Second seed Anish Giri (NED) was sent home by Jeffery Xiong (U.S.). Photo: Maria Emelianova/Chess.com.
FIDE Chess World Cup: Xiong Sends Giri Home
By PeterDoggers Updated: Sep 19, 2019, 10:53 AM | c 48 | Chess Event Coverage
The tiebreaks of the FIDE World Cup third round saw a major upset as the 31st seed Jeffery Xiong (U.S.) knocked out the second seed, Anish Giri (Netherlands). Le Quang Liem (Vietnam) managed to send home the higher-rated Vladislav Artemiev (Russia). The losers in round three earned $16,000 whereas the following players, who start their round of 16 on Friday, are guaranteed of at least $25,000 each: Ding Liren vs. Kirill Alekseenko Maxime Vachier-Lagrave vs. Peter Svidler Wesley So vs. Nikita Vitiugov Ian Nepomniachtchi vs. Yu Yangyi Levon Aronian vs. Le Quang Liem Shakhriyar Mamedyarov vs. Teimour Radjabov Leinier Dominguez vs. Alexander Grischuk Jeffery Xiong vs. Jan-Krzysztof Duda You can follow the games here as part of our live portal Chess.com/events . There is daily coverage by our Twitch partner, the Chessbrahs. GMs Yasser Seirawan, Eric Hansen and Aman Hambleton are covering the tournament each day on their channel Twitch.tv/Chessbrah . Play starts at 3 p.m. local time, which is 12:00 (noon) CEST, 6 a.m. Eastern and 3 a.m. Pacific. “I am still quite shocked by the result—especially because in the previous match I think I was very lucky to have passed,” said Xiong. It was a surprise that the 18-year-old U.S. grandmaster from Plano, Texas kicked the world number-four out of the tournament, but it wasn’t undeserved. On a day with lots of incredibly sharp positions, Xiong was the slightly better calculator. In the first rapid game he actually missed an instructive win in an endgame: Giri escaped with a draw in the first game. Photo: Maria Emelianova/Chess.com. Xiong described the second rapid game as “absolutely wild” and it definitely was. In terms of the amount of tactics packed in one game, it was one of the most exciting battles of the whole tournament, even though it ended in a draw. Xiong: “I think we both had absolutely no idea what was going on.” The highlight was a stunningly beautiful possibility for Giri, revealed by the computer: Here 28.Rd5!! wins. See Bojkov’s annotations below on how this wins the black queen. And so the players moved on to two 10+10 games, where in the first Giri got his big chance to take the lead. “I was completely lost out of the opening and very fortunate to survive,” Xiong admitted. Yet again things got out of control for both players: Xiong had the strongest nerves in the end. Photo: Maria Emelianova/Chess.com. A modest (or realistic) Xiong said he was “also lucky” in the last game which he won: “I was able to find some tricks and kind of found counterplay.” His choice of a Modern/Pirc setup was a smart one. A database check shows that Giri has had problems with it in two Speed Chess matches here on Chess.com. Giri, possibly checking some openings with his second Vladimir Chuchelov in between games, but to no avail. Photo: Maria Emelianova/Chess.com. Xiong revealed his match strategy in his interview with FIDE: “Just try to make a mess out of every game and play some unusual opening to avoid his preparation.” Along with many Chinese fans, Giri is probably rooting for Ding now. If the Chinese top GM reaches the final (and thereby qualifies for the 2020 Candidates’ Tournament directly), the rating spot for the candidates, as it stands now, goes to Giri. This will be decided on average rating over 12 months (Feb. 2019-Jan. 2020), and at the moment Giri is behind Ding and above MVL and Nepomniachtchi. The handshake in Ding-Firouzja symbolically tipped over the black king. Photo: Maria Emelianova/Chess.com. Ding’s match with Alireza Firouzja was one to look forward to but it lasted only two rapid games, both won by the favorite. His win in the first was an impressive display of willpower, although it must be noted that at the very end both players erred: FIDE’s interview with Ding. Yu is the only other Chinese player left in the field, and could end up facing Ding in the semifinals…..
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