Raymond Keene

Thud and blunder

issue 17 October 2015

The Fidé World Cup, which finished last week in Baku, boasted over $1 million in overall prize money, with $100,000 going to the winner. The format consisted of short sharp knockout matches, hardly congenial to heavyweight contenders such as Kramnik, Topalov, Aronian, Nakamura and Caruana, who were all eliminated in the early stages.

The final, as befits an ultimate shoot-out, lasted much longer, and extraordinarily the ten games between Sergei Karjakin and Peter Svidler all ended decisively. Karjakin came back from the grave on more than one occasion to secure the laurels, but the tournament was mainly notable for the egregious blunders committed by both sides.

Karjakin-Svidler: Fidé World Cup, Baku 2015

Here White could play the simple 37 Bxf7+ when the game would very likely end as a draw. Instead White unwisely pressed for more with 37 Rb5?? but after 37 … Kh8 Black was simply a piece up.

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