Khanty Mansiysk underway!

Siberia it may be, but the weather can be pleasant this time of the year!

The top eight seeds won their opening game as 126 players started their 2011 World Cup campaign today. The biggest surprises of the day were Alexandr Fier beating Wang Yue, and up-and-coming American Sam Shankland overcoming Peter Leko with the black pieces. the second legs are tomorrow.

Sam Shankland (from his own website)

The two no-shows were Vladimir Akopian (who has broken his leg) and Wang Hao (who seems to have some heart problems). So Parimarjan Negi of India and Alexander Ivanov of the USA are already assured of having their names in the second round pairings.

Alexandr Fier

The results from the first legs of the first round are as follows:

Bd.	Seed	Title	White/ Rating	Country	Result	Seed	Title	Black/ Rating	Country
1	1	IM	Mejdi Kaabi 2344	TUN	0-1	128	GM	Sergey Karjakin 2788	RUS
2	2	GM	Vassily Ivanchuk 2768	UKR	1-0	127	FM	Henry Robert Steel 2362	RSA
3	3		Hatim Ibrahim 2402	EGY	0-1	126	GM	Shakhriyar Mamedyarov 2765	AZE
4	4	GM	Ruslan Ponomariov 2764	UKR	1-0	125	IM	Robert Gwaze (Not Published)	ZIM
5	5	IM	Eric Hansen 2449	CAN	0-1	124	GM	Vugar Gashimov 2760	AZE
6	6	GM	Alexander Grischuk 2746	RUS	1-0	123	IM	Vladimir Genba 2452	RUS
7	7	GM	Frank De La Paz Perdomo 2477	CUB	0-1	122	GM	Teimour Radjabov 2744	AZE
8	8	GM	Gata Kamsky 2741	USA	1-0	121	IM	Diego Rafael Di Berardino 2480	BRA
9	9	GM	Darcy Lima 2493	BRA	½-½	120	GM	Peter Svidler 2739	RUS
10	10	GM	Dmitry Jakovenko 2736	RUS	1-0	119	GM	A.R. Saleh Salem 2493	UAE
11	11	GM	Alexei Bezgodov 2503	RUS	½-½	118	GM	Nikita Vitiugov 2733	RUS
12	12	GM	Zoltan Almasi 2726	HUN	1-0	117	GM	Essam El Gindy 2510	EGY
13	13	GM	Jorge Cori 2514	PER	0-1	116	GM	Francisco Vallejo Pons 2724	ESP
14	14	GM	David Navara 2722	CZE	1-0	115	GM	Nikolai Kabanov 2520	RUS
15	15	GM	Ziaur Rahman 2528	BAN	½-½	114	GM	Maxime Vachier-Lagrave 2722	FRA
16	16	GM	Leinier Dominguez Perez 2719	CUB	1-0	113	GM	Elshan Moradiabadi 2532	IRI
17	17	GM	Alexander Ivanov 2538	USA	1-0F	112	GM	Wang Hao 2718	CHN
18	18	GM	Peter Leko 2717	HUN	0-1	111	GM	Samuel L Shankland 2539	USA
19	19	GM	Baris Esen 2543	TUR	½-½	110	GM	Alexander Moiseenko 2715	UKR
20	20	GM	Le Quang Liem 2715	VIE	1-0	109	GM	Susanto Megaranto 2544	INA
21	21	GM	Mark Paragua 2545	PHI	0-1	108	GM	Michael Adams 2715	ENG
22	22	GM	Alexei Shirov 2714	ESP	1-0	107	GM	Manuel Leon Hoyos 2548	MEX
23	23	GM	Namig Guliyev 2549	AZE	0-1	106	GM	Baadur Jobava 2713	GEO
24	24	GM	Fabiano Caruana 2711	ITA	1-0	105	GM	Aleksei Pridorozhni 2550	RUS
25	25	IM	Isan Reynald Ortiz Suarez 2556	CUB	0-1	104	GM	Ian Nepomniachtchi 2711	RUS
26	26	GM	Etienne Bacrot 2710	FRA	½-½	103	GM	Ray Robson 2560	USA
27	27	GM	Alexandr Fier 2566	BRA	1-0	102	GM	Wang Yue 2709	CHN
28	28	GM	Evgeny Tomashevsky 2707	RUS	1-0	101	GM	Zhao Zong-Yuan 2570	AUS
29	29	GM	Vlastimil Babula 2572	CZE	½-½	100	GM	Zahar Efimenko 2706	UKR
30	30	GM	Vladimir Malakhov 2706	RUS	½-½	99	GM	Ruben Felgaer 2573	ARG
