The Chess World Cup 2009 was a 128-player

single-elimination tournament A single-elimination, knockout, or sudden death tournament is a type of elimination tournament where the loser of each match-up is immediately eliminated from the tournament. Each winner will play another in the next round, until the final matc ...

, played between 20 November and 14 December 2009, in

Khanty-Mansiysk Khanty-Mansiysk ( rus, Ха́нты-Манси́йск, Khánty-Mansíysk, lit. ''Khanty-Mansi Town''; Khanty: , ''Jomvoćś''; Mansi: , ''Abga'') is a city and the administrative center of Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Okrug–Yugra, Russia. It stan ...

, Russia. The Cup winner qualified for the Candidates stage of the

World Chess Championship 2012 The World Chess Championship 2012 was a chess match between the defending World Champion Viswanathan Anand of India and Boris Gelfand of Israel, winner of the 2011 Candidates Tournament. After sixteen games, including four rapid games, Anand ...

Boris Gelfand Boris Gelfand ( he, בוריס אברמוביץ' גלפנד; be, Барыс Абрамавіч Гельфанд, Barys Abramavich Hel'fand; russian: Борис Абрамович Гельфанд, Boris Abramovich Gel'fand; born 24 June 1968) ...

defeated

Ruslan Ponomariov Ruslan Olehovych Ponomariov ( uk, Русла́н Оле́гович Пономарьо́в; born 11 October 1983) is a Ukrainian chess grandmaster. He was FIDE World Chess Champion from 2002 to 2004. He won the Ukrainian Chess Championship in ...

in the final. The winner of the

Chess World Cup 2007 The Chess World Cup 2007 served as a qualification tournament for the World Chess Championship 2010. It was held as a 128-player single-elimination tournament, between 24 November and 16 December 2007, in Khanty-Mansiysk, Russia. In an event att ...

Gata Kamsky Gata Kamsky ( tt-Cyrl, Гата Камский, italics=no; russian: Гата Камский; born June 2, 1974) is a Soviet-born American chess grandmaster, and a five-time U.S. champion. Kamsky reached the final of the FIDE World Chess Cha ...

, was defeated by

Wesley So Wesley Barbossa So (born October 9, 1993) is a Filipino and American chess grandmaster and 3-time U.S. Chess Champion (in 2017, 2020, and 2021). He is also a three-time Philippine Chess Champion. On the March 2017 FIDE rating list, he was ran ...

in the third round.

Format

Matches consisted of two games (except for the final, which consisted of four). Players had 90 minutes for the first 40 moves followed by 30 minutes for the rest of the game with an addition of 30 seconds per move from move one. If the match was tied after the regular games, tie breaks were played on the next day. The format for the tie breaks was as follows: * Four rapid games (25 minutes plus 10 second

increment Increment or incremental may refer to: * Incrementalism, a theory (also used in politics as a synonym for gradualism) * Increment and decrement operators, the operators ++ and -- in computer programming * Incremental computing * Incremental backu ...

) were played. According to chess journalist

Mig Greengard Michael "Mig" Greengard (born 9 June 1969 in Northern California, USA) is an American chess author and journalist who lives in New York City. Greengard also maintains the official English website of the Russian pro-democracy coalition, The Other ...

, a "high FIDE official" admitted off the record that this unusual decision of playing four games instead of two was actually a mistake that was spotted too late to correct it. * If the score was still tied, up to five pairs of blitz games (5 minutes plus 3 second increment) were played. If one player led after a pair of blitz games, that player was declared the winner. This was a change from previous events, for instance at the

the match went to an armageddon game after a single pair of blitz games. * If the score was still tied after five pairs of blitz games, a single

armageddon According to the Book of Revelation in the New Testament of the Christian Bible, Armageddon (, from grc, Ἁρμαγεδών ''Harmagedōn'', Late Latin: , from Hebrew: ''Har Məgīddō'') is the prophesied location of a gathering of armies ...

game (white must win, black only needs to draw) would be played. White had 5 minutes, black had 4 minutes, and both players had three-second increments beginning with move 61. Ultimately, no Armageddon games were played, as all matches were decided before that stage.

