World Cup: Gelfand, Kasimdzanov, Moiseenko Pack Their Bags

The biggest names who left the FIDE World Cup after the round one tiebreaks are Boris Gelfand, Rustam Kasimdzhanov and Alexander Moiseenko. On Monday the second round starts in Baku.

All photos courtesy of FIDE.

And then there were 64. The first round of the World Cup has been completed after Sunday's tiebreaks for the remaining 24 matches. The biggest names who played their last games on Sunday are Boris Gelfand, Rustam Kasimdzhanov and Alexander Moiseenko.

Gelfand's loss was a huge upset, but not undeserved. Cristobal Henriquez was only in trouble in the first game, better in the second, and then again in trouble in the first rapid game of the tiebreak (25 minutes plus 10 second increment).

A pawn down, he held the ending with opposite-colored bishops and rooks, and then played another excellent game. To everyone's surprise, he ousted the winner of the 2009 World Cup and 2011 Candidates. Gelfand took too much risk, and had to pay the price:

Rustam Kasimdzhanov is another player who once managed to win a grueling knockout tournament. He became FIDE World Champion in 2004 in Tripoli, but 11 years later he was knocked out in the first round. After seven (!) draws, Anton Kovalyov won the second blitz game:

Only four matches in these tiebreaks had started with two decisive games in the classical section. In the other 20 cases there were two draws.

Two Russians, Alexander Grischuk and Dmitry Jakovenko, only decided matters in the last blitz game — just before the sudden death game. Grischuk drew four more games with IM Yusup Atabayev of Turkmenistan: the 25+10 games and the 10+10 games.

The world #10 finally managed to bring down his opponent, ranked 1618 in the world, in the first blitz game (five minutes plus two seconds increment). 

Grischuk won the second game easily.

Dmitry Jakovenko also needed eight games in total to send IM Ilia Iljiushenko home. The favorite won the first rapid game, but got completely crushed in the second:

The two 10+10 games ended in draws. In the second one Jakovenko was already very close to reaching the next round:

In the blitz games Jakovenko finally proved who was the 2700 grandmaster here. In the second he quickly won a piece, whereas he dominated the first right from the opening:

Sam Sevian can be satisfied with his first World Cup perfomance. Two draws against a 2700 player is just fine (and wins some Elo!) and he'll surely have learnt from the two lost rapid games against Teimour Radjabov. Here's the first:

Federico Perez of Argentina managed to beat Leinier Dominguez in the first classical game and came very close to drawing the second, but nonetheless he'll be on a plane soon. After drawing the first with White, he finally found his Waterloo:

David Navara, Nikita Vitiugov, Laurent Fressinet, Ian Nepomniachtchi, Ernesto Inarkiev and Lazaro Bruzon all won their rapid matches 2-0. The latter defeated Santosh Vidit, a name you might remember from the Lake Sevan tournament, where the Indian ran into a mate in one.

Look what happened in the first rapid game against Bruzon:

Another 2-0 was scored by Gadir Guseinov, a well-known quickplay specialist who thus ousted the higher rated Maxim Matlakov.

The author of these words is reminded of the wonderful blitz sessions in the hotel lobby in Shamkir in both 2014 and 2015, when Gadir defeated many of the super GMs who participated in the Gashimov Memorial, with e.g. Eltaj Safarli and Shakhriyar Mamedyarov cheering for him.

In the first rapid game it actually didn't go so well, but in a highly promising position Matlakov just collapsed. He went from close to winning to lost in just a few moves.

The second game was a massacre:

Hou Yifan reached the second round at the expense of Rafael Leitao. She won the first rapid game and then survived a strong attack in the second:

Only one match was decided in the sudden-death game (five minutes for White, four minutes for Black, a three-second increment from move 61, with Black having draw odds). Mateusz Bartel failed to beat Gabriel Sargissian:

After this tough match, Sargissian plays Maxime Vachier-Lagrave in round two. The French GM might not be top fit either: he watched the U.S. Open final between Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic in the middle of the night!

It could be very bad but I managed to naturally wake up 5 minutes before the start of the final #GoRoger

— MVL (@Vachier_Lagrave) September 13, 2015

@ChrisBirdIA Sleep is overrated!

— MVL (@Vachier_Lagrave) September 14, 2015

2015 World Cup | Round 1 Tiebreak Results

2015 World Cup | Round 2 Pairings