Grischuk and Ivanchuk reach Semi-Finals after World Cup Playoff

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FIDE World Cup Khanty Mansiysk 2011 (5 Playoff)

Grischuk and Ivanchuk reach Semi-Finals after World Cup Playoff

Mark Crowther - Sunday 11th September 2011

Ivanchuk eventually eliminated Radjabov winning their 2nd playoff rapid game. Photo ©

Ivanchuk eventually eliminated Radjabov winning their 2nd playoff rapid game. Photo © | http://chess.ugrasport.com

The World Cup Quarter Finals were completed by two rapid matches on Sunday. Alexander Grischuk exploited an early error by David Navara as white to win the first game of their playoffs and eventually drew the second. Vassily Ivanchuk held a lengthy ending against Teimour Radjabov in game one as black before torturing him with a small advantage until he won in 54 moves in the second. The semi-final pairings are Peter Svidler vs Ruslan Ponomariov and Vassily Ivanchuk against Alexander Grischuk, Oddly if you replace Grischuk with Anand these are the same pairings as the 2001-2 FIDE World Championships held using the same format. Not much has changed in a decade! The players stay until the end now as there are three Candidates places available so a 3rd-4th playoff is required. I'm assuming this playoff is the same format as the final.

Ivanchuk 1.5-0.5 Radjabov

Vassily Ivanchuk beat Teimour Radjabov in 2nd Rapid Game to go through. Photo © FIDE World Cup Khanty Mansiysk 2011 Website

Vassily Ivanchuk went through 2.5-1.5 against Teimour Radjabov requiring just the rapid games to do so.

Game 1: Rajdabov-Ivanchuk was a complex Symmetrical English with chances for both sides for a long time. Ivanchuk gave up the exchange and eventually this turned out to be favourable to Radjabov. On move 39 (see below) Ivanchuk had 6 minutes 14 seconds and Rajdabov 2 minutes. Radjabov invested most of his remaining time on 40.d6 leaving him with 31 seconds and the increment of 10 seconds to play the remaining moves and this aided Ivanchuk's defence immensely. The R+P vs R+B ending seems to be totally drawn and were handled well for Ivanchuk on the defending side. Radjabov gave up trying to win R vs B on move 120.

Vassily Ivanchuk

Teimour Radjabov

Position after 39...f6, Radjabov seemed to take forever deciding on 40.d6.

Game 2: A Fianchetto Gruenfeld where Ivanchuk played for the exploitation of the minimal advantage of doubled b-pawns and an offside knight on the queen-side. Ivanchuk played this nicely consistantly causing Radjabov problems until pressure and time trouble caused his position to collapse. On the whole it was a great lesson by Ivanchuk on how to play a position where your opponent is reduced to passivity and there is play on both sides of the board.

Ivanchuk,Vassily (2768) - Radjabov,Teimour (2744) [D78]
FIDE World Cup 2011 Khanty-Mansiysk RUS (5.4), 11.09.2011

1.g3 g6 2.Bg2 Bg7 3.d4 d5 4.Nf3 Nf6 5.0-0 0-0 6.c4 c6 7.Qb3 Qb6 8.Nc3 Rd8 9.Rd1 Bf5 10.Ne1 Na6

[10...Be6 11.c5 Qxb3 12.axb3 Nbd7 13.b4 a6 14.h3 h6 15.Ra3 Ne8 16.g4 Nc7 17.Be3 g5 18.f4 gxf4 19.Bxf4 Nb5 20.Nxb5 axb5 21.Ra5 f5 22.g5 hxg5 23.Bxg5 Nf6 24.Nf3 Rxa5 25.bxa5 Ra8 26.Ra1 Kf8 27.e3 Ne4 28.Bf4 Bf7 29.b4 Bh5 30.Ne5 Bxe5 31.Bxe5 Kf7 32.Kh2 Rg8 33.a6 bxa6 34.Rxa6 Nd2 35.Ra2 Nf3+ 36.Bxf3 Bxf3 37.Bg3 Be4 38.h4 Kg6 39.Bf4 Kh5 40.Bg5 Kg4 41.Kg1 Kf3 42.Kf1 f4 43.Ra3 fxe3 44.Rxe3+ Kg4 45.Ra3 Rf8+ 46.Ke2 Rf3 47.Rxf3 Bxf3+ 48.Ke3 1/2-1/2 Anic,D (2487)-Nataf,I (2526)/Vichy FRA 2000]

11.Qxb6 axb6 12.cxd5 Nxd5 13.Nxd5 cxd5 14.a3 Rac8 15.Bg5 Kf8 16.Rac1 Rxc1 17.Bxc1 Nc7 18.e3 Bd7 19.Bd2 e6 20.Nd3 Bb5 21.Rc1 Na6 22.Bf1 Ke8 23.b3 Bd7 24.Ne5 Bxe5 25.dxe5 Nc5 26.Rb1 Rc8 27.f3 Na6 28.Rb2 Nc5 29.a4 Na6 30.Kf2 Ke7 31.e4 dxe4 32.Bg5+ Ke8 33.fxe4 Nc5 34.Ke3 Bc6 35.Bg2 Rc7 36.b4!

Teimour Radjabov

Vassily Ivanchuk

Position after 36.b4! This leads to the continued side-lining of the knight.

36...Nxa4 37.Rc2 b5 38.Bf1 Nb6 39.Bxb5 Rc8 40.Bd3 Bd7 41.Ra2?

