Gata Kamsky Wins World Cup 2007

 

Kamsky Wins 2.5-1.5 Against Shirov and He Is Definitely Back on Top

Gata Kamsky, the strongest American player won the World Cup 2007 held in Khanty-Mansiysk after drawing the last game of the final against Alexei Shirov. Kamsky won the cup without suffering a single defeat and only needed tie-breaks to advance against the Russian grandmaster Peter Svidler. Kamsky did not only win the trophy that weighs 15 kg but also he now has a chance to play for the world championship since winner of the world cup gets the right to play a world championship candidates match against Veselin Topalov.

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Former News

How Did Kamsky Win the World Cup 2007?

1.Round: GM Ahmed Adly 1.5 - 0.5

2.Round: GM Boris Avrukh 1.5 - 0.5

3.Round: GM Kiril Georgiev 1.5 - 0.5

4.Round: GM Peter Svidler 1-1 (1.5 - 0.5 rapid)

5.Round: GM Ruslan Ponamariov 1.5 - 0.5

6.Round: GM Magnus Carlsen 1.5 - 0.5

7.Round: GM Alexei Shirov 2.5 - 1.5

Final Chance for Shirov

The final of the World Cup 2007 is being played between Alexei Shirov and Gata Kamsky, both were former contenders for the world championship final. The clash between the two players, Shirov associated with an attacking play as his autobiography "Fire on Board" would suggest, and Kamsky who made a comeback to the elite after his first campaign back in 1990s is very interesting. The first game ended as a draw despite, the computers found a very long win for Shirov which is practically impossible to find on board while in the second game the American took his chance and won the game with his e and f pawns despite black's pressure. The third game ended as a draw which means Kamsky is now leading with 2-1 and Shirov has to win the final game to reach rapid games to take his chance.

Gata Kamsky and Alexei Shirov Reached the Final in World Cup 2007

                         

After the tie-break matches, Alexei Shirov reached finals after winning the second rapid game against his Ukrainian opponent Sergey Karjakin. Gata Kamsky, another uncompromising player did not let the extremely gifted Norwegian Magnus Carlsen to reach the finals in World Cup 2007 by winning the second game of the match where winning the exchange proved sufficient for the former world championship contender.

The first game between Gata Kamsky and Alexei Shirov is going to be on December 13.

Final Four in World Cup: Youth or the Experience ?

                                    

In the quarter finals of the World Cup 2007, the last remaining ex-champion, Ruslan Ponamariov was eliminated by Gata Kamsky, another contender for the title back in 1996 while Karjakin had to wait until the second rapid game to eliminate the reigning champion of Russia, Evgeny Alekseev. Alexei Shirov eliminated the other remaining Russian in the event, Dmitry Jakovenko after winning both games. Norwegian Magnus Carlsen eliminated Ivan Cheparinov, the second of whom the winner of this world cup will be playing a Candidates' Final match.

The semi final pairings are like the clash of the generations since Kamsky is going to play Carlsen while Karjakin is going to play Shirov who has not seen any tie-break games so far.

Quarter Finals

 

In the fourth round Levon Aronian, the last winner of the World Cup got eliminated by the rising Russian star Dmitry Jakovenko while the other young Russian Evgeny Alekeev eliminated Evgeny Bareev.  Another upset of the round was the elimination of the top seed Vassily Ivanchuk by former European Champion Nisipeanu. Gata Kamsky was the winner of the clash between the other superpower, Peter Svidler. Karjakin and Carlsen already advanced to the quarter final after winning against Nisipeanu and Adams respectively. Cheparinov eliminated the Chinese grandmaster Yue Wang who just passed the 2700 bareer.

The pairings of the round 5 is as follows:

Karjakin-Alekseev    Jakovenko-Shirov   Ponamariov-Kamsky   Carlsen-Cheparinov

 

Ivanchuk and Mamedyarov Eliminated in Round 3

2007 World Cup is being held in Khanty-Mansiysk, Russia between 22 November - 18 December with the participation of 126 (128 was the expected number since it is a knock-out event) elite players. The first round matches are going to be complete today. This event will be the part of the new world championship system and the winner of the event is going to play the Candidates' Final Match.

In the third round one of the top seeds of the event, Azerbaijani super grandmaster Shakhriyar Mamedyarov was knocked out by the Bulgarian grandmaster Ivan Cheparinov who has been performing very highly in the recent tournaments. Kamsky, Shirov, Adams(who eliminated Gurevich in round 2, the only Turkish player in the World Cup), Carlsen, Alekseev,Karjakin, Aronian and Jakovenko are the ones that succeeded in advancing the fourth round.

In the first round, Pavel Eljanov got eliminated by Enamul Hossain (2514) while Baramidze (2569) eliminated Nigel Short from United Kingdom. The other upset of the initial round was the elimination of the former world champion Alexander Khalifman by Vladimir Belov (2587).

In the second round, former European champion Macieja from Poland(2606) eliminated the Azeri superstar Teimur Radjabov while former world champion and 2005 World Cup finalist Ruslan Ponamariov had difficult times against the Chinese grandmaster Wang Hao before advancing to the next round. Another close contest was between Xiangzhi Bu and Alexander Motlyev which ended as in favour of Bu. The second ex-world champion that was not able to escape the cruel way things run in knock-out was Rustam Kasımdzhanov who was eliminated by Kiril Georgiev.

GM Mikhail Gurevich is the only player to represent Turkey and he managed to eliminate American grandmaster Gregoy Kaidanov despite the two draws in slow games, but becoming victorious in the rapid  games.