World Cup Knockout 2019

[Mick Norris]

MVL through after winning a game he looked to be losing for a while

[John McKenna]

Go MVL & Yu

MVL got through then and Yu-Vitiugov going to Armageddon.

[JustinHorton]

And the chess going to pot.

[LawrenceCooper]

Go MVL & Yu

MVL got through then and Yu-Vitiugov going to Armageddon.

Yu through, but not altogether smoothly!

[Jonathan Rogers]

A pity for Aronian but both players seem likeable and one of these players has perhaps played enough Candidates', while the other hasn't played one.

[John McKenna]

'Thus, Armageddon was the only resource left to put an end to the match. Vitiugov had the white pieces and saw how his opponent inexplicably gave away two pawns as early as move 9. The Russian had a winning position by move 17, but... " (Chessbase News)

I'm not the only spectator to be confused by this ramified event - Yu had white and Vitiugov black in their round 5.9 decider.

[Mick Norris]

Interesting then we have Ding v Yu meaning at least 1 Chinese player in the Candidates with Ding almost certain to get the rating spot regardless

I would like to see MVL beat Radjabov to qualify too

[Chris Rice]

Final few moves in Yu-Vitiugov

[Mick Norris]

Semi-finals, or more importantly Candidates qualifiers, underway

Ding, Liren vs Yu, Yangyi
1. c4 e5 2. g3 c6 3. Nf3 e4 4. Nd4 d5 5. d3 Bc5 6. Nb3 Bb4+ 7. Bd2 Bxd2+ 8. Qxd2 dxc4 9. dxc4 f5 10. Nc3 Qxd2+ 11. Kxd2 Nf6 12. f3

Vachier-Lagrave, Maxime vs Radjabov, Teimour
1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bb5 g6 4. Bxc6 bxc6 5. d4 cxd4 6. Qxd4 f6 7. Qa4 Bg7 8. O-O Nh6 9. c4 Qb6 10. Nc3 O-O 11. Re1 *

[Mick Norris]

Both games drawn

[Chris Rice]

Something looks to have gone wrong for MVL in Game 2. After 11 moves he is worse and his body language suggests he's out of his prep.

[Mick Norris]

Radjabov, Teimour vs Vachier-Lagrave, Maxime

1. Nf3 Nf6 2. c4 c5 3. Nc3 d5 4. cxd5 Nxd5 5. e3 Nxc3 6. dxc3 Qc7 7. e4 e6 8. Bd3 Be7 9. Qe2 Bd7 10. O-O O-O 11. e5 Bc6 12. Ng5 h6 13. Bh7+ Kh8 14. Bc2 *

[Mick Norris]

Yu, Yangyi vs Ding, Liren looks familiar

1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 e6 3. Nc3 Bb4 4. Qc2 d5 5. a3 Bxc3+ 6. Qxc3 O-O 7. Nf3 dxc4 8. Qxc4 b6 9. Bg5 Bb7 10. Rd1 Nbd7 11. Ne5 h6 12. Bh4 c5 13. Nxd7 Qxd7 14. Bxf6 gxf6 15. dxc5 Qc7 16. h4 Rfd8 17. Rxd8+ Rxd8 18. Rh3 Rd5 19. Rg3+ Kf8 20. Rc3 Rxc5 21. Qb4 Kg7

[LawrenceCooper]

Yu-Ding drawn.

[Kevin Thurlow]

I hate to criticize MVL as he is a lot better than me, and I may be talking complete rubbish, but Nxc3 doesn't look the principled move, and allowing e5 doesn't look great.