B-CHESS: Vishy Anand won the Corsica Masters Knockout

Vishy Anand won the Corsica Masters Knockout on Monday in Ajaccio, Corsica. The World Champion beat 2010 winner Shakhriyar Mamedyarov of Azerbaijan 2-0 in the final. In the semifinal Anand had a narrow escape against Krishnan Sasikiran, who had earlier won the 9-round Swiss.

Corsica Circuit | Swiss, round 9 standings.

Rk	Name	Ti	FED	Rtg	Pts	TB1	TB2	Perf
1	SASIKIRAN Krishnan	g	IND	2689	7.5	44.5	55.5	2792
2	JONES Gawain C B	g	ENG	2624	7	45	56.5	2692
3	MELKUMYAN Hrant	g	ARM	2619	6.5	46.5	57.5	2647
4	FRESSINET Laurent	g	FRA	2696	6.5	45.5	55.5	2664
5	DURARBEYLI Vasif	g	AZE	2526	6.5	45	54	2542
6	BARON Tal	g	ISR	2505	6.5	44.5	54.5	2559
7	CHEPARINOV Ivan	g	BUL	2650	6.5	44	54.5	2597
8	ARNOLD Marc T	m	USA	2505	6.5	44	54	2629
9	BATTAGLINI Gabriel	m	FRA	2452	6.5	43	53	2455
10	GRIGORYAN Avetik	g	ARM	2614	6.5	43	52.5	2588
11	MAMEDOV Rauf	g	AZE	2660	6.5	42.5	53	2599
12	MULLON Jean-Baptiste	m	FRA	2379	6.5	42.5	51.5	2464
13	TREGUBOV Pavel V.	g	RUS	2602	6.5	41.5	51	2554
14	MASSONI Michael	f	FRA	2304	6.5	40.5	49.5	2387
15	BERTHELOT Yannick	f	FRA	2286	6.5	39.5	49	2421
16	BAGHDASARYAN Vahe		ARM	2362	6	42.5	52.5	2427
17	INANTS Aghasi		ARM	2288	6	42.5	50.5	2360
18	BEDOUIN Xavier	m	FRA	2406	6	41.5	50.5	2344
19	FLEAR Glenn C	g	ENG	2471	6	41	51	2435
20	SULAVA Nenad	g	CRO	2540	6	41	51	2394
21	COLEMAN Teddy	f	USA	2312	6	41	49	2366
22	DEBRAY Christopher	m	FRA	2402	6	40.5	50.5	2354
23	IVANOV Stojan Emilov		BUL	2221	6	40.5	47.5	2339
24	DIMITROV Radoslav	m	BUL	2424	6	39.5	49	2343
25	MAMEDJAROVA Turkan	gf	AZE	2277	6	39	47.5	2310
26	EGOZI Nadav		ISR	2173	6	38	47.5	2225
27	HUMEAU Cyril		FRA	2261	6	36.5	44.5	2165
28	PESOTSKYI Vitalii	m	UKR	2268	5.5	43	51.5	2472
29	JUDKOVSKY Yair		ISR	2329	5.5	42.5	51.5	2341
30	SHACHAR Ehud	f	ISR	2355	5.5	42	50	2349

The top 14 players qualified for the traditional knockout rapid tournament, where they were joined by two invited players: World Champion (and multiple winner) Vishy Anand and 2010 winner Shakhriyar Mamedyarov. The system for this event was 2 games of 10 minutes plus 3 seconds increment, and if required, two blitz games at 3 minutes plus 2 seconds increment, and if required, an Armageddon game.

The quarter-finals took place on Friday, October 28th in the evening, just hours after the 9-round Swiss had finished. The top seed of the classical event Laurent Fressinet had apparently lost all his energy, and lost to Gabriel Battaglini (2452). The other results were less surprising:

Viswanathan Anand 1.5 – 0.5 Avetik Grigoryan

Krishnan Sasikiran 2.5 – 1.5 Rauf Mamedov

Ivan Cheparinov 3 – 1 Gabriel Battaglini

Shakhriyar Mamedyarov 1.5 – 0.5 Gawain Jones

Check this video!