The Week in Chess

Home » Chess News » Events » FIDE World Cup Khanty-Mansiysk 2011 » Svidler and Ponomariov through, Rajdabov and Grischuk survive in World Cup Quarter Final

Judit Polgar - Peter Svidler

Peter Svidler against Judit Polgar. Judit resigns. Photo © FIDE World Cup Khanty Mansiysk 2011 Website

Peter Svidler defeated Judit Polgar with black in game two of their match to progress to the next round. Polgar had to sacrifice a pawn as white in the Sicilian for which she got full compensation. She thought she had a fantastic position, Svidler thought, especially after the first set of rooks were exchanged, that black was equal. Polgar's optimism continued when she turned down an implicit draw offer from Svidler and very quickly her position deteriorated and she was totally lost at the first time control.

Judit Polgar in the Press Conference.

It seems to me nothing is working for me, my luck was not with me, definitely.

The first surprise I got yesterday when I got the the board was the news I that I play with black!

Because actually I just was not aware of the rule that I beat Karjakin and then I'm taking his number and that's how I changed the colours. So it was kind of stupidity but OK I handled it pretty well in about 4 minutes I got my preparation and it was perfectly fine.

Game 2, I guess Peter chose the Sicilian because he knew I was preparing yesterday with white so he wanted to really suprise me.

But I have the feeling that probably during the game he regretted it because I had a fantastic position at some point. And then somehow, move 36, just by playing Rd5 I offered a draw, because I gave up, it's clear that I cannot improve my position and then Peter took his chances, played e4, I think after e4 I should be able to hold the position but somehow it changed very quickly, I had seconds left, and everything worked out fine for black.

Generally this system is a minefield, and eventually I stepped on one of them!

Peter Svidler against Judit Polgar. Photo © FIDE World Cup Khanty Mansiysk 2011 Website

Peter Svidler at the Press Conference

The first game I managed my usual opening preparation trick. I checked d7d5 in every position except the position I should have checked it in. After which the game was just completely dead. I pretty much offere a draw by playing Qc2 on move 15. I felt slightly stupid after that.

The choice of Sicilian for today was really a surprise as such. It's just that basically I thought after yesterday I was really looking for some kind of a fight. Because I could play 1.e4 e5 and we would get some kind of a boring theoretical position and OK draw is perhaps favourite. I just felt that I should play, not for a win as such but for a full-blooded fight. Because Judit is a very insteresting player and it's kind of fun to play against her and I thought I should keep the same mentalitiy I had in my match against Kamsky where I was just looking to play without knowing very much about what's going on.

Yes my position looked very dangerous at one point. But I think actually somewhere around, maybe Rc8 is not very precise, I was thinking about g6 at this point, which is an interesting idea just to play g6, Bg7. Because If I finish development and don't die in the process I should by very, very comfortable in this position. Perhaps Rc8 was just too slow. And then I wasn't very happy with how I played.

We had this position where of course white has full compensation for the pawn and I was tring to defend it somehow. But once one pair of rooks get exchanged I think black is fine and there was a moment where Judit played Qe2 and I played Rf8-a8 and she could just go Qh5 and there is nothing else but Rf8 and the game just ends in a draw immediately. I thought this was objectively how the game should finish because with only three pieces on the board I don't think my king is all that uncomfortable on e7 and I do have an extra pawn. Once Judit didn't do that, I mean I'm not saying I'm already better but I started thinking about someways of maybe... even giving up the e5 pawn, to put the rook on the e-file and trying to play against the king because the King on h1 if the e-pawn disappears, will not be very safe either. Two moves in a row starting with Qh5 move 35 I think already was a slight mistake because after Kf8 I have now threats of a5-a4 and then after Rd5 I declined the draw offer because I thought after e4, perhaps the computer shows how white should hold but I thought I'm no longer risking anything and I could be better. And perhaps Judit didn't react particularly well and soon I was just totally winning.

