Chess World Cup 2009
Encyclopedia
The Chess World Cup 2009 was a 128-player single-elimination tournament
, played between 20 November and 14 December 2009, in Khanty-Mansiysk
, Russia. The Cup winner qualified for the Candidates stage of the World Chess Championship 2011
. Boris Gelfand
defeated Ruslan Ponomariov
in the final.
All players are grandmasters unless indicated otherwise. The pairings of the 1st round (players were seeded according to their ratings) were announced on 2 November 2009, immediately after the publishing of the November rating list. The list of players who declined participation: Anand
, Carlsen
, Topalov
, Aronian
, Kramnik
, Leko
, Adams, Nakamura
, and Ni Hua
. Among them, Anand, Topalov and Aronian are already qualified for the Candidates or the Championship match; Carlsen, Kramnik, Nakamura, Adams and Ni have committed to play in the London Chess Classic
on 7–15 December 2009.
Qualification paths:
(16), who was eliminated by the Chinese 113th seed Yu Yangyi
. Judit Polgár
achieved a walkover, due to her opponent Duško Pavasovič
withdrawing from the competition due to injury. The round was notable for the 16-game match between Pavel Tregubov
and Varuzhan Akobian
: after each winning with white over the first two days, their tiebreak held a marathon of four rapid games followed by ten blitz games. The two players fought until near 1 a.m. local time for the right to face Ruslan Ponomariov
in the second round (which would start the next morning), Akobian finally achieving the decisive two-point advantage in the final bout before an Armageddon game would have been required.
(8), as Peter Svidler
(3), Alexander Morozevich
(4), Teimour Radjabov
(5) and Vassily Ivanchuk (6) all lost and the remaining highest seeds (Gelfand, Gashimov and Ponomariov) drew. On the next day of matches, Morozevich, Radjabov and Ivanchuk were all eliminated, and exactly half of the matches went to tie-breaks.
Ultimately, of the 32 players to reach Round Three, all but seven players had been originally seeded in the top 32.
, who had upset Ivanchuk in Round Two, achieved another major upset, defeating Gata Kamsky
, the 2007 winner
, 1½-½. In the second rapid tiebreak, Chinese players Wang Yue and Li Chao were not at their seats for the start of the round, and lost the game, and their matches against Bacrot and Gashimov.
Single-elimination tournament
A single-elimination tournament, also called a knockout, cup or sudden death tournament, is a type of elimination tournament where the loser of each match or bracket is immediately eliminated from winning the championship or first prize in the event...
, played between 20 November and 14 December 2009, in Khanty-Mansiysk
Khanty-Mansiysk
Khanty-Mansiysk experiences a subarctic climate . The climate is extreme, with temperatures as low as -49 C° and as high as 34.5 C°. On average, however, the region is very cold, with an average tempurature of -1.1 C°...
, Russia. The Cup winner qualified for the Candidates stage of the World Chess Championship 2011
World Chess Championship 2011
The World Chess Championship 2012 will be a match between the current world champion Viswanathan Anand of India and Boris Gelfand of Israel, winner of the Candidates tournament. The match will be held in May 2012 at the Skolkovo foundation near Moscow, Russia to determine the World Chess Champion...
. Boris Gelfand
Boris Gelfand
Boris Abramovich Gelfand is a Belarus-born Israeli chess Grandmaster. He won the 2011 Candidates Tournament and will challenge Viswanathan Anand for the World Chess Championship 2012.-Biography:...
defeated Ruslan Ponomariov
Ruslan Ponomariov
Ruslan Olegovich Ponomariov is a Ukrainian chess player and former FIDE World Champion.-Early career:Ponomariov was born in Horlivka in Ukraine. In 1994 he placed third in the World Under-12 Championship at the age of ten. In 1996 he won the European Under-18 Championship at the age of just...
in the final.
Format
Matches consisted of two games (except for the final, which consisted of four). Players had 90 minutes for the first 40 moves followed by 30 minutes for the rest of the game with an addition of 30 seconds per move from move one. If the match was tied after the regular games, tie breaks were played on the next day. The format for the tie breaks was as follows:- Four rapid games (25 minutes plus 10 second increment) were played. According to chess journalist Mig GreengardMig GreengardMichael "Mig" Greengard, is an American chess author and journalist who currently lives in New York City. Greengard also maintains the official English website of the Russian pro-democracy coalition, The Other Russia.-Journalism:Greengard's online column "Mig on Chess" appeared from 1997 to 1999...
