Young phenoms marching to the top

17 YEAR OLDS ON A MARCH
KHANTY- MANSIYSK
Official World Cup Bulletin – 5

All parallels with the first World Cup were erased after the quarterfinals. Two year ago, four young grandmasters eliminated four experienced colleagues. This time the youth experience ratio is 1 to 1, or 2:2, if you like. Kamsky broke through Ponomariov’s defense, and inspired Shirov defeated Jakovenko twice.

The elder generation representatives make strong impression here, each one in his own way. Shirov demonstrates excellent opening preparation, and almost in every game creates combinational storm, forcing his younger opponents playing movebymove. Kamsky, on the contrary, leads his games into quiet waters, and strategically outplays his less skilled opponents.

One of the reasons of Gata’s victory over Ruslan is extreme tiredness of the Ukrainian. First he failed to convert a huge advantage in the first game (Kamsky mixed the pairings up, and prepared to play White instead of Black), and then ruined an approximately even position in the second one. The runner up of the World Cup2005 was punished according to the football principle: if you don’t score, you
opponent does.

Jakovenko can also complain about exhaustion. He discussed his tense schedule before the match against China, both European championships, Tal Memorial, etc. And after the World Cup he is going to participate in the Russian superfinal!

Apparently, Mitya cracked under the pressure – he regularly miscalculated, which surely leads to disaster in a match against Shirov. Even visit of the Governor Alexander Filipenko didn’t help 0-2. Alexei remains the only participant of the World Cup, who hasn’t played a single tiebreak in five stages!

Cheparinov also left the building. In the first day he played a phenomenal game against Carlsen. Highly motivated Ivan easily declined the draw offered by Magnus, but then lost the track. Even Topalov’s advice before the second game didn’t help Cheparinov: the Norwegian bravely withstood the Bulgarian heat, and advanced to the semifinal.

The match between Alekseev and Karjakin was the longest. The last Russian standing had already performed above expectations, but failed to advance to the next stage. It seems Zhenya was let down by general strategy chosen for this match: play for a win as White, and take a draw as Black. He didn’t manage to convert an advantage in the first game (as Black), barely survived in the second one, and then was crushed on the tiebreak by more experienced Sergey.

The situation that was jokingly discussed at the start now looks very real: two 17 year old players can meet in the final! Each of them has just one step left.

You can read all the bulletins here: http://www.ugra-chess.ru/eng/news_10_e.htm