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Links
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Sweet Sixteen
Results of round three
1 |
Topalov, Veselin (BUL) |
Movsesian, Sergei (SVK) |
1-0 |
1/2 |
|
2 |
Aronian, Levon (ARM) |
Smirnov, Pavel (RUS) |
1/2 |
1/2 |
1/2 1/2 0-1 1-0 0-1 |
3 |
Adams, Michael (ENG) |
Hamdouchi, Hichem (MAR) |
1-0 |
1/2 |
|
4 |
Filippov, Valerij (RUS) |
Grischuk, Alexander (RUS) |
1/2 |
1/2 |
1/2 1/2 0-1 0-1 |
5 |
Ivanchuk, Vassily (UKR) |
Kasimdzhanov, Rustam (UZB) |
1/2 |
1/2 |
1/2 0-1 |
6 |
Zvjaginsev, Vadim (RUS) |
Krasenkow, Michal (POL) |
1/2 |
0-1 |
|
7 |
Dominguez, Lenier (CUB) |
Tkachiev, Vladislav (FRA) |
1-0 |
1-0 |
|
8 |
Mamedyarov, Shakhriyar (AZE) |
Nisipeanu, Liviu-Dieter (ROM) |
1/2 |
1/2 |
1/2 0-1 |
9 |
Kharlov, Andrei (RUS) |
Leitao, Rafael (BRA) |
1-0 |
1/2 |
|
10 |
Sakaev, Konstantin (RUS) |
Dreev, Alexey (RUS) |
1/2 |
1/2 |
1/2 1/2 1-0 0-1 0-1 |
11 |
Akopian, Vladimir (ARM) |
Moiseenko, Alexander (UKR) |
1-0 |
1/2 |
|
12 |
Almasi, Zoltan (HUN) |
Ye, Jiangchuan (CHN) |
1-0 |
1/2 |
|
13 |
Anastasian, Ashot (ARM) |
Beliavsky, Alexander G (SLO) |
1/2 |
0-1 |
|
14 |
Nakamura, Hikaru (USA) |
Lastin, Alexander (RUS) |
1-0 |
1/2 |
|
15 |
Bacrot, Etienne (FRA) |
Radjabov, Teimour (AZE) |
1/2 |
1/2 |
1/2 0-1 |
16 |
Rublevsky, Sergei (RUS) |
Kozul, Zdenko (CRO) |
0-1 |
0-1 |
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It's time for the sweet sixteen, although the winners are feeling anything
but sweet after a grueling six straight days of fast-paced chess. Knowing that
a single loss almost guarantees doom tends to take the sweetness right out of
you. Then there is the money. Everyone who made it to the fourth round is guaranteed
$22,000. The winners will add at least another ten thousand to that. No pressure!
Another round, another high-rated casualty. This time it was Vassily Ivanchuk,
the fourth seed. He was ousted by the unpredictable young Uzbek Rustam Kasimdzhanov
in the first tiebreak set. In the last KO Chukky went all the way to the final,
where he lost to his compatriot Ruslan Ponomariov. Ruslan, Rustam, maybe something
in a name?
Kasimdzhanov had a brief flirtation with the top ten three years ago and has
since dropped back. He didn't have to work too hard in the decisive game because
Ivanchuk pulled one of his famous early resignations, walking away on move 27
in a pawn-down endgame. Sure it was lost, and we can't speak for humans, but
we know Fritz would have played on!
Second seed Mickey Adams of England has the cool nerves and solid style
required for these events. His record in the previous KOs is truly formidable.
He's so calm he can nap right up until his clock is started, as we see above.
He had no troubles in drawing his second game against Morocco's Hamdouchi to
move through to the fourth round, where he will meet one of the sensations of
the event.
We're
talking about American teenager Hikaru Nakamura. The youngest and lowest-rated
player left in Tripoli has been a considerable rating underdog in all three
of his matches so far, but has only had to go to tiebreaks once! After winning
game one with white Nakamura somehow held on to draw game two against a terrifying
attack by 2002 Russian champion Alexander Lastin.
Many of Nakamura's games seem to involve holding on. He hasn't exactly dominated
his opponents, but he's tougher than a bag of hammers, doesn't blunder, plays
quickly, and never stops finding resources.
He is also only the second American ever to reach the fourth round in a FIDE
KO world championship! Gulko reached round four in New Delhi in 2000 where he
was ousted by Bareev in rapids.
Nakamura isn't the only teen left in the field. Teimour Radjabov is
a few months older and has an extra hundred rating points, but he hasn't been
making it look easy. He just squeaked by Bacrot in a clock-banging nightmare
of a rapid game that had pieces flying everywhere. In these events you aren't
supposed to look at the chessboard, only the scoreboard! Above we see the dapper
young Azerbaijani predicting victory at the opening ceremony last week.
Radjabov will face Pavel Smirnov, who defeated Aronian in one of two matches
to go the maximum distance of seven games. Smirnov is one of the beneficiaries
of the last-second drop-out of Alexander Morozevich, who would have been the
second seed and in Smirnov's bracket.
