The upside down world of chess

WORLD HAS TURNED OVER
Source: http://ugra-chess.ru/eng/news_8.htm

You wanted sensations? Here they are! The Finnish Tomi Nyback easily won one of the leaders of the Russian team Peter Svidler. Czech Viktor Laznichka played better than another Russian Titan Alexander Morozevich. Vasily Ivanchuk easily let the young So Wesley from the Philippine beat him. The world has turned over: as a result, first seven rating favorites scored only 1.5 points. Two of them, Morozevich and Ivanchuk, will have to solve a titanic problem tomorrow – to win with black. Teimur Rajabov has the same task for tomorrow, but with only difference, he will play white. His opponent is an experienced fighter Konstantin Sakaev.

However the rest of the cup favorites were more or less lucky today. Some of them (Grischuk and Jakovenko) took over their opponents already in the openings. Other players (Kamsky, Shirov) won due to their first-class professionalism. The Chinese Wang Yue managed to realize the thesis E2-E4 – white starts and wins. But this was the 33rd move, then his opponent had to stop the clock as he was in a hopeless position. Our commentator, Grandmaster Sergey Shipov was amazed by Alexander Onischuk: “Strange, such a self-possessed universal chess player could play so risky with black”. One cannot say that Onischuk was tired even. He had almost no problems in the first round.

Many fans were interested in another story: how another hero of yesterday’s marathon Varuzhan Hakobyan of the USA will play. (Let us remind you that he managed to win at the 16 th game of tie breaks.) We answer: the new American has professionally looked at the situation. Playing white, he made a calm draw. Perhaps he did right. Of course he lost the chance with white, but at least he has time to recover after emotions of yesterday. If he will stand up the second game, he will play in tie breaks again. And tie breaks, we must admit, may bring a lot of surprises!