Chess is a very rare sport in which you can still see many Russians playing in the most serious tournaments. In the World Cup, which is taking place these days in Baku, both men and women were declared from our country. However, everything turned out in such a way that only Alexandra Goryachkina reached the decisive match. And how! In the semifinals, the 24-year-old Sasha defeated the 16th world champion among women, the Chinese Tan Zhongyi, who is ranked 8th in the world.
And it all started with the fact that all the eyes of chess lovers were, of course, directed towards the number 1 chess player in Russia, Ian Nepomniachtchi. It was in our repeated participant in the matches for the chess crown that we had the main hopes. How the other representatives of Russia played was the tenth thing. Nepomniachtchi got off to a good start, besting his opponents in four rounds and losing in the fifth.
FIDE
Jan’s rivals were an extremely difficult opponent from India, Vidit Gujrati. Today, chess players in India, as they used to be in the USSR, can send someone from the top twenty in the country to any tournament, and they will definitely claim the top title. Before the decisive games with Gujarati, the Russian had already surpassed the representative of India (Nihal Sarin) in this tournament. It seemed that this time he would be lucky. But this is chess, and here drowsiness and general fatigue play an almost fatal role. As a result, another tiebreaker and our top favorite went home.
It is true that in Baku, even a mastodon like Magnus Carlsen had problems with his rivals. Thus, in the same 4th round, only in the second tiebreaker, the great Norwegian was able to defeat the 18-year-old German Vincent Keimer. A young chess player from Germany bit the first game, taking advantage of an unexpected mistake by the best chess player in the world. In the second game, Carlsen was once again fooled, but Vincent missed the chance for the most significant victory in his short career.
In the tiebreaker, Keimer fought desperately. He even made several excellent saves from almost hopeless positions, but still lost. In a post-match interview, the former world champion, not in the old fashioned way, said that he finds classical chess very boring, but he continues to participate in the tournament and has already reached the predictable final.
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But, for every man who blew up, the women have to take the blame. And then Alexandra Goryachkina’s star shone at the World Cup. Our talented girl was highly rated before the start of the tournament. She already had a victory in the representative Grand Prix. Unlike Nepomniachtchi, Sasha managed to break the Indian magic in the ¼ final, Harika Dronavalli submitted to it. At that time, of the three girls who performed at the tournament, it was Alexandra who remained in splendid isolation. She also had to defend the honor of the homeland.
FIDE
Few people bet on Goryachkina in the semifinals with the Chinese owner of the chess crown. But the Russian did. With a score of 1.5:0.5, Sasha defeated Tan Zhongyi and reached the final of the FIDE World Cup, where he is likely to get a three-time world champion (twice in blitz in 2014 and 2016 and in chess fast in 2016). ) Ukrainian Anna Muzychuk.
FIDE
In addition to the chess component, world sport will receive another politically biased and scandalous rivalry. But what does it matter to us when a title as prestigious as the World Cup is at stake. We look forward to the end of the second semifinal between Muzychuk and the Bulgarian Nurgyul Salimova. As long as it’s a draw.