Top
seed Veselin Topalov (above, right) cruised through against Slovakia's
Sergei Movsesian. On the bright side, Movsesian was the first player
to hold Topalov to a draw. Topalov will now face the streaking Zdenko Kozul
of Croatia. (That is, he's on a hot streak, not naked.)
Kozul beat Russian Olympiad veteran Sergei Rublevsky two-nil and has yet to
go to tiebreaks. It's beginning to look a little like Vegas. Three of the four semifinalists
from the 1999 KO are still in the hunt. Adams, Akopian, Nisipeanu.
Another one of the favorites, Alexander Grischuk (below), needed
rapids and blitz to dispose of countryman Valerij Filippov. He'll meet the always
tough Alexander Beliavsky in the fourth round. Big Al defeated Anastasian in
classic draw with black, win with white fashion. Kasparov analyst Andrei Kharlov
knocked out Brazil's Rafael Leitao in two games. That leaves Lenier Dominguez
of Cuba as the last of the Latin American contingent.
One
of the most attractive games of the tournament was Hungarian Zoltan Almasi's
pseudo-sacrificial win over the last Asian player, Ye Jiangchuan. Almasi left
his rook where it could be captured by a pawn for ten moves! By the time it
was finally removed from the board the Chinese player was down a piece.
In this position White played 23.Rf5. If Black captures the rook it's
mate on g7. Black prepared to bring in his bishop for defense with 23...Rfe8
and Almasi shifted to the h-file with 24.Rh5! Nine moves later it was
still sitting there on h5.
Almasi will face Kasimdzhanov in the fourth round. Dominguez will face veteran
Alexey Dreev, who needed to win a sudden-death blitz game to get by fellow Russian
Konstantin Sakaev. Who will be the next 2700 to fall? There are only three left:
Topalov, Adams, and Grischuk.
The above pictures are from the event's picture
gallery page and are brought to you be courtesy of FIDE (© FIDE.com)
General information
The FIDE site, which is being hosted by Libya
Telecom And Technology, looks well equipped to handle live coverage of
the event. The schedule, list of players, results tree and games are all in
place, there are reports and picture galleries. The start page is http://wcc2004.fide.com
and http://wcclibya2004.com.
Live coverage
The live game transmission from Tripoli, apparently of all games, requires
you to have Java Virtual Machine installed on your PC. This program is distributed
free of charge by Sun Microsystems (and is useful for many other applications).
Visit the Java
check page to see if you have everything required for the live coverage
and install Java if you don't. To follow the games click on "Live coverage"
in the link list above. There is a "View" button behind each pairing of players.
Many of the key games will also be covered and discussed on the Playchess.com
server.
Schedule
Note that local time in Tripoli is the same as in Central Europe. The
start of the games is generally at 14:30h, which is GMT + 2 and translates
to 13:30 London, 8:30 a.m. New York, 16:30 Moscow, 18:00 New Delhi, 20:30 Hong
Kong, 21:30 Tokyo, 22:30 Melbourne, and 03:00 a.m. (on the next day) in the
French Polynesia-Marquesas Islands of Taiohae.
World Chess Championship
2003-2004 18 June - 13 July 2004 – Schedule |
Date |
Day |
Events |
Games |
Time |
18 June |
Friday |
Opening Ceremony
Players' Meeting |
|
18.00
22.30 |
19 June |
Saturday |
Round 1 |
Game 1 |
14.30 |
20 June |
Sunday |
Round 1 |
Game 2* |
14.30 |
21 June |
Monday |
Round 2 |
Game 1 |
14.30 |
22 June |
Tuesday |
Round 2 |
Game 2* |
14.30 |
23 June |
Wednesday |
Round 3 |
Game 1 |
14.30 |
24 June |
Thursday |
Round 3 |
Game 2* |
14.30 |
25 June |
Friday |
Rest Day |
|
|
26 June |
Saturday |
Round 4 |
Game 1 |
14.30 |
27 June |
Sunday |
Round 4 |
Game 2* |
14.30 |
28 June |
Monday |
Round 5 |
Game 1 |
14.30 |
29 June |
Tuesday |
Round 5 |
Game 2* |
14.30 |
30 June |
Wednesday |
Rest day |
|
|
1 July |
Thursday |
Round 6 |
Game 1 |
14.30 |
2 July |
Friday |
Round 6 |
Game 2 |
14.30 |
3 July |
Saturday |
Round 6 |
Game 3 |
14.30 |
4 July |
Sunday |
Round 6 |
Game 4 |
14.30 |
5 July |
Monday |
Round 6 |
Tie-Breaks |
14.30 |
6 July |
Tuesday |
Final Match |
Game 1 |
14.30 |
7 July |
Wednesday |
Final Match |
Game 2 |
14.30 |
8 July |
Thursday |
Final Match |
Game 3 |
14.30 |
9 July |
Friday |
Rest Day |
|
|
10 July |
Saturday |
Final Match |
Game 4 |
14.30 |
11 July |
Sunday |
Final Match |
Game 5 |
14.30 |
12 July |
Monday |
Final Match |
Game 6 |
14.30 |
13 July |
Tuesday |
Final Match |
Tie-breaks |
12.30 |
13 July |
Tuesday |
Closing Ceremony |
|
18.00 |
* Tie-breaks at 20:30h |