The Week in Chess

Two of the four matches of the FIDE World Cup finished on day two of the quarter finals with Vladimir Kramnik progressing after eventually drawing against Anton Korobov after being in a lost position. Evgeny Tomashevsky's run continued when he beat Gata Kamsky after the latter turned down a near forced draw. The remaining two matches Vachier-Lagrave against Caruana and Svidler against Andreikin go to tiebreaks on Sunday.

Evgeny Tomashevsky took a short draw in the first game with white but came out fighting in a Ruy Lopez as black against Gata Kamsky. Tomashevsky sacrificed a pawn in the style of a Marshall Defence to the Ruy Lopez and eventually had to give up a second pawn. At first sight it looked like Kamsky should be the one pressing for a win but the computers and Tomashevsky's detailed research into typical positions of this type suggests otherwise. Most probably the game was balanced. All the same it was with shocking rapidity that Kamsky lost. In time trouble Kamsky suddenly went astray and found he couldn't stop a fast running h-pawn without it costing mate or a lot of material. Tomashevsky said he was probably playing his best chess ever and attributed at least some of this to being one of Boris Gelfand's seconds in his world championship match against Anand and in the Candidates in London earlier this year. Now Tomashevsky is just another match win away from being a Candidate himself.

Vladimir Kramnik's progression should have been smooth after he almost refuted Anton Korobov's Leningrad Nimzo-Indian at least as a winning try. Korobov told Kramnik that he was about to offer a draw if Kramnik had played 18...g5 19.Bg3 Qc6! instead 18...Qc6 allowed 19.Ng3! and things were not so easy. Kramnik said "I feel relieved I managed to save a very difficult position but also I'm very, very unhappy with my play today because I got simply a better position out of the opening and the same story as usual I just got too relaxed... I started to make mistake after mistake and only started to play well when I was on the edge of losing." Most probably indeed Kramnik was losing but he did resist extremely well and in the end Korobov blundered into a draw.

Peter Svidler was disappointed with his draw against Dmitry Andreikin. "The position I had after 8.Nbd2 g6 must be hugely better for me. The way I played maybe I'm event slightly lucky I didn't end up in more trouble. Generally speaking pawn up and white to move I should have done better with this." adding that although he can progress in the rapids tomorrow "You kind of want a rest day if you have a chance."

Maxime Vachier-Lagrave was pleased to escape with a draw against Fabiano Caruana after being under a lot of pressure. He said he was feeling very tired but that the player with better nerves will be the winner of the rapid tie-breaks on Sunday.

Semi-Finals Monday: Tomashevsky vs Svidler or Andreikin, Kramnik vs Vachier-Lagrave or Caruana.