2016 Baku Rd1: Bulgaria held to draw by Sudan

2016 Baku Olympiad

All games start at 3 p.m. local time = 15 p.m. in Europe (CEST), one hour earlier in Britain, and 2 p.m. in Moscow. You can find the starting time at your location here.

Watch it live on Playchess!

Round one

The numbers are unquestionably impressive: 894 players in the Open section, including a staggering 253 grandmasters, and a similar number of masters, while the Women’s section has 693 players, of which 435 are titled.

It all started with a spectacular Opening Ceremony (see footage at 2:00)

The teams are all immensely strong needless to say though the lineups are not without a few surprises and omissions. At the very top of the Open section is the Russian team, which comes as no surprise. Their average rating of 2768 is comprised of Sergey Karjakin on first board, followed by Vladimir Kramnik, Evgeny Tomashevksky, Ian Nepomniachtchi, and finally Alexander Grischuk. Considering just how deep the talent runs in Russia, one could bring up names such as Svidler, Andreikin, and more, but it is just the nature of such a situation. In spite of their favoritism on paper, the Russians have not taken gold since 2002, the last time Kasparov himself played, a reminder of just how tough the competition is.

Russia, with Sergey Karjakin on board one, had no issues with Nigeria (photo by Eteri Kublashvili)

In second, with only three Elo separating them, is the US team with an average rating of 2765 FIDE, and it should be noted that the top three boards outrate any other three, with Top Ten names Fabiano Caruana, Hikaru Nakamura, and Wesley So, followed by Ray Robson and Sam Shankland to bolster the last board.

Sam Shankland (USA) - Joan Fernandez Lopez (Andorra)

White wins a piece here. Can you see how? Hint: be wary of the 'obvious'

In third is China, with a stellar lineup of their own, including Ding Liren, Li Chao, Wang Yue, Yu Yangyi, and of course the Chinese talent Wei Yi. It should be noted that not one of their players is over 30, though the US team can make a similar claim, and if it comes down to youth, Iran’s mostly teenage team probably has the strongest claim.

Finally one in a row! #won #ecstatic

Go #TeamNL at #bakuchess!

— Anish Giri (@anishgiri) September 2, 2016

Anish Giri won his first game, and posted a tongue-in-cheek Tweet

With such a massive tournament, one could easily go on and on, justifiably so, but of note also are the missing members. The most noteworthy is the absence of the entire team of Armenia, which for geopolitical reasons has refused to send a team, a true loss for chess as they won gold no fewer than three out of the last five Olympiads.

Israel is both there and not, and is unlikely to vie for any medals this time, despite having taken silver in 2008 and bronze in 2010 ahead of much higher rated rivals. For reasons that are related to issues between the government, the federation and the top players, none of the top players such as Gelfand or Sutovsky will be playing.

The local heroes! pic.twitter.com/k2k2Y7obt9

— Baku Chess Olympiad (@bakuchessol2016) August 31, 2016

The Azeri team is coached by Alexey Dreev and Etienne Bacrot

Ivory Coast, who came to Baku with star coach Maurice Ashley (Photos: @davidllada ) pic.twitter.com/nLNUhkQ97i

— Baku Chess Olympiad (@bakuchessol2016) September 1, 2016

Many teams sought out coaching help from foreign players. Above, Ivory Coast brought in GM Maurice Ashley to help, but other examples include Bulgarian GM Georgiev who is the captain of Egypt's team, Polish GM Krasenkov who is captain of Turkey, and GM Ivan Sokolov who is helping Iran.

Team Jamaica (photo by Eteri Kublashvili)

The Women’s section also has their outright favorites and here we already have the first surprise. The Chinese team is the clear top seed with an average 2560 rating, with Hou Yifan on first board, followed by Ju Wenjun, Zhao Xue, Tan Zhongyi and Gui Qi. They outrate their nearest rivals by 55 Elo, the second seed…. Ukraine! It has been such a consistent story of numbers for the last years: China and Russia fighting over the top honors that it was easy to not realize that a change had taken place, even if by a single Elo point, and this year Ukraine is the second seed with a 2505 average, led by Anna Muzychuk, Mariya Muzychuk, Natalia Zhukova, Anna Ushenina (all GMs) and Inna Gaponenko.

