
The 40th Chess Olympiad is taking place in the Turkish metropole of Istanbul,
from August 27 to September 10th, 2012. A record of 158 national chess federations
have brought teams to Istanbul to participate in this prestigious event, which
is being staged in the WOW Hotel and Convention Center, just minutes away from
the airport.
Final round clashes
In the Open Section there are three teams tied for first: China, Armenia and
Russia, with 17 match points each. One team, Ukraine, is trailing by one match
point, and four teams have fifteen match points apiece.
Rank after Round 10 – Open
Rnk |
SNo |
Open |
+ |
= |
– |
Pts |
TB2 |
TB3 |
TB4 |
1 |
6 |
China |
8 |
1 |
1 |
17 |
343.5 |
28.5 |
127.00 |
2 |
3 |
Armenia |
8 |
1 |
1 |
17 |
336.5 |
26.5 |
132.00 |
3 |
1 |
Russia |
8 |
1 |
1 |
17 |
321.5 |
25.5 |
132.00 |
4 |
2 |
Ukraine |
8 |
0 |
2 |
16 |
292.5 |
26.5 |
121.00 |
5 |
4 |
Hungary |
7 |
1 |
2 |
15 |
311.5 |
26.5 |
122.00 |
6 |
5 |
USA |
6 |
3 |
1 |
15 |
307.0 |
27.5 |
120.00 |
7 |
14 |
Germany |
6 |
3 |
1 |
15 |
282.0 |
25.0 |
120.00 |
8 |
16 |
Poland |
7 |
1 |
2 |
15 |
259.0 |
26.0 |
113.00 |
The question is of course what happens in case of a match point tie after the
final round. To find out we have to look at the FIDE
rule book for the Olympiad. Here is the relevant passage:
FIDE |
 |
G. Tie Breaking
14. The position of teams that finish with the same number of match
points shall be determined by application of the following tie-breaking
procedures in sequence, proceeding from (a) to (b) to (c) to the extent
required:
a) the sum of Sonneborn-Berger points, which are calculated as
follows: match points of each opponent, excluding the opponent who
scored the lowest number of match points, multiplied by the number
of game points achieved against this opponent;
b) by the number of the game points scored;
c) by the sum of the match points of all the teams opponents, excluding
the lowest one.
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Mathematician (and GM and author and publicist) John Nunn drew our attention
to a substantial ambiguity in the above rules, specifically 14.a. "What
happens if you have played against two teams, both of which finish with the
same number of match points. How do you know which one to exclude? This could
make a big difference if you scored 2.5 points against one team and 4 points
against the other." We assume the FIDE calculators will have a solution
for this case?!
Whatever. So what are the chances of the individual teams. Clearly China, Armenia
and Russia are best placed to take the medals. If all three win their matches
they will get Gold, Silver and Bronze, most likely in the order they are currently
placed. But the tiebreak system is tricky as it depends on several other matches
and is a curious mixture of match points and game points. So there are scenarios
where things could end differently. And other outcomes apart from straight wins
by all three will complicate the matter. Maybe one of our readers can make a
spreadsheet to calculate all eventualities.
Team Pairings for the final round – Open
No. |
SNo |
Team |
Pts. |
MP |
Res. |
MP |
Pts. |
Team |
SNo |
1 |
2 |
Ukraine |
26½ |
16 |
|
17 |
28½ |
China |
6 |
2 |
4 |
Hungary |
26½ |
15 |
|
17 |
26½ |
Armenia |
3 |
3 |
1 |
Russia |
25½ |
17 |
|
15 |
25 |
Germany |
14 |
4 |
16 |
Poland |
26 |
15 |
|
15 |
27½ |
USA |
5 |
5 |
29 |
Argentina |
24 |
14 |
|
14 |
26 |
Netherlands |
9 |
From the above we see that the Chinese may have the best chances of the three
leaders, but they also have the toughest opponents. Ukraine has staged a vigorous
