The round two tiebreaks consisted of twelve matches, with two rapid games, two blitz games, and finally an Armageddon shootout. Top seed Vassily Ivanchuk coasted through with a fine win against Alexander Galkin, Magnus Carlsen won both his rapid games against Arkadij Naiditsch, and Ruslan Ponomariov played a very dangerous game to take out China's Wang Hao. Illustrated report.
A total of 126 participants turned up on November 23 for the World Cup in Khanty-Mansiysk, Russia, located about 1400 miles (2250 km) east of Moscow. The competition is taking place from November 24 to December 18. The winner of the World Cup receives the right to challenge the former world champion Veselin Topalov in a match.
Round two Tiebreaks (Thursday, November 29)
Through to round three: top seed Vassily Ivanchuk
Vassily Ivanchuk played a fine first round rapid chess game, winning in style (and then drawing the second) to knock Alexander Galkin out and proceed to round three of the FIDE World Cup.
Magnus Carlsen won both his tiebreak games in impressive style against German GM Arkadij Naiditsch.
Playing a very dangerous game: Ruslan Ponomariov
Chinese GM Wang Hao, knocked out by Ponomariov
The first game between Ruslan Ponomariov and Wang Hao was a wild Slav in which Ponomariov got a rook, bishop and two pawns for his queen. The former FIDE world champions walked a very narrow path between victory and disaster, but managed to secure the first option with some fine endgame blockading. The second game was a draw and Ponomariov was in round three, where he should really experiment with not losing the first game for a change.
India's Krishnan Sasikiran took out Russia's Vadim Zvjaginsev.
Round two Tiebreaks
World Chess Cup Round 2 – 27th-29th November 2007 1 Ivanchuk, Vassily UKR 2787 ½ ½ 1 ½ - - - 2.5 Galkin, Alexander RUS 2608 ½ ½ 0 ½ - - - 1.5 2 Mamedyarov, Shakhriyar AZE 2752 1 ½ - - - - - 1.5 Kozul, Zdenko CRO 2609 0 ½ - - - - - 0.5 3 Macieja, Bartlomiej POL 2606 1 1 - - - - - 2.0 Radjabov, Teimour AZE 2742 0 0 - - - - - 0.0 4 Aronian, Levon ARM 2741 1 ½ - - - - - 1.5 Gustafsson, Jan GER 2606 0 ½ - - - - - 0.5 5 Shulman, Yuri USA 2616 ½ 0 - - - - - 0.5 Shirov, Alexei ESP 2739 ½ 1 - - - - - 1.5 6 Svidler, Peter RUS 2732 1 1 - - - - - 2.0 Pavasovic, Dusko SLO 2597 0 0 - - - - - 0.0 7 Gurevich, Mikhail TUR 2627 ½ 0 - - - - - 0.5 Adams, Michael ENG 2729 ½ 1 - - - - - 1.5 8 Alekseev, Evgeny RUS 2716 ½ 1 - - - - - 1.5 Sakaev, Konstantin RUS 2634 ½ 0 - - - - - 0.5 9 Najer, Evgeniy RUS 2635 ½ 0 - - - - - 0.5 Grischuk, Alexander RUS 2715 ½ 1 - - - - - 1.5 10 Carlsen, Magnus NOR 2714 ½ ½ 1 1 - - - 3.0 Naiditsch, Arkadij GER 2639 ½ ½ 0 0 - - - 1.0 11 Avrukh, Boris ISR 2641 1 ½ - - - - - 0.5 Kamsky, Gata USA 2714 0 ½ - - - - - 1.5 12 Akopian, Vladimir ARM 2713 ½ 1 - - - - - 1.5 Ghaem Maghami, Ehsan IRI 2591 ½ 0 - - - - - 0.5 13 Belov, Vladimir RUS 2587 ½ 0 - - - - - 0.5 Jakovenko, Dmitry RUS 2710 ½ 1 - - - - - 1.5 14 Ponomariov, Ruslan UKR 2705 0 1 1 ½ - - - 2.5 Wang, Hao CHN 2643 1 0 0 ½ - - - 1.5 15 Tiviakov, Sergei NED 2643 ½ ½ ½ 0 - - - 1.5 Wang, Yue CHN 2703 ½ ½ ½ 1 - - - 2.5 16 Bacrot, Etienne FRA 2695 1 ½ - - - - - 1.5 Roiz, Michael ISR 2644 0 ½ - - - - - 0.5 17 Zhang, Pengxiang CHN 2644 ½ 0 - - - - - 0.5 Karjakin, Sergey UKR 2694 ½ 1 - - - - - 1.5 18 Bu, Xiangzhi CHN 2692 ½ ½ ½ ½ ½ 1 - 3.5 Motylev, Alexander RUS 2645 ½ ½ ½ ½ ½ 0 - 2.5 19 Tomashevsky, Evgeny RUS 2646 1 ½ - - - - - 1.5 Hossain Enamul BAN 2514 0 ½ - - - - - 0.5 20 Almasi, Zoltan HUN 2691 1 1 - - - - - 2.0 Socko, Bartosz POL 2646 0 0 - - - - - 0.0 21 Volkov, Sergey RUS 2648 ½ ½ 0 ½ - - - 1.5 Malakhov, Vladimir RUS 2690 ½ ½ 1 ½ - - - 2.5 22 Kasimdzhanov, Rustam UZB 2690 ½ ½ ½ ½ ½ ½ 0 3.0 Georgiev, Kiril BUL 2649 ½ ½ ½ ½ ½ ½ 1 4.0 23 Baramidze, David GER 2569 ½ 0 - - - - - 0.5 Dominguez Perez, Lenier CUB 2683 ½ 1 - - - - - 1.5 24 Van Wely, Loek NED 2679 1 ½ - - - - - 0.5 Bareev, Evgeny RUS 2653 0 ½ - - - - - 1.5 25 Fressinet, Laurent FRA 2654 1 ½ - - - - - 1.5 Nevednichy, Vladislav ROU 2531 0 ½ - - - - - 0.5 26 Volokitin, Andrei UKR 2678 ½ ½ ½ ½ 0 1 0 3.0 Zhou, Jianchao CHN 2566 ½ ½ ½ ½ 1 0 1 4.0 27 Navara, David CZE 2656 ½ ½ 0 1 ½ 0 - 2.5 Rublevsky, Sergei RUS 2676 ½ ½ 1 0 ½ 1 - 3.5 28 Onischuk, Alexander USA 2674 1 ½ - - - - - 1.5 Nikolic, Predrag BIH 2657 0 ½ - - - - - 0.5 29 Vallejo Pons, Francisco ESP 2660 0 ½ - - - - - 0.5 Inarkiev, Ernesto RUS 2674 1 ½ - - - - - 1.5 30 Zvjaginsev, Vadim RUS 2674 ½ ½ ½ ½ 0 0 - 2.0 Sasikiran, Krishnan IND 2661 ½ ½ ½ ½ 1 1 - 4.0 31 Tkachiev, Vladislav FRA 2661 ½ ½ ½ ½ 0 ½ - 2.5 Cheparinov, Ivan BUL 2670 ½ ½ ½ ½ 1 ½ - 3.5 32 Zhao, Jun CHN 2552 ½ ½ 0 ½ - - - 1.5 Nisipeanu, Liviu-Dieter ROU 2668 ½ ½ 1 ½ - - - 2.5
