THE WORLD CUP HOLDER WILL BE DEFINED AFTER THE TIE BREAKS



The main games of the World Cup 2009 in Khanty Mansiysk are over. Boris Gelfand and Ruslan Ponomariov did not decide who is the strongest in the tournament within the classical time control games.

The game Gelfand-Anand, which was played in the Tal Memorial in November this year in Moscow, was repeated in the fourth game of the final match. The Grandmaster Boris Gelfand of Israel played a novelty on move 20. His opponent was not confident in reacting to this idea. The Ukrainian Grandmaster weakened his position in the king flank after move 27. Gelfand received good chances to attack an opponent's king. However the Israeli Grandmaster chose a slow plan and let his opponent move his Rook to “h” line and therefore to strengthen his king. On move 35 they agreed for a draw.

At the press conference after the game both finalists agreed that they had equal chances in the endgame. Gelfand expressed an opinion that he had an advantage and he should not let his opponent to move his rook on “h” line. Ruslan mentioned that he saw several possibilities for the white pieces to attack, but at the same time he had enough resources to defend his position.
Therefore, the winner of the World Cup will be defined tomorrow, 14 December in the tie breaks of the final match. Together with the Cup a winner will receive a cheque of 120 thousand US dollars and a qualification to the Candidates matches.

[Event "World Cup 2009"]
[Date "2009.12.13"]
[Round "7.4"]
[White "Gelfand, Boris"]
[Black "Ponomariov, Ruslan"]
[Result "1/2-1/2"]
[WhiteElo "2758"]
[BlackElo "2739"]
[WhiteCountry "ISR"]
[BlackCountry "UKR"]



source: http://ugra-chess.ru/eng/news_26.htm

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