There were few major upsets in round one of the FIDE Chess World Cup, as the top 14 seeds have all advanced to the second round in their quest to earn a spot in the next Candidates Tournament. The World Cup is a 128-player knockout event, with players facing off in mini-matches (in the early rounds, just two games) to decide who advances. In the end, only one player will earn the Candidates invite.

While the top names at the tournament have avoided early upsets, there were a few notable names that won't be advancing. Sergei Movsesian fell 1.5-0.5 to China's Yu Yangyi, while both Leinier Dominguez Perez and David Navara were forced to rapid playoffs by their opponents (David Smerdon and Darwin Laylo respectively). The results for American players were mixed; Gata Kamsky, Alexander Onischuk have advanced to the next round, while Alexander Shabalov, Yuri Shulman, and Varuzhan Akobian will be playing rapid chess tomorrow to try to sneak into round two. Young guns Robert Hess and Ray Robson have been elimination, as have Alexander Ivanov, Josh Friedel and Jan Ehlvest.

For players facing tiebreakers tomorrow, here's how they work. First, the players will face off in four game rapid matches (Game in 25 minutes, plus a 10 second increment). Should either player hold a lead at the end of this match, they are declared the winner. If not, a series of two-game blitz matches begin; as soon as a player wins one of these mini-matches, they advance through to the next round. If five matches (ten games) of blitz are played without a winner being declared, a final "Armageddon" game will be played to decide who advances to the second round.

Like I said before, while a knockout format like this isn't ideal for choosing a World Champion, it works perfectly for giving away one spot into the Candidates Tournament. Since there are other ways to qualify, nobody is forced to go though with the format if they feel it's a waste of their time, and with just one spot on the line, every match is critical. Even without most of the world's top players (who have already qualified for the world championship cycle, or have other tournament commitments) participating, this tournament is still worth watching and should produce plenty of drama and excitement over the next few weeks.

Following the Tal Memorial which wrapped up last week, most of the participants remained in Moscow, where they were joined by more of the world's top players. In all, 22 players competed in a 42 round, double round-robin spectacular: the World Blitz Championship. Played over three days, the tournament had a superstar field and plenty of upsets.

If there were two favorites in the tournament, they were likely Viswanathan Anand, who is not only the World Champion but is also known as a tremendous rapid and blitz player, and Magnus Carlsen, who has been playing extremely well as of late. The two players were in the lead from start to finish, with Anand holding a two point lead after the first day. However, it was Carlsen who ended up on top, finishing clear first with a 31/42 score -- three points ahead of Anand, who finished in second.

Carlsen won the event on the back of an impressive 28 wins, drawing just six games and losing eight. Conversely, Anand actually lost fewer games -- only six -- but also drew 16. Carlsen also pulled away by dominating the other leaders; he won both games against Anand, as well as against third place finisher Sergey Karjakin (25/42) and Vladimir Kramnik, who finished fourth (24.5). The tournament was competitive throughout the field, with even Alexandra Kosteniuk (last place, 12.5) scoring wins against both Carlsen and Anand.

Of course, blitz tournaments don't mean much in the grand scheme of things. Still, this is another notch in the hat for Carlsen, for whom 2009 has been a very good year. We'll soon see if he can top things off at the London Chess Classic in December, where he'll have a chance to finish the year with a tournament victory, and secure his #1 spot on the FIDE rating list.

Vladimir Kramnik may be best known for his solid play, but he's certainly capable of winning a game or two when the need arises. In the case of the Tal Memorial, he won three, which was just enough to take clear first in what was likely the strongest tournament of 2009. Kramnik finished with a 6.0/9 score, a half-point ahead of Magnus Carlsen and Vassily Ivanchuk.

There was a fair amount of drama heading into the final round, as Ivanchuk and Viswananthan Anand each trailed Kramnik by just a half point, and Ivanchuk had White against Kramnik. Anand took himself out of contention by losing to Levon Aronian with the white pieces in just 25 moves. Ivanchuk managed to get an advantage against Kramnik, but couldn't find a way to convert it, leading to an agreed draw after 29 moves, and a tournament win for Kramnik.

The other big winner was Magnus Carlsen, who recovered from being sick earlier in the tournament to finish strong with two victories in the final two rounds (over Ruslan Ponomariov and Peter Leko). Before the tournament, it was believed that a +2 score by Carlsen would be enough to overtake Veselin Topalov (who did not play in Moscow) as the number one player in the world. Sure enough, the live rating list now has him .6 points ahead of Topalov; if these ratings hold until January, Carlsen would appear on the next FIDE list at 2806, and Topalov at 2805. However, Carlsen will be playing in London next month, so it remains to be seen who will top the first official ratings list of 2010.

The 2009 Tal Memorial, being held in Moscow, boasts one of the strongest tournament fields in recent memory; you won't find many 10-player round robin events where the lowest rated participant is rated 2739 (that honor being jointly shared by Vassily Ivanchuk and Ruslan Ponomariov).  World Champion Viswanathan Anand is there, as is former champion Vladimir Kramnik, and the world's #2 player, Magnus Carlsen. Levon Aronian, Boris Gelfand, Peter Leko, Alexander Morozevich and Peter Svidler round out the field. All in all, the Memorial appeared to have the kind of field that would inspire a lot of excitement and plenty of fascinating games.

Instead, we started with two rounds that failed to produce a single decisive game! To be fair, there wasn't a problem with short draws; many of the early games were exciting games that ended with both sides picking up a half-point, not boring skirmishes where neither side had any interest in winning. Things have picked up a little since, but after four rounds, there have still only been four total wins in the tournament. Vladimir Kramnik currently has the lead with a score of 3/4, having scored wins over Morozevich and Svidler in the last two rounds. Anand and Aronian are each just a half-point back, with Anand also having scored a full point against Svidler in round three.

Another developing subplot: Carlsen entered the tournament with a reasonable chance of passing Topalov as the top-rated player in the world with a good result here (I believe he'd have to finish +2 to do so). However, Carlsen has fallen ill (he has a fever and a throat infection, which you can read about in Norwegian, or in English on ChessBase) and is taking antibiotics. He has started the tournament with four draws, so it remains to be seen if he'll be able to break through in the second half.