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The tie-break day saw most of the favorites advancing. The winner of the World Cup will be challenged by Veselin Topalov for a right to challenge the winner of the Vishwanathan Anand - Vladimir Kramnik match. The newly crowned blitz world champ, Vassily Ivanchuk scraped past Alexander Galkin of Russia. Magnus Carlsen thrashed Arkadij Naiditsch of Germany 2-0 in the rapid games to advance. Other big stars to advance on the tie-break day were Ruslan Ponomariov, Krishnan Sasikiran of India and Ivan Cheparinov of Bulgaria. However, another favorite, Rustam Kasimdzhanov was knocked out by Kiril Georgiev of Bulgaria. Official results are available here : http://cup2007.fide.com/results.asp Live games can be followed here: http://cup2007.fide.com/round.asp

Garry Kasparov the energetic chess champion (is still a force on the chess servers), was released today from jail. Hordes of reporters have been thronging his residence and we can expect another set of interviews, press releases, press conferences. Kasparov has chosen the United States media as his chosen voice, and it remains to be seen if he uses that weapon yet again. Earlier, Kasparov refused food and water fearing that it may be poisoned. So, it was a two-in-one. Hunger strike and safety from poison ! Kasparov used his knight fork yet again.

The rapid games will be fought today. Today's games are no less interesting. Witness the prominent names involved today - Vassily Ivanchuk, Magnus Carlsen, Arkadij Naiditsch, Ruslan Ponomariov and Rustam Kasimdzhanov. In some ways, its interesting to watch these games live on say, playchess.com. One reason is that the games are faster and pretty accurate from a patzer's point of view. The second reason is that the confusion of having to follow several games does not exist.

Susan Polgar is in India to promote the documentary "My Brilliant Brain". The National Geographic Documentary " My Brilliant Brain " is being aired worldwide except in the United States. Susan has made several appearances in her tour to India and gave many interviews. One wonders if she could also present her more talented sister, Judit Polgar's brain :-) Susan Polgar is doing a lot to promote chess in the United States. Have the results at the World Youth Chess 2007 got anything to do with this ? In any case, there are pointers to a revival in interest in the US. Also, the performances by the younger generation is getting better. One of the girls won the first ever age group medal at the Youth chess championships.

Anatoly Karpov was today denied a chance to visit Garry Kasparov in jail. Kasparov will be released on Thursday but it was a noble gesture by one ex-world champion towards another. Karpov openly agreed that he does not believe in Kasparov's political ideology, but that doesn't mean he can't be human enough. It is nice to see Karpov in the limelight these days. He is playing again and also doing something for social causes. Using one's clout never harmed anyone. Especially if it can benefit another by at least getting attention. Wonder what would have transpired between them if they had really met ! Gruenfeld or the Slav ? :-)

The normal time games have been completed. The shock of the tournament is that Teimour Radjabov has been knocked out in amazing fashion by the lower-rated Bartolomiej Macieja of Poland. 2-0 ! Ivanchuk has been held 1-1 by Alexander Galkin. This performance is nothing short of an upset already. The rapid games are next and anything can happen. But Ivanchuk is a seasoned player at the shorter versions. If you want evidence, you just have to go back to last week when he won the World Blitz championship, edging out India's V Anand. Other favorites such as Shakriyar Mamedyarov of Azerbaijan, Levon Aronian of Armenia, Alexei Shirov of Russia, Peter Svidler of Russia and Michael Adams of England also advanced to the round of 32.

