World Cup Quarter-Final Preview |
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| Friday, 23 August 2013 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
 By GM Daniel Gormally  This World Cup is already turning into an epic event, and due to the lack of rest days, I can see some serious fatigue kicking in at the latter stages. It's going to be a case of last man standing. The match between Tomashevsky and Moro yesterday was quite extraordinary, the game where Toma needed to win with black to tie the match was something else. However as the commentators pointed out- Moro made a huge psychological error in going to the arbiter in the middle of the game. Whatever the reason for doing so- perhaps he was complaining about his opponents lack of progress, or merely asking whether or not he could claim the 50 move rule during a blitz game, who knows, this showed weakness to his opponent and he was duly punished. Anyway here is my preview of the quarter finals: Tomashevsky- Kamsky As much as Kamsky was impressive in dispatching Shak, he may have met his match in Toma here. This young Russian player has been the revelation of the event, and I'm going to jump on the bandwagon, albeit a bit late. Win for Toma. Caruana- Vachier Lagrave Maxime has been another revelation, putting on the reigning champion Boris Gelfand (the defending World Chess Cup Champion is Peter Svidler - Pogonina.com). However it's my belief that Caruana is another kettle of fish altogether. There is something relentless about the young Italian that reminds me of Magnus, and as I already stated I believe that he'll be the one to challenge Magnus over the next 2-3 years for the number one spot. Unimpressive early on, he seems to be peaking at the right time. Caruana is younger, and stronger than Maxime- I can only see one winner. Win for Caruana. Andrekin- Svidler Andrekin dispatched his young Russian compatriot Karjakin in the last round, but if like me you had followed the body language of the players on the webcam during the match, this would have come as no surprise. Sergey looked like a bag of nerves and clearly the pressure of playing for a spot in the candidates, got to him. He was a shadow of the player that won in Norway earlier in the year and I wouldn't read too much into that result. For that reason I'm going to plump for Svidler. He always comes across well in interviews- his self-confidence and high level of intelligence is there for all to see- and his ability to calculate is very impressive indeed. Win for Svidler. Korobov-Kramnik Korobov is not a player known to many, but after the win against Naka I think that might change very soon. The post match interview was very amusing- Korobov was self-deprecating in the extreme, and in many ways he sounded like me- talking of quitting chess, of how much pressure there is and how little he enjoys travelling. A deep thinker indeed. Kramnik on the other hand, seems like Caruana, to be peaking at the right time. He struggled early on but you can see now he is clearly relaxed. Quite simply there's less pressure on him than the other players, as he's already ensured of a spot in the Candidates. You could argue that works against him, because of less motivation, but given the extremely nervous play of others in the event, I'm not convinced. Win for Kramnik. GM Daniel Gormally is open for chess lessons. You can contact him using this This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it Other posts by GM Danny Gormally: World Chess Cup 1/8-final preview Why are Russians so good at chess? British Champs-2013 Ghent and now the British I'll never be fat again! Lessons learnt! The sad case of Borislav Ivanov: Part II Does Anyone Have a Cure for Anger Problems? The Depth of Chess Fundraising in chess Nurturing a Chess Prodigy The Sad Case of Borislav Ivanov 4NCL Impressions: no country for old men - Part II 4NCL Impressions: no country for old men One move, one line - Part II One move, one line Candidates Final Review & Preview of Upcoming World Championship Match Would Carlsen have beaten Capablanca?
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