Anish Giri played the longest tiebreak and eventually defeated Evgeniy Najer in the FIDE World Cup Armageddon game. The third round will begin on Monday.
You can watch the games live on our live portal. Our Twitch partner, the Chessbrahs, provides daily coverage.
Every day, GMs Yasser Seirawan, Eric Hansen, and Aman Hambleton cover the tournament on their Twitch.tv/Chessbrah channel. The game begins at 3 p.m. Local time is 12:00 (noon) CEST, which is 6 a.m. Eastern time and 3 a.m. Pacific.
It was the World Cup’s first Armageddon. It took nine games for the Dutch GM Giri and the Russian GM Najer to decide who had to go home. They played the longest game of the day on Sunday, from 3 p.m. to 9:10 p.m. time zone
The two rapid games and the two 10+10 games, like the classical games, ended in draws. Some speculated that Giri, who has yet to shake his reputation as a drawish player, could reach the third round by drawing all of his games in this match—including the Armageddon game.
However, the system’s minor flaw was not disclosed.
When his opponent made a strange-looking move that was just begging to be refuted by a pretty queen sacrifice, the Dutchman won the first 5+3 game beautifully.
2019 FIDE World Cup Queen Najer Giri Sacrifice
Najer resigns because checkmate is unavoidable. The match appeared to be over, with Giri playing the white pieces in a game where he needed a draw. However, nerves overcame other factors, and he misplayed the position and lost. Najer wasn’t entirely calm either, as evidenced by the double-rook endgame, in which he almost let it slip away.
2019 FIDE World Cup Najer
As Black, Najer was able to win on demand. That meant Armageddon, with White having five minutes and Black having four, with draw odds. After move 60, both players would receive a two-second increment per move—but it didn’t get that far.
Ashot Vardapetyan, the chief arbiter, drew the lots while holding a white pawn in one hand and a black pawn in the other. This caused some consternation. The rules state that the player who wins the lotto may choose the color, but they do not specify who performs the drawing.
Giri got to choose, drew the correct pawn, and chose black. The arbiter then informed him that another drawing was required because the first one was only to determine which player would perform the draw.
Armageddon Ashot Vardepetyan Giri 2019 FIDE World Cup
Ashot Vardapetyan, the arbiter, spoke with Giri. That appeared to be an impromptu decision by the arbiter, and Giri contended that this was not how it was normally done. Because Najer did not object, the arbiter accepted this and Giri was given Black right away.
Armageddon Najer Giri 2019 FIDE World Cup
The day’s final Armageddon game. The match between England’s Luke McShane and Russia’s Daniil Yuffa was also full of drama. McShane began with losses in both the 25-minute and 10-minute games, but managed to win on demand twice and was on the verge of doing so a third time to force Armageddon. He did, however, miss the win and then lose on time in a position he would not have won in any case:
2019 FIDE World Cup McShane
McShane smiles and extends his hand. Surprisingly, these were the only two matches that had not been decided after the two quick games. Thirteen other matches were completed much faster.
Leinier Dominguez (vs. Nijat Abasov), Peter Svidler (vs. Andrey Esipenko), Nikita Vitiugov (vs. Niclas Huschenbeth), Dmitry Jakovenko (vs. Gawain Jones), and Jeffery Xiong won both rapid games (vs. Amin Tabatabaei).
Esipenko lost a pawn in the second rapid game, and Svidler might have offered him a draw soon, but the 17-year-old missed a back-rank mate:
Esipenko Svidler will compete in the 2019 FIDE World Cup
After knocking out 19-year-old Cuban Carlos Daniel Albornoz the previous round, Svidler (43 himself) tweeted:
McShane does not have to fly back to England by himself. Gawain Jones, the other English grandmaster, was well prepared against Dmitry Jakovenko in the first rapid game and probably saw White’s piece sac on g5 coming, but still ended up a pawn down. The rook endgame may have been a draw, but the Russian player made Jones’ life difficult:
2019 FIDE World Cup Jakovenko Jones
Teimour Radjabov demonstrated even better rook endgame technique when he won the second rapid game against Russian GM Sanan Sjugirov in this manner:
Radjabov Sjugirov will compete in the 2019 FIDE World Cup
The World Cup also said goodbye to Israel’s 51-year-old Boris Gelfand, who could probably live with it after his opponent played a truly excellent first rapid game. Maxim Matlakov of Russia chose a trade of two minor pieces for a rook and pawn, which is often difficult to estimate. His piece activity and the use of numerous pins demonstrated its worth:
2019 FIDE World Cup Matlakov Gelfand
Ding Liren, the top seed, had survived a lost position against Sergei Movsesian and then quickly drew the second classical game. He won a very smooth first rapid game in which he won a pawn and then countered all tricks attempts:
2019 FIDE World Cup Ding Liren Movsesian
Benjamin Bok, the Dutch GM, can be pleased with his World Cup performance. Reaching the second round and denying Alexander Grischuk two three draws is a good showing. It went wrong in the second rapid game, when Bok was outplayed in the Queen’s Gambit Declined opening with the longest name: the Tartakower-Makogonov-Bondarevsky system.
2019 FIDE World Cup Bok Grischuk
Nihal Sarin’s blunder the other day proved costly, as he did not survive the tiebreak against Eltaj Safarli.
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