Fifteen tie-breaks were played on September 15 in the second round of the FIDE World Cup in Khanty-Mansiysk.

The overwhelming majority of matches ended after rapid games.

Eltaj Safarli (Azerbaijan) defeated Nihal Sarin (India), Lenier Dominguez (USA) beat Nijat Abasov (Azerbaijan), Jeffrey Xiong (USA) proved stronger than Amin Tabatabaei (Iran), Yu Yangyi (China) outplayed Baskaran Adhiban (India), Maxim Matlakov (Russia) downed Boris Gelfand (Israel), Peter Svidler (Russia) knocked out his compatriot Andrey Esipenko, Alexander Grischuk (Russia) vanquished Benjamin Bok (Netherlands), Ding Liren (China) bested Sergei Movsesian (Armenia), Kirill Alekseenko (Russia) won against Johan-Sebastian Christiansen (Norway), Dmitry Jakovenko (Russia) defeated Gawain Jones (England), Nikita Vitiugov (Russia) passed Niclas Huschenbeth (Germany), Sanan Sjugirov (Russia) lost to Teimour Radjabov (Azerbaijan), and David Anton Guijarro (Spain) threw in the towel in his match with Wei Yi (China).

Giri - Najer and McShane - Yuffa matches were much closer affairs.

Luke McShane (England) and Daniil Yuffa (Russia) exchanged blows first in rapid chess and then in 10+10 games. In blitz, however, the Russian won both encounters and advanced to the third round. One should note that in both starting rounds Daniil Yuffa was a big underdog (based on the ratings), and his performance is nothing short of sensational. Equally commendable are achievements of Safarli and Xiangyu Xu who along with Yuffa became the only players outside of top-100 in FIDE rating list to qualify for the third round.

Anish Giri (Netherlands) and Evgeniy Najer (Russia) finished their first four rapid games peacefully. The 5-minute blitz match started with Giri's victory, but Najer worked a miracle coming back in the second game with black pieces and brought the match into an Armageddon. In the sudden death game Anish Giri got the black pieces, won outright and advanced to the third round of the World Cup.

The first games of the third round will be played on September 16.

Round 3 Pairings

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The competition is organized by the Government of Khanty-Mansiysk Autonomous Okrug – Ugra, International Chess Federation (FIDE), Ugra Chess Federation, and Ministry of Sports of the Russian Federation.

General partner – Gazpromneft-Khantos LCC.

Official airline – Utair.

Official partners of the competition: OJSC Rostelecom, Ugra Chess Academy, Russian Chess Federation, AB InBev Efes and PJSC Rosneft.

FIDE official partner – JSCo “RZD”.

General media partner – News Agency TASS.


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Text by Eteri Kublashvili

Photos by Kirill Merkuryev