Peter Svidler against Judit Polgar. Photo © FIDE World Cup Khanty Mansiysk 2011 Website

Polgar,Judit (2699) - Svidler,Peter (2739) [B90]
FIDE World Cup 2011 Khanty-Mansiysk RUS (5.2), 09.09.2011

1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 d6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nc3 a6 6.Be3 e6 7.f4 b5 8.Qf3 Bb7 9.Bd3 Nbd7 10.0-0 Rc8

Svidler thought this might be a little slow.

[10...g6 was Svidler's post-game suggestion.]

11.f5

[11.Rae1 Nc5 12.a3 Be7 13.Bf2 0-0 14.Qh3 Nxd3 15.cxd3 Nd7 16.f5 e5 17.f6 Bxf6 18.Nf5 Nc5 19.Qg4 g6 20.Be3 h5 21.Qg3 Kh7 22.Rf3 Nxd3 23.Ref1 Nf4 24.Bxf4 exf4 25.Qh3 Be5 0-1 Weinzettl,E (2402)-Hulak,K (2495)/Pula CRO 2000]

11...e5 12.Nde2 Nc5 13.Rad1 b4 14.Nd5 Bxd5 15.Bxc5!

Peter Svidler

Judit Polgar

Position after 15.Bxc5

With full compensation for the pawn.

15...Rxc5 16.exd5 Rxd5 17.Ng3 Rc5 18.Ne4 Nxe4 19.Bxe4 Be7 20.Bc6+ Kf8 21.Bd5 Bf6 22.Bb3 Qb6 23.Kh1 Ke7 24.Rd5 Qc6 25.Rfd1 Rxd5 26.Rxd5

Svidler thought that black was fine.

26...Rc8 27.Qh5 h6 28.Ra5 Rf8 29.Qe2 Ra8

Peter Svidler

Judit Polgar

Position after 29....Ra8

30.h3?!

[30.Qh5 Rf8 is a draw but Polgar over-estimates her chances and soon gets into trouble.]

30...Ra7 31.Qe3 Rc7 32.Rd5?!

[32.Qe2 e4 33.Rxa6 Qb7 34.Ra5 Rc5 35.Rxc5 dxc5 36.Qc4 should be sufficient for white.; 32.Qe2]

32...Bg5 33.Qf3 Qb6 34.Rd1 Qc6 35.Qh5?

[35.Rd5 a5 36.Rxa5 Qxf3 37.gxf3]

35...Kf8 36.Rd5

With a draw offer.

36...e4!

Peter Svidler

Judit Polgar

Position after 36...e4

Svidler turns down the draw. He felt he could not be worse here and was probably better. "I'm no longer risking anything and I could be better." - Svidler.

37.Qe2 e3 38.Rd4 a5 39.h4 Bf6 40.Rc4?

Final move before time control.

40...Qa6!

Polgar can resign.

41.Qg4 Re7 42.Re4 Qf1+ 43.Kh2 Be5+ 44.g3 Qf2+ 45.Kh3 Bxg3 0-1

Teimour Radjabov - Vassily Ivanchuk

Vassily Ivanchuk against Teimour Radjabov. Photo © FIDE World Cup Khanty Mansiysk 2011 Website

Teimour Radjabov beat Vassily Ivanchuk to take the match into a playoff on Sunday. The opening was Symmetrical English where white pushed his h-pawn early. On move 10 he sacrificed a piece with 10.Nxg5 introducing further complexity into the position. It may be that this move can eventually be shown not to be sufficient, in my view if this is at all possible it would be almost certainly would be by 11...Bb7 instead of 11...Bxc3. White was clearly better by move 14 and winning after move 20. Ivanchuk eventually resigned on move 28. A great game by Radjabov who showed great judgement in getting winning chances straight from the opening.

