Ivanchuck out in the 3rd round at Khanty Mansiysk, Russia

Vassily Ivanchuk of Ukraine was knocked out in the 3rd round of the World Chess Cup at Khanty Mansiysk, Russia. Liviu Dieter Nisipeanu of Romania beat him in an edge-of-the-seat thriller. The score was a close 3.5-2.5. Almost as close as it can get.

India's Krishnan Sasikiran advanced with a 4-2 win after both the normal and rapid games were drawn. Sasikiran won the last two games. Levon Aronian won 3-1 against Ernesto Inarkiev. Arorian remains one of the strong favorites to win now that the two top seeds, Ivanchuk and Mamedyarov have been knocked out. Svidler beat Rublevsky of Russia to advance. Svidler too will be one more firm favorite.

Evgeny Bareev knocked out Alexander Grishchuk, in what must be a significant upset. Although Bareev was one of the very top players a few years back, he has dropped way behind in rankings. Sergey Karjakin was another player to advance with a facile 3-1 win over Etienne Bacrot of France.