The first two quarter-finals were rather one-sided. The first Hammer-Nakamura game was fairly balanced when the Norwegian blundered losing the exchange. In the second game with Black he never obtained any winning chances at all.
Quarter Finals:
| Jon Ludvig Hammer | 2633 | NOR | 0-1 | Hikaru Nakamura | 2733 | USA | Sicilian b3 | Bad blunder from Hammer in the rook and knight pseudo-endgame |
| Hikaru Nakamura | 2733 | USA | 1-0 | Jon Ludvig Hammer | 2633 | NOR | Spanish Delayed Exchange | Hammer was forced to take risks to try and win and Nakamura refuted Hammer's activity with a strong exchange sacrifice |
In the first game Bu outplayed Pelletier from a fairly level position with the Chinese player winning a smooth positional game.
Pelletier then needed to win with Black but, despite the Swiss-player's best efforts to destablize events, Bu kept control and was able to organize a perpetual check.
| Yannick Pelletier | 2592 | SUI | 0-1 | Xiangzhi Bu | 2695 | CHN | Catalan | White ran out of things to do and Bu broke through on the queenside. |
| Xiangzhi Bu | 2695 | CHN | 0.5-0.5 | Yannick Pelletier | 2592 | SUI | English/Hedgehog | Pelletier tried (with ...f5 and ...b5) to mix things but White was never rattled by this show of force. |
A selection of videos from Cap d'Agde:
Here are the preliminary round tables:
| Rank | Name | Country | Rating | Points |
| 1 | Hikaru Nakamura | USA | 2733 | 6.5 |
| 2 | Bu Xiangzhi | CHN | 2695 | 5.5 |
| 3 | Nguyen Ngoc Truong Son | VIE | 2633 | 4 |
| 4 | Judit Polgar | HUN | 2682 | 3.5 |
| 5 | Romain Edouard | FRA | 2636 | 3 |
| 6= | Anatoly Karpov | RUS | 2619 | 2.5 |
| 6= | Nadezhda Kosintseva | RUS | 2565 | 2.5 |
| 8 | Sophie Milliet | FRA | 2388 | 0.5 |
Pool B:
| Rank | Name | Country | Rating | Points |
| 1= | Vassily Ivanchuk | UKR | 2754 | 5.5 |
| 1= | Le Quang Liem | VIE | 2694 | 5.5 |
| 3= | Jon Ludvig Hammer | NOR | 2633 | 4 |
| 3= | Yannick Pelletier | SUI | 2592 | 4 |
| 5= | Tigran Gharamian | FRA | 2658 | 3 |
| 5= | Kateryna Lahno | UKR | 2539 | 3 |
| 7 | Zhu Chen | QAT | 2480 | 2 |
| 8 | Tatiana Kosintseva | RUS | 2573 | 1 |
Live games can be watched everyday from 14.30 local time Live Games
The English-language commentators being Glenn Flear (that is, yours truly!) and Javier Moreno.
Moscow 16.30am
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London 13.30
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For more information go to the Official site