Of course white doesn't swap rooks. He has plans for it down the h-file.

41...Na4

[41...Ra8 insisting on the exchange would either activate the rook or get the exchange, both times relieving the defence.]

42.Kd4 b5 43.g4 Rc7 44.h4 Kf8 45.h5 Be8 46.Rh2 Rd7+ 47.Ke3 Rc7 48.Bd8 Rd7 49.Ba5 Rb7 50.Kf4 Kg7 51.Rc2 Bd7 52.Bd8

White now breaks through whatever but black's next accelerates things.

52...Nb6 53.hxg6! fxg6

The worst of the three recaptures but nothing is to be done anyhow.

54.Bxb6 1-0

Grischuk 1.5-0.5

Alexander Grischuk won convincingly in the first game against David Navara. Photo © FIDE World Cup Khanty Mansiysk 2011 Website

Alexander Grischuk after surviving a lost position the previous day (he admitted at the press conference that he started thinking about what he had to do to go home, including changing his flight ticket) went through against David Navara in the rapid playoffs 1.5-0.5.

Game 1: Navara-Grischuk. Navara seems at all costs to avoid time trouble and so plays these rapids at almost blitz pace. This has proved very successful in previous rounds as it puts a lot of pressure on his opponents. But today he didn't spend enough time and made a very bad blunder just out of the opening as white in a Caro-Kann and he could either take a very bad ending a pawn down or do what he did which was go for complications which ended very quickly with a position without any defensive possibilities. Grischuk took his time but made no mistake in converting.

Navara,David (2722) - Grischuk,Alexander (2746) [B12]
FIDE World Cup 2011 Khanty-Mansiysk RUS (5.3), 11.09.2011

1.e4 c6 2.d4 d5 3.e5 Bf5 4.Nd2 e6 5.Nb3 Nd7 6.Nf3 a6 7.Be3 Rc8 8.c3 c5 9.dxc5 Bxc5

[9...Nxc5 10.Nfd4 Bg6 11.Be2 Nh6 12.h4 Nxb3 13.axb3 Bc5 14.h5 Bf5 15.Bxh6 gxh6 16.g4 Bxd4 17.Qxd4 Bc2 18.Ra3 Qg5 19.Qd2 d4 20.Qxc2 dxc3 21.bxc3 0-0 22.0-0 Qxe5 23.c4 Rfd8 24.b4 Rd4 25.Re3 Qg5 26.Rd1 Rf4 27.Qd2 Qf6 28.Rd3 Kg7 29.Rd4 Rxf2 30.Qe3 1-0 Jakovenko,D (2725)-Eljanov,P (2751)/Odessa UKR 2010/The Week in Chess 812]

10.Nxc5 Nxc5 11.Be2 Ne7 12.Nh4 h6 13.Nxf5 Nxf5 14.Bxc5 Rxc5 15.Bd3?

Alexander Grischuk

David Navara

Position after 15.Bd3?

Effectively costing Navara the match.

[15.0-0; 15.Qa4+ Qd7 16.Qxd7+ Kxd7 17.f4 f6 18.0-0 Rcc8]

15...d4! 16.Qa4+

[16.0-0 dxc3 17.Bxf5 exf5 18.bxc3 0-0 accepting the lost pawn was another way to try and defend.]

16...b5 17.Qxa6 Rxe5+ 18.Kf1 0-0 19.Bxb5 dxc3 20.bxc3 Qd2

Navara is completely busted. Quite rightly Grischuk took his time but it is all over for this game.

21.Be2 Qxc3 22.Re1 Rd8 23.h4 Ng3+ 24.fxg3 Rf5+ 25.Kg1 Qxe1+ 26.Kh2 Qa5 27.Qc4 Qc5 28.Qb3 Rf2 29.Bf3 Qc2 30.Qb6 Rf8 31.Be4 Qxa2 32.Rd1 Rd2 33.Rf1 Qb2 34.Qc5 Rdd8 35.Qe7 Qd4 36.Bb1 Qd6 37.Qb7 Rb8 38.Qe4 f5 39.Qe3 Rb4 40.Kh3 Kh8 41.Ba2 Re4 42.Qf3 Qe5 43.Qa3 Rb8 0-1

Game 2. Grischuk-Navara. There isn't much to be done when you're black in a must win situation as you need the co-operation of your opponent. Navara chose to play proper chess and hope something turned up. Grischuk was critical of his own play in the game as he ended up a pawn down in a Queen Knight and Pawns ending but the defence was not too hard for him eventually.

FIDE World Cup 2011 Khanty-Mansiysk RUS Sun 28th Aug 2011 - Tue 20th Sep 2011 Round 5 Results
Name	FED	G1	G2	R1	R2	B1	B2	B3	B4	SD	Tot
Round 5 Match 01
Svidler, Peter	RUS	½	1								1.5
Polgar, Judit	HUN	½	0								0.5
Round 5 Match 02
Ivanchuk, Vassily	UKR	1	0	½	1						2.5
Radjabov, Teimour	AZE	0	1	½	0						1.5
Round 5 Match 03
Grischuk, Alexander	RUS	½	½	1	½						2.5
Navara, David	CZE	½	½	0	½						1.5
Round 5 Match 04
Ponomariov, Ruslan	UKR	½	1								1.5
Gashimov, Vugar	AZE	½	0								0.5

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