Chess World Cup: Svidler strikes with black

CHENNAI: Peter Svidler is in the form of his life at the moment. The Russian played a gem of the game on Friday to defeat compatriot Alexander Grischuk to take a firm grip of his four-game final in the Chess World Cup at Khanty-Mansiysk. A point with black put Svidler ahead and the kind of form the Russian is in he could be a strong challenger in the world championship.
Both Svidler and Grischuk have already qualified for the next world championship and that is why the third-place playoff between Ukrainians Vassily Ivanchuk and Ruslan Ponomariov assumed significance as it would decide the third qualifier for the world championship from the world cup.
Svidler is one of the most practical players among the elite; he does not push the game, he waits and waits for his opponent to make a mistake and when he does it, he pounces on it and completes the job. This was exactly what he did against Grischuk, who gave a piece for two pawns and banked on his central pawn which looked like a passer but was in fact far from it. From a tense middle game position around move 18 to 20, when Grischuk found the sacrifice, Svidler played flawless chess to stop the pawn and keep the extra piece. The black win came after 30 moves.
Ivanchuk and Ponomariov played a 45-move draw in English opening. In a deadlock of opposite-coloured bishop ending, the rooks could not make any headway and the pawns got stranded in all parts of the board.