Participants

The players qualified for the event are: # , 2758 (R) # , 2758 (R) # , 2754 (R) # , 2750 (R) # , 2748 (R) # , 2739 (R) # , 2739 (R) # , 2736 (R) # , 2736 (R) # , 2734 (R) # , 2729 (E09) # , 2723 (SF) # , 2719 (R) # , 2719 (SF) # , 2719 (R) # , 2718 (E08) # , 2718 (E08) # , 2715 (R) # , 2708 (E09) # , 2708 (R) # , 2707 (E09) # , 2706 (R) # , 2700 (R) # , 2697 (R) # , 2696 (E09) # , 2695 (E09) # , 2695 (SF) # , 2694 (E09) # , 2692 (E08) # , 2689 (E09) # , 2682 (R) # , 2680 (R) # , 2677 (E09) # , 2676 (E08) # , 2672 (Z2.1) # , 2671 (PN) # , 2668 (E08) # , 2666 (E08) # , 2666 (E08) # , 2664 (E08) # , 2664 (E09) # , 2664 (R) # , 2662 (E08) # , 2655 (E08) # , 2654 (AS) # , 2653 (Z2.4) # , 2653 (E08) # , 2653 (E09) # , 2652 (E08) # , 2652 (PN) # , 2652 (E09) # , 2652 (R) # , 2651 (E09) # , 2645 (E09) # , 2644 (E09) # , 2643 (E09) # , 2642 (PN) # , 2642 (E08) # , 2640 (Z3.3) # , 2640 (AM09) # , 2637 (E08) # , 2636 (E08) # , 2634 (E09) # , 2631 (Z3.4) # , 2629 (E08) # , 2629 (Z3.5) # , 2628 (E08) # , 2628 (E08) # , 2626 (E09) # , 2625 (E09) # , 2624 (Z2.1) # , 2624 (AS) # , 2623 (AS) # , 2623 (Z2.1) # , 2622 (E08) # , 2621 (Z2.4) # , 2620 (AS) # , 2619 (E09) # , 2619 (Z2.3) # , 2618 (E09) # , 2615 (E09) # , 2612 (E09) # , 2612 (E08) # , 2607 (Z3.4) # , 2606 (AM09) # , 2606 (AM08) # , 2606 (E08) # , 2605 (AM09) # , 2605 (Z2.3) # , 2603 (PN) # , 2603 (AS) # , 2603 (AM09) # , 2602 (E08) # , 2602 (AM09) # , 2596 (Z3.5) # , 2591 (E09) # , 2590 (E08) # , 2589 (PN) # , 2588 (AS) # , 2583 (J07) # , 2578 (J08) # , 2574 (AS) # , 2572 (Z2.1) # , 2567, IM (PN) # , 2562 (Z2.5) # , 2561 (E09) # , 2553 (AF) # , 2552 (Z3.3) # , 2551 (Z2.1) # , 2539 (AM09) # , 2533, IM (ON) # , 2529 (AS) # , 2527 (AS) # , 2525 (Z3.6) # , 2522 (AS) # , 2516 (WWC) # , 2508 (Z2.5) # , 2504 (Z3.1) # , 2501 (ON) # , 2500 (AF) # , 2497, IM (Z3.2) # , 2493 (AF) # , 2484 (ON) # , 2472, IM (AF) # , 2469, IM (AF) # , 2420, IM (Z2.2) # , 2405, IM (AF) # , 2404, IM (ON) All players are grandmasters unless indicated otherwise. The pairings of the 1st round (players were seeded according to their ratings) were announced on 2 November 2009, immediately after the publishing of the November rating list. The list of players who declined participation: Anand, Carlsen, Topalov, Aronian, Kramnik, Leko, Adams, Nakamura, and

Ni Hua Ni Hua (born May 31, 1983 in Shanghai) is a Chinese chess grandmaster and the national team captain. He is three-time national champion. In 2003, he became China's 15th Grandmaster at the age of 19. In April 2008, Ni Hua and Bu Xiangzh ...

. Among them, Anand, Topalov and Aronian had already qualified for the Candidates or the Championship match; Carlsen, Kramnik, Nakamura, Adams and Ni had committed to play in the

London Chess Classic The London Chess Classic is a chess festival held at the Olympia Conference Centre, West Kensington, London. The flagship event is a strong invitational tournament between some of the world's top grandmasters. A number of subsidiary events cov ...

on 7–15 December 2009. Qualification paths: *SF: Semi-finalist of

*WWC: Women's World Champion *J07 and J08: World Junior Champions 2007 and 2008 *R: Rating (average of July 2008 and January 2009 ratings is used) *E08 and E09: European Individual Championships 2008 and 2009 *AM08:

Pan American Chess Championship The Pan American Chess Championship, also American continental Championship is an individual chess tournament organized since 1945. First pan American championships (1945 and 1954) The first Pan American Chess Championship was held in Hollywood ...

2008 *AM09: Continental Absolute Chess Championship Americas 2009 *AS:

Asian Chess Championship The Asian Chess Championship is a chess tournament open to all players from Asian chess federations ( FIDE zones from 3.1 to 3.7). It's held with the Swiss system and consists in two divisions, Open and Women's, the latter of which is reserved to f ...