, a "high FIDE official" admitted off the record that this unusual decision of playing four games instead of two was actually a mistake that was spotted too late to correct it. - If the score was still tied, up to five pairs of blitz games (5 minutes plus 3 second increment) were played. If one player led after a pair of blitz games, that player was declared the winner. This was a change from previous events, for instance at the Chess World Cup 2007Chess World Cup 2007The Chess World Cup 2007 served as a qualification tournament for the World Chess Championship 2009. It was held as a 128-player single-elimination tournament, between 24 November and 16 December 2007, in Khanty-Mansiysk, Russia....
the match went to an armageddon game after a single pair of blitz games. - If the score was still tied after five pairs of blitz games, a single armageddon game (white must win, black only needs to draw) would be played. White had 5 minutes, black had 4 minutes, and both players had three-second increments beginning with move 61. Eventually, no Armageddon games were played, as all matches were decided before that stage.
Participants
The players qualified for the event are:- , 2758 (R)
- , 2758 (R)
- , 2754 (R)
- , 2750 (R)
- , 2748 (R)
- , 2739 (R)
- , 2739 (R)
- , 2736 (R)
- , 2736 (R)
- , 2734 (R)
- , 2729 (E09)
- , 2723 (SF)
- , 2719 (R)
- , 2719 (SF)
- , 2719 (R)
- , 2718 (E08)
- , 2718 (E08)
- , 2715 (R)
- , 2708 (E09)
- , 2708 (R)
- , 2707 (E09)
- , 2706 (R)
- , 2700 (R)
- , 2697 (R)
- , 2696 (E09)
- , 2695 (E09)
- , 2695 (SF)
- , 2694 (E09)
- , 2692 (E08)
- , 2689 (E09)
- , 2682 (R)
- , 2680 (R)
- , 2677 (E09)
- , 2676 (E08)
- , 2672 (Z2.1)
- , 2671 (PN)
- , 2668 (E08)
- , 2666 (E08)
- , 2666 (E08)
- , 2664 (E08)
- , 2664 (E09)
- , 2664 (R)
- , 2662 (E08)
- , 2655 (E08)
- , 2654 (AS)
- , 2653 (Z2.4)
- , 2653 (E08)
- , 2653 (E09)
- , 2652 (E08)
- , 2652 (PN)
- , 2652 (E09)
- , 2652 (R)
- , 2651 (E09)
- , 2645 (E09)
- , 2644 (E09)
- , 2643 (E09)
- , 2642 (PN)
- , 2642 (E08)
- , 2640 (Z3.3)
- , 2640 (AM09)
- , 2637 (E08)
- , 2636 (E08)
- , 2634 (E09)
- , 2631 (Z3.4)
- , 2629 (E08)
- , 2629 (Z3.5)
- , 2628 (E08)
- , 2628 (E08)
- , 2626 (E09)
- , 2625 (E09)
- , 2624 (Z2.1)
- , 2624 (AS)
- , 2623 (AS)
- , 2623 (Z2.1)
- , 2622 (E08)
- , 2621 (Z2.4)
- , 2620 (AS)
- , 2619 (E09)
- , 2619 (Z2.3)
- , 2618 (E09)
- , 2615 (E09)
- , 2612 (E09)
- , 2612 (E08)
- , 2607 (Z3.4)
- , 2606 (AM09)
- , 2606 (AM08)
- , 2606 (E08)
- , 2605 (AM09)
- , 2605 (Z2.3)
- , 2603 (PN)
- , 2603 (AS)
- , 2603 (AM09)
- , 2602 (E08)
- , 2602 (AM09)
- , 2596 (Z3.5)
- , 2591 (E09)
- , 2590 (E08)
- , 2589 (PN)
- , 2588 (AS)
- , 2583 (J07)
- , 2578 (J08)
- , 2574 (AS)
- , 2572 (Z2.1)
- , 2567, IM (PN)
- , 2562 (Z2.5)
- , 2561 (E09)
- , 2553 (AF)
- , 2552 (Z3.3)
- , 2551 (Z2.1)
- , 2539 (AM09)
- , 2533, IM (ON)
- , 2529 (AS)
- , 2527 (AS)
- , 2525 (Z3.6)
- , 2522 (AS)
- , 2516 (WWC)
- , 2508 (Z2.5)
- , 2504 (Z3.1)
- , 2501 (ON)
- , 2500 (AF)
- , 2497, IM (Z3.2)
- , 2493 (AF)
- , 2484 (ON)
- , 2472, IM (AF)
- , 2469, IM (AF)
- , 2420, IM (Z2.2)
- , 2405, IM (AF)
- , 2404, IM (ON)
All players are grandmasters unless indicated otherwise. The pairings of the 1st round (players were seeded according to their ratings) were announced on 2 November 2009, immediately after the publishing of the November rating list. The list of players who declined participation: Anand
Viswanathan Anand
V. Anand or Anand Viswanathan, usually referred as Viswanathan Anand, is an Indian chess Grandmaster, the current World Chess Champion, and currently second highest rated player in the world....
