The third day of the World Cup in Khanty-Mansiysk has finalized the results of the first Round. Let us remind you that the winners of 47 micro-matches out of 64 were already determined in two classical games with the long time control, however, 17 pairs either drew 1-1 (or drew both or exchanged victories) and therefore continued playing on the 3rd day tie-breaks.

We would like to remind you the regulations of the World Cup tie-breaks. First there are two games played with the time control of 25 minutes for all moves + 10 seconds for every move. If they do not determine the winner, there are two games set with the time control of 10 minutes till the end of the game + 10 seconds for every move. Then if necessary there are two more blitz-games (5 minutes until the end of the game plus 3 seconds for every move) played. In the outermost case the decisive game “till the result” (i.e. “Armageddon”) is played: White have 5 minutes and Black - 4 minutes (with additional 3 seconds for every move starting from the 61st one) where draw is equaled to the victory of Black.

In general the favorites have confirmed their reputation after the first two games: Gata Kamsky (USA), Francisco Vallejo Pons (ESP), Emil Sutovsky (ISR), Alexander Morozevich, Igor Lysyj, Evgeny Alekseev (all from Russia), Sebastien Feller (FRA), Wesley So (PHI). We would say that the victory of Ruben Felgaer (ARG) over Vladimir Malakhov (RUS) and the one of the young Yaroslav Zherebukh from Ukraine over his more experienced compatriot Pavel Eljanov can be referred to as unexpected ones. Both matches finished with score 1, 5 - 0, 5 where Felgaer could have won the first game as well having one piece up and a pawn, and he blundered the stalemate idea in the time trouble. In the first game Zherebukh playing White outplayed his opponent and playing Black was defending persistently and achieved a draw.

The multifold French Champion Etienne Bacrot and young American player Ray Robson exchanged victories: in order to play off “a la carte” Robson chose the romantic King’s Gambit and achieved his goal.

7 pairs played two games 10 minutes each. Nikita Vitiugov, Vladimir Potkin (both from Russia), Etienne Bacrot (FRA), Lazaro Bruzon (CUB) and Ni Hua (CHN) got successful at this stage. Peter Heine Nielsen (DEN) twice defeated Evgeny Postny of Israel. One pair reached “Armageddon”: the most stubborn were Alexander Motylev from Russia and Yuri Drozdovskij from Ukraine. We should keep in mind that in the decisive game the additional seconds are added only after 60 moves. Motylev playing Black seemed to have forgotten about the clock: he was confident in the opening, however, left less than 30 seconds afterwards and gradually he simply ran out of time, moreover, the final position of his opponent Drozdovskij was already winning.

On Wednesday, August 31, 64 chess players will continue their battles in the 1/32 of the World Cup Final. We should mention such pairs as Kamsky (USA) – Kasimdzhanov (UZB), Movsesian (ARM) – Polgar (HUN), Grischuk (RUS) – Feller (FRA).

All the games of the World Cup accompanied by Grandmasters’ commentaries both in English and Russian are broadcast live on the official site of the tournament http://chess.ugrasport.com

The computer analysis by the most up-to-date program Houdini can be found on http://chess.ugrasport.com/houdini.html