Kamsky and Svidler Draw 1st game
By Jennifer Shahade   
December 3, 2007
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Gata Kamsky plays Peter Svidler. Photo Misha Savinov.



In round 4.1 of the World Cup, Gata Kamsky is the sole American left standing in the brutal knockout format. Today Gata drew against Svidler with the black pieces. Tomorrow, he will get his chance with White.

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Decisive games

There were some exciting decisive games this round. Ruslan Ponomariov (Ukraine) smashed Krishnan Sasikiran (India), Alexei Shirov (Spain) beat Vladimir Akopian(Armenia), and Mangus Carlsen (Norway) won against Michael Adams (England.) Two of today's wins featured unusual knight moves:

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Carlsen-Adams, Position after 15...Bc8.

Carlsen played 16. Na1!, the only decent move in this position but an amusing one. To further the joke, the knight actually left a1 but came back a few moves later.

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Ponomariov- Sasikiran, position after 39.Ng8+


Ponomariov just played 39.Ng8+! and now Black is toast. Sasikiran resigned after 39...Kh5 40.f7 Re7 41.Bf6. The Ponomariov-Sasikiran match is important for us, because Kamsky will play the winner of that match if he gets past Svidler.

Here are the full games:

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