Chess World Rankings Open Rank Name Title Country Rating Games B-Year 1 Anand, Viswanathan g IND 2801 21 1969 2 Ivanchuk, Vassily g UKR 2787 20 1969 3 Kramnik, Vladimir g RUS 2785 21 1975 4 Topalov, Veselin g BUL 2769 0 1975 5 Leko, Peter g HUN 2755 21 1979 6 Morozevich, Alexander g RUS 2755 19 1977 7 Mamedyarov, Shakhriyar g AZE 2752 11 1985 8 Radjabov, Teimour g AZE 2742 9 1987 9 Aronian, Levon g ARM 2741 14 1982 10 Shirov, Alexei g ESP 2739 11 1972 11 Gelfand, Boris g ISR 2736 21 1968 12 Svidler, Peter g RUS 2732 25 1976 13 Adams, Michael g ENG 2729 16 1971 14 Alekseev, Evgeny g RUS 2716 17 1985 15 Grischuk, Alexander g RUS 2715 23 1983 16 Carlsen, Magnus g NOR 2714 25 1990 17 Kamsky, Gata g USA 2714 9 1974 18 Akopian, Vladimir g ARM 2713 5 1971 19 Jakovenko, Dmitry g RUS 2710 23 1983 20 Polgar, Judit g HUN 2708 9 1976 21 Ponomariov, Ruslan g UKR 2705 5 1983 22 Wang, Yue g CHN 2703 27 1987 23 Bacrot, Etienne g FRA 2695 7 1983 24 Karjakin, Sergey g UKR 2694 11 1990 25 Bu, Xiangzhi g

After Round 9 of the World Youth Chess Cup 2007, Ivan Popov leads in the blue-riband Under 18 open event with 7.5 points. Katerina Nemcova is leading the girls under 18 by a point with 8 points. CHIRILA Ioan Cristian and TSATSALASHVILI Keti lead the Under 16 sections of the open and the girls sections respectively. You can view the results for all sections on the following link on chess results: http://chess-results.com/tnr8920.aspx?art=0&lan=1&flag=30&datatyp=2&mm=-1&m=-1

The second rounds have started in earnest. Ruslan Ponomariov and Teimour Radjabov have lost thier first rounds. Ruslan of Ukraine lost to Wang Hao of China and Radjabov lost to Bartlomiej Macieja of Poland. Radjabov played the controversial 3 ... f5 in the Jaenisch Variation of the Ruy Lopez. He probably prepared it specially for this event, but trying it against an established grandmaster is an altogether differerent story. The opening may not have been the main reason for the defeat as the neat combination that Hao uncorked in the middle game. Other notable results were Evgeny Bareev beating Loek Van Wely and Alexander Galkin holding Vassily Ivanchuck to a draw. Chessy ! More information here on the official web site with the blessings of FIDE President Kirsan Ilyumzhinov: http://www.ugra-chess.ru/eng/main_e.htm

The World Youth Chess Cup 2007 is heading towards the crucial last rounds. Every version of the World Youth Chess seems to be losing its strongest players. The reason for this is that many of the teenagers are already top players in the World. Examples are Magnus Carlsen, Teimour Radjabov and others. It is debatable if the parents of such stars should allow them to continue at their age level before letting them swim among the sharks such as Vishwanathan Anand and Vladimir Kramnik. But players like Carlsen and Radjabov have proved that they can handle the stress of the topmost level of chess. Some have struggled, the most recent case being that of Zaven Adriasian scoring a zero in a field that was not even the best. Ironically, Zaven had recently won the World Junior Championships. One hopes that this is just an isolated case. One other junior star and a former World Junior champion Shakriyar Mamedyarov. Shak is already a star at the world level and has proved that he is more than a ma

Some interesting matchups in the second round at the World Cup Chess at Khanty Mansiysk. Bareev, Evgeny vs Van Wely, Loek Jakovenko, Dmitry - Khalifman, Alexander Carlsen, Magnus - Naiditsch, Arkadij Rublevsky, Sergei - Navara, David Georgiev, Kiril - Kasimdzhanov, Rustam These games should be well fought. All of the above players have some significant achievements and some of them are already big stars.

The World Cup took off with a few surprises in the first round. Nigel Short was soundly beaten by the teenaged David Baramidze. The other big seed to bite the dust was Pavel Eljanov. A few prominent names struggled against lower rated players. Rustam Kasimdzhanov was taken to the edge by a teenager in a hurry to climb the ELO stairs. Rustam finally beat G. N. Gopal in rapid games after overcoming the amazing resistance that Gopal put up. Offical Website - http://www.ugra-chess.ru/eng/main_e.htm