World Cup 2009-Quarter Final

For round 3 result here and report here.

Quarter final pairings comments :

Only four pairings left and I think I will soon finished commenting the pairing. Everything after this will just a repeating fact and trivia.

Boris Gelfand 2758 – Dmitry Jakovenko 2736
Boris eliminated Maxime by 1 blitz game while Jakovenko stopped Grischuk by 2 blitz games. Grischuk commented that Jako knews more his secret than him. Now with Gelfand they both played many times before in all time control, the chessgames database give Jakovenko a plus score.

Opening wise in this tournament, Gelfand play 1.d4 , 1.c4 and 1.Nf3 and replied 1.e4 with e5 exclusively, stat including rapid and blitz. So far no opponent give him a 1.d4 yet. Jakovenko alternating 1.e4 and 1.d4 in this tournament, replied 1.e4 with e5 and 1.d4 with Nf6,.. e6 reaching Gruenfeld and KID like.

Shakhriyar Mamedyarov 2719 – Sergey Karjakin 2723
So far Mame is the only player enjoyed the most free days since he never went into tie break yet. Karjakin also has one free day as he finished Vitiugov without tie break. They are trading many games before in all time control, equal score from database. This is the first opponent to Mamedyarov who had a better rating.

Mame got varied opening so far while Karjakin employed mostly 1.e4.

Vugar Gashimov 2758 – Ruslan Ponomariov 2739
With two Azeri in separate bracket, the all Azeri final is possible, giving this a boost to both Gashimov and Mame spirit. Gashimov experienced two hard fight from Li Chao and Caruana and his luck again to be tested by former Champion Ponomariov. In Ponomariov side, he finished Bacrot by 1 rapid games. Gashimov has one winning classical game with Pono in 2008 but in recent Tal Blitz both are equal. The rating still suggested Gashimov the favorite side.

Gashimov exclusive using 1.e4 so far , Ponomariov replied to this is mainly a Ruy Lopez , stat is from this tournament only.

Peter Svidler 2754 – Vladimir Malakhov 2706
The outsider, Malakhov is ‘only’ 6 point to be considered as the 2700 group. Malakhov aware of his young opponent, applies a correct strategy to bring the round 4 into tie break and play with Wesley So’s confident. His tie break also the strongest 3-0 to bring home Wesley So fantastic journey so far. Peter Svidler will need to take care of Malakhov’s underdog advantage so far. Peter finished Shirov without tie break and still the strong favorite here. They also played many times with Peter on upper score.

Svidler has a balance 1.e4 and 1.d4 opening in this tournament while Malakhov experience all types of opening so far. Malakhov repertoire to 1.e4 is a Ruy Lopez while prefer Slav defence for 1.d4.

The youngest player now fall to Karjakin.

Country : Russia 3 , Azerbaijan 2, Ukraine 2, Israel 1, with Karjakin on blur nationality between Ukraine and Russia. All speaks Russian well.