, Carlsen
Magnus Carlsen
Sven Magnus Øen Carlsen is a Norwegian chess Grandmaster and chess prodigy who is currently the number-one ranked player in the world. In January 2010 he became the seventh player ranked number one in the world on the official FIDE rating list...
, Topalov
Veselin Topalov
Veselin Aleksandrov Topalov is a Bulgarian chess grandmaster. He currently has the sixth highest rating in the world, and was the challenger facing world champion Viswanathan Anand in the World Chess Championship 2010, losing the match 6½–5½....
, Aronian
Levon Aronian
Levon Grigor Aronian is an Armenian chess Grandmaster and the reigning World Blitz Chess Champion. On the September 2011 FIDE list, he has an Elo rating of 2807, making him number three in the world and Armenia's number one...
, Kramnik
Vladimir Kramnik
Vladimir Borisovich Kramnik is a Russian chess grandmaster. He was the Classical World Chess Champion from 2000 to 2006, and the undisputed World Chess Champion from 2006 to 2007...
, Leko
Péter Lékó
On the way to winning the prestigious Corus chess tournament in 2005, Lékó defeated Grandmaster Viswanathan Anand with the black pieces. The moves were:...
, Adams, Nakamura
Hikaru Nakamura
Hikaru Nakamura is an American chess Grandmaster . He has been ranked among the top six players in the world by FIDE....
, and Ni Hua
Ni Hua
Ni Hua is one of China's top chess grandmasters and is the national team captain. In 2003, he became China's 15th Grandmaster at the age of 19. On April 2008, Ni Hua and Bu Xiangzhi both became the second and third Chinese players to pass the 2700 Elo rating line, after Wang Yue...
. Among them, Anand, Topalov and Aronian are already qualified for the Candidates or the Championship match; Carlsen, Kramnik, Nakamura, Adams and Ni have committed to play in the London Chess Classic
London Chess Classic
The London Chess Classic is a festival of the game of chess held at the Olympia Conference Centre, West Kensington, London. The flagship event is a strong invitational tournament between some of the world's top grandmasters...
on 7–15 December 2009.
Qualification paths:
- SF: Semi-finalist of Chess World Cup 2007Chess World Cup 2007The Chess World Cup 2007 served as a qualification tournament for the World Chess Championship 2009. It was held as a 128-player single-elimination tournament, between 24 November and 16 December 2007, in Khanty-Mansiysk, Russia....
- WWC: Women's World ChampionWomen's World Chess Championship 2008The Women's World Chess Championship 2008 consisted of a tournament for the Women's World Chess Championship which took place from August 28, 2008 to September 18 in Nalchik in Russia. It was won by Alexandra Kosteniuk, who beat Hou Yifan in the final by 2½ to 1½.-Participants:Players were seeded...
- J07 and J08: World Junior ChampionsWorld Junior Chess ChampionshipThe World Junior Chess Championship is an under-20 chess tournament organized by the World Chess Federation ....
