Khanty Mansiysk (Russia):
Giantkiller Filipino super talent Wesley So bowed out of the World Chess Cup after losing to Russian Vladimir Malakhov while top seed Boris Gelfand of Israel had to dig deep into his vast reserve of experience to come out victorious, here.
After accounting for big guns like Vassily Ivanchuk and Gata Kamksy, Wesley So found his nemesis in Malakhov, who defeated the teenager in the first set of rapid tie-breaker to win the match by a 4-1 margin.
The match between Gelfand and world junior champion Maxime Vachier-Lagrave was decided via the blitz stage. They drew all the four rapid games but Gelfand eventually had the last laugh as he secured himself in first set of blitz tie-breaker.
It was a similar result in the duel between Russians Alexander Grischuk and Dmitry Jakovenko. Grischuk gave Jakovenko a taste of his own medicine in the blitz games and won both in the first blitz tie-breaker itself.
Italian teenager Caruana Fabiano of Italy went down in the rapid games against second seed Vugar Gashimov.
It was an almost identical loss for both Wesley and Caruana. While Wesley lost the first three of the four tiebreak games, Caruana was out done in two besides the lone draw he could manage against his Azerbaijani opponent.
The other player to win in rapid tie-breaker was former world champion Ruslan Ponomariov of Ukraine who got the better of Etienne Bacrot of France in the fourth and final rapid game after the first three ended in draws.
<b>Complete results of pre-quarterfinals:</b>
Boris Gelfand (Isr) bt Maxime Vachier-Lagrave (Fra) 1-1, 2-2, 1.5-0.5; Peter Svidler (Rus) bt Alexei Shirov (Esp) 1.5-0.5; Shakhriyar Mamedyarov (Aze) bt Viktor Laznicka (Cze) 1.5-0.5; Nikita Vituigov (Rus) lost to Sergey Karjakin (Ukr) 0.5-1.5; Vladimir Malakhov (Rus) bt Wesley So (Phi) 1-1, 3-0; Caruana Fabiano (Ita) lost to Vugar Gashimov (Aze) 1-1, 2.5-0.5; Ruslan Ponomariov (Ukr) bt Etienne Bacrot (Fra) 1-1, 2.5-1.5; Dmitry Jakovenko (Rus) bt Alexander Grischuk (Rus) 1-1, 2-2, 2-0.