20…Qf6 instead and so an endgame was reached where White has a knight for three pawns. Black should be OK there as well, but at the same time, it’s White who is playing for two results.

Vidit wasn’t even playing it badly actually. His rook check on move 32, ruthlessly criticized by the engines, looked very natural but it was Duda’s brilliant king move to h1 followed by first playing the rook to a1 before taking on a6 that revealed why it was wrong.

“I’m very happy with my play here,” Duda said after his win. “I think it’s just the best tournament in my entire life!”

That was four wins for White in the open section and three players moving on to the semifinals straight away. They will have two rest days: the tiebreak day (with only Karjakin-Shankland on the program) and the scheduled final rest day that follows.

Carlsen was one to emphasize the importance of those two free days:

“First of all, I desperately need them. I think everybody needs them. Now I’ve played eight days in a row and I could really feel it today, that I had zero energy. I intend to go for a hike in the mountains, try and relax and be glad for two things: that I don’t have to play for a couple of days and most of all that I’m still in the tournament. And now, I also know I will be here till the end, regardless! Might as well try and win it.”

Carlsen was referring to the fact that the two players who will lose the semifinals will be playing a match for third place alongside the final. And don’t forget that the top two players in this World Cup not named Carlsen will be qualifying directly for the 2022 Candidates, adding to the importance of Duda and Fedoseev’s victories.

Quarterfinals | Results

The four remaining women already enjoyed their last rest day on Wednesday and started their semifinals on Friday. Both games ended in draws.

That result must have been a big disappointment for GM Anna Muzychuk, who failed to convert a technically winning endgame against GM Aleksandra Goryachkina. The engine evaluations, however, don’t reveal that this endgame was not so easy to win in a practical game and Goryachkina put up some great defense:

Semifinals | Results

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:

• FIDE World Cup R6.1: Carlsen, Shankland Strike
• FIDE World Cup R5.3: Carlsen Beats Esipenko In Epic Tiebreak
• FIDE World Cup R5.2: Shankland, Vidit Through
• 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 World 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