28 July 2021

FIDE World Cup Round Five Finished

Sergey Karjakin and Vladimir Fedoseev qualified for the quarterfinals.

Photo credit: Anastasia Korolkova / FIDE
Photo credit: Anastasia Korolkova / FIDE

 

The participants of the quarterfinals of the FIDE World Cup and the semi-final of the FIDE Women’s World Cup have been determined. The quarterfinalists get tickets to the FIDE Grand Prix series, while the female semi-finalists qualify for the FIDE Women’s Candidates Tournament and the FIDE Women's Grand Prix Series.

In both 25 + 10” rapid games Vladimir Fedoseev of Russia defeated the 18-year-old Serbian GM Velimir Ivic, the tournament’s true revelation. 

Alexander Grischuk (Russia) went down in game one to Jan-Krzysztof Duda (Poland) and could not come back in the second one. Having lost 0.5:1.5, the Russian is out of the World Cup.  

In an intense battle between Haik Martirosyan (Armenia) and M. Amin Tabatabaei (Iran) the latter proved stronger. A nervous draw in the first encounter was followed by Tabatabaei scoring in the second game and advancing to the quarterfinals.

Sergey Karjakin and Maxime Vachier-Lagrave started the tie-breaker with three draws, and then the Russian took the upper hand as Black in the second ten-minute game. 

Etienne Bacrot (France) and Kacper Piorun (Poland) traded blows in the first time format (and it was the Frenchman who had to come back), but Caissa sided with the more experienced player: Bacrot took both 10 + 10 games. 

Magnus Carlsen (Norway) vs Andrey Esipenko (Russia) was the longest match. The opponents made draws in long rapid games, then the world champion won as White. Nevertheless, the Russian bounced back in the following encounter. However, when it came to the blitz section, the Norwegian would not give his opponent a chance by scoring in both games. 

 

The quarterfinals start on Wednesday, July 28. 

Quarterfinal Pairings:

Magnus Carlsen (Norway) – Etienne Bacrot (France)

Santosh Vidit (India) – Jan-Krzysztof Duda (Poland)

Amin Tabatabaei (Iran) – Vladimir Fedoseev (Russia)

Sam Shankland (USA) – Sergey Karjakin (Russia)


In the women’s section, Anna Muzychuk (Ukraine) defeated Nana Dzagnidze (Georgia) in a confident style in the first 25 + 10 game. The Georgian player got a bad position as White out of the opening and could not strike back in the return game. 

July 28 is a rest day in the women's tournament. Semifinal pairings:

Anna Muzychuk (Ukraine) – Alexandra Goryachkina (Russia)

Tan Zhongyi (China) – Alexandra Kosteniuk (Russia)

 

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