Hou Yifan missed out on the first round, but nor was she needed (photo by Rasim Huseynov)

Baku, here we come! Wait for us! #bakuchess #teamrussia pic.twitter.com/CNc1HelOQZ

— Alexandra Kosteniuk (@Kosteniuk) August 31, 2016

The Russian Women's team have taken gold ahead of China in the last three Olympiads 

Aleksandra Goryachkina is playing on Russia's second board (photo by Eteri Kublashvili)

The opening day saw a number of fascinating results and mishaps, some at the board and some off. For the most part, aside from the occasional draws here or there, the favorites won by massive scores. In the Open section, the top ten matches saw the favorites drop only a single draw out of 40 games. Mind oyu, though favorites, there were chances of more upsets, such as Wesley So, who found himself facing a full grandmaster right off the bat, but he held his cool and won cleanly.

Round one highlights by GM Daniel King

Yusuf Ndoe proudly representing Team Tanzania! (photo by David Llada)

Match preparation taken to the next level. Notice the elaborate nail polish. (photo by David Llada)

Diana Real Pereyra from Mexico stares down her opponent (photo by David Llada)

There were some surprises though, at least for those watching the games. Spectators watching online were shocked to see England being wiped out by the IBCA, the team of blind players. No disrespect meant to the IBCA players, all of whom are full-fledged masters in their own right, but a surprise whitewash against England seemed incredible.

Just logged into watch England's 1st round at #bakuchess - What's happening? Is there a transmission error? Are we losing to IBCA?

— Simon Williams (@ginger_gm) September 2, 2016

A similar tale was told of Iran, who were facing a massacre by the team from Botswana, losing on all boards. Thankfully, it turned out to be merely a technical glitch that had inverted the names in the transmissions, and the corrected scores brought sighs of relief to many.

I feel embarrassed that I ever doubted England. (Even for a split second)

— Simon Williams (@ginger_gm) September 2, 2016

Then there was the astonishing result by Bulgaria. Facing a quite modest team by Sudan, and enjoying a majestic Topalov on board one, they showed an incredible 2-2 result at the end. Was this yet another case of equipment malfunction? No, indeed. Was this perhaps a highly unfortunate result of catastrophic blunders by two of the Bulgarian players? This would seem the most likely explanation, but the truth was even more startling: the two Sudanese players had quite simply outplayed their much higher rated opponents as if their Elos had been inverted. See for yourself.

Mohamed Abdalla Abdelazeez - Martin Petrov (annotated by GM Elshan Moradiabadi)

If the Open section showed a strong tendency to favor the favorites, the Women’s section was far more so. The first favorite to concede even a draw was 15th seed Mongolia, and the only ‘scare’ in the top matchups was Greece’s narrow 2.5-1.5 victory over Sri Lanka on table 30. The favorites showed why they were favorites, and 400-500 Elo differences were not easily overcome. Observe the handiwork of Ukrainian IM Inna Gaponenko:

Inna Gaponenko (Ukraine) - Ana Ines Da Silva (Portugal)

White wins with a stylish finish

The opening round also saw the visit of the Azerbaijani president Ilham Aliyev visit the venue to make the symbolic first move. Naturally he did so on the first board of the Azeri team, where Shakhriyar Mamedyarov sat. This led to unexpected issues as the security then locked the venue from entrants, which included members of the press.

Accompanying this all, there was a high quality video crew filming it with live images of boards, players and more. There was also live commentary in English by GM Evgenij Miroshnichenko, GM Miguel Illescas, GM Susan Polgar and Dirk Jan ten Geuzendam.

Click here to see the live video

Solutions

About GM Elshan Moradiabadi Elshan Moradiabadi is a GM born and raised in Tehran, Iran. He moved to the US in 2012. Ever since, he has been active in US college chess scenes and in US chess. Elshan co-authored "Chess and the Art of War: Ancient Wisdom to Make You a Better Player" with Al Lawrence. He has also published written articles for ChessBase, and edited opening materials for fellow authors. Elshan Moradiabadi is a veteran instructor and teaches chess to every level, with students ranging from beginners to IM. He can be contacted for projects or teaching at his email. You can contact him at his email or follow him on Twitter.

Round one games (with times per move)