Quarterfinals

     The World Cup is getting more and more interesting day by day!
     The quarterfinalists are: Evgeny Tomashevsky, Gata Kamsky, Dmitry Andreikin, Peter Svidler, Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, Fabiano Caruana, Vladimir Kramnik and Anton Korobov.
     There were many interesting games, fighted until the last drop of blood mini-matches (they can hardly  be called "mini" when the tie-breaks can offer a 7 games show).
     There was only one decisive game yesterday, Kramnik winning against Korobov.

Round 5

5.1

5.2

5.3

5.4

5.5

5.6

5.7

5.8

5.9

Total

Tomashevsky, Evgeny

½

*

*

*

*

*

*

*

*

0½

½

*

*

*

*

*

*

*

*

0½

Kamsky, Gata

Andreikin, Dmitry

½

*

*

*

*

*

*

*

*

0½

½

*

*

*

*

*

*

*

*

0½

Svidler, Peter

Vachier-Lagrave, Maxime

½

*

*

*

*

*

*

*

*

0½

½

*

*

*

*

*

*

*

*

0½

Caruana, Fabiano

Kramnik, Vladimir

1

*

*

*

*

*

*

*

*

1

0

*

*

*

*

*

*

*

*

0

Korobov, Anton

   




























       As Korobov told himself, it was a big "suffering" game- it was very unpleasant to play with black and none of the moves that were played were easy.
     The ones I rooted for are already out, so from the ones who are left, I think that the favorites are Vladimir Kramnik and Peter Svidler-who's the reigning FIDE World Cup Champion, having beaten Alexander Grischuk in the final in 2011.
     The 2nd classic game of the quarterfinals will be disputed today. You can follow it with live commentaries here: http://www.chessworldcup2013.com/live
     I hope for some more bloody battles!

Playing with monkeys

     The traditional "Tradewise Gibraltar Chess Festival" has started on the 21st of January. It's one of the strongest Chess Opens in the World and it usually gathers such renown names as Ivanchuk, Kamsky, Adams, Short. This year's edition hasn't been an exception.

Top seed of the tournament- Vassily Ivanchuk- 2758

1	GM	Ivanchuk Vassily	UKR	2758
2	GM	Kamsky Gata	USA	2740
3	GM	Adams Michael	ENG	2725
4	GM	Wojtaszek Radoslaw	POL	2723
5	GM	Vachier-Lagrave Maxime	FRA	2711
6	GM	Navara David	CZE	2710
7	GM	Shirov Alexei	LAT	2708
8	GM	Le Quang Liem	VIE	2705
9	GM	Vitiugov Nikita	RUS	2694
10	GM	Short Nigel D	ENG	2690

     Here are the Top 10 players from the starting rating list. You can find the full one here: http://chess-results.com/tnr89507.aspx?lan=11

     Though there have been played only 2 rounds, there are already several surprises. The biggest upset of the 2nd round was the loss of Nigel Short (2690) against Teran Alvarez Ismael (2399). Here you can see the game:

Nigel Short

     There's also a nice photo gallery on the official site of the event: https://picasaweb.google.com/MonRoi.Inc/2013TradewiseGibraltarChessFestivalRound1And2?authuser=0&feat=embedwebsite#5836460269774758722

     The main attraction of Gibraltar are the very friendly monkeys that one can see almost everywhere.

The former Women's World Champion and the heroine of the last year's edition of Gibraltar

    Hope to see some interesting fighting :)