Thursday, September 14, 2017

Chess World Cup 2017 - Quarter Finals Pairings - Tbilisi

As usual I watched FIDE Chess World Cup 2017, happening in Tbilisi, with great enthusiast. The World Cup is like my second most favorite chess event, aside from World Championship. The reason is simple, I love it when there are crowd of interesting chess players from many backgrounds fighting each other. The knock out format adopted by Chess World Cup (in the distance past time, a Chess World Championship ) seems like diminished the importances of chess rating. Meaning, in this knock out format, a lower rated player often-ly upset the stronger player. Which is why the tournament is always interesting.

FIDE Chess World Cup 2017 which held in Tbilisi is entering its quarter finals round as the time of writing. As it turns out, this year edition of quarter finalists are even more interesting because of some unexpected survivors. Firstly, let have a looks on the top 10 seed when the tournament started :

1.  Magnus Carlsen (NOR), 2822 (World Champion)
2. Wesley So (USA), 2810
3. Fabiano Caruana (USA), 2807
4. Vladimir Kramnik (RUS), 2803
5. Levon Aronian (ARM), 2799
6. Shakhriyar Mamedyarov (AZE), 2797
7. Hikaru Nakamura (USA), 2792
8.  Maxime Vachier-Lagrave (FRA), 2789
9.  Alexander Grischuk (RUS), 2783
10 . Viswanathan Anand (IND), 2783

The top 10 of 128 players participating in World Cup 2017 looks like another edition of "Grand Rapid Tour". Magnus Carlsen participation in Tbilisi is a pleasant surprise, however he was rather quickly eliminated in round 3, by Bu Xiangzhi! So, instead of having another "familiar" (read= boring) line up for World Cup quarter finals, here's what we got :

Chess World Cup 2017 - Quarter Finals Pairings - Tbilisi

Peter Svidler vs Maxime Vachier Lagrave
Vassily Ivanchuk vs Levon Aronian
Wesley So vs Vladimir Fedoseev
Richard Rapport vs Ding Liren

The pairing provoke some interesting commentaries:

The "Grand Rapid Tour-ist" chess players, left only three names : Wesley So, Levon Aronian and Maxime Vachier-Lagrave. Every body is happy to have Levon Aronian joined the party. Levon won World Cup in 2005, twelve years ago, as his recent interview, he intended to hardly reprise this achievement in Tbilisi. However he also admit he got serious nervous condition to deal off in this world cup. For Levon, his chances in Candidate tournament is by winning this World Cup. In round 4, Levon won a human-hard endgame against Daniil Dubov by great difficulty. He also lacked of t-shirt to be wear in this tournament. The worst worry is, his quarter final opponent is an on-form Vassily Ivanchuk.

Vassily Ivanchuk and Peter Svidler are the senior delegation for 2017 World Cup quarter finalist. Ivanchuk is on the top of this roller coaster performances. He won quite easy against his four previous opponents, including Anish Giri and Vladimir Kramnik. Peter Svidler on the other hand, is a top seed in his bracket. so Peter defeated four lower rated opponents, his most challenging can be said against Bu Xiangzhi. In which he survived a coffee house battle against with.

Partai Catur Peter Svilder vs Bu Xiangzhi 1-0, Tbilisi 2017


Peter will wrestle against Maxime Vachier Lagrave in quarter final. Maxime will be on the better side according to elo rating tough. He is a regular participant of Grand Chess Tour. While Peter enjoy his coffee after won the second rapid tie break game, Maxime must suffered a mental pressure, in how to survive a bishop vs rook ending against Alexander Grischuk, the 2nd 10 minute semi-blitz tie break game.

The middle game that led to sole rook vs bishop endgame, duly drew by Maxime Vachier-Lagrave. Alexandr Grischuk vs Maxime Vachier-Lagrave , Tbilisi 2017

Partai Catur Alexander Grischuk vs Maxime Vachier-Lagrave 1/2-1/2, Tbilisi 2017



The time also has come, when Wesley So is the highest rated player still in World Cup and fighting at the moment. Wesley So deserved all this glory as he already demonstrated that a self taught chess player is able to stay in top ten for years. He is also the only American guy survived the tournament. The North American send a pack of chess players, some did not even arrived in Tbilisi, some left because of wrong costume. The rest are duly sent off by their opponents, including Hikaru Nakamura and Fabiano Caruana. Wesley So is not among them. Wesley will fight Vladimir Fedoseev. 

