The 128-player, $1.6m World Cup starts in Tbilisi, Georgia, at midday on Sunday and is a mighty event, a must-watch for chess fans. Magnus Carlsen, the world champion, is competing, along with 35 of the top 40 elite grandmasters.
Its format of two-game mini-matches followed by speed tie-breaks at ever-faster rates is challenging. A single error and elimination looms. The rewards at the end are $140,000 for the winner and two places in the 2018 candidates which will decide Carlsen’s next title challenger. For Russia’s Vlad Kramnik, Armenia’s Levon Aronian and America’s Hikaru Nakamura, top 10 players who have little or no chance of qualifying for the candidates via the rating list or the Fide Grand Prix, the World Cup is the last chance saloon.
Between 1998 and 2004 the biennial event acted as the Fide world championship, resulting in a split title as Garry Kasparov and Vlad Kramnik continued the old tradition of deciding the crown by a challenge match. The Fide version fell into disrepute when it was twice won by GMs ranked well below the top 10. In 2005 England’s No1, Michael Adams, had a winning position in the final game before losing in tie-breaks, a sad might-have-been. Had Adams won, everything was in place for the Cornishman to meet Kasparov for the right to challenge Kramnik in a championship unifier which would have boosted English chess.
Now the World Cup is just an exciting knockout, very popular among GMs since even first-round losers receive $4,000 for two or three days’ work. Russia fields 20 entrants, with nine each from the US and China. England’s trio of Adams, Gawain Jones and David Howell are the nation’s best but it will be an achievement if any of them gets as far as the last 16.
Past World Cups have been a launchpad for new talents. Two of the strongest, Hungary’s Richard Rapport, 20, and China’s Wei Yi, 18, are seeded to meet in the second round while the youngest, Australia’s 16-year-old Arjun Smirnov, opens against Sergey Karjakin, who won the last World Cup in 2015 and went on to challenge Carlsen.
Despite the high-risk format Carlsen is a strong favourite. He is ranked world No1 not only in classical chess but also in rapid and blitz, so is well equipped for both classical mini-matches and tie-breaks. The Norwegian, 26, starts tomorrow against Nigeria’s Oluwafemi Balogun, rated 2255 which is 100 points lower than anybody else and 567 points below Carlsen.
Carlsen has more than once stated that he believes that the World Cup format is also right for the world championship itself, though he has not offered to put his title on the line in Tbilisi. Even with his support, the chances of a change are remote as long as the current challenge match system continues to attract sponsors and high profile publicity.
Meanwhile chalk up midday for the next three weeks as the time to turn on your internet coverage. The most popular viewing site is chess24.com, where there will be move-by-move computer assessments of every game plus grandmaster commentaries, all live and free.
At age 52, Nigel Short is the oldest in the world top 100, as his rating fluctuates around the elite 2700 mark and he battles with Howell and Jones to be the England No2 behind Adams. Short’s latest performance, second in the strong Abu Dhabi Open, maintained his good form. The Abu Dhabi winner, GM Bassem Amin of Egypt, is set for a landmark as the 28-year-old is on the brink of becoming the first player from Africa to surpass 2700.
Short’s win below is a case of staying uncastled while pushing the g and h pawns, a plan which has taken off in GM chess in the past 5-10 years. Black was still in the game until 19...f6? simultaneously losing a pawn and weakening his king. Short soon pinpointed the error by 25 Nxe6! when if Rf7 26 Ng5 Rf8 27 Bc4+ wins. Black instead gave up his queen for two pieces but this soon proved hopeless and he resigned faced with imminent mate.
Nigel Short v Shardul Gagare, Abu Dhabi 2017
1 d4 Nf6 2 c4 e6 3 Nc3 Bb4 4 Qc2 c5 5 dxc5 O-O 6 a3 Bxc5 7 Nf3 Be7 8 e4 d6 9 Be2 Nbd7 10 Bf4 Nh5 11 Be3 a6 12 Nd4 Nhf6 13 g4 Ne5 14 Rg1 Qc7 15 g5 Nfd7 16 b3 Nc6 17 h4Nxd4 18 Bxd4 b5 19 Qb2 f6? 20 cxb5 axb5 21 Nxb5 Qb7 22 gxf6 Nxf6 23 Rc1 Qd7 24 Nc7 Rb8 25 Nxe6! Qxe6 26 Bc4 g6 27 Bxe6+ Bxe6 28 c7 Bd8 29 Ra7 Rxb3 30 Qc2 Nh5 31 e5 Nf4 32 Rg3 Rb5 33 exd6 e8 34 Be3 Rd5 35 Qc6 Nd3+ 36 Kf1 Rf8 37 Rf3! Ne5 38 Rxf8+ Kf8 39 Bh6+ 1-0
3510 1...Qxd1+! 2 Bxd1 Re1+ 3 Kg2 Bf1+ and if 4 Kg1 Bh3 mate or if 4 Kf3 Ne5+ and Nxd7 wins.
