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Results of round five, game two

Four-game semifinal matches begin July 1. Kasimdzhanov-Topalov and Radjabov-Adams

• View all round five games online and download PGN
• View all round four games online and download PGN
• All the games from round three in PGN
• All the games from the first two rounds in zipped PGN

The lucky star that has been hovering over Azerbaijani GM Teimour Radjabov shone brightly today. He didn't need any luck in the first of six games he played against Lenier Dominguez of Cuba. In a must-win situation Radjabov sprung a nice opening novelty in the Sicilian and quickly demolished his opponent to force tiebreaks.

This was the fourth consecutive round in which Radjabov has played rapid and blitz tiebreaks. Only in the first round against the Polish IM Bartel (who was watching today's games at Playchess.com!) did he skip overtime. Dominguez was no easy mark in the faster games and had substantial advantages in several.

The drew both rapid games, including one in 13 moves that continued Radjabov's tournament strategy of playing short draws and moving to faster time controls whenever possible. After they drew two wild blitz games it was time for the sudden death, or armageddon, game.

Radjabov, who showed up today with a new Blues Brothers look and actually played with the sunglasses on, a la Benko vs Tal, had black, five minutes, and draw odds. Dominguez had six minutes and the white pieces and it was win or go home. After four consecutive draws, black was the safe bet and so it was. Radjabov survived his second sudden death game in Tripoli to reach a semifinal match against Mickey Adams.

Adams only needed a draw against Vladimir Akopian to reach the semis. The Armenian, shown above with his trademark glare (Adams didn't employ the sunglasses defense), played an excellent game to gain real winning chances against Adams' weak pawns.

We happened to be on the phone with the World's Strongest Kibitzer, Garry Kasparov, during the games, and he was surprised to see that the redoubtable Adams had gotten into danger in a simplified position. But the moment the solid defensive move 41...Rf6! appeared on the board Kasparov pronounced "Mickey is through [to the semifinals]." Seven moves later the draw was agreed and he was. Adams has played Radjabov five times, winning two and losing none. Four of those were rapid games at the 2002 Eurotel.

The other match to need tiebreaks was between Rustam Kasimdzhanov and Alexander Grischuk. The Russian started the day needing a win to tie the match and he had the white pieces to do it. He surprised by playing the normally quiet Queen's Gambit exchange variation. That was just a ruse, however, as suddenly Grischuk launched his h-pawn down the board, castled queenside, and went for a direct attack. "Someone should tell him that this isn't a Sicilian!" was Kasparov's comment.

Whatever it was, it worked. Much as he did in the first game, which he was winning before blundering horribly, Grischuk gained two bishops versus two knights. He used them to deadly effect to send the game into tiebreaks. Grischuk had the momentum, but Kasimdzhanov was not impressed and he ground out an endgame win in the first rapid game.

With his back to the wall Grischuk was unable to strike back in the second game despite gaining a large advantage. He could have finished things off in the diagrammed position with 40.Nxg6! Qxg3+ 41.Nxg3 fxg6 42.Rxc5.

Instead he picked another square for the knight with 40.Nh5 Qxg3+ 41.Nhxg3. Although White kept an extra pawn he couldn't convert and played on until a blunder forced him to resign. Kasimdzhanov's wins haven't been too impressive, but he has survived. Like Radjabov against Adams, he'll be a heavy underdog in his semifinal match against Veselin Topalov.

Veselin Topalov has scored an unbelievable 9.5/10 in Tripoli.
Is the world ready for two Bulgarian world champions?

Never let it be said that Topalov does anything easy. After his win yesterday, Topalov needed a draw with the black pieces against Andrei Kharlov to move into the semis. What we got was the most spectacular game of the tournament so far. (Kozul-Rublevsky is another candidate.)

When we took a glance at the game in progress with Kasparov we observed that Topalov had sacrificed the exchange for a few pawns and a powerful light-squared bishop. "What do you mean, exchange," he replied, "Topalov is down a full rook!" Oh yes, that. When Topalov gave up the exchange he had already sacrificed an entire piece!

And so we bid a fond farewell to Kharlov, Akopian, Dominguez, and Grischuk. The loss of the last two, pictured above, rules out the "Long-haired Hunks" dream final some female chess fans had hoped for. Sorry, ladies!

• BBC report: Gaddafi's strategic chess move
• FIDE report on round 3-1 with pictures and videos
• Interview with Zhang Zhong
• ChessBase pre-match report
• ChessBase round one game on report
• ChessBase round one report
• ChessBase round two game one report
• ChessBase round two report
• ChessBase round three game one report
• ChessBase round three game two report
• ChessBase round four game one report
• ChessBase round four game two report
• ChessBase round five game one report
• GM impressions by Sergei Tiviakov
• Postcards from Tripoli by Paul Hoffman
• Odds: Who will be the next FIDE world champion?
• Revised odds for FIDE championship
• Odds after round three

General information

The FIDE site, which is being hosted by Libya Telecom And Technology, looks well equipped to handle live coverage of the event. The schedule, list of players, results tree and games are all in place, there are reports and picture galleries. The start page is http://wcc2004.fide.com and http://wcclibya2004.com.

Live coverage

The live game transmission from Tripoli, apparently of all games, requires you to have Java Virtual Machine installed on your PC. This program is distributed free of charge by Sun Microsystems (and is useful for many other applications). Visit the Java check page to see if you have everything required for the live coverage and install Java if you don't. To follow the games click on "Live coverage" in the link list above. There is a "View" button behind each pairing of players. Many of the key games will also be covered and discussed on the Playchess.com server.

Schedule

Note that local time in Tripoli is the same as in Central Europe. The start of the games is generally at 14:30h, which is GMT + 2 and translates to 13:30 London, 8:30 a.m. New York, 16:30 Moscow, 18:00 New Delhi, 20:30 Hong Kong, 21:30 Tokyo, 22:30 Melbourne, and 03:00 a.m. (on the next day) in the French Polynesia-Marquesas Islands of Taiohae.