Tripoli: Rustam Kasimdzhanov of Uzbekistan beat European champion Vassily Ivanchuk of the Ukraine in tie-breaker in the third round of the world chess championship on Friday.

Sergei Rublevsky of Russia also bowed out after losing his second straight game against Croat Zdenko Kozul. Lenier Dominiguez of Cuba handed the same treatment to Vladislav Tkachiev of France.

Top seed Veselin Topalov’s winning run was halted by Sergei Movsesian of Slovakia but the draw was enough to take the Bulgarian to the pre-quarter finals.

Kasimdzhanov, the finalist of the last World Chess Cup in Hyderabad, proved a tough match for Ivanchuk whose strategy to try it out in the rapid games backfired miserably.

The Ukrainian, after drawing the normal game quickly, settled for peace in the first game under rapid time control and lost the second to bid good bye to this year’s championship.

It may be recalled that Ivanchuk was the finalist of the last world championship and lost the final in Moscow in 2002 against compatriot Ruslan Ponomariov.

Dominiguez stole the show from even the likes of second seed Michael Adams and Topalov with his back-to-back victories over Tkachiev.