Vladimir Fedoseev , Владимир Васильевич Федосеев, born February 16, 1995. He was only four years younger than Magnus Carlsen. Magnus won World Championship when he is 23 old. Fedoseev will need to win this World Cup and won the Candidate Tournament, then defeated Magnus Carlsen next year to won the World Champion in 23 as well. Fedoseev is obviously one of the brightest star youngster at this moment. He won 2017 Aeroflot Open, well, that's all we can said at this moment. Vladimir Fedoseev is a prospective player for new Grand Rapid Tour cycle, future chess talent. Fedoseev need only to upset Wesley So....

The other youngster is Richard Rapport, who even one year younger than Fedoseev at 22 years old. Richard is the ambassador of Eastern Europe chess talent in this quarter final. He is also the symbol of chess tactic because of his aggressive , ultra un-orthodox chess style. He is the Western version of Wei Yi, in which he defeated in round 2, and somehow, the upgrade version of Jobava Baadur in term of crazy coffee house chess. Richard is actually the underdog on his pairing, as Ding Liren is the higher rated guy.

In fact, Ding Liren (丁立人) is 100 point higher than Richard, a 2777 vs 2675 in this case. Ding Liren is also the highest rated Chinese chess player in the field. Here the other Chinese super strong GMs that came to Tbilisi :  Wei Yi, Yu Yangyi, Li Chao, Bu Xiangzhi, Wang Hao, Hao Yifan, and two  soon to be Wei Yi ver 2.0 : Liu Guanchu and Dai Changren.

The expected semi finalist occurred from these quarter final matches are, expectedly, : Maxime Vachier Lagrave vs Levon Aronian, and Wesley So vs .... well, Ding Liren. However any other semi final pairing are welcome. Sensation and interest will arise for such pairings : Peter Svidler vs Ivanchuk, or Fedoseev vs Richard Rapport! In short, let's enjoy the FIDE World Cup quarter final 2017, tomorrow  15 September 2017.

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Semarak Quarter Final Chess World Cup 2017

Piala Dunia Catur 2017 di kota Tbilisi akhirnya menginjak ke round 5, yaitu babak perempat final. Delapan pecatur yang lolos adalah :

Peter Svidler vs Maxime Vachier Lagrave
Vassily Ivanchuk vs Levon Aronian
Wesley So vs Vladimir Fedoseev
Richard Rapport vs Ding Liren

Dari pecatur unggulan top ten, tertinggallah, Wesley So (USA), Levon Aronian (Armenia) and Maxime Vachier-Lagrave (Prancis). Kehadiran mereka disambut oleh dua pecatur kawakan, Peter Svidler and Vassily Ivanchuk. Menarik disimak adalah lolosnya Ivanchuk di perempat final ini. Ivanchuk yang sukanya naik turun prestasinya, bisa dipastikan sedang dalam kondisi "naik" di turnamen World Cup ini.

pecatur flamboyan si anak mude dari Georgia, Jobava Baadur akhirnya kandas di tangan Wesley So, round 4 FIDE Chess World Cup. Photo Anastasia Karlovich

Sedangkan dua pecatur lainnya adalah bibit bebet muda catur , yang satu dari Russia, Vladimir Fedoseev and dari Hungaria Richard Rapport. Keduanya baru berusia 23 dan 22 tahun. Lebih menarik adalah sosok Richard Rapport yang belakangan dikenal sebagai pecatur taktik yang liar dan tajam.

Tentunya dunia musti diwakili oleh satu pemain China. Ding Liren adalah pecatur China yang lolos ke perempat final, mengalahkan rekan senegaranya Wang Hao. Dari sekian banyak stok pecatur muda tangguh, Ding Liren akan mewakili kekuatan federasi catur China untuk mencoba merebut Piala Dunia catur untuk pertama kalinya, sekaligus pecatur China pertama yang mampu tampil di turnamen kandidat catur, versi pria.

Chess World Cup 2017 digelar di negara Georgia kota Tbilisi. Biasanya siaran LIVE segera tampil sekitar pukul 18:00 WIB. Official Website. Simak ulasan nya di :




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