31	31	GM	Evgeny E Vorobiov 2574	RUS	½-½	98	GM	Emil Sutovsky 2700	ISR
32	32	GM	Sergei Movsesian 2700	ARM	1-0	97	GM	Hou Yifan 2575	CHN
33	33	GM	Fidel Corrales Jimenez 2585	CUB	0-1	96	GM	Judit Polgar 2699	HUN
34	34	GM	Laurent Fressinet 2698	FRA	1-0	95	GM	Rinat Jumabayev 2589	KAZ
35	35	GM	Yaroslav Zherebukh 2590	UKR	½-½	94	GM	Pavel Eljanov 2697	UKR
36	36	GM	Ferenc Berkes 2696	HUN	1-0	93	GM	Sandro Mareco 2597	ARG
37	37	GM	Murtas Kazhgaleyev 2597	KAZ	½-½	92	GM	Dmitry Andreikin 2696	RUS
38	38	GM	Alexander Morozevich 2694	RUS	½-½	91	GM	Stelios Halkias 2600	GRE
39	39	GM	Anton Filippov 2606	UZB	1-0	90	GM	Sergei Zhigalko 2689	BLR
40	40	GM	Alexander Riazantsev 2688	RUS	1-0	89	GM	Mark Bluvshtein 2611	CAN
41	41	GM	Yuri Drozdovskij 2614	UKR	½-½	88	GM	Alexander Motylev 2685	RUS
42	42	GM	Radoslaw Wojtaszek 2683	POL	1-0	87	GM	Arman Pashikian 2616	ARM
43	43	GM	Yuri Shulman 2617	USA	½-½	86	GM	Vladimir Potkin 2682	RUS
44	44	GM	Peter Heine Nielsen 2681	DEN	½-½	85	GM	Evgeny Postny 2618	ISR
45	45	GM	Evgeny Romanov 2624	RUS	½-½	84	GM	Boris Grachev 2680	RUS
46	46	GM	Ernesto Inarkiev 2679	RUS	1-0	83	GM	Ivan Salgado Lopez 2626	ESP
47	47	GM	Abhijeet Gupta 2627	IND	½-½	82	GM	Rauf Mamedov 2679	AZE
48	48	GM	Mikhail Kobalia 2679	RUS	½-½	81	GM	Igor Lysyj 2629	RUS
49	49	GM	Bartosz Socko 2631	POL	0-1	80	GM	Viktor Bologan 2678	MDA
50	50	GM	Bu Xiangzhi 2675	CHN	1-0	79	GM	Ahmed Adly 2631	EGY
51	51	GM	Ivan Ivanisevic 2633	SRB	½-½	78	GM	Alexander Onischuk 2675	USA
52	52	GM	Lazaro Bruzon Batista 2673	CUB	½-½	77	GM	Yuniesky Quesada Perez 2635	CUB
53	53	GM	Mircea-Emilian Parligras 2636	ROU	1-0	76	GM	Yu Yangyi 2672	CHN
54	54	GM	Anton Korobov 2671	UKR	1-0	75	GM	Zhou Jianchao 2636	CHN
55	55	GM	Maxim Rodshtein 2637	ISR	0-1	74	GM	Pentala Harikrishna 2669	IND
56	56	GM	Li Chao b 2669	CHN	½-½	73	GM	Nguyen Ngoc Truong Son 2637	VIE
57	57	GM	Liviu-Dieter Nisipeanu 2641	ROU	0-1	72	GM	Rustam Kasimdzhanov 2669	UZB
58	58	GM	Vladimir Akopian 2667	ARM	0-1F	71	GM	Parimarjan Negi 2642	IND
59	59	GM	Viorel Iordachescu 2646	MDA	1-0	70	GM	Sebastien Feller 2666	FRA
60	60	GM	Artyom Timofeev 2665	RUS	½-½	69	GM	Sergei Azarov 2648	BLR
61	61	GM	Ildar Khairullin 2649	RUS	½-½	68	GM	Ni Hua 2662	CHN
62	62	GM	Daniel Fridman 2659	GER	½-½	67	GM	Constantin Lupulescu 2650	ROU
63	63	GM	Markus Ragger 2651	AUT	½-½	66	GM	Evgeny Alekseev 2659	RUS
64	64	GM	Wesley So 2658	PHI	½-½	65	GM	Ding Liren 2654	CHN

The remaining schedule for the first round will be as follows:

29 August: Round 1 - Game 2

30 August: Tie-breaks

After the smoke has cleared after the first three days play, half of the players will have been eliminated!

For more information go to the official site: http://chess.ugrasport.com/

Live games: http://chess.ugrasport.com/?cat=12

If you want to follow the live games then note the following:

The local starting time is 3pm and 3pm Khanty Mansiysk = 11am Paris = 10am London = 5am New York = 2am Los Angeles

The time control in the classical games is 90' for 40 moves (+30"), then 30' (+30") KO.