Ganguly Eliminated By Tiviakov

By Arvind Aaron

National champion Surya Ganguly of Indian Oil, Kolkata was knocked out by Sergey Tiviakov, the Russian born Dutch player from Groningen in round one of the World Chess Cup at Khanty-Mansiysk in Russia on Sunday. Requiring a win with black to stay in the tournament, Ganguly played a draw with the black colour in their reverse game.

The other four Indians were locked in 1-1 results and would be playing the tie-break games. The tie-break is good for lower rated Indians like Abhijit Kunte against Vadim Zviaginsev and G.N.Gopal against former world champion Rustam Kasimdzhanov but not so good for Krishnan Sasikiran and P.Harikrishna who are higher rated in their matches.

The top seed Vassily Ivanchuk of Ukraine cruised through to the second round with a smooth 2-0 triumph. It is a 128-player knock out competition until a winner is decided on December 18. The FIDE President Kirsan Ilyumzhinov is seen more like a Santa Claus giving out pre-Christmas gifts to chess players right from the first time he sponsored such knock out competitions at Groningen 1997.