Saturday 8 December 2007

World Cup Rolls On

Despite the loss of the sole Australian entrant in Round 1, the 2007 World Cup is still running in sunny Siberia. The Quarter Finals are almost complete with Carlsen, Shirov and Kamsky all making through in 2 regular games. The other semi finalist will come from the Alekseev - Karjakin match which has gone into overtime.
Shirov won through with 2 wins over Jokovenko, including this win with black in games 2. What impressed me about this game, is that after Shirov won 2 pieces for the rook, he simply readjusted his goals so as to kill any of his opponents counterplay. This strategy (as opposed to trying to knock his opponent out) forced his opponents quick resignation.

Jakovenko,D (2710) - Shirov,A (2739) [A29]
World Cup Khanty-Mansiysk RUS (5.2), 07.12.2007

1.c4 e5 2.g3 Nf6 3.Bg2 d5 4.cxd5 Nxd5 5.Nc3 Nb6 6.Nf3 Nc6 7.0-0 Be7 8.b3 0-0 9.Bb2 Bg4 10.h3 Bh5 11.d3 Re8 12.Rc1 Bf8 13.Ne4 Nd7 14.g4 Bg6 15.Ng3 a5 16.d4 e4 17.Ne5 Ndxe5 18.dxe5 Qh4 19.e3 Rad8 20.Qc2 Nb4 21.Qe2 c6 22.Nxe4 Nd3 23.Rc4 Nxe5 24.Bxe5 Rxe5 25.Rd1 Rxd1+ 26.Qxd1 b5 27.Rd4 c5 28.Rd5 Rxe4 29.Bxe4 Bxe4 30.Rd8 Qe7 31.Rb8 b4 32.Qe2 Qd6 0-1

** Quick update: Karjakin beat Alekseev 2.5-1.5 in the Rapid playoff.

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