FIDE Knockout Tournament (2000)

Round 2

The top rated players joined the next round. In the men’s section came 28 more players including Vishwanathan Anand, Alexander Khalifman, Vladimir Akopian, Alexander Morozevich, Alexey Shirov, Vassily Ivanchuk, Boris Gelfand, Peter Leko, Peter Swidler and Michael Adams joining the field from the second round. In the women’s section Xie Jun, Alisa Galliamova and Maia Chiburdanidze join the battle.

The youngest Indian GM Krishnan Sasikiran went down to experienced GM Loek Van Wely of Netherlands in a fierce battle arising out of a Grunfeld Defence with the white pieces. Van Wely sacrificed a pawn on the 21st move to save his skin whereupon ever-ambitious Sasi blundered with ’30. f4′ which led to a loss of two pieces for a rook, an advantage that turned out to be decisive in King Loek’s ruthless hands.

Gilberto Milos of Brazil succumbed to a positional masterpiece created by the third seed Alexander Morozevich of Russia. Milos chose his faithful Sicilian Defence but Morozevich prepared an unusual Alapin set-up and transposed the game to an Advanced Variation of the French Defence. Milos resembled a hungry shark dragged brutally out of familiar waters and had to concede the point after a serious misjudgment of his chances.

GM Viswanathan Anand, popularly known as Vishy, moved to the third round with a brilliant victory over Victor Bologan. GM’s Alexander Beliavsky of Slovenia, Peter Leko of Hungary, Topalov of Bulgaria, Van Wely and Jeroen Piket of Netherlands, Boris Gelfand of Israel, Vladislav Tkachyev of France were among the others who were also through to the third round.

The youngest Indian GM and former National Champion Krisnan Sasikiran was eliminated from the championship. Sasikiran had a difficult pairing in the second round as he was paired with highly rated GM Loek van Wely of the Netherlands. Sasi who had lost the first game with White had a difficult task of scoring over his mighty opponent with Black. Van Wely played the solid classical variation against Sasi’s King’s Indian defence.

The major upset of the day was the loss of last year’s world number two, Vladimir Akopian of Armenia. Akopian, who recently had eye surgery, has not played serious chess for quite some time now and this was clearly reflected in his play In New Delhi.

Somehow, one tense day of tie-break seemed longer than two days of a normal round. The number of games on the tie-break day were so many that one could derive satisfaction of having watched a full tournament just by watching on a Tie-break day. The Deputy Arbiters were joined by National Arbiters during the tie-break. Arbiters have to write down the moves during the game since players do not have to write down the moves in rapid or blitz games.

The Tie-break day saw two major upsets – Nigel Short went down to energetic young Frenchman Igor Nataf in the 15-minute rapid, and Vassily Ivanchuk lost his nerves and got knocked out by Jan Ehlvest of Estonia.

Vassily Ivanchuk seemed too nervous to play in such a format. In Groningen, he went out in the second round against Seirawan without even going to Tie-break. In the tie break in New Delhi, he made a quick draw with black in the first rapid game. He committed an elementary blunder against Jaan Ehlvest of Estonia in the second game, jumped to his feet and threw his chair down. As Chief Arbiter, I met with him and extracted a written apology “After the game with Mr. Ehlvest, I dropped the chair on the floor. I express my apology to the arbiters, the players and the spectators.”

Peter Svidler and Michael Adams proved to be the real masters in rapid chess. Svidler did not seem to get much against Bacrot’s Breyer variation of the Spanish Ruy Lopez, but a tactical miscalculation by the French youngster enabled him to break through the enemy position with a piece sacrifice.

Michael Adams of England conducted the first rapid game superbly and produced the most convincing win of the day with black.

Evgeny Bareev of Russia, who was in brilliant form, qualified to the third round only after drawing his first tie-break match. Rafael Vaganian of Armenia, basically a contemporary of Anatoly Karpov, fought the match brilliantly and went down only in the second 15-minute match.

