Alexander Grischuk bounced back from yesterday's reversal to equalize his match against Vladimir Potkin. Peter Heine Nielsen inflicted Vugar Gashimov's first defeat of the campaign, and finally the most amazing of was Judit Polgar's win.
Playing Black, in a long game she finally ground down Leinier Dominguez with her powerful bishop pair, for which the Cuban had rook and pawn. She held her nerves together to eventually win a tricky version of the notorious endgame of pawnless Rook and Bishop versus Rook.
Teimour Radjabov was assured of his qualification when Dmitry Jakovenko made a dubious sacrifice and offered a draw.
Svidler's combination is one of the best so far and so the US Champion Gata Kamsky will not be one of the last eight.
David Navara broke up his opponent's kingside rendering Zherebukh's king very exposed, and the Czech GM ultimately won for the second day running.
Also in the French Defence, Alexander Grischuk won the return leg after Vladimir Potkin's attempt to liberate with ...f6 just created weaknesses in his own camp. Black was forced to sacrifice the exchange under inferior circumstances and didn't survive very long.
Here are the results in full:
| Seed | White | Country | Elo | Result | Seed | Black | Country | Elo |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 16 | Leinier Dominguez Perez (1) | CUB | 2719 | 0-1 | 33 | Judit Polgar (0) | HUN | 2699 |
| 08 | Gata Kamsky (0) | USA | 2741 | 0-1 | 09 | Peter Svidler (1) | RUS | 2739 |
| 04 | Ruslan Ponomariov (0.5) | UKR | 2764 | ½-½ | 52 | Lazaro Bruzon Batista (0.5) | CUB | 2673 |
| 44 | Peter Heine Nielsen (0) | DEN | 2681 | 1-0 | 05 | Vugar Gashimov (1) | AZE | 2760 |
| 02 | Vassily Ivanchuk (0.5) | UKR | 2766 | ½-½ | 50 | Bu Xiangzhi (0.5) | CHN | 2672 |
| 10 | Dmitry Jakovenko (0) | RUS | 2736 | ½-½ | 07 | Teimour Radjabov (1) | AZE | 2744 |
| 14 | David Navara (1) | CZE | 2722 | 1-0 | 94 | Yaroslav Zherebukh (0) | UKR | 2590 |
| 06 | Alexander Grischuk (0) | RUS | 2746 | 1-0 | 43 | Vladimir Potkin (1) | RUS | 2682 |
The five play-offs are tomorrow, Thursday the 7th of September. They play two games at Rapid chess (25' plus 10" per move), then if things are all-square a pair of further games at (10' + 10" a cross between Rapidplay and Blitz), followed if necessary by two Blitz games (5' + 3"). Finally (as in Dominguez-Lysyj) an Armageddon blitz game may be necessary, where White has more time (5 mins vs. 4) but an obligation to win.
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.
All the photos today are from the official site.
The total prize fund is of $1.600.000 (about 1.100.000€):
First round losers win $6.000 (about 4.100€);
Second round losers win $10.000 (or roughly 6.900€);
Third round losers $16.000 (or 11.000€);
Fourth round $25.000 (or 17.000€);
Fifth round (Quarter-finals) $35.000 (or 24.000€);
Sixth round (Semi-final) $50.000 (or 34.500€);
Losing finalist $80.000 (or 55.000€);
The winner receives $120.000 (or 82.500€).
