Top seeded Grandmaster Veselin Topalov of Bulgaria stormed his way into the quarter-finals with back to back victories over Grandmaster Zdenko Kozul of Croatia in the pre-quarter-finals of the World chess championship in Tripoli, Libya, on Sunday.
Second seeded Grandmaster Michael Adams of England also made it to the quarters following a 1.5-0.5 victory over championship baby Hakaru Nakamura of the United States to join Rustam Kasmidzhanov of Uzbekistan, who scored his second straight victory over Grandmaster Zoltan Almasi of Hungary.
Also making it to the quarters was Grandmaster Vladimir Akopian of Armenia, who displayed perfect technique against GM Michal Krasenkow of Poland to romp home in the second game.
The remaining games of the pre quarters will now be stretched to the tie-break games to be played under 25 minutes each with a 10 seconds edition after every move is made. In case of a tie herein also a fresh set of two games shall be played with 5 minutes and a 10 seconds increment. If the deadlock persists a sudden death game of 5 minutes to white and 6 to black shall be played where white must win in order to proceed to the next round.
Having won the first game with black, Topalov was in command right through with his white pieces in the second game against Kozul, who employed the Classical Sicilian to keep himself going. Topalov sacrificed a couple of pawns in the middle game to get a better ending and his queen side pawns eventually had the final say.
Adams had little to do with his white pieces having won the first game with black. Nakamura went for the Alekhine defence and was never in the 21-moves games. Adams went for routine exchanges and when he was sitting a little better Nakamura prosed a draw and immediately signed his ouster paper.
On being asked about black being a better colour in such me control Adams said "well black is also one of the colours that one must play in game. I am generally comfortable with what I do with my pieces.
Rustam Kasmidzhanov was the finalist of the World Cup in Hyderabad and a mongst the 2700 ELo club in 2001 and off late he has been showing great sparks of coming back in the elite club.
Almasi was outdone in the second game too though the Uzbek has his share of luck in the first game of the tie-break that he won thanks to an oversight by the Hungarian in a much better position.
Available results round 4, game 2:
Veselin Topalov ( Bul) beat Zdenko Kozul (Cro) 2-0; Teimour Radjabov (Aze) drew with Pavel Smirnov (Rus) 1-1, goes to tiebreak; Michael Adams (Eng) beat Hikaru Nakamura (USA) 1.5-0.5; Alexander Beliavsky (Slo) drew with Alexander Grishchuk (Rus) 1-1, Goes to tiebreak; Rustam Kasimdzhanov (Uzb) beat Zoltan Almasi (Hun) 2-0; Vladimir Akopian (Arm) beat Michal Krasenkow (Pol) 1.5-0.5; Lenier Dominiguez (Cub) drew with Alexey Dreev (Rus) 1-1, goes to tiebreak; Andrei Kharlov (Rus) drew with Liviu-Dieter Nisipeanu (Rom) 1-1, goes to tiebreak.
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