The topsy-turvy World Cup in Tbilisi, Georgia, has entered the second round with the usual upsets and close calls for the world’s best, especially given the very unforgiving two-game mini matches. The biggest upset has to be Ukrainian Pavel Eljanov losing to New Yorker Alex Lenderman. Eljanov was ranked 25th, and Lenderman ranked only 104th. Their first game saw that Eljanov masterfully built up a winning position from just a small advantage in the endgame and then, strangely he lost his mind, losing ignominiously. In their second game, Eljanov lost again. Lenderman now moves on to face another upset winner, Norwegian Aryan Tari, who sent Englishman David Howell home. Another Englishman sent home was the current British champion, Gawain Jones, who lost to the young Peruvian Jorge Cori.

Another big upset was Massachusetts’ Sam Sevian’s convincing win over the German Liviu-Dieter Nisipeanu. Sevian now faces another challenge as he faces China’s No. 4 and the world’s No. 20, Chao B. Li. Overall the US contingent did very well, with Lenderman’s and Sevian’s upset wins and the big three, Fabiano Caruana, Hikaru Nakamura, and Wesley So, advancing as expected. However, Varuzhan Akobian lost to Canadian Anton Kovalyov and Jeffrey Xiong lost to Russian Alexander Motylev. In a strange case, American Alexander Onischuk advanced on forfeit after his opponent, Yaroslav Zherebukh, didn’t show up. Zherebukh is waiting for his green card and didn’t want to leave the country for fear of not being let back in.

The World Cadet Championship has ended with the US team having the best result of any US junior team in recent memory. Overall the US team earned three firsts, two seconds, two thirds, two fifths, and a sixth. The best Massachusetts result was by Walpole’s Tianna Wang in the Girls U10. Though she tied for third-ninth, on tie-break she finished eighth and out of the trophy/medal consideration. The best New Englander was Max Lu of Connecticut, with a fifth-place finish in the U12 group.

Coming events: Sept. 16-17, 2nd Massachusetts Senior Open, Best Western Royal Plaza Hotel, 181 Boston Post Road west, Marlborough, www.MassChess.org; Sept. 17, Fuller Craft Spiegel Cup Series (Scholastic), Fuller Craft Museum, 455 Oak St., Brockton, Info: nicholas@ xenophon98 .com

Recent results: Newburyport CC’s August Swiss (25 players), 1st: Tim Newman, 3.5-5; Boylston August TNS (27 players), 1st: Anton Barash, 4-0;

Answer to today’s problem: Always check the checks! 1…Qh1+! 2.Bxh1 Nh2+ 3.Kf1 Rg1#

Chris Chase can be reached at BostonGlobeChessNotes@ gmail.com.