comeback after losing to Russia in round eight. They beat France and Azeibaijan
in the next two rounds and could prove to be a dangerous opponent for the Chinese
team, which only drew the Azeris in round eight.
The Armenians, who overtook the Russians in round ten on TB2 points, also have
a dangerous opponent – nominally more so than Russia, although the Germans
have been playing very well in this Olympiad and will certainly conclude the
event with a fighting round.
Here are the standings in the Women's Section and the pairings for the final
round:
Rank after Round 10 – Women
Rnk |
SNo |
Women |
+ |
= |
– |
Pts |
TB2 |
TB3 |
TB4 |
1 |
1 |
China |
7 |
3 |
0 |
17 |
357.0 |
29.0 |
131.00 |
2 |
2 |
Russia |
7 |
3 |
0 |
17 |
348.0 |
29.0 |
126.00 |
3 |
4 |
Ukraine |
6 |
4 |
0 |
16 |
325.0 |
27.0 |
127.00 |
4 |
14 |
France |
7 |
1 |
2 |
15 |
294.0 |
27.5 |
120.00 |
5 |
22 |
Kazakhstan |
6 |
3 |
1 |
15 |
281.0 |
27.0 |
112.00 |
6 |
9 |
Germany |
7 |
1 |
2 |
15 |
277.5 |
26.5 |
113.00 |
7 |
6 |
India |
7 |
1 |
2 |
15 |
277.5 |
25.5 |
122.00 |
Team Pairings for the final round - Women
No. |
SNo |
Team |
Pts. |
MP |
Res. |
MP |
Pts. |
Team |
SNo |
1 |
2 |
Russia |
29 |
17 |
|
15 |
27 |
Kazakhstan |
22 |
2 |
13 |
Bulgaria |
26 |
14 |
|
17 |
29 |
China |
1 |
3 |
4 |
Ukraine |
27 |
16 |
|
15 |
26½ |
Germany |
9 |
4 |
14 |
France |
27½ |
15 |
|
15 |
25½ |
India |
6 |
Here we can be fairly sure that China and Russia will share the top medals,
most likely in that order, while Ukraine should not be expected to suffer a
shock defeat against the Germans. So we will predict Gold for China, Silver
for Russia and Bronze for Ukraine, with an outside chance that Germany might
steak the third place from their opponents in the final round.
Where to watch the final round
Naturally Playchess.com will be broadcasting the most important final round
games live, and with engines running and Let's Check switched on our visitors
will be the best-informed spectators on the planet. Video images are provided
in high quality by the Turkish organisers, or more specifically by Mark Gluhovsky,
the press officer of the Russian Chess Federation, and his team in Istanbul.

Above we see Mark attending to commentator Evgeny Miroshnichenko, who is commenting
in a special cabin in the press area of the Olympiad. From Moscow.

In an adjacent room we have the technical staff and Turkish coordinators. Among
other things they are relaying broadcasts from a Russian studio in which GM
Sergey Shipov is commenting on selected games. The live coverage they produce
in the window below will become available as soon as the round starts.
Live video coverage of the Olympiad
Note that you can switch to HD quality and maximise the screen for maximum viewing
pleasure.
Remaining schedule of the Olympiad
There is live commentary of the most interesting games on Playchess.com,
beginning around half an hour after the games have started.
8 September 2012 |
|
Free Day |
|
9 September 2011 |
11.00 |
11th Round, Closing |
Daniel King |
10 September 2011 |
Departure |
Some hours after the end of each round we will be posting video summaries by
Daniel King and Andrew Martin on our news page. If possible they will appear
on the same night, otherwise early the next morning.

Links
The top games are being broadcast live on the official web site and on
the chess server Playchess.com.
If you are not a member you can download a free Playchess client there
and get immediate access. You can also use ChessBase
11 or any of our Fritz
compatible chess programs. |
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