Chess World Cup 2009


The Chess World Cup 2009 was a 128-player single-elimination tournament, played between 20 November and 14 December 2009, in Khanty-Mansiysk, Russia. The Cup winner qualified for the Candidates stage of the World Chess Championship 2012. Boris Gelfand defeated Ruslan Ponomariov in the final.
The winner of the Chess [World Cup 2007], Gata Kamsky, was defeated by Wesley So in the third round.

Format

Matches consisted of two games. Players had 90 minutes for the first 40 moves followed by 30 minutes for the rest of the game with an addition of 30 seconds per move from move one. If the match was tied after the regular games, tie breaks were played on the next day. The format for the tie breaks was as follows:
  • Four rapid games were played. According to chess journalist Mig Greengard, a "high FIDE official" admitted off the record that this unusual decision of playing four games instead of two was actually a mistake that was spotted too late to correct it.
  • If the score was still tied, up to five pairs of blitz games were played. If one player led after a pair of blitz games, that player was declared the winner. This was a change from previous events, for instance at the Chess World Cup 2007 the match went to an armageddon game after a single pair of blitz games.
  • If the score was still tied after five pairs of blitz games, a single armageddon game would be played. White had 5 minutes, black had 4 minutes, and both players had three-second increments beginning with move 61. Ultimately, no Armageddon games were played, as all matches were decided before that stage.

Participants

The players qualified for the event were:
  1. , 2758
  2. , 2758
  3. , 2754
  4. , 2750
  5. , 2748
  6. , 2739
  7. , 2739
  8. , 2736
  9. , 2736
  10. , 2734
  11. , 2729
  12. , 2723
  13. , 2719
  14. , 2719
  15. , 2719
  16. , 2718
  17. , 2718
  18. , 2715
  19. , 2708
  20. , 2708
  21. , 2707
  22. , 2706
  23. , 2700
  24. , 2697
  25. , 2696
  26. , 2695
  27. , 2695
  28. , 2694
  29. , 2692
  30. , 2689
  31. , 2682
  32. , 2680
  33. , 2677
  34. , 2676
  35. , 2672
  36. , 2671
  37. , 2668
  38. , 2666
  39. , 2666
  40. , 2664
  41. , 2664
  42. , 2664
  43. , 2662
  44. , 2655
  45. , 2654
  46. , 2653
  47. , 2653
  48. , 2653
  49. , 2652
  50. , 2652
  51. , 2652
  52. , 2652
  53. , 2651
  54. , 2645
  55. , 2644
  56. , 2643
  57. , 2642
  58. , 2642
  59. , 2640
  60. , 2640
  61. , 2637
  62. , 2636
  63. , 2634
  64. , 2631
  65. , 2629
  66. , 2629
  67. , 2628
  68. , 2628
  69. , 2626
  70. , 2625
  71. , 2624
  72. , 2624
  73. , 2623
  74. , 2623
  75. , 2622
  76. , 2621
  77. , 2620
  78. , 2619
  79. , 2619
  80. , 2618
  81. , 2615
  82. , 2612
  83. , 2612
  84. , 2607
  85. , 2606
  86. , 2606
  87. , 2606
  88. , 2605
  89. , 2605
  90. , 2603
  91. , 2603
  92. , 2603
  93. , 2602
  94. , 2602
  95. , 2596
  96. , 2591
  97. , 2590
  98. , 2589
  99. , 2588
  100. , 2583
  101. , 2578
  102. , 2574
  103. , 2572
  104. , 2567, IM
  105. , 2562
  106. , 2561
  107. , 2553
  108. , 2552
  109. , 2551
  110. , 2539
  111. , 2533, IM
  112. , 2529
  113. , 2527
  114. , 2525
  115. , 2522
  116. , 2516
  117. , 2508
  118. , 2504
  119. , 2501
  120. , 2500
  121. , 2497, IM
  122. , 2493
  123. , 2484
  124. , 2472, IM
  125. , 2469, IM
  126. , 2420, IM
  127. , 2405, IM
  128. , 2404, IM
All players are grandmasters unless indicated otherwise. The pairings of the 1st round were announced on 2 November 2009, immediately after the publishing of the November rating list. The list of players who declined participation: Anand, Carlsen, Topalov, Aronian, Kramnik, Leko, Adams (chess player)|Adams], Nakamura, and Ni Hua. Among them, Anand, Topalov and Aronian had already qualified for the Candidates or the Championship match; Carlsen, Kramnik, Nakamura, Adams and Ni had committed to play in the London Chess Classic on 7–15 December 2009.
Qualification paths:

Summary of results

Round one

In the first round of the tournament all of the top 30 seeded players progressed, with the sole exception of Slovakian Sergei Movsesian, who was eliminated by the Chinese 113th seed Yu Yangyi. Judit Polgár achieved a walkover, due to her opponent Duško Pavasovič withdrawing from the competition due to injury. The round was notable for the 16-game match between Pavel Tregubov and Varuzhan Akobian: after each winning with white over the first two days, their tiebreak held a marathon of four rapid games followed by ten blitz games. The two players fought until near 1 a.m. local time for the right to face Ruslan Ponomariov in the second round, Akobian finally achieving the decisive two-point advantage in the final bout before an Armageddon game would have been required.

Round two

The first day of Round Two included a number of upsets. The highest seed to have won their match was Alexander Grischuk, as Peter Svidler, Alexander Morozevich, Teimour Radjabov and Vassily Ivanchuk all lost and the remaining highest seeds drew. On the next day of matches, Morozevich, Radjabov and Ivanchuk were all eliminated, and exactly half of the matches went to tie-breaks. Of the 32 players to reach Round Three, all but seven players had been originally seeded in the top 32.

Round three

Sixteen-year-old Wesley So, who had upset Ivanchuk in Round Two, achieved another major upset, defeating Gata Kamsky, the 2007 winner, 1½-½. In the second rapid tiebreak, Chinese players Wang Yue and Li Chao were not at their seats for the start of the round, and lost the game, and their matches against Bacrot and Gashimov.

Round four

This round marked the departure of most of the youthful players from the World Cup. Wesley So, Fabiano Caruana and Maxime Vachier-Lagrave were eliminated by the more experienced Malakhov, Gashimov and Gelfand respectively, leaving Sergey Karjakin the only under-20 player left in contention.

Results, rounds 5–7

Final, 10–14 December

SeedNameRating1234R1R2R3R4TB1TB2TB3TB4Total
1Boris Gelfand>'Boris Gelfand'|ISR