2023 FIDE World Cup Sun 30th Jul 2023 - Thu 24th Aug 2023

[Paul Cooksey]

It went to h2, presumably? Whoops.

Nastier trap than that!

[Matt Mackenzie]

Ah yes, looked it up. Trouble with moving the B to f4 is it means the pawn can't go there!

[Mick Norris]

Chess Mind

The top seeds generally have a relatively easy time of things in the/their first round of the World Cup, but not this year. More than half have advanced after the classical games, including three of the top four seeds (Magnus Carlsen, Fabiano Caruana, and Ian Nepomniachtchi). But (if I counted correctly) eight of the 2700s will have to go through tiebreaks tomorrow, including the second, fifth, and sixth seeds (Hikaru Nakamura, Anish Giri, and Wesley So, respectively). And three 2700s are gone: Shakhriyar Mamedyarov, Nodirbek Abdusattorov, and Sam Shankland are finished - all three losing with the white pieces. (Shankland’s self-destruction happened yesterday, the other two stumbled today.)

I'd have possibly given Abdusattorov as the answer to a possible winner outside the usual suspects (to quote Chris upthread)

I see that Gelfand was knocked out too

[LawrenceCooper]

An uneventful (apart from his clock) 31 move draw for David with black in game 1.

The times on chess24 have 14 min for move 4, not sure if he was surprised by the opening choice, and 36 min for move 12; it reminds me why watching David live is stressful; anyway, the draw with black is a decent result, let's hope he can win with white tomorrow

I see Ivanchuk is playing, so good news he got there

A draw for David in game 2 so tie-breaks tomorrow.

A win for David with black in game 1 of the tie-break.

[LawrenceCooper]

The times on chess24 have 14 min for move 4, not sure if he was surprised by the opening choice, and 36 min for move 12; it reminds me why watching David live is stressful; anyway, the draw with black is a decent result, let's hope he can win with white tomorrow

I see Ivanchuk is playing, so good news he got there

A draw for David in game 2 so tie-breaks tomorrow.

A win for David with black in game 1 of the tie-break.

David wins his tie-break 2-0.

[Mick Norris]

That's good news

Wang Hao next

I see Grischuk got knocked out in an Armageddon

[Geoff Chandler]

I see Grischuk got knocked out in an Armageddon

Alexander's Grischuk current wife, Kateryna Lagno has also been knock out of the Women's World Cup.
(I say 'current' because over at chessgames.com he is still married to his previous wife Natalia Zhukova.)

[Paul Cooksey]

Maybe we should call it sudden death, now the final tiebreak is first to win a 3+2 blitz game.

I believe Korobov is currently UK based He won his tie break against Iturrizaga in the rapids and is through to round 3.

[Mick Norris]

Chess Mind day 3

Someone who did not survive the round was Alexander Grischuk, though he had every opportunity to do so against young Iranian GM Bardiya Daneshvar. Grischuk won the first rapid game (25’+10”) but lost the second. No problem: he then won the first 10’+10” game…but lost the second, getting ground down in a roughly equal ending. On to the 5’+3” games. With Black in the first game, Grischuk was shocked in the opening and clearly worse, but fought back and achieved a nearly winning position. Unfortunately, he didn’t realize that it was winning and allowed Daneshvar to make a draw by repetition. No matter: he was completely winning in the second game, but messed it up and eventually had to suffer for a long time to make a draw with rook against rook and bishop. At this point the match shifted to sudden death games with a 3’+2” time control. For the third time in the tiebreaks Grischuk started with the white pieces, and once again he obtained a completely winning position. And, for the third straight game, he cracked, and this time he lost.

Sounds eventful

Games link has some analysis of 1 of the games

[LawrenceCooper]

A nice attack from Peter Svidler: https://chess24.com/en/watch/live-tourn ... 023/3/10/1

[LawrenceCooper]

David drew in 30 moves today with Wang Hao.

[LawrenceCooper]

David drew in 30 moves today with Wang Hao.

31 moves today for David's draw so tie-breaks tomorrow.

[Mick Norris]

Anyone have any dark horses they might back to win the event (ahead of the usual suspects)?

I am going to go for both Praggnanandhaa and Keymer to go deep into the tournament (though I can't see Keymer getting past Carlsen).

Keymer v Carlsen, Praggnanandhaa v Nakamura next; not exactly a kind draw

Vocaturo has knocked out Dubov; Sindarov ditto MVL

Muzychuk v Muzychuk in the Women's

[Martin Benjamin]

A reminder of how hard it is even for strong players to arrest the slide when things start to go wrong in a game after gaining an overwhelming advantage. Wenjan Ju v Ulviyya Fataliyeva in round three, game two. When this sort of thing happens to me, I go home remembering how the game stood after (say) 70 moves and thinking "How on earth did I contrive to lose that position?" It feels like one of those slow moving nightmares just before you wake up, when you know things are unravelling, but you are powerless to prevent it.

https://chess24.com/en/watch/live-tourn ... 2023/3/1/2

[LawrenceCooper]

David drew in 30 moves today with Wang Hao.

31 moves today for David's draw so tie-breaks tomorrow.

David lost game 3 with black in the first rapid game so has to win to keep the match going.