2009 *AF: African Chess Championship 2009 * Z2.1, Z2.2, Z2.3, Z2.4, Z2.5, Z3.1, Z3.2, Z3.3, Z3.4, Z3.5, Z3.6: Zonal tournaments *PN: FIDE president nominee *ON: Organizer nominee

Calendar

Summary of results

Round one

In the first round of the tournament all of the top 30 seeded players progressed, with the sole exception of Slovakian

Sergei Movsesian Sergei Movsesian ( hy, Սերգեյ Մովսիսյան; born 3 November 1978) is an Armenian chess player. He was awarded the title Grandmaster by FIDE in 1997. He was a member of the gold medal-winning Armenian team at the 2011 World Team Ches ...

(16), who was eliminated by the Chinese 113th seed Yu Yangyi.

Judit Polgár Judit Polgár (born 23 July 1976) is a Hungarian chess grandmaster, generally considered the strongest female chess player of all time. In 1991, Polgár achieved the title of Grandmaster at the age of 15 years and 4 months, at the time the yo ...

achieved a walkover, due to her opponent Duško Pavasovič withdrawing from the competition due to injury.Susan Polgar blog entry, 'The WC round 1 matchups' dated November 21 2009.
/ref> The round was notable for the 16-game match between Pavel Tregubov and

Varuzhan Akobian Varuzhan Akobian ( hy, Վարուժան Հակոբյան, born 19 November 1983 in Yerevan, Soviet Union) is an Armenian-born American chess Grandmaster. Originally from Armenia, he now resides in St. Louis. He played on the bronze-medal-winni ...

: after each winning with white over the first two days, their tiebreak held a marathon of four rapid games followed by ten blitz games. The two players fought until near 1 a.m. local time for the right to face

in the second round (which would start the next morning), Akobian finally achieving the decisive two-point advantage in the final bout before an

Armageddon According to the Book of Revelation in the New Testament of the Christian Bible, Armageddon (, from grc, Ἁρμαγεδών ''Harmagedōn'', Late Latin: , from Hebrew: ''Har Məgīddō'') is the prophesied location of a gathering of armies ...

game would have been required.

Round two

The first day of Round Two included a number of upsets. The highest seed to have won their match was

Alexander Grischuk Alexander Igorevich Grischuk (born October 31, 1983) is a Russian chess grandmaster. Grischuk was the Russian champion in 2009. He is also a three-time world blitz chess champion (in 2006, 2012 and 2015). He has competed in five Candidates ...

(8), as

Peter Svidler Pyotr Veniaminovich Svidler (russian: Пётр Вениами́нович Сви́длер; born 17 June 1976), commonly known as Peter Svidler, is a Russian chess grandmaster and an eight-time Russian Chess Champion who now frequently comment ...

(3),

Alexander Morozevich Alexander Sergeyevich Morozevich (russian: Александр Серге́евич Морозе́вич, translit=Aleksandr Sergéevich Morozévich; born July 18, 1977) is a Russian chess player. He was awarded the title of Grandmaster by FIDE ...

(4),

Teimour Radjabov Teimour Boris oghlu Radjabov (also spelled Teymur Rajabov; az, Teymur Boris oğlu Rəcəbov, ; born 12 March 1987) is an Azerbaijani chess grandmaster, ranked number 18 in the world A former child prodigy, he earned the title of Grandmaste ...

(5) and Vassily Ivanchuk (6) all lost and the remaining highest seeds (Gelfand, Gashimov and Ponomariov) drew. On the next day of matches, Morozevich, Radjabov and Ivanchuk were all eliminated, and exactly half of the matches went to tie-breaks. Of the 32 players to reach Round Three, all but seven players had been originally seeded in the top 32.

Round three

Sixteen-year-old

, who had upset Ivanchuk in Round Two, achieved another major upset, defeating

, the 2007 winner, 1½-½. In the second rapid tiebreak, Chinese players Wang Yue and Li Chao were not at their seats for the start of the round, and lost the game, and their matches against Bacrot and Gashimov.

Round four

This round marked the departure of most of the youthful players from the World Cup. Wesley So (16), Fabiano Caruana (17) and Maxime Vachier-Lagrave (19) were eliminated by the more experienced Malakhov, Gashimov and Gelfand respectively, leaving Sergey Karjakin the only under-20 player left in contention.

Results, rounds 1–4

Section 1

Section 2

Section 3

Section 4

Section 5

Section 6

Section 7

Section 8

Results, rounds 5–7

Final, 10–14 December

References

External links

World Cup 2009
– Official site {{Chess World Cups 2009

World Cup A world cup is a global sporting competition in which the participant entities – usually international teams or individuals representing their countries – compete for the title of world champion. The event most associated with the concept i ...

Sport in Khanty-Mansiysk 2009 in Russian sport International sports competitions hosted by Russia