World Chess Cup Last 16 Preview |
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| Tuesday, 20 August 2013 | ||||||||||||||||
 by GM Daniel Gormally  The standard of the World Chess Cup, which is going on at the moment, is quite astonishing. Even in blitz very few mistakes are being made. Today Alexander Morozevich came through his match against Nikita Vitiugov, which could only be described as a brutal encounter. The final blitz game was of a much higher level than you would find in most classical time controls; Vitiugov's stubborn resistance finally cracked when he allowed a mating net in a rook and pawn ending. It is rare that you see both players "in the zone" as they call it at the same time, but that certainly was the case there. Anyway here is my rough preview of tomorrow's last of 16 ties: Tomashevsky- Morozevich This is bound to be a tough tie as "the professor" Toma, has just had the result of his life by putting out top seed and pre-tournament favourite Levon Aronian. However I think there is something of the eagles about Morozevich in this event and he is now my tip to go on and win the whole thing. Win for Morozevich. Kamsky-Mamedyarov Also a tough tie with seemingly little between these players on paper. However Kamsky is an extremely difficult player to beat in a match situation, and I think he'll just about edge it. Win for Kamsky. Le Quang Liem-Svidler Although on paper Svidler should be the favourite I'm not so sure. In fact I was very impressed by the calmness of Liem during his match against Grischuk and I feel he could give Svidler some serious problems as well. I'm going for a minor upset here. Win for Quang Liem. Karjakin-Andrekin Karjakin will be desperate to get to the latter stages here, as the winner (both finalists - Pogonina.com) is sure to get a place in the Candidates. Really Sergey will want a pop at a big money match with Magnus. For my money he's just about favourite to get past the tough Andrekin. Win for Karjakin. Caruana- Granda Zuniga Granda has been the sensation of the event, upsetting the young Dutch star Giri. Granda has a reputation in chess for someone who is immensely talented but knows little theory. However he is really up against it here against Caruana. I believe that the Italian will emerge over the next 2-3 years to be the one to challenge Carlsen, and while the heart says Julio, the head most definitely says Fabio. Win for Caruana. Gelfand- Vachier-Lagrave Vachier has been one of the revelations of the event so far, very easily winning all of his matches, and I think he can pull off a bit of an upset here by putting out the old war horse Gelfand. Big booming Boris relishes taking on the "computer generation" and surely the game where Vachier is White against Gelfand's Najdorf will be very interesting. However I have to give the vote to the Frenchman here- he has played the more impressive chess of the two to this point, in my opinion. Win for Vachier-Lagrave Kramnik- Ivanchuk This is a humdinger of a tie. The rumble in Tromso, the thriller in vanilla, however you like to call it... but I'm going to plump for Kramnik. Interesting that Kramnik claims he has done no special preparation for this event, as he is already qualifed for the Candidates on rating and only had to show up to ensure his participation in that event. He claims he hasn't done any... I'm not so sure. Although he has struggled to put away his opposition so far he has rarely been in trouble in any of the games, and I think he'll just play on Chucky's inevitable time trouble and ultimately come through. Win for Kramnik. Nakamura-Korobov These two players have been coming along very quietly with very little attention on them so far. The normally explosive Naka has been carefully avoiding the headlines, and has smoothly got to this stage. However he'll have his hands full with Korobov, who has looked good so far and in general is one of the most improved players around, over the last 3/4 years. But the vote must go to the American here as his brand of ultra- aggressive tactical chess should just be too much for Korobov. Naka has yet to be taken to the tie-breaks but I doubt he'll be too worried if he is- he is a speed chess player par excellence. Win for Nakamura. GM Daniel Gormally is open for chess lessons. You can contact him using this This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it Other posts by GM Danny Gormally: Why are Russians so good at chess? British Champs-2013 Ghent and now the British I'll never be fat again! Lessons learnt! The sad case of Borislav Ivanov: Part II Does Anyone Have a Cure for Anger Problems? The Depth of Chess Fundraising in chess Nurturing a Chess Prodigy The Sad Case of Borislav Ivanov 4NCL Impressions: no country for old men - Part II 4NCL Impressions: no country for old men One move, one line - Part II One move, one line Candidates Final Review & Preview of Upcoming World Championship Match Would Carlsen have beaten Capablanca?
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