The last round of the World Cup ended without tie-breaks. Peter Svidler won the main prize. Alexander Grischuk and Vassily Ivanchuk advanced to the Candidates Tournament.

Only Ruslan Ponomariov cannot be consoled — he played a very good tournament, but slipped in the end and did not get one of the main prizes.

Maria Fominykh reports

Both games started with the same scenario: one of the players is content with a draw, the other one desperately needs a win.

Guests from Czech Republic receive the instructions on behaving in the playing hall.

The city mayor Vassily Filipenko and the World Cup press officer Nikita Kim decided to play a game while waiting for the conclusion of the matches. They did not bother the souvenir board with players' autographs and used a regular one, as there are plenty of them at the Chess Academy.

Alexander Grischuk selected a Hedgehog setup and was very happy about his position. He even enjoyed a very rare time advantage. However, soon he caught up with Svidler on the clock, and then ended up in his usual time trouble with one minute plus bonus seconds. Alexander underestimated White's piece sacrifice, which gave Svidler two dangerous passed pawns in the center. When Svidler played с6, it became clear that only White can hope to win in this game. However, the grandmaster from Saint Petersburg took the most practical decision and forced a draw that gave him the match victory.

Peter Svidler is the winner of the 2011 World Cup. This victory is the highest achievement in the six-ime Russian champion's career.

The press-conference took more than usual and began to resemble some sort of a round table. Players, commentators, and journalists passionately discussed the events of the fourth games. The only thing missing was a demonstration board.

Sergey Shipov, armed by a cup of tea, joins the discussion

Sergey's co-commentator IM Valerij Yoshan.

The discussion expanded beyond the press room.

The all-Ukrainian match for the third place was by no means less interesting for the spectators than the final match. Especially because it could proceed to the tie-breaks, as Ivanchuk's position looked precarious.

However, it was a lucky day for Ivanchuk. He defended an inferior ending and won the match.

The third place finisher informed the journalists that he was very happy to spend a month in Khanty-Mansiysk. In three days the Ukrainian will participate in another tournament — the Grand Slam final in Bilbao. Who loves chess more than Ivanchuk?

The festival is over, and the spectators are going home. The World Cup participants Alexey Bezgodov and his younger daughter Tatiana — are there really no games tomorrow? They should attend the closing ceremony to realize it.