  1. Bologan, V. (MDA) – Anand, V. (IND) – 0.5-1.5 (0.5, 0-1)
  2. Morozevich, A. (RUS) – Milos, G. (BRA) – 2-0 (1-0, 1-0)
  3. Dao, Thien H. (VIE) – Adams, M. (ENG) – 1-3 (0.5, 0.5, 0-1, 0-1)
  4. Shirov, A. (ESP) – Onischuk, A. (UKR) – 2.5-1.5 (0.5, 0.5, 1-0, 0.5)
  5. Volkov, S. (RUS) – Leko, P. (HUN) – 0.5-1.5 (0.5, 0-1)
  6. Ivanchuk, V. (UKR) – Ehlvest, J. (EST) – 1.5-2.5 (0.5, 0.5, 0.5, 0-1)
  7. Kharlov, A. (RUS) – Topalov, V. (BUL) – 0.5-1.5 (0.5, 0-1)
  8. Bareev, E. (RUS) – Vaganian, R. (ARM) – 4-2 (1-0, 0-1, 0.5, 0.5, 1-0, 1-0)
  9. Macieja, B. (POL) – Krasenkow, M. (POL) – 5.5-4.5 (0.5, 0.5, 0.5, 0.5, 0-1, 1-0, 0.5, 0.5, 0.5, 1-0)
  10. Kasimdzhanov, R. (UZB) – Tregubov, P. (RUS) – 2.5-1.5 (1-0, 0-1, 0.5, 1-0)
  11. Bacrot, E. (FRA) – Svidler, P. (RUS) – 1-3 (0.5, 0.5, 0-1, 0-1)
  12. Gelfand, B. (ISR) – Dizdarevic, E. (BIH) – 2-0 (1-0, 1-0)
  13. Nataf, I. (FRA) – Short, N. (ENG) – 3.5-2.5 (0.5, 0.5, 0.5, 0.5, 0.5, 1-0)
  14. Smirin, I. (ISR) – Grischuk, A. (RUS) – 1-3 (0.5, 0.5, 0-1, 0-1)
  15. Malakhov, V. (RUS) – Dreev, A. (RUS) – 2-4 (0.5, 0.5, 1-0, 0-1, 0-1, 0-1)
  16. Azmaiparashvili, Z. (GEO) – Baklan, V. (UKR) – 1.5-0.5 (1-0, 0.5)
  17. Lputian, S. (ARM) – Rublevsky, S. (RUS) – 1.5-0.5 (1-0, 0.5)
  18. Almasi, Z. (HUN) – Vladimirov, E. (KAZ) – 1.5-2.5 (0.5, 0.5, 0-1, 0.5)
  19. Yermolinsky, A. (USA) – Xu, J. (CHN) – 1.5-0.5 (1-0, 0.5)
  20. Gurevich, M. (BEL) – Minasian, A. (ARM) – 2.5-1.5 (0.5, 0.5, 1-0, 0.5)
  21. Lutz, C. (GER) – Khalifman, A. (RUS) – 1.5-2.5 (0.5, 0.5, 0-1, 0.5)
  22. Movsesian, S. (CZE) – Iordachescu, V. (MDA) – 4-2 (1-0, 0-1, 0.5, 0.5, 1-0, 1-0)
  23. Nisipeanu, L. (ROM) – Georgiev, K. (BUL) – 2.5-3.5 (0.5, 0.5, 0.5, 0.5, 0.5, 0-1)
  24. Akopian, V. (ARM) – Aleksandrov, A. (BLR) – 0.5-1.5 (0.5, 0-1)
  25. Galkin, A. (RUS) – Beliavsky, A. (SLO) – 0.5-1.5 (0.5, 0-1)
  26. Tkachiev, V. (FRA) – Lesiege, A. (CAN) – 1.5-0.5 (1-0, 0.5)
  27. Adianto, U. (INA) – Peng, X. (CHN) – 1.5-2.5 (0-1, 1-0, 0-1, 0.5)
  28. Piket, J. (NED) – Nevednichy, V. (ROM) – 2-0 (1-0, 1-0)
  29. Benjamin, J. (USA) – Leitao, R. (BRA) – 0.5-1.5 (0.5, 0-1)
  30. Ivanov, A. (USA) – Serper, G. (USA) – 0-2 (0-1, 0-1)
  31. Sasikiran, K. (IND) – Van Wely, L. (NED) – 0-2 (0-1, 0-1)
  32. Gulko, B. (USA) – Chernin, A. (HUN) – 3.5-2.5 (0.5, 0.5, 0.5, 0.5, 0.5, 1-0)

