World Chess Cup Round 5, Game 1: Kramnik Beats Korobov, Others Draw

Alexandra Kosteniuk's Chess Blog for Daily Chess News and Trivia (c) 2013

Hi everyone, 

The hall at the World Chess Cup in Tromso is virtually empty if you compare with the fact that 128 players had battled for luck a few days back. Only eight of those players are still "standing".

Results of Round 5, Game 1Andreikin Dmitry 2727 – Svidler Peter 2746 ½-½
Kramnik Vladimir 2784 – Korobov Anton 2720 1-0
Tomashevsky Evgeny 2709 – Kamsky Gata 2763 ½-½
Vachier-Lagrave Maxime 2719 – Caruana Fabiano 2796 ½-½

Playing with White Vladimir Kramnik defeated Anton Korobov and took the lead in their match. The other games finished in draws.

Tomashevsky and Kamsky left the playing hall quite quickly as their game finished after 16 moves. Peter Svidler drew with Black against Dmitry Andreikin, while Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, who had the white pieces against Fabiano Caruana, didn’t manage to convert his material advantage into a full point.

Vladimir Kramnik came to the playing hall less than 3 minutes before the game. Photo: Anastasiya Karlovich (Replay the Kramnik - Korobov game with Chess King)

The Russian player got a very promising position because Korobov “chose the wrong strategy in the opening”. “The plan with 16...f6 and 17...Bf7was clearly unsuccessful“, Vladimir Kramnik pointed out. Nevertheless, the former World Champion was unhappy with his play as he didn’t play precisely and gave his opponent chances. White let all of his advantage slip by playing 29.Rb7 but in time trouble the Ukrainian player didn’t take the pawn on c6 and weakened his kingside by playing 32…g6. The game lasted for another 20 moves but Anton couldn't change the evaluation or the outcome. “It was torture today”, said the Ukrainian player.

Evgeny Tomashevsky didn’t get anything with White against the Slav Defence chosen by Gata Kamsky and after 16 moves the players signed a peace agreement. After the “craziest match” in his career against Alexander Morozevich, Tomashevsky definitely wasn't in a mood to fight to bare kings today.

Maxime Vachier-Lagrave managed to put some pressure on his opponent and Fabiano Caruana preferred to give up a pawn and develop his pieces. The French player traded a few pieces in the hope of exploiting his material advantage but Black was in time to get enough activity to hold the balance.

Dmitry Andreikin chose the same variation as in the rapid game against Sergey Karjakin but Peter Svidler was prepared and didn’t allow his opponent to achieve anything in the opening. The spectators were worried about Black’s pawn structure but it seems Peter Svidler was never in danger. On the contrary, he could have tried to play for more in the final position due to the activity of his pieces, but the game finished in a draw by repetition.

The time control for each two-game match is 90 minutes for the first 40 moves followed by 30 minutes for the rest of the game, with an increment of 30 seconds per move starting from move one. If the score is equal there are two rapid chess tiebreak games, played at a rate of 25 minutes for each player with an increment of 10 seconds per move. If the score is still equal then two accelerated games will be played, with a time control of 10 min + 10 sec. If the score is still equal two more games will be played at 5 min + 3 sec. If the winner is still not determined then a final Armageddon game with 5 minutes for White and 4 minutes for Black, with a 3 sec increment after move 60, will be played. In this game Black has draw odds (i.e. he wins if the game is drawn).

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