World Cup 2007 Update: 5 players advance, 3 tiebreaks tomorrow

It was an extremely exciting day at the World Cup 2007 as most players fought hard to avoid elimination or clinch their spot into the next round. In the end, 5 players advanced to the quarterfinals: Magnus Carlsen, Alexei Shirov, Ruslan Ponomariov, Ivan Cheparinov, and Sergey Karjakin.

Carlsen, who won the first game of the mini match, seemed in huge trouble today down a clear pawn against Adams. Adams is usually very clinical with his technique, but Magnus managed to hold in what was a 88 move marathon game. Carlsen continues to impress us with his amazing fighting spirit. Most players would have collapsed in that position against a player of Adam’s caliber, but Carlsen hung on tight. Kudos to Magnus!

Shirov also won his game yesterday with black against Vladimir Akopian, but today he played as if he had amnesia for this fact. I wonder if he’s watched the movie “Momento” one too many times, as he sacrificed pieces like they were going out of style. Nevertheless the fireworks panned out to a draw, and Shirov advanced. I remember something Garry Kasparov said in his awesome videos “Garry Kasparov My Story” (which I highly recommend) which has stuck with me. He stated that in critical games, you should always play moves that you “believe in” rather than simply playing for a draw. Shirov definitely took this advice to heart today.

Tomorrow all eyes will be on American Gata Kamsky in his tiebreak match against Peter Svidler. Both players seemed to play rather cautiously today, and the game ended in a draw after only 25 moves. The other tiebreak matches will be: Bareev-Alekseev and Jakovenko-Aronian. All three matches could go either way, so it should be exciting!

I’ve analyzed today’s amazing battle Wang-Cheparinov, you can download the pgn here if it suits your, or just follow along below:

Wang,Yue (2703) - Cheparinov,Ivan (2670) [E87]
World Cup 2007 (4), 04.12.2007
[Bournival,Braden]

1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 g6 3.Nc3 Bg7 4.e4 d6 5.f3 The Samisch King’s Indian 5…0-0 6.Be3 e5 7.d5 [7.Nge2 Is another well known line for white.] 7…Nh5 [7…c6 Striking in the center immediately is slightly more common than the text.] 8.Qd2 f5 9.0-0-0 a6 [9…Nd7!?; 9…f4!?] 10.Kb1 [10.Bd3 c5 11.dxc6 Nxc6 12.Nd5+/- 1/2-1/2 Karpov,A-Kasparov,G/Lyon/New York 1990/CBM 021 (86)] 10…Nd7 11.Bd3 Nc5 12.Bc2 b5!

This position has been played 5 times before, but never on this high of a level. With b7-b5 black seizes the initiative on the queenside. 13.cxb5 [13.b4 Nd7 14.cxb5 axb5 15.Nxb5 Ndf6 16.exf5 gxf5 17.Ne2 Bd7 18.Nec3 Qb8 19.a4 f4 20.Bf2 e4 21.Bd4 e3 22.Qd3 Be8 23.Qc4 Rf7 24.g4 fxg3 25.hxg3 Nxg3 26.Rh3 Ngh5 27.Bxe3 Re7 28.Bf2 Qc8 29.Rdh1 Bg6 30.Nd4 Nf4 31.Bxg6 hxg6 32.Rh4 g5 33.Rxf4 gxf4 34.Ne6 Qe8 35.Rg1 Qh5 36.Bd4 Qh7+ 37.Kc1 Nh5 38.Ne4 Ng3 39.Nxg7 Qh2 40.Nf5 Kf7 41.Nxe7 Ne2+ 42.Kb1 Nxg1 43.Qxc7 Nxf3 44.Ng8+ Kg6 45.Qg7+ 1-0 Andresen,S-Poldauf,D/Germany 1994/GER-chT] 13…axb5 14.Nxb5 White is pretty much forced into grabbing this pawn, if he doesn’t then he will have nothing to compensate for black’s attack. 14…Ba6 15.Nc3 Qb8 16.Nge2 Qb4 17.Bxc5 dxc5 [17…Qxc5 Is not as good since white doesn’t have to worry about a quick Rb8 and has time to exchange off another set of minor pieces with: 18.exf5 gxf5 19.Ng3! Nxg3 20.hxg3 And white seems to be fine here since he has threats of his own (g3-g4 for instance).] 18.a3 Qa5 19.Nc1 At this point it seems like white has managed to defend most of the threats on the queenside, but the problem with his position is that the queenside will be open the rest of the game, therefore he has no room for error. 19…Bc4 20.Bb3? This seems like a mistake since black is able to gain a tempo on the b3 knight, better is: [20.Bd3! Bxd3+ 21.Qxd3 Rfb8 22.Qc4! (Rybka) The idea is now d5-d6 is a major threat and it also eyes the c5 pawn. 22…Qxa3 23.Nd3+/-] 20…Bxb3 21.Nxb3 Qb6 22.Qc2 Rfb8 23.Ka2 [23.Nd2!? Qa6 (23…Rxa3?? 24.Nc4+-) 24.Ka1 Nf4 With a strong attack for black.] 23…Nf4 24.Nc1 c4 Now it is clear that black’s attack is winning, but he needs to activate his last piece (the bishop on g7), c4 prepares this. 25.Rd2 Bf8 26.g3 Bxa3!

27.bxa3 Rxa3+! 28.Kxa3 Qb4+ 29.Ka2 Ra8+ 30.Na4 c3 [30…Rxa4+ 31.Qxa4 Qxa4+ 32.Kb1 Nh3! Is also winning for black, but Cheparinov didn’t want to even allow this 2 rooks vs queen position.] 31.Ka1 cxd2 32.Na2 White is doing whatever he can do defend, but black’s attack is overwhelming. 32…Rxa4 33.gxf4 Qd4+ 34.Kb1 Rc4 [34…fxe4 Is also good.] 35.Qb3 fxe4 36.d6 cxd6 37.fxe4 Qxe4+ 38.Kb2 Qxh1 39.Qxc4+ Kg7 40.Qe6

d1N+!! The only move that wins! D1=Q allows a perpetual with Qe7+. Cheparinov must have seen this in advance when he played 38. Qxh1. 41.Kc2 Ne3+ 42.Kd3 Nf5 Now the perpetual check threat is gone, the rest is cleanup for black. 43.fxe5 Qf3+ 44.Kd2 Qf2+ 45.Kd3 Qd4+ 46.Kc2 dxe5 47.Nc3 Qf2+ 48.Kb1 Qg1+ 49.Kb2 Qxh2+ 50.Ka3 Qg3 51.Kb4 Qf4+ 52.Ka5 Qd4 53.Nd5 Qc5+ 54.Ka4 Qd6 And white resigned since he must allow a queen trade or lose the knight on d5. 0-1