Radjabov,Teimour (2744) - Ivanchuk,Vassily (2768) [A37]
FIDE World Cup 2011 Khanty-Mansiysk RUS (5.2), 09.09.2011

1.Nf3 c5 2.g3 g6 3.c4 Bg7 4.Bg2 Nc6 5.Nc3 e6 6.d3 Nge7 7.h4 h6 8.Bd2

[8.a3 1-0 Ghaem Maghami,E (2509)-Mahmoud,P (2266)/Tehran IRI 2001/The Week in Chess 352 (62)]

8...b6 9.h5 g5 10.Nxg5!?

Vassily Ivanchuk

Teimour Radjabov

Position after 10.Nxg5

White can't ask for more in a must win situation.

10...hxg5 11.Bxg5 Bxc3+

This is an understandable move but if black can get away without playing it he should.

11...Bb7 with complex play should be investigated,

12.bxc3 Bb7 13.Qd2

The sacrifice looks more than worth it.

13...Qc7 14.Bf6 0-0-0

White is probably better after this.

[14...Rh7 directly trying to hold on to the material is also very difficult. 15.Be4 Ng8 16.Bxh7 (16.Qg5 Nxf6 17.Qxf6 Qd8 18.Qxd8+ Nxd8 19.Bxh7 Bxh1) 16...Nxf6 17.Be4 Nxe4 18.dxe4 Qe5]

15.0-0-0 Rhg8 16.Bxc6 dxc6 17.h6 Rg6 18.h7 Rxf6 19.h8Q Rxh8 20.Rxh8+ Kd7

Vassily Ivanchuk

Teimour Radjabov

Position after 20....Kd7

White is already winning, great attack and he has two minor pieces for rook and pawn.

21.d4 Qd6

[21...Rxf2 22.dxc5+ Nd5 23.Qe3]

22.Qg5 Rf5 23.Qh4 cxd4 24.Rxd4 Rd5 25.cxd5 Qa3+ 26.Kb1 cxd5 27.Rh7 Qxc3 28.Rxf7 1-0

David Navara - Alexander Grischuk

David Navara against Alexander Grischuk. Photo © FIDE World Cup Khanty Mansiysk 2011 Website

Alexander Grischuk survived horrible time trouble and a lost position to draw his game against David Navara and take the match through to Sunday's playoffs. After 31...Rb5 Navara had 35 mins to 2 mins for Grischuk and by the time of first time control Grischuk was close to losing. Navara continued to improve his position but he continued to play quite quickly and missed his opponent's reply on move 49 and very quickly the game was drawn. Although Navara has looked great in the rapid chess you would have to say that he maybe has missed his best chance as Grischuk has played great in the rapids too.

I missed my opponents answer and then it became difficult and then I made one more mistake and then he made a draw. My mistake was that I played too quickly so for this reason I believe the result is deserved.

David Navara at the post match press conference.

Alexander Grischuk

David Navara

Position after 48...Bd5

49. Ke5?

Navara said he played this move too quickly and missed black's next move. 49. Nc3 Rb4+ 50. Kg3 Be6 51. Rxb7+ just wins for white.

49... Bc6 50. g5 Rxb5+ 51. Rxb5 Bxb5 52. g6?

Now totally equal 52. Nd6

52... fxg6 53. hxg6 Bd3 54. Nc5 1/2-1/2

Vugar Gashimov - Ruslan Ponomariov

Vugar Gashomv against Ruslan Ponomariov. Photo © FIDE World Cup Khanty Mansiysk 2011 Website

Ruslan Ponomariov ground down Vugar Gashimov on the black side of a Berlin Defence. The game ended with a very tricky N+RP vs B ending. Ponomariov is very tough in these events and did well to beat Gashimov with black after his opponent had previous won all the games with that colour. He is going to be hard to eliminate. He meets Svidler in the Semi-Finals

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								1
Radjabov, Teimour	AZE	0	1								1
Round 5 Match 03
Grischuk, Alexander	RUS	½	½								1
Navara, David	CZE	½	½								1
Round 5 Match 04
Ponomariov, Ruslan	UKR	½	1								1.5
Gashimov, Vugar	AZE	½	0								0.5

View the games on this Page

Download the PGN from this page

vs