Chess (#1058)

The first round at the World Cup in Tromse, Norway, has whittled down the list of Candidates' hopefuls to 64. By and large, the high seeds got through, though there were plenty of tiebreaks. The two major upsets were Judit Polgar, who went down to Isan Ortiz of Cuba and Ian Nepomniachtchi who was knocked out by the 14-year-old Wei Yi, a 2551-rated prodigy from China. Both Alexander Morozevich and Peter Svidler pulled themselves together after early losses.

Of the Indians, B Adhiban and K Sasikiran managed to get through the first round. Adhiban played an interminable series of tiebreaks before he put it across Evgeny Alekseev. Sasikiran beat Conrad Lupulescu in the tiebreakers as well. P Negi lost to the higher-rated Yuriy Kryvoruchko also in tiebreaks and G Akash was wiped out by Caruana. Adhiban is playing Alexander Fier in round two while Sasikiran has to face-off Sergei Karjakin. Both drew their first game in round two.

The World Cup format mimics Wimbledon with its 128 player knockout system. Mini-matches are of two games each until the final, which is four games. Time controls accelerate in the tiebreaks. Two games is extremely short for a decisive outcome and naturally tension plays a huge role. As statistical analysis shows, the favourites remain favourites even in KO formats. But the probability of a favourite winning is much less than in a round robin.

Preparing for a KO is also difficult. Should the player focus on a general repertoire or try and prepare for specific opponents that are likely to pop up? Once he's into say, a round two match, should he look at possible round three opponents or concetrate 100 per cent on his opponents of the moment. Accelerating controls in the tiebreaks require immense physical stamina and the ability to switch mindsets on the fly.

By and large, the arrangements at the venue have drawn praise. There were stringent checks against electronic cheating - however, players were allowed to mingle freely with spectators (which includes coaches and seconds)! Incidentally India may have found a partial game-theoretic solution to the electronic cheating issue. At recent Indian tournaments, players have simply been asked to exchange mobile phones with their opponents.

The Diagram BLACK TO PLAY (Nakamura VS Gelfand, Tal Memorial 2013) features two of the World Cup favourites in a recent encounter. The Israeli veteran played 35...e3! leading to the forced 36.fxe3 Bxe3+ 37.Kg2 Bd5+ 38.Kh3 Rxb5 39.Bxb5 Ne5. White's king safety is a serious issue.

He defended with 40.Nc3 Bf3 41.Be2 Bxe2 42.Nd5+ Otherwise, 42.Nxe2 Bxc5 will win easily with the a-pawn. Black finished with 42...Kg5 43.Nxe3 Ng4 44.Kg2 If 44.Ndc4 Bf3, threatens 45... Nf2 mate and of course, 44.Nxg4 Bf1# 44...Nxe3+ 45.Kf2 Nc4 0-1. Now if 46.Kxe2 Nxd6 47.cxd6 Kf6 wins.

Devangshu Datta is an internationally rated chess and correspondence chess player