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It was a foul day for the world’s strongest chess couple as GMs Alexander Grischuk and Kateryna Lagno had been each knocked out of the 2023 FIDE World Cup in round-two tiebreaks. Grischuk misplaced to 17-year-old Iranian GM Bardiya Daneshvar, whereas Ladies’s fourth-seed Lagno was despatched packing by Indian WGM Mary Ann Gomes.
GMs Hikaru Nakamura and Wesley So flirted with catastrophe however joined fellow high GMs Anish Giri and Maxime Vachier-Lagrave in spherical three, which begins on Saturday, August 5, at 7 a.m. ET / 13:00 CEST / 4:30 p.m IST.
The best way to watch the 2023 FIDE World Cup
There have been a minimum of 39 tiebreaks on Friday, 30 within the World Cup Open part and 9 within the Ladies’s. As soon as once more most matches had been determined within the first two video games.
25-Minute Video games: 28 Gamers Eradicated
“The highest gamers simply hold the video games going, hold the match going, and finally the standard will present,” stated Nakamura, and that was pretty much as good an evidence as any for why not one of the high seeds within the Open event fell at this stage. Some eased by means of, with Giri and Vachier-Lagrave in no hazard as they made a draw and a win to clinch their matches towards GMs Arseniy Nesterov and Valentin Dragnev respectively. So and Nakamura achieved the identical outcomes, however they went by means of hell on the best way to reaching spherical three.
Sixth-seed So could not have imagined his match towards 123rd-seed GM Emre Can from Turkey might be so robust. The three-time U.S. champion discovered himself battling the white items within the first classical recreation, was very near dropping within the second, after which discovered the expertise repeated within the first fast tiebreak. 23.Nxa7! left So on the ropes.
23.Nxa7! and Emre Can is once more placing the stress on Wesley So, for a third recreation in a row! https://t.co/7xc586XHP4 #FIDEWorldCup #c24live pic.twitter.com/1i3L6hbd32
— chess24.com (@chess24com) August 4, 2023
For a very long time issues seemed grim for Black, however So one way or the other discovered a means not simply to carry on however to win.
These had been the ultimate levels.
Wesley So was dropping, then drawing, then successful, then drawing, then successful once more, and at last he takes the lead within the hardest of matches towards Emre Can! #FIDEWorldCup pic.twitter.com/7fOcOIs2mZ
— chess24.com (@chess24com) August 4, 2023
That left So again in his consolation zone of needing solely a draw within the second recreation, and after opening 1.b3 he efficiently steered the sport to a peaceable final result.
Second-seeded Nakamura’s match towards Indian Champion GM Karthik Venkataraman was much more tense. It began with one of many longest fast video games you may ever witness, as Nakamura regretted a missed likelihood after which did not get a second alternative within the over 100 strikes that adopted.
After a fast recreation lasting over 1.5 hours and 144 strikes, Karthik as soon as once more frustrates Nakamura! #FIDEWorldCup pic.twitter.com/LudRkdVAxC
— chess24.com (@chess24com) August 4, 2023
Nakamura was impressed by his 2565-rated opponent.
“If he was 15 or 16, I might have stated, I wouldn’t be stunned by the best way he performed, however he’s 23… It’s very clear he’s underrated. His decision-making, particularly on this first recreation at present, when he had restricted time, in a few spots he discovered the very best strikes. It exhibits his instinct is superb and, at the least so far as positional play goes, he’s very sturdy. I feel he’ll simply cross 2600 very quickly.”
Nakamura confessed that recreation left him “form of tilted,” and that spilled over right into a poor begin within the second recreation. Issues acquired wild, and within the center Karthik appropriately selected to not acquiesce to a draw by repetition. For a fleeting second the Indian champion was successful, however when he missed the prospect, Nakamura hit again and managed to seal a round-three conflict with Hungarian GM Benjamin Gledura.
That wrestle is our Recreation of the Day, annotated by GM Rafael Leitao under.
A number of the high ladies’s stars additionally made it by means of tiebreaks easily. Ladies’s World Champion Ju Wenjun pounced on a blunder to ease previous IM Eva Repkova. Ju stated she wasn’t feeling drained after having time to get better from the latest match, including, “I really feel love and fervour simply to play chess!”
Defending Ladies’s World Cup champion GM Alexandra Kosteniuk bounced again after the shock win for her opponent WIM Tianqi Yan the day earlier than, whereas eight-time U.S. Ladies’s Champion GM Irina Krush did the identical, successful each 25-minute video games towards Canadian WGM Maili-Jade Ouellet. “I’m sufficiently old to be her mum,” stated Krush, whereas explaining why they’d by no means met earlier than.
