WORLD CHESS CUP UPDATE: WESLEY’S NEXT ASSIGNMENT - MALAKHOV
By Salvador Lopez
PhilBoxing.com
Mon, 30 Nov 2009
(Special to PhilBoxing.com) It would be Vladimir Malakhov of Russia who would be Wesley So’s 4th round opponent in the ongoing FIDE World Chess Cup in Khanty-Mansiysk, Russia. (The tournament is being held as an integral part of the World Chess Championship Cycle 2009-2011).
In yesterday’s play-offs for the 3rd round, GM Malakhov (ELO 2706) defeated the slightly favoured GM Pavel Eljanov (ELO 2729) of Ukraine in a mild upset that earned him the right to advance to the 4th round where he will face the Philippine chess prodigy.
Malakhov has shown a lot of creativity in his games with Eljanov that he might turn out to be a tougher opponent for So than the more illustrious players whom the latter eliminated in this competition, namely: Gata Kamsky and Vassily Ivanchuk. Nonetheless, the extra rest day So gained through his outright qualification to the 4th round (without having to play the play-offs) could prove to be an advantage as this allowed him to have more time to scout his opponent’s play. By far, the young So has dropped only one game in this competition, thanks to his excellent preparation and solid play – the second game of his 1st round match against Gadir Guseinov in a game where he held the advantage but made serious errors in time trouble.
So far, only 16 players are competing in the 4th round which could aptly be described as the “Round of 16”. They include the remaining favourites in GM Boris Gelfand (ELO 2758) of Israel (formerly of Belarus), who eliminated GM Judit Polgar, the best woman player in the history of the game, GM Vugar Gashimov (ELO 2758) and GM Shakriyar Mamedyarov (ELO 2719), both of Azerbaijan, ex-Latvian GM Alexei Shirov of (ELO 2719) of Spain, GM Peter Svidler (ELO 2754), ex-Ukrainian GM Sergei Karjakin (ELO 2723) former FIDE world champion Ruslan Ponomariov (ELO 2739) as well as GM Alexander Grischuk (2736), the last four all of Russia. The heavyweight match-up for the round which is due to start at 6pm Manila time today would be the Svidler-Shirov match.
There was quite a stir in the 3rd round play-offs when the two Chinese contenders, GM Wang Yue and GM Li Chiao were defaulted in their respective 2nd play-off games for appearing late for their games. As reported, they were apparently smoking outside the playing area and failed to notice that play has already began. According to the new FIDE rules (which is not actually popular to many chess-players), a player who is not at his/her board at the start of play is automatically defaulted. The two players graciously accepted the decision to default them and proceeded to play their next games where both of them eventually lose, eliminating them from the tournament and leaving no Chinese player for the next round.
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