A cool breeze blew across Resort Rio, bringing relief to an oppressively warm Sunday evening. That comforting breeze may have done little to calm Andrey Esipenko as he came out of the playing hall and walked swiftly towards his room.
The conditioned air inside the room may not have helped, either. The 23-year-old Russian had just blundered a place in the Chess World Cup final, and missed a confirmed ticket for the flight to Cyprus, which will host the Candidates in March-April next year. Esipenko could still make it to the Candidates, by winning the playoff for third place at the World Cup, but his 56th move against Wei Yi in the second tie-break game of the semifinal will haunt him for long. It was a gentle pawn push on the ‘c’ file to the sixth rank, but it was also an irretrievable step to self-destruction.
As a result of that move, Esipenko lost his rook that had been left hanging on the other half of the board. Wei immediately captured the hapless rook with his knight, and suddenly, from a very tough position — he was two pawns down — found himself in the World Cup final, and in the Candidates. Esipenko resigned immediately, and looked for a few seconds incredulously at the board before getting up.
In the final starting on Monday, the seventh-seeded Wei will meet Javokhir Sindarov. In the all-Uzbek semifinal, the 16th seed scored a crucial win against Nodirbek Yakubboev in the first game, riding on his advanced passed pawn.
Sindarov then only needed a draw in the second game, and got that. In the other match, Esipenko and Wei had drawn the first game, setting up the dramatic second.
The results (semifinals): Wei Yi (Chn) bt Andrey Esipenko (Rus) 1.5-.5; Javokhir Sindarov (Uzb) bt Nodirbek Yakubboev (Uzb) 1.5-0.5.