The FIDE World Chess Cup took place in Khanty-Mansiysk from November 20th to December 15th 2009. It was a seven-round knockout event with six rounds of matches comprising two games per round, with the winners progressing to the next round. The final seventh round consisted of four games. The time control was 90 minutes for the first 40 moves followed by 30 minutes for the rest of the game with an addition of 30 seconds per move from move one. The World Chess Cup is an integral part of the World Championship Cycle 2009-2011.
Final, tiebreak
The three weeks marathon of the 2009 World Cup finished with 41-year-old Boris Gelfand of Israel beating Ruslan Ponomariov in the tiebreak on Monday. The organiser, FIDE, feel vindicated that the top seed won the event. "Who would dare to call the knock out format a lottery?" the official bulletin says. “Boris is the only participant of the World Cup who could avoid the obvious failures, the only one to play with quality and stability. Bravo, Boris!"
http://www.chessbase.com/newsdetail.asp?newsid=5987
CONGRATULATIONS GELFAND!
Final Blitz Games : GELFAND WINS!
GAME 1: GELFAND 1-0 PONOMARIOV
GAME 2: PONOMARIOV 1-0 GELFAND
GAME 3: GELFAND 1-0 PONOMARIOV
GAME 4: PONOMARIOV 0-1 GELFAND
Final Rapid Games: 2-2
GAME 1: PONOMARIOV ½-½ GELFAND
GAME 2: GELFAND 1-0 PONOMARIOV
GAME 3: PONOMARIOV ½-½ GELFAND
GAME 4: GELFAND 0-1 PONOMARIOV
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
Final Round 3 : DRAW DRAW DRAW
I think the final match is getting boring, don't you guys think so? But you know what, in the press conference after the round 2 final, Ponomariov said that he also felt the same about the match. It seems everything must be decided by tiebreak games. We'll see...
[Event "World Cup 2009"]
[Site "0:02.11-0:06.22"]
[Date "2009.12.12"]
[Round "7.3"]
[White "Ponomariov, Ruslan"]
[Black "Gelfand, Boris"]
[Result "1/2-1/2"]
[WhiteElo "2739"]
[WhiteCountry "UKR"]
[BlackElo "2758"]
[BlackCountry "ISR"]
Final Round 2 : DRAW AGAIN!
It was inexplicable that the finalists agreed to draw in 20 moves only. But they will have 2 more games to be played and if the result is still draw, there will be tiebreak games to prove who is the winner of the World Cup this time. Who do you think, people?
[Event "World Cup 2009"]
[Date "2009.12.11"]
[Round "7.2"]
[White "Gelfand, Boris"]
[Black "Ponomariov, Ruslan"]
[Result "1/2-1/2"]
[WhiteElo "2758"]
[WhiteCountry "Israel"]
[BlackElo "2739"]
[BlackCountry "Ukraine"]
Final Round 1: DRAW
[Event "World Cup 2009"]
[Date "2009.12.10"]
[Round "7.1"]
[White "Ponomariov, Ruslan"]
[Black "Gelfand, Boris"]
[Result "1/2-1/2"]
[WhiteElo "2739"]
[WhiteCountry "UKR"]
[BlackElo "2758"]
[BlackCountry "ISR"]
2009 World Cup Final
The Israeli Boris Gelfand and the Ukranian Ruslan Ponomariov advanced to the finals after beating Sergey Karjakin and Vladimir Malakhov in the semi-finals. This time the final will be very exciting when viewed from the background of each finalist. Boris Gelfand at age 41 is a very experienced player and Ponomariov is a former FIDE World Champion 2002-2004. Gelfand is the top seed of this tournament with ELO 2758 while Ponomariov is 7th with 2739. Photos and games will follow.