2007 and 2008 - R: Rating (average of July 2008 and January 2009 ratings is used)
- E08 and E09: European Individual Championships 2008 and 2009
- AM08: Pan American Chess ChampionshipPan American Chess ChampionshipThe first Pan-American Championship was held in Hollywood, 28 July - 12 August 1945. The line-up was as follows: 1. Samuel Reshevsky 10.5, 2. Reuben Fine 9, 3. Herman Pilnik 8.5, 4. Israel Horowitz 8, 5. Isaac Kashdan 7, 6. Hector Rossetto 6.5, 7-8. Weaver Adams , Herman Steiner 5.5, 9-10....
2008
- AM09: Continental Absolute Chess Championship Americas 2009
- AS: Asian Chess ChampionshipAsian Chess ChampionshipThe 2007 championship was a FIDE Zone 3 qualification event for the 2007 Chess World Cup, the next stage in the 2009 World Chess Championship. Ten players were qualified for the 2007 World Cup: Zhang Pengxiang , Wang Hao , Abhijit Kunte , Zhao Jun , Susanto Megaranto , Wen Yang , Darwin Laylo ,...
2009 - AF: African Chess ChampionshipAfrican Chess ChampionshipThe first African Chess Championship was played in 1998. Ibrahim Hasan Labib and Mohamed Tissir both shared first place with 7/10, but the former took the title....
2009 - Z2.1U.S. Chess ChampionshipThe U.S. Chess Championship is an invitational tournament held to determine the national chess champion of the United States. Since 1936, it has been held under the auspices of the U.S. Chess Federation. Until 1999, the event consisted of a round-robin tournament of varying size...
, Z2.2Canadian Chess ChampionshipThis is the list of all the winners of the Canadian Chess Championship, often referred to as the Canadian Closed Championship to distinguish it from the annual Canadian Open tournament. The winner of the Canadian Closed advances to the next stage of the FIDE World Chess Championship cycle...
, Z2.3, Z2.4, Z2.5, Z3.1, Z3.2, Z3.3, Z3.4, Z3.5, Z3.6: Zonal tournaments - PN: FIDE presidentKirsan IlyumzhinovKirsan Nikolayevich Ilyumzhinov is a Kalmyk multi-millionaire businessman and politician. He was the President of the Republic of Kalmykia in the Russian Federation from 1993 to 2010, and he has been the President of FIDE , the world's pre-eminent international chess organization, since 1995...
nominee - ON: Organizer nominee
Calendar
| Round | Regular games | Tiebreaks |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | 21–22 November | 23 November |
| 2 | 24–25 November | 26 November |
| 3 | 27–28 November | 29 November |
| 4 | 30 November, 1 December | 2 December |
| 5 | 3–4 December | 5 December |
| 6 | 6–7 December | 8 December |
| 7 | 10–13 December | 14 December |
Round One
In the first round of the tournament all of the top 30 seeded players progressed, with the sole exception of Slovakian Sergei MovsesianSergei Movsesian
Sergei Movsesian is an Armenian chess Grandmaster who used to play for Slovakia, but as of late 2010, Movsesian announced that he plays for his home country of Armenia...
(16), who was eliminated by the Chinese 113th seed Yu Yangyi
Yu Yangyi
Yu Yangyi is a top junior chess player, who in October 2009 at the age of 15, became China's 29th Grandmaster.-Tournaments:...
. Judit Polgár
Judit Polgár
Judit Polgár is a Hungarian chess grandmaster. She is by far the strongest female chess player in history. In 1991, Polgár achieved the title of Grandmaster at the age of 15 years and 4 months, the youngest person ever to do so at that time.Polgár was ranked No...
achieved a walkover, due to her opponent Duško Pavasovič
Duško Pavasovic
Duško Pavasovič is a Slovenian chess player and Grandmaster.Pavasovič was born in Split, Croatia, but later took Slovenian citizenship. He became a FIDE grandmaster in 1999. On the April 2007 FIDE rating list he has an Elo rating of 2567, making him Slovenia's second highest-rated player after...
withdrawing from the competition due to injury. The round was notable for the 16-game match between Pavel Tregubov
Pavel Tregubov
Pavel Tregubov is a Russian chess Grandmaster and Deputy Treasurer of the Association of Chess Professionals.He won the European Individual Chess Championship 2005 in Saint-Vincent with 8 points out of 11 games. He is also the winner of the 4th Pivdenny Bank Chess Cup...
and Varuzhan Akobian
Varuzhan Akobian
Varuzhan Akobian is an Armenian-American Grandmaster of chess, originally from Armenia, who now resides in Los Angeles.He became an International Master at age 16...
