World Cup Baku 10 September to 4 October 2015

[Mick Norris]

Quarter finals tomorrow:

Svidler v Wei Yi
Giri v MVL

Nakamura v Eljanov
Mameryarov v Karjakin

[LawrenceCooper]

In the third rapid game I liked the move 12 Qg3 which looked like a beginner's blunder at first glance but was a trap (admittedly forced) albeit one which a player of Ding's strength easily avoided.

This is a known line of the Bishop's Opening, and I expect it appears in Gary Lane's book. Tragically I have lost my copy, but I'm sure that the Chinese players have been more careful and have studied it in depth.

Thanks for the info, I hadn't even seen Qxd2 before despite it being an opening I sometimes play

[JustinHorton]

Looks harder to me than the numbers suggest, but Eljanov really ought to beat Najamura today.

[LawrenceCooper]

Uneventful draws in Svidler-Wei and MVL-Giri but Eljanov and Mamedyarov have winning chances against Naka & Karjakin.

[LawrenceCooper]

Mamedyarov embarking on an enterprising king march.

[Christopher Kreuzer]

OMG! Eljanov missed a clear-cut mating line.

[Barry Sandercock]

Malmedyarov- Karjakin is an interesting ending. Can white win ?

[LawrenceCooper]

OMG! Eljanov missed a clear-cut mating line.

No matter, he has now won.

[LawrenceCooper]

Malmedyarov- Karjakin is an interesting ending. Can white win ?

Maybe but he didn't.

[Mick Norris]

Amazing results from Eljanov, now 2750 on the live ratings up to number 15 in the world

I know he was world number 6 rated 2761 in 2010, but he has been excellent so far - not easy tomorrow as Nakamura has white of course

[MartinCarpenter]

So actually not at all amazing Excellent form of course though.

[Mick Norris]

He has gained 33.1 rating points with 2 draws against Jakovenko and wins in his other 7 games - he may have profited from winning games when his opponents had to go for broke after losing the first game, but lots of other players have settled for draws in those circumstances

[MartinCarpenter]

Like I said, excellent form Amazing just somehow feels to me like its slightly understating his previous achievements. A very serious player, like of course a big chunk of this field is/was!

[John McKenna]

In the third rapid game I liked the move 12 Qg3 which looked like a beginner's blunder at first glance but was a trap (admittedly forced) albeit one which a player of Ding's strength easily avoided.

This is a known line of the Bishop's Opening, and I expect it appears in Gary Lane's book. Tragically I have lost my copy, but I'm sure that the Chinese players have been more careful and have studied it in depth.

Regarding the above comments on one of yesterday's games -

Gary Lane's 1993 edition of Winning with the Bishop's Opening does not deal with the variation played by in the Wei-Ding game. Wei parted company with Lane by 7.Qxd2 instead of 7.Nbxd2, which is the only move Lane gives at that point.

However, the 7.Qd2 variation has some interesting history as can be seen below -

[Event "FIDE World Cup "] [Site "?"] [Date "2015.09.22"] [Round "4.5"] [White "Wei, Yi (2734)"] [Black "Ding, Liren (2782)"] [Result "1/2-1/2"] [ECO "C24"] [WhiteElo "2734"] [BlackElo "2782"] [PlyCount "62"] 1. e4 e5 2. Bc4 Nf6 3. d3 c6 {"Louis Paulsen... introduced this... in 1859..." Gary Lane in Winning with the Bishops's Opening, 1993} 4. Nf3 d5 5. Bb3 Bb4+ 6. Bd2 Bxd2+ 7. Qxd2 (7. Nbxd2 {Here Lane only gives this move from Vogt-Romanishin 1981 Riga.}) 7... dxe4 8. Nxe5 O-O 9. dxe4 Qe7 10. Qf4 Nh5 11. Bxf7+ Kh8 (11... Rxf7 $2 12. Qxf7+ Qxf7 13. Nxf7 Kxf7 14. Nd2 Be6 15. f4 $16 g6 16. O-O Nf6 $2 17. f5 gxf5 18. exf5 $18 Bd5 $2 19. c4 Be4 20. Rf4 Bd3 21. Rd4 Bxf5 22. Rf1 Bg6 23. Rd6 {1-0 Hendriks,W-Spanton,T 2006 Hastings}) 12. Qg3 Rxf7 13. Nxf7+ Qxf7 14. Qd6 Be6 15. Nc3 (15. Nd2 Nd7 16. O-O-O Re8 17. f3 Nf4 18. g3 Ne2+ 19. Kb1 Bxa2+ 20. Ka1 Re5 21. b3 $2 Re6 22. Qa3 $2 c5 23. Nc4 Ra6 $19 {... 0-1 Hendriks,W (2407)-Kerigan,D (2288) 2013 Ned.}) 15... Nd7 16. O-O-O Re8 17. Rhf1 Bc4 18. Rfe1 Ne5 19. b3 Ba6 20. Kb1 h6 21. f3 Nf4 22. Rd2 Kh7 23. Red1 Re6 24. Qb8 Qf6 25. Na4 Be2 26. Rc1 b6 27. Nc3 Ba6 28. Rcd1 Nc4 29. bxc4 Qxc3 30. Qxf4 Qb4+ 31. Ka1 Qc3+ 1/2-1/2

How much of the history the two Chinese knew before the game may never be known.
But, Wei's 15.Nc3 looks like an improvement on Hendrik's 15.Nd2.

[NickFaulks]

Gary Lane's 1993 edition of Winning with the Bishop's Opening

Good Lord, was it really 1993? Probably the Chinese did have better preparation material. Nonetheless, I suspect they both knew what they were doing.