AMERICAN GM Sam Shankland and India’s Santosh Gujrathi Vidit became the first quarterfinalists of the ongoing FIDE Open World Cup after both dynamically demolished their opponents in the second game of their Round 5 match Monday in Sochi, Russia.
Shankland defeated Peter Svidler in just 30 moves of a Gruenfeld Defense, while Vidit disposed of Azerbaijan’s Vasif Durarbayli after 38 moves of an interesting side-line in the Ruy Lopez. The other winner of the round was Iran’s M. Amin Tabatabaei, who evened up with Armenia’s Haik Martirosyan, who only needed a draw to advance to the quarters but lost instead to bring their match to a rapid tiebreak.
Tiebreaks are also the order of the day for Magnus Carlsen versus Andrey Esipenko, Velimer Ivic versus Vladimir Fedoseev, Maxime Vachier-Lagrave versus Sergey Karjakin, Alexander Grischuk versus Jan-Krzysztof Duda, and Etienne Bacrot versus Kacper Piorun after they drew their Round 5 regulation matches at 1-all.
Esipenko, A (2716)-
Carlsen, M (2847) [C53]
Krasnaya Polyana (5.2) 2021
1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.c3 Nf6 5.d3 d6 6.0-0 h6 7.Re1 0-0 8.h3 Bb6 9.Nbd2 Ne7 10.a4 c6 11.d4 Ng6 12.Bf1 Re8 13.dxe5 Nxe5 14.Nxe5 dxe5 15.Qc2 Be6 16.Nc4 Bxc4 17.Bxc4 a5 18.Qe2 Qe7 19.Bd2 Rad8 20.Red1 Rd7 21.Be1 Rxd1 22.Rxd1 Rd8 23.Rb1 g6 24.Kh2 Kg7 25.Bb3 h5 26.Rd1 Rxd1 27.Bxd1 h4 28.Qd3 Qe6 29.b3 Qe7 30.Kg1 Nd7 31.Be2 Nc5 32.Qc2 Qf6 33.Bf3 Qd8 34.Be2 Qf6 35.Bf3 Qd8 36.Be2 ½-½
Shankland, S (2709)-
Svidler, P (2714) [E60]
Krasnaya Polyana (5.2) 2021
1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 g6 3.h4 Bg7 4.Nc3 d6 5.e4 Nc6 6.Nge2 0-0 7.f3 e5 8.d5 Nd4 9.Be3 c5 10.dxc6 bxc6 11.Nxd4 exd4 12.Bxd4 Rb8 13.Qc2 c5 14.Bf2 Be6 15.0-0-0 Nd7 16.Rxd6 Qa5 17.Be1 Ne5 18.f4 Nxc4 19.Bxc4 Bxc4 20.e5 Rfd8 21.Rxd8+ Rxd8 22.h5 Bxa2 23.hxg6 hxg6 24.Ne4 Qb6 25.Bh4 Rd4 26.Nf6+ Kf8 27.Bf2 Bxf6 28.exf6 Qxf6 29.Qxc5+ Rd6 30.Qc8+ 1-0
Ivic, V (2582)-
Fedoseev, V (2696) [C92]
Krasnaya Polyana (5.2) 2021
1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 a6 4.Ba4 Nf6 5.0-0 Be7 6.Re1 b5 7.Bb3 0-0 8.h3 d6 9.c3 Bb7 10.d4 Re8 11.Nbd2 Bf8 12.a4 h6 13.Bc2 exd4 14.cxd4 Nb4 15.Bb1 c5 16.d5 Nd7 17.Ra3 c4 18.Ree3 Nc5 19.b3 Rc8 20.axb5 axb5 21.bxc4 bxc4 22.Bb2 Nbd3 23.Nxc4 Nxb2 24.Nxb2 g6 25.Na4 Nd7 26.Bd3 Bg7 27.Bb5 Re7 28.Rab3 Nf6 29.Bf1 Nxe4 30.Rxe4 Rxe4 31.Rxb7 Rb8 32.Rxb8 Qxb8 33.Bd3 Rb4 34.Bc2 Qb5 35.g3 Bf6 36.Kg2 Kg7 37.h4 Qc4 38.Qd2 Rb8 39.Qd3 Qxd3 40.Bxd3 Rb4 41.Bc2 Rb5 42.Kf1 Rxd5 43.Nb6 Rc5 44.Bd3 Bd8 45.Nc4 d5 46.Ne3 Bb6 47.g4 Ra5 48.h5 Ra1+ 49.Ke2 Ra2+ 50.Kf1 Ra1+ 51.Ke2 Ra2+ 52.Kf1 Ra1+ 53.Ke2 ½-½