Round 3

The first day of the third round saw many decisive games. The chief attraction, the game between Smbat Lputian of Armenia and Anand, however, was not so entertaining. Lputian played an obscure, rarely played variation against Anand’s Slav-Meran, aiming for a slight positional advantage without allowing counterplay. Anand equalized comfortably and the game was drawn in a balanced position after just 19 moves.

The most enterprising game of the day was the match between Grischuk and Grigory Serper of the USA. Serper defended with the accelerated Dragon variation of the Sicilian and Grischuk opted for the most popular choice – the Maroczy bind. In the middlegame, Grischuk went for an unusual plan and started playing for a kingside attack instead of the usual slow positional game. A brilliant Rook sacrifice on the 17th move enabled him to win the enemy Queen on the 22nd move. Serper dragged on the hopeless battle till the 43rd move before conceding the point.

GM Alexey Shirov, now playing for Spain, had to be content with a draw against Mikhail Gurevich, now of Belgium. Gurevich played the Rubinstein variation of the French defence and neutralised Shirov’s guns with a center break. A draw resulted after 21 moves.

Zurab Azmaiparashvili of Georgia played a very sharp, double-edged game only to find himself going down with white to Boris Gulko of the USA.

GM Viswanathan Anand qualified into the fourth round after a fiercely fought battle against Smbat Lputian. Lputian has been in a brilliant form this year and could prove a dangerous opponent. He proved to be better prepared in the French Winawer and succeeded in confusing his mighty opponent. It is a rare occasion to see Anand consuming more time in the opening than his opponent. In a superb display of both tactical and technical skill, Anand managed to outplay his opponent.

Asked if it mattered for him to go to tie-break since he was the master of rapid chess, Anand said that he was not unhappy with rapid chess but there was no point in going for it for the heck of it.

Boris Gelfand, now from Israel, played a superb game against Jeroen Piket of The Netherlands. Gelfand got the classic isolated Pawn position with white against Piket’s Ragozine defence. Gelfand moved to the fourth round but not without some anxious moments. Piket succeeded in creating complications in the second game with material imbalance and Gelfand had to play accurately to win the match.

GM Alexander Morozevich played a fine technical game to outplay Evgeny Vladimirov in the Petrov Defence – commonly known as Russian defence among the chess players. Morozevich doubled Vladimirov’s queenside Pawns and the rest was simple. The next game, he played the most complicated game of the day, only to find that he could not win it.

Igor Nataf was pushed out of the Championship, drained of energy after having beaten an extremely strong player in the previous round.

GM Alexei Aleksandrov who preferred to lose a piece rather than a pawn the previous day, went down in the second game too enabling Bareev to advance to the fourth round.

Peter Svidler bounced back with a morale boosting victory over Asian champion Peng Xiaomin. The matches Leko- Khalifman and Shirov – Gurevich also went into tiebreak.

In the women’s section young Corina Peptan continued to cause upset victories. She scored over former Challenger Nana Ioseliani of Georgia. In the second game in a Queen and Rook ending Peptan found a brilliant rook sacrifice combination to force a draw by perpetual check thereby ensuring her qualification into the fourth round.

