Singapore’s GM Tin Jingyao, seeded 120 within the 2023 FIDE World Cup, knocked out ninth seed GM Shakhriyar Mamedyarov in a dramatic day of round-two motion. A darkish horse to win the occasion, GM Nodirbek Abdusattorov, fell to 112th seed GM Vahap Sanal, whereas GM Sam Shankland discovered no method again after his blunder the day earlier than. 

GM Wesley So virtually joined them, however an ideal escape towards Turkish GM Emre Can means he’ll play tiebreaks alongside GMs Hikaru Nakamura, Anish Giri, and Maxime Vachier-Lagrave. The motion begins on Friday, August 4, at 7 a.m. ET / 13:00 CEST / 4:30 p.m IST.

   The way to watch the 2023 FIDE World Cup

One other brutal harvest on the Baku World Cup noticed 57 gamers go away the occasion on Thursday, 34 within the Open part and 23 within the Girls’s. One other 78 will now battle for survival in tiebreaks on Friday, when we’ve got 30 matchups within the Open part, and 9 within the Girls’s. Let’s check out the day’s motion.

FIDE World Cup Spherical 2.2: Carlsen Brilliancy As First Large Names Fall

For some, the second day of spherical two was a stroll within the park. GM Fabiano Caruana cruised to a 2-0 win over GM Mikheil Mchedlishvili, GM Ian Nepomniachtchi was by no means at risk as he wrapped up a 1.5-0.5 win over GM Vugar Asadli, whereas prime seed GM Magnus Carlsen briefly appeared to get a extra advanced recreation than he might need hoped for towards GM Levan Pantsulaia.

Any discomfort, nonetheless, was rewarded by Carlsen attending to play an exquisite end. 

Carlsen smiled after the sport was over.

World no. 1 @MagnusCarlsen smiles after discovering a brilliancy to beat Levan Pantsulaia and attain Spherical 3 of the #FIDEWorldCup! pic.twitter.com/7o72tCgdlo

— chess24.com (@chess24com) August 3, 2023

A curiosity is that Carlsen will now play the Norwegian number-two, GM Aryan Tari, in spherical three, simply as he did at precisely the identical stage in 2021. The world number-one can be hoping for a similar 2-0 scoreline. 

Different favorites to ease by means of included GMs Jan-Krzysztof Duda, Leinier Dominguez, and Teimour Radjabov, with the 2019 World Cup winner ending his recreation towards the stable Hungarian GM Viktor Erdos with a sudden blow.

Radjabov talked afterward in regards to the expertise of taking part in on dwelling soil.

17-year-old GM Dommaraju Gukesh did not must win the second recreation towards GM Misratdin Iskandarov to win their match, however he did anyway, and thereby climbed to world number-nine on the reside ranking listing and took over from GM Viswanathan Anand because the Indian number-one.

India has a brand new primary as @DGukesh overtakes the legendary @vishy64theking! 🇮🇳

The 17-year-old additionally climbs to ninth on the planet per the reside scores, and is unbeaten in 19 video games! 🤯👏 pic.twitter.com/BDFg4PtlDd

— Chess.com (@chesscom) August 3, 2023

If he retains that place on the subsequent official listing, it is going to be the tip of an excellent 37-year reign by Anand.  

Not all the highest gamers had come to struggle, nonetheless. After pushing laborious however failing to win with the white items the day earlier than, Nakamura made a cautious 32-move draw with Black towards GM Karthik Venkataraman. Different prime stars had additionally determined to move for tiebreaks, with fast attracts for the likes of GMs Giri and Vachier-Lagrave.

We quickly obtained to see why transferring the match resolution to at the least two tiebreak video games could be a extra prudent selection than staking all the things on a single recreation. Native Azerbaijani hero Mamedyarov is a grasp of untamed attacking chess, but it surely was 23-year-old Tin from Singapore who triumphed on this event.

That was our Sport of the Day, and has been annotated by GM Rafael Leitao beneath. 

One of many potential winners of the occasion was Uzbek GM Abdusattorov, who at 18 years of age has already established himself on the planet’s top-30 in classical chess, whereas as a former world fast champion few would relish taking him to tiebreaks. His World Cup is already over, nonetheless, after he misplaced his method towards 25-year-old Turkish GM Sanal.

At first, Abdusattorov accurately sacrificed a pawn, however his later play was criticized by Leko as a case of going all-in with out due trigger.

One other sufferer was twenty second seed Shankland, who fell to the a hundred and fiftieth seed, GM Ivan Schitco, although on this case all of the injury had been completed by an enormous blunder in recreation one. Simply how troublesome it’s to come back again on demand was illustrated by the truth that only one participant managed it in the entire Open part, GM Eduardo Iturrizaga, who bounced again towards GM Anton Korobov.

These upsets got here near being overshadowed by the autumn of the sixth seed, So. The three-time U.S. champion had been barely worse with the white items within the first recreation towards 219-point-lower-rated Can from Turkey, however within the second he was borderline misplaced. Transfer 45 could have been the second Can missed his greatest likelihood.

“I believe now Emre will fall from his chair!” mentioned Leko about the best way that So defended on the finish. 

Wesley So is pulling off an ideal escape! #FIDEWorldCup pic.twitter.com/0Q9HdHQioA

— chess24.com (@chess24com) August 3, 2023

So has been given one other life, and such reprieves might be the spark wanted to go far in a match just like the World Cup.   

FIDE Girls’s World Cup Spherical 2.2: Comeback Children 

twentieth seed IM Gunay Mammadzada was unable to come back again from her loss the day earlier than to IM Alina Bivol, and it was the identical story for thirteenth seed IM Sara Khadem towards IM Medina Warda Aulia. Khadem, who famous she’d had a “very massive hole” in her chess profession, conceded of her opponent, “She performed very well and she or he deserved it.” 

In distinction to the Open occasion, nonetheless, we did see a collection of massive wins on demand within the Girls’s part, and whereas higher-rated IM Irina Bulmaga hit again towards IM Mai Narva, the opposite wins have been triumphs for the underdogs.

Chinese language WIM Tianqi Yan shocked defending champion GM Alexandra Kosteniuk, IM Carissa Yip hit again towards GM Zhao Xue, a participant with a peak ranking topped by solely 4 feminine gamers in Baku, and IM Deysi Cori struck again towards IM Meri Arabidze.

One of the vital spectacular performances was how 21-year-old Canadian WGM Maili-Jade Ouellet bounced again towards eight-time U.S. Girls’s Champion GM Irina Krush in an extended however dominant recreation.

All these comebacks may have a followup in tiebreaks on Friday, when prime seed GM Ju Wenjun, defending champion Kosteniuk, and number-four seed GM Kateryna Lagno will all be in motion.

In whole, throughout each the Girls’s and Open sections, we have 39 matches to look ahead to, so the motion is bound to be frenetic. 

The 2023 FIDE World Cup and Girls’s World Cup in Baku, Azerbaijan, are huge knockout occasions that may 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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