1 October 2015
Accounting and Control as a Ticket to Success
Semifinal of the World Cup in the report of Eteri Kublashvili.
Despite numerous sarcastic comments of his own performance, it was the seven-time champion of Russia Peter Svidler who became the first finalist of the World Cup and has thus secured a ticket into the Candidates tournament.
Fatigue, excessive stress, and enormous determination to a victory seem to have caused an unreasonably aggressive and risky play by Anish Giri in the first game of the semifinal match.
Giri - Svidler
Semifinal, Game One
A very concrete position arose, however, whereas White’s onset of the kingside is not that easy to progress, Black’s queenside breakthrough is already looming large.
25…a5 26. Kg2
White would probably do better by preventing his opponent’s pawn storm via 26. a4.
26…a4 27. bxa4 Qd7 28. Qd3 Ng6 29. Nf5 Nxa4
Indeed, Black has nothing to fear and can safely go on implementing his plans. According to Peter, the moves that he did were only ones from a practical point of view. "If my pieces are en prise, I defend them. If my king is under a check, I retreat it. At the same time, Anish had to choose between three or four plans, which is a lot more challenging task to be up to."
30. Bxa4
In this position Anish offered a draw which was declined.
30…Rxa4 31. Rh1 Ne7 32. g5?! hxg5 33. Ne3 Rxa2
Although White sacrificed two pawns, his attack is non-existent.
34. Bd2 Ng6 35. Nf5 Ne5 36. Qe2 g6 37. Nh6+ Kg7 38. Nf5+
This is a time trouble agony. Anish tries to rake up the fire at the cost of his knight.
38…Kg8 39. Nh6+ Kg7 40. Nf5+ gxf5 41. Qh5 Ng6 White resigns.
The second game saw the opponents debating in the Caro-Kann Defence with an early exchange of queens. Svidler gave his opponent no chances of plunging into murky complications, and the game ended in a draw, which counts as his qualification in the Candidates tournament. When the match was over, Svidler confessed that “he was feeling so very happy”.
Sergey Karjakin made his fans feel pretty worried when playing his first game of the semifinal match against Pavel Eljanov.
Eljanov – Karjakin
Semifinal, Game One
Sergey is busy carrying out a plan aimed at getting rid of his isolani, but had White played more precisely, Black could end up in an extremely precarious situation.
17…d4?! 18. Nf3 d3?! 19. exd3 Nxd3 20. Rxc8 Qxc8 21. Rxe7 Nxb2
22. Qd7?!
Had White managed to come up with a precise 22. Qd2, Black would find himself in a very difficult situation because the a7-pawn drops inevitably. In the game, however, Sergey managed to bail out of a little worse ending to keep the overall balance.
In the return game the opponents agreed to a draw on move 14, thus shifting the burden of the fight onto the tie-break.
The tie-break games evolved into an extremely tense struggle with both players exchanging blows, while the final of the World Cup and qualification into the Candidates tournament were at stake.
In the final run Caissa smiled to Sergey Karjakin, who, nevertheless, started the tie-break off to a defeat.
Eljanov – Karjakin
Rapid, Game One
Black’s formations collapsed after a powerful blow - 29.d4!
29...Rxd4 30. Qc3 Ne4 31. Qxa5, and Karjakin resigned in a few moves.
In the second game Sergey demonstrated his fighting spirit and went on to defeat his opponent in a tenacious maneuvering struggle.
In the first ten-minute game the fate of the game was sealed by Pavel Eljanov’s blunder in an equal and rather solid position:
Eljanov – Karjakin
Rapid, Game Three
While embarking on a pawn storm on the kingside, Pavel Eljanov overlooked a cunning maneuver of the black bishop.
42. h4?! Bf6 43. h5? (White could have been helped by an intermediate move 43.Rc6!) 43...Bh4, when White suddenly found himself defenseless against the threat of taking on f2. Black went on to gradually convert his advantage.
In the return game featuring the 10'10'' time control Pavel Eljanov outplayed Sergey Karjakin, but failed to discover the winning path and allowed the game to peter out to an opposite-colored bishop ending with two extra pawns for himself. While maneuvering, a threefold repetition of moves occurred, the fact of which was communicated by Sergey to the arbiters. The tournament arbiters, headed by Faik Gasanov, did count the moves to confirm the statement of the Russian grandmaster. A draw was awarded and Sergey Karjakin became the second finalist, having won the match with a 3.5-2.5 score. However, the level of self-possession displayed by the Russian grandmaster is really impressive as he keeps the situation in complete control even when it comes to such important and exhaustive matches.
I would like to note that this is the third World Cup semifinal for Sergey, and he himself admitted that he would be very upset had he lost it.
The "Russian" World Cup final is scheduled to start on October 1st after a day off. Peter Svidler will play the white pieces in game one. This is the third final since 2011 where only Russian players are going to face each other, and the second one in which Peter Svidler is fighting for the trophy.
In conclusion I would like to congratulate Peter Svidler and Sergey Karjakin on advancing into the World Cup final and qualifying into the Candidates Tournament!