The most thrilling match of the tie break day was of course the one between defending champion Khalifman and recently-married Leko. In the first rapid game, Khalifman made a quick draw with white in the Gruenfeld Defence and it was the beginning of the psychological war. In the second rapid game the defending champion outplayed his younger opponent but then let him escape with a draw. The first game of the 15-minute tiebreak game was a sharp game of classical dragon in which Leko’s exchange sacrifice gave him sufficient compensation. The other 15-minute game was also drawn after Khalifman made an interesting exchange sacrifice in a Sicilian.

And then the fun began – blitz. After drawing the first game, Khalifman played an extremely sharp, well-analyzed Pawn sac in the second game and delivered the knockout punch ousting his young opponent. “It was very tiring. Finally, I was okay,” Khalifman sighed.

Shirov’s preparation, energy and grit scored over the experience, technique and tenacity of Mikhail Gurevich after a tense struggle. Shirov improved over his first classical game in the Rubenstein variation to win convincingly in the first rapid game but spoiled everything by forgetting a very elementary positional concept and had to go into the next set of tiebreak. However, once there, he seemed more comfortable than his opponent did and easily qualified to the next round.

Young Macieja of Poland qualified easily, winning both rapid games against Alexander Beliavsky of Slovenia.

Tkachiev gave the wrong birthday gift to Rustam Kasimdzhanov. Tkachiev obviously did not want to go back so soon. Rustam could probably have saved himself by pushing his pawn to ‘g5’ in the second game.

Michael Adams seemed to remain faithful to his quiet, technically perfect, chess. He outclassed Yermolinsky in the first rapid game and the second one ended abruptly by time forfeit in an unclear endgame.

  1. Lputian, S. (ARM) – Anand, V. (IND) – 0.5-1.5(0.5, 0-1)
  2. Beliavsky, A. (SLO) – Macieja, B. (POL) – 1-3 (0.5, 0.5, 0-1, 0-1)
  3. Khalifman (RUS) – Leko, P. (HUN) – 4-3.5 (0.5, 0.5, 0.5, 0.5, 0.5, 0.5, 0.5, 1-0)
  4. Leitao, R. (BRA) – Nataf, I. (FRA) – 1.5-0.5 (1-0, 0.5)
  5. Yermolinsky, A. (USA) – Adams, M. (ENG) – 1-3 (0.5, 0.5, 0-1, 0-1)
  6. Peng, X. (CHN) – Svidler, P. (RUS) – 1.5-2.5 (1-0, 0-1, 0-1, 0.5)
  7. Georgiev, K. (BUL) – Topalov, V. (BUL) – 0.5-1.5 (0-1, 0.5)
  8. Van Wely, L. (NED) – Dreev, A. (RUS) – 0.5-1.5 (0-1, 0.5)
  9. Morozevich, A. (RUS) – Vladimirov, E. (KAZ) – 1.5-0.5 (1-0, 0.5)
  10. Kasimdzhanov, R. (UZB) – Tkachiev, V. (FRA) – 1.5-2.5 (0.5, 0.5, 0.5, 0-1)
  11. Ehlvest, J. (EST) – Movsesian, S. (CZE) – 4-2 (0.5, 0.5, 0.5, 0.5, 1-0, 1-0)
  12. Grischuk, A. (RUS) – Serper, G. (USA) – 1.5-0.5 (1-0, 0.5)
  13. Shirov, A. (ESP) – Gurevich, M. (BEL) – 3.5-2.5 (0.5, 0.5, 1-0, 0-1, 1-0, 0.5)
  14. Gelfand, B. (ISR) – Piket, J. (NED) – 1.5-0.5 (1-0, 0.5)
  15. Bareev, E. (RUS) – Aleksandrov, A. (BLR) – 2-0 (1-0, 1-0)
  16. Azmaiparashvili, Z. (GEO) – Gulko, B. (USA) – 0.5-1.5 (0-1, 0.5)

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