Chess | Photo: LETA
Latvian Grandmaster Nikita Meškov suffered a loss in the first round of the World Chess Cup in Russia on Tuesday.
It has already been reported that in the first round of the World Cup, Meškov (rating – 2568) with white figures in the 55th race gave way to the 1997 international master from Paraguay Guillermo Vaskes (2527). In the second game on Tuesday, both chess players earned half a point for their performance, but Meškov needed a victory to continue the fight in games with a shortened time.
Vaskess earned 1.5 points against Latvian athletes in the games and reached the next round, which will be faced by 23-year-old Polish grandmaster Jan Krzysztof Duda (2729), who is free in the first round. The world champion Magnus Karlsen (2847) from Norway and Alexei Shirov (2662) from Riga, who currently represents Spain, are also free in the first round. He will have to meet Yaroslav Zerebuk from the USA (2620) in the first game.
206 players take part in the World Cup in the “Open” class. The tournament takes place according to the Olympic system in eight rounds. The losers of the semi-finals will play the match for the third place. The two best chess players, with the exception of world champion Karlsen, will qualify for the tournament in 2022. It will find out the opponent of the world champion. In turn, all quarterfinals who would not otherwise qualify for the contestant’s tournament will qualify for the International Chess Federation’s (FIDE) Grand Prix 2022, which will be another opportunity to qualify for the contestant’s tournament.
Two games in each of the duels will be played with the classic time control – 90 minutes for each player plus 30 extra minutes after the 40th move, as well as 30 additional seconds for each move. If there is a tie after two games, players will play two quick chess games with a time limit of 25 minutes plus ten seconds per turn. If the result is still a draw, players will play two fast chess games with a ten-minute time limit plus ten seconds for each move made.
If there is still a draw in the game, players will play two more games with a time control of five minutes, as well as three additional seconds for each turn. If the result is still tied, one armageddon party will be played. In it, the player with white figures has to win, but with black ones it will be enough to record a draw. The reflection time for the owner of the white pieces will be five minutes, but for the owner of the black pieces – four minutes, as well as each player will receive an additional two seconds for the turn, starting from the 61st turn. Before the match, players will draw which colored pieces to play with. The competition in Krasnaya Polyana near Sochi takes place from July 12 to August 6.
The rest days will be July 21 and 31. The prize pool for the Open tournament is $ 1,892,500 (€ 1,595,684) and the winner will receive $ 110,000 (€ 92,776). The first round losers will go home with 3750 dollars (3162 euros). This is the ninth World Cup. The first women’s World Cup tournament with 103 players is also taking place in Krasnaya Polyana. There are no Latvian chess players among them.
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