GELFAND BEATS PONOMARIOV IN BLITZ PLAY OFF; TOPS WORLD CHESS CUP

MANILA, PHILIPPINES—ISRAELI GM Boris Gelfand turned back Russian GM Ruslan Ponomariov in the blitz tie break to went home this year’s World Chess Cup title was held recently in Khanty, Mansiyk, Russia.

Both players drew their games in regular time control (standard), they won a rapid chess game each and drew two to proceed to the blitz, where again each won a game.

“I managed to win in the tiebreaks, though it was very hard. I think I could have showed good result already in the second rapid game. But the stress and tension did the work and I started blundering. Ruslan was also making mistakes and we ended in a draw. I had a bit advantage in the fourth game. The only thing I should have done is to shoot the ball into the empty goal. But I blundered again. Ruslan started a counter game and I resigned. Then we started playing blitz games. Here everything depended on the coolness and ability to keep the nerves together.” said Gelfand, a former top player of Belarus, in a post mortem interview.

Game three and four went to the Israeli, who thus won the World Cup with a close 7-5 victory. Gelfand is now part of the eight-player tournament to find a challenger for the World Champion.

Filipinos GMs Rogelio “Joey” Antonio Jr. and Darwin Laylo was booted out in the first round while GM Wesley So lost to Russian GM Vladimir Malakhov in the fourth round after besting GMs Vassily Ivanchuk of Ukraine and Gata Kamsky of the United States, respectively.

BY: MARLON BERNARDINO