Kamsky Knocks Svidler Out!
By Jennifer Shahade   
December 5, 2007
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Kamsky and Svidler face off in the tiebreak. Photo Misha Savinov.


Kamsky knocked Svidler out in round four's rapid tiebreak of the World Cup. Now Gata advances to the elite eight, where he will face off against Ruslan Ponomariov.

In the first rapid game, Gata looked to be nursing a small edge, but Svidler's final move Bxe2 erased all doubts that the game would end in a draw:

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In the second game, it looked like Svidler had a nice initiative from the opening but seemingly out of nowhere, Gata grabbed complete control and forced the win of Svidler's d-pawn. By the time Gata played 27...Nh5, it was already an annoying problem to hold on to d5, although the passive 28.Rd1 or the active 28. Nh4 both seem like better responses than 28.Nd2, after which Gata quickly gained a winning edge.

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There were two other tiebreak matches today. Last year's World Cup winner and the highest rated player in the field, Levon Aronian went down against Dmitry Javonenko. Evgeny Alekseev defeated Evgeny Bareev. Click here for details on results.

Gata Kamsky plays Ponomariov tomorrow, Dec.6 at 5 AM EST. You can watch the games live on ICC or at the official website. Good luck to Gata!