September 1, Khanty-Mansiysk. The return games of the Round 2 of the Chess World Cup were played today in Khanty-Mansiysk.

Some of the players who drew their games yesterday decided not to tempt fate and made quick draws, clearly showing preference in rapid chess tie-breaks. Among them were Alexander Riazatsev and Ian Nepomnichtchi, Alexander Grischuk (all — Russia) and Sebastian Feller (France).

Those who lost their starting game were forced to burn the bridges. The task was especially tough for the players who had Black pieces. One of them, the Brazilian Alexander Fier, went for a very risky line in the Paulsen Sicilian, quickly lost the right to castle, and was defeated by Alexander Morozevich (Russia). Morozevich won the match with the perfect score. The same result — 2−0 — was recorded in the match between Vladimir Potkin (Russia) and Alexei Shirov (Spain). Shirov had White, and created a very sharp position where both sides risked everything. However, the Spaniard blundered first, and was unable to parry the opponent's mating threats.

Shirov — Potkin

Vassily Ivanchuk (Ukraine), Teimour Radjabov (Azerbaijan), and Lenier Dominguez (Cuba) advanced rather easily to the Round 3. They won yesterday, and today their opponents were unable to obtain satisfactory positions after the opening and had to start peaceful negotiations. Seven more players also maintained their match advantage by drawing the second game after winning the first one: Vugar Gashimov (Azerbaijan), Dmitry Jakovenko, Nikita Vitiugov, Evgeny Tomashevsky (all — Russia), Mircea-Emilian Parligras (Romania), Le Quang Liem (Vietnam), and Emil Sutovsky (Israel).

Only three players made a comeback after losing the starting game, and will play tie-breaks tomorrow: Etienne Bacrot (France) def. Anton Filippov (Uzbekistan), Ruben Felgaer def. Yaroslav Zherebukh (Ukraine), and Francisco Vallejo (Spain) won with Black against Lazaro Bruzon (Cuba).

Finally we can congratulate the players who advanced to the Round 3 by winning today: Gata Kamsky (USA), David Navara (Czech Republic), Abhijeet Gupta (India), Baadur Jobava (Georgia), Fabiano Caruana (Italy), Zakhar Efimenko (Ukraine), and Judit Polgar (Hungary). The world's strongest woman player won a very nice game against the powerful Sergey Movsesian (Armenia).

The tie-breaks are played on September 2:

Wesley So (Philippines) — Sergey Karjakin (Russia)

Daniel Friedman (Germany) — Shakhriyar Mamedyarov (Azerbaijan)

Ruslan Ponomariov (Ukraine) — Ni Hua (China)

Alexander Grischuk (Russia) — Sebastien Feller (France)

Nguyen Ngoc Trong (Vietnam) — Peter Svidler (Russia)

Lazaro Bruzon (Cuba) — Francisco Vallejo (Spain)

Bu Xiangzhi (China) — Maxime Vachier-Lagrave (France)

Igor Lysyj(Russia) — Alexander Ivanov (USA)

Ernesto Inarkiev (Russia) — Alexander Moiseenko (Ukraine)

Peter-Heine Nielsen (Denmark) — Michael Adams (England)

Alexander Riazantsev (Russia) — Ian Nepomniachtchi (Russia)

Etienne Bacrot (France) — Anton Filippov (Uzbekistan)

Ruben Felgaer (Argentina) — Yaroslav Zherebukh (Ukraine).

Sergey Karjakin, Vugar Gashimov and Petr Svidler

All games are relayed with live grandmaster commentary in English and Russian on the official site of the World Cup: http://chess.ugrasport.com

Use the following link for computer analysis of the strongest engine — Houdini: http://chess.ugrasport.com/houdini.html