Ukrainian Chess Player Solo Winner in World Cup Quarterfinals

Moscow, Sep 9. -Ukrainian Grandmaster Vassily Ivanchuk on Friday was the only winner at the beginning of the World Chess Cup quarterfinals in the city of Khanty-Mansiysk.Ivanchuk (white) defeated Azerbaijani Teimour Radjabov (black) after 41 moves of a Sicilian defense with a Dragon variation, and advanced toward qualifying for the semifinals, requiring only a draw to do so.

The rest of the matches were all draws, including the most surprising and hard-fought match, between Russian Alexander Grischuk and Czech David Navara, after 28 moves of a Queen's Indian opening, with a Nimzovich variation.

Hungarian Judit Polgar tied with Russian Peter Svidler after just 17 moves of a Sicilian defense, as did Ukrainian Ruslan Ponomariov and Azerbaijani Vugar Gashimov, after 14 moves of other Queen's Indian opening with a Rubinstein variation.

On Saturday, regular matches will be repeated and, if the draws continue, then the tie-break phase would begin with blitz matches. (Prensa Latina)