3 September 2017

FIDE World Cup: First Games are Played

Some surprising results happened.

On September 3, the first games of the first round of the FIDE World Cup were played in Tbilisi. The majority of rating favourites won their games. The Russians Vladimir Kramnik, Alexander Grischuk, Peter Svidler, Ernesto Inarkiev, Aleksey Dreev, Maxim Matlakov, Evgeniy Najer, and Vladislav Artemiev are among them. 

However, some top seeds suffered their first losses. For example, Wei Yi lost to Bator Sambuev, Vladimir Fedoseev yielded to Bacallao Alonso, Gonzalez Vidal defeated Pentala Harikrishna, while Aleksandr Lenderman won against Pavel Eljanov. 

The games Smirnov - Karjakin, Antipov - Tomashevsky, Nepomniachtchi - Palac, Dubov - Friedman, Kulaots - Vitiugov, Xiong - Motylev, Grachev - Melkumyan, Andreikin - Goganov, Khusenkhojaev - Vachier-Lagrave, Fier - Bacrot, Li Chao - Krysa, Ivanchuk - Kazhgaleyev, Pourramezanali - Yu Yangyi, Tari - Howell, Piorun - Hou Yifan, Radjabov - Ziska, Mareco - Bluebaum, Nguen - Adhiban, Jobava - Salgado Lopez, Hovhannisyan - Rodshtein, Sevian - Nisipeanu, Kunin - Le Quang Liem, Sengupta - Wang Hao, Ponomariov - Sethuraman, Vidit - Delgado, Lenic - Fressinet, Kuzubov - Zhigalko, Adams - Batchuluun, Amin - Erdos were drawn. 

Yaroslaw Zherebukh (USA) did’t arrive in Tbilisi, that’s why his opponent and compatriot Alexander Onischuk (who celebrates his birthday on September 3) has qualified to the second round automatically.   

On September 4, the second games of the first round will be played.  

A big report will be published at our website after the 1st round finishes. 

Official website



Photos by Eteri Kublashvili