Durarbayli, V (2625)-
Vidit, SG (2726) [C78]
Krasnaya Polyana (5.2) 2021
1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 a6 4.Ba4 Nf6 5.0-0 b5 6.Bb3 Bc5 7.a4 Rb8 8.Nxe5 Nxe5 9.d4 Bxd4 10.Qxd4 d6 11.Bf4 c5 12.Qe3 c4 13.Ba2 Nh5 14.Nc3 Nxf4 15.Qxf4 0-0 16.axb5 axb5 17.Rad1 Be6 18.Bb1 b4 19.Ne2 Qb6 20.h3 c3 21.bxc3 Bc4 22.Rfe1 Bxe2 23.Rxe2 bxc3 24.Ree1 Ra8 25.Qg3 Rfc8 26.Kh2 Ra3 27.Re3 Qb4 28.f4 Nc4 29.Qg4 Rb8 30.Rg3 g6 31.f5 Nd2 32.Qf4 Qd4 33.fxg6 hxg6 34.Rg5 Ra1 35.Rd5 Qxe4 36.Qxd6 Raxb1 37.Rd4 Qe6 38.Qc7 Qb6 0-1
Duda, J-K (2738)-
Grischuk, A (2778) [D41]
Krasnaya Polyana (5.2) 2021
1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nf3 d5 4.Nc3 c5 5.cxd5 cxd4 6.Qxd4 exd5 7.Bg5 Be7 8.e3 0-0 9.Bd3 h6 10.Bh4 Nc6 11.Qa4 Bd7 12.Qd1 Bg4 13.h3 Bxf3 14.Qxf3 d4 15.Bxf6 Bxf6 16.Nd5 Bg5 17.e4 Qa5+ 18.Kf1 Ne5 19.Qe2 f5 20.h4 fxe4 21.hxg5 Nxd3 22.Qxe4 Qd2 23.Qe6+ Rf7 24.Ne7+ Kf8 25.Ng6+ Kg8 26.Ne7+ Kf8 27.Ng6+ Kg8 28.Ne7+ ½-½
Martirosyan, HM (2632)-
Tabatabaei, MA (2613) [E11]
Krasnaya Polyana (5.2) 2021
1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nf3 Bb4+ 4.Bd2 a5 5.g3 0-0 6.Bg2 d5 7.Qc2 Be7 8.0-0 c6 9.Bf4 Nbd7 10.Rd1 Nh5 11.Bc1 f5 12.b3 Nhf6 13.Ng5 Nb8 14.Ba3 Bxa3 15.Nxa3 Qe7 16.Qb2 b6 17.Rac1 Ba6 18.Nb1 h6 19.Nf3 Nbd7 20.cxd5 cxd5 21.Rc7 Rfc8 22.Rdc1 Qd8 23.Rxc8 Rxc8 24.e3 g5 25.Rxc8 Qxc8 26.Qc3 Qxc3 27.Nxc3 Ne4 28.Nxe4 fxe4 29.Nd2 g4 30.h3 h5 31.hxg4 hxg4 32.Bf1 Bxf1 33.Kxf1 b5 34.Nb1 b4 35.a3 Kf7 36.axb4 axb4 37.Ke2 Nb8 38.Nd2 Kf6 39.Nf1 Nc6 40.Kd2 e5 41.dxe5+ Nxe5 42.Ke2 Nd3 43.Nd2 Ke5 44.Kf1 Nc5 45.Ke2 Ne6 46.Nf1 Ng5 47.Nd2 Ne6 48.Nf1 Nc5 49.Nd2 Nb7 50.Nf1 Na5 51.Nd2 d4 52.Ke1 Kd5 53.Ke2 Nb7 54.Nc4 Nc5 55.Nd2 Nd3 56.Kf1 Ne5 57.Ke2 Nf3 58.Nxf3 gxf3+ 59.Kd2 d3 60.Ke1 Ke5 61.Kd1 Kf5 62.Kd2 Kg4 63.Kd1 Kh3 64.Ke1 Kg2 65.g4 d2+ 66.Kxd2 Kxf2 67.g5 Kg1 0-1
*******
PUZZLERS
WHITE TO MOVE,
MATE IN TWO.
The key to our last problem is 1.Qf6!, and Black’s futile options are: 1…dxe4 2.Qd6#; 1…Rxe5 2.Qxe5#; 1…Kxe4 2.Qf4#; 1…Qxe4 2.Qb6#./PN