: after each winning with white over the first two days, their tiebreak held a marathon of four rapid games followed by ten blitz games. The two players fought until near 1 a.m. local time for the right to face Ruslan Ponomariov
Ruslan Ponomariov
Ruslan Olegovich Ponomariov is a Ukrainian chess player and former FIDE World Champion.-Early career:Ponomariov was born in Horlivka in Ukraine. In 1994 he placed third in the World Under-12 Championship at the age of ten. In 1996 he won the European Under-18 Championship at the age of just...
in the second round (which would start the next morning), Akobian finally achieving the decisive two-point advantage in the final bout before an Armageddon game would have been required.
Round Two
The first day of Round Two included a number of upsets. The highest seed to have won their match was Alexander GrischukAlexander Grischuk
Alexander Igorevich Grischuk is a Russian chess grandmaster and Russian Champion in 2009.-Chess career:In the FIDE World Chess Championship 2000, Grischuk he made it to the semifinals, losing to Alexei Shirov....
(8), as Peter Svidler
Peter Svidler
Peter Veniaminovich Svidler is a Russian chess grandmaster.He is six-time Russian champion ....
(3), Alexander Morozevich
Alexander Morozevich
Alexander Morozevich is a Russian chess Grandmaster. In the November 2011 FIDE list, he had an Elo rating of 2762, making him the 9th-highest rated player in the world, although he has previously ranked as high as second, in the July 2008 list....
(4), Teimour Radjabov
Teimour Radjabov
Radjabov's knight sacrifice, 21. ... Ngxe5, was praised by several strong players for its bravery, including English grandmaster Nigel Short. Said Short of the move, "Radjabov plays very imaginatively... he just won't give up, he is extremely tenacious and will always find a way to muddy the...
(5) and Vassily Ivanchuk (6) all lost and the remaining highest seeds (Gelfand, Gashimov and Ponomariov) drew. On the next day of matches, Morozevich, Radjabov and Ivanchuk were all eliminated, and exactly half of the matches went to tie-breaks.
Ultimately, of the 32 players to reach Round Three, all but seven players had been originally seeded in the top 32.
Round Three
This round is scheduled for 27–29 November 2009. Sixteen-year-old Wesley SoWesley So
Wesley So is a Filipino chess grandmaster. A chess prodigy, he achieved the GM title at the age of 14 years, 1 month and 28 days, making him the 8th youngest person to achieve the Grandmaster title in the history of chess. Before becoming a Grandmaster, So had become the youngest Filipino...
, who had upset Ivanchuk in Round Two, achieved another major upset, defeating Gata Kamsky
Gata Kamsky
Gata Kamsky is a Soviet-born American chess grandmaster, and the current World Rapid Chess Champion. He is also the current United States Chess Champion. As of September 2011, he is rated No. 1 in the United States and No...
, the 2007 winner
Chess World Cup 2007
The Chess World Cup 2007 served as a qualification tournament for the World Chess Championship 2009. It was held as a 128-player single-elimination tournament, between 24 November and 16 December 2007, in Khanty-Mansiysk, Russia....
, 1½-½. In the second rapid tiebreak, Chinese players Wang Yue and Li Chao were not at their seats for the start of the round, and lost the game, and their matches against Bacrot and Gashimov.
Round Four
This round is scheduled for 30 November - 2 December 2009. It marked the departure of most of the youthful players from the World Cup. Wesley So (16), Fabiano Caruana (17) and Maxime Vachier-Lagrave (19) were eliminated by the more experienced Malakhov, Gashimov and Gelfand respectively, leaving Sergey Karjakin the only under-20 player left in contention.Results, rounds 5–7
Final, 10–14 December| Seed | Name | Rating | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | R1 | R2 | R3 | R4 | TB1 | TB2 | TB3 | TB4 | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2758 | ½ | ½ | ½ | ½ | ½ | 1 | ½ | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 7 | |
| 7 | 2739 | ½ | ½ | ½ | ½ | ½ | 0 | ½ | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 5 |
Section 1
Section 2
Section 3
Section 4
Section 5
Section 6
Section 7
Section 8
External links
- World Cup 2009 - Official site