Khanty Mansiysk (Russia): Norwegian Grandmaster Magnus Carlsen’s dream run in the World Chess Cup ended when he was beaten by seasoned GM Evgeny Bareev of Russia in the tiebreak games of the pre-quarter finals.

Carlsen was outdone in the rapid games of the tiebreaker itself after losing the first game and could only manage a draw in the return game.

In the battle between two Frenchmen, the younger Etienne Barcot took the advantage against Joel Lautier to advance to the quarter finals.

The Caro Kann defence yet again helped the Russian as Carlsen was unable to get his attack rolling once the middlegame surfaced.

Boris Gelfand of Israel beat Alexey Dreev of Russia 3.5-2.5 to move to the next round. Gelfand won the first rapid game as black but surprisingly lost the next one to reach the Blitz games.

Also advancing to the quarters were former world junior champion Levon Aronian of Armenia, who had it easy against Francisco Vallejo Pons of Spain and Mikhail Gurevich of Belgium who crushed Russian Vladimir Malakhov. (PTI)