World Cup 2009 Gelfand into finals, Ponomariov Joins with 4-2 victory

After the first 2 games of Round 6, Boris Gelfand showed why he's the top seed by defeating young GM Sergey Karjakin 2-0 while GM Ruslan Ponomariov still holds Ukraine's chance to get to the finals by holding Russian GM Vladimir Malakhov to a couple of draws to go into the Rapid and possibly Blitz tiebreaks.

Already in the Finals:

GM Boris Gelfand 2758 (ISR)

Round 6 Tiebreak Rapid Games: Dec 8, 2009

Game 1 Rapid
1.0-1.0   7. Ruslan Ponomariov 2739 (UKR) 0-1  22. Vladimir Malakhov 2706 (RUS)

Game 2 Rapid
2.0-2.0  22. Vladimir Malakhov 2706 (RUS) 0-1  7. Ruslan Ponomariov 2739 (UKR)

Game 3 Rapid
3.0-2.0    7. Ruslan Ponomariov 2739 (UKR) 1-0  22. Vladimir Malakhov 2706 (RUS)

Game 4 Rapid
2.0-4.0  22. Vladimir Malakhov 2706 (RUS) 0-1 7. Ruslan Ponomariov 2739 (UKR)

And GM Ruslan Ponomariov goes on to face GM Boris Gelfand, the #1 seed in the Chess
World Cup 2009!  There will be a rest day tomorrow with hostilities resuming on the 10th!
 


Rest Day after the tiebreaks on Dec 9, 2009 with Finals to start Dec 10, 2009.


* And on a local note, a nice message from GM Bassem Amin! 37. B-Amin (10:28 05-Dec-09 EST): welcome back my friend ,Icc was boring without you :)
(Thanks GM Amin!)  I know I was bored!! Nice to be back, even if it's it's usual quiet self (ICC for TransWarp)