English Chess Forum

This 128 player tournament runs from 9 September - 2 October in Khanty Mansiysk. The Round 1 pairings are already up. Of the 64 matches, four ties immediately caught the eye.

Ding, Liren (China) v Shaun Press (PNG)
Gawain Jones v Diego Flores (ARG)
Michael Adams v Aravindh (IND)
Luke McShane v Delgado Ramirez (PAR)

No Carlsen or Caruana so Ding Liren is the nominal favourite at the moment being the world number three but in a KO, as we know, anything can happen and one bad move will throw you out. This format doesn't always produce great chess but they are usually very exciting.

Chris Rice wrote: ↑

Sat Aug 10, 2019 11:25 pm

Ding, Liren (China) v Shaun Press (PNG)

How did Shaun Press qualify?

Gary Lane has also made the trip to Siberia, but he's an IM.

Roger de Coverly wrote: ↑

Sat Aug 10, 2019 11:43 pm

How did Shaun Press qualify?

He came second in the Oceania Zonal, presumably the winner didn't take up his place.

On qualifications, must admit I had no idea how Shaun qualified so thanks to Nick for clarifying. A couple of the world's most promising juniors, Sarin and Abdussattorov, were given wild cards to play:

Cori (Peru) v Sarin (IND)
Matlakov (RUS) v Abdussattorov (UZB)

Now on another matter there are three Israeli's in this tournament and Sutovsky has essentially stated this morning on social media that if anyone refuses to play them (all eyes of course on the three Iranians) then FIDE have adopted sanctions to deal with this. It's possible, but unlikely, in this tournament that such a match up will happen but it must happen at some point in a tournament in due course and then we'll see what the political fallout is, if FIDE decide to go ahead with sanctions, which has been discussed intensely on this forum previously.

NickFaulks wrote: ↑

Sat Aug 10, 2019 11:58 pm

Roger de Coverly wrote: ↑

Sat Aug 10, 2019 11:43 pm

How did Shaun Press qualify?

He came second in the Oceania Zonal, presumably the winner didn't take up his place.

Nick is correct. GM Max Illingworth won the 2019 Zone 3.6 Zonal, and stated that he would play in the World Cup (as his last event before retiring from competitive chess). Up until a week ago I assumed that this was still the case, but was then informed he was not planning to attend. As the second place finisher in the Zonal, I was asked to go instead.

shaunpress wrote: ↑

Sun Aug 11, 2019 9:33 am

Nick is correct. GM Max Illingworth won the 2019 Zone 3.6 Zonal, and stated that he would play in the World Cup (as his last event before retiring from competitive chess). Up until a week ago I assumed that this was still the case, but was then informed he was not planning to attend. As the second place finisher in the Zonal, I was asked to go instead.

I normally remain strictly neutral in relation to top level tournaments, particularly in respect of games involving Grand Chess Tour participants such as Ding Liren.

However, on this occasion I am going to stretch a point and wish you the best of luck.

Chris Rice wrote: ↑

Sun Aug 11, 2019 9:08 am

It's possible, but unlikely, in this tournament that such a match up will happen but it must happen at some point in a tournament in due course and then we'll see what the political fallout is

The Grand Swiss in October looks like a promising and high profile opportunity.

Good luck to Shaun and any forumnites playing or arbiting.

Nick Grey wrote: ↑

Sun Aug 11, 2019 1:07 pm

Good luck to Shaun and any forumnites playing or arbiting.

The list of arbiters contains some familiar names and some unfamiliar ones (unfamiliar to me anyway), but no members of this Forum.

https://khantymansiysk2019.fide.com/en/ ... /arbiters/

There is a possibility of Gelfand's playing an Iranian as early as round 3, but the Iranian in question would have to get out of Aronian's section of the draw.

IM Jack Rudd wrote: ↑

Sun Aug 11, 2019 5:48 pm

There is a possibility of Gelfand's playing an Iranian as early as round 3, but the Iranian in question would have to get out of Aronian's section of the draw.

Maghsoodloo is the #59 seed. The #59 has won 13 matches in the 9 tournaments with this format over the years, which doesn't sound very impressive. However, that is an outlier in the seeds around it:
Seed 50: 13
Seed 51: 12
Seed 52: 9
Seed 53: 7
Seed 54: 6
Seed 55: 4
Seed 56: 6
Seed 57: 6
Seed 58: 6
Seed 59: 13
Seed 60+: A few with 7 wins, but no more.

59 has always bumped into 6 in the last 64 when 59 wins in Round 1 (surprisingly, 59 has an 8-1 record v 70); 6 has never lost in Round 1. The overall record between the two seeds is 5-3 to 6. The consequence of this is that 6 has underperformed relative to its neighbouring seeds too.

The previous matchups are:
2004 Short lost to Krasenkow
2005 Shirov beat Katronias
2009 Ivanchuk lost to So
2011 Grischuk beat Feller
2013 Nakamura beat Safarli
2015 Kramnik beat Bruzon
2017 Mamedyarov lost to Kuzubov

So historically at least, it has been surprisingly likely that the 59 seed has made it as far as Round 3!

Despite 59 holding its side of the bargain, 59 v 38 has happened before on only one occasion - in 2017, Kuzubov bumped into Wang Hao.

What do you mean, better things to do with my time?

Alex Holowczak wrote: ↑

Mon Sep 09, 2019 8:58 pm

What do you mean, better things to do with my time?

As the topic is also being discussed in another thread, you could always use some more of your time posting there as well.

Coverage of Round 1 Game 1 starts at 11am on Chess 24. If you fancy a little flutter you can get 33/1 odds of Shaun advancing to the next round against Ding Liren who is currently 5/2 favourite to win the entire event.

Chris Rice wrote: ↑

Tue Sep 10, 2019 9:05 am

If you fancy a little flutter you can get 33/1 odds of Shaun advancing to the next round against Ding Liren

Or PM me if you would like better odds than that. Sorry, Shaun, I shall be watching your games and do expect to see a good fight.

Mickey's opening is an interesting thing, looks like a Snake Benoni with a few extra tempi.