One other U.S. star, IM Carissa Yip, noticed her World Cup ended by GM Zhao Xue, however Yip got here up with the most effective self-deprecating tweet of the day.
me when i lose https://t.co/gmpjnG8Hpg
— Carissa Yip (@carissayipchess) August 4, 2023
These outcomes all went with ranking, however we acquired two massive shocks. Ladies’s fourth seed and former world championship finalist, Lagno is out of the 2023 occasion, after dropping to 226-point-lower-rated Gomes from India.
Their match had seen three attracts earlier than Lagno made a fateful one-move blunder. She later acquired some possibilities to outlive, but it surely wasn’t to be.
That wasn’t the one shock, as seventh-seed GM Nana Dzagnidze fell to the 58th seed, IM Klaudia Kulon from Poland. That conflict noticed two wild video games of assault and counterattack that would simply have gone both means earlier than Kulon emerged the 1.5-0.5 winner.
10-Minute Video games: Six Gamers Eradicated
The Ladies’s motion wrapped up early, with the final match remaining, IM Irina Bulmaga vs. IM Mai Narva, ending within the victory of Narva. Bulmaga had bounced again twice however fell simply wanting bouncing again a 3rd time to delay the match.
Within the Open part GM Rauf Mamedov overcame GM Alexandr Predke, GM Mustafa Yilmaz beat GM Awonder Liang, and GM David Navara defeated GM Niclas Huschenbeth regardless of dropping the primary recreation of the day after lacking an opportunity to play an attractive shot. 39.Qe4? ought to have been an unlucky selection.
The 12-time Czech champion however bounced again to win the following three video games and e-book a conflict towards Indian prodigy GM Praggnanandhaa Rameshbabu in spherical three.
This was additionally the purpose when the good Ukrainian GM Vasyl Ivanchuk, who had made 4 attracts, sprang to life to win each video games towards Chilean GM Cristobal Henriquez Villagra.
Probably the most dramatic path to spherical three at this stage, nonetheless, was that of one other Indian GM, Arjun Erigaisi, who after 5 attracts was in a position to end with an attractive queen sacrifice towards GM Sergei Azarov.
Arjun Erigaisi finds an attractive queen sac end to undergo to a Spherical 3 conflict with Vladimir Fedoseev! https://t.co/aC2Hnb7svu#FIDEWorldCup pic.twitter.com/ThHnY7xzCt
— chess24.com (@chess24com) August 4, 2023
Simply 10 gamers remained.
5-Minute Video games: Three Gamers Eradicated
A single win in eight video games was sufficient for GM Vidit Santosh Gujrathi to get previous GM Dimitrios Mastrovasilis, GM Jonas Buhl Bjerre blundered an on the spot attract a must-win recreation towards GM Gadir Guseinov, and former FIDE world champion Ruslan Ponomariov gained a wild conflict towards German GM Dmitrij Kollars.
Within the first recreation there was a fleeting likelihood for Kollars to show the tables on transfer 45, however when he missed it he was doomed.
An tried comeback did not go completely to plan, as Kollars was misplaced with the white items in 10 strikes, and resigned on transfer 14.
3-Minute Video games: Two Gamers Eradicated
Two matches went all the best way to three-minute video games, with GMs Alexander Donchenko and Mateusz Bartel buying and selling completely convincing wins with the white items till Donchenko had the nice fortune to get White within the first sudden-death recreation.
Probably the most dramatic conflict of the day, nonetheless, noticed seventh-seed and three-time world blitz champion GM Alexander Grischuk lose to a brand new 17-year-old hope from Iran, GM Bardiya Daneshvar.
The match was an absolute thriller. Daneshvar wanted to win on demand twice, whereas within the penultimate recreation, he tortured Grischuk as much as transfer 163 within the famously difficult-to-defend rook and bishop vs. rook endgame.
In what turned the ultimate recreation, Grischuk had the white items and shortly acquired each likelihood to win the match and progress to spherical three. Transfer 42 was the second on which the result of the sport turned.
Our photographer, WFM Maria Emelianova, explains that Daneshvar did not understand it was sudden dying and thought he nonetheless needed to make a draw within the subsequent recreation towards Grischuk. Therefore no elation at a probably career-defining win!
Congratulations to 17-year-old Iranian Bardiya Daneshvar on knocking Alexander Grischuk out of the 2023 #FIDEWorldCup after an epic match! pic.twitter.com/2LQvYiZ8vy
— chess24.com (@chess24com) August 4, 2023
Later, nonetheless, Daneshvar acquired to have a good time with the opposite Iranian-born gamers in Baku.
Daneshvar now faces GM Saleh Salem in spherical three. Listed here are a few of the notable matchups to observe (all remaining gamers within the Open part are grandmasters):
We’re all the way down to 32 matches within the Open and 16 within the Ladies’s; the motion is simply set to warmth up from right here.
The 2023 FIDE World Cup and Ladies’s World Cup in Baku, Azerbaijan, are massive knockout occasions that can decide six spots within the 2024 FIDE Candidates Tournaments. The motion begins July 30 and ends August 24 with a mixed $2.5 million prize fund.
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