China and Russia win FIDE World Team Championship

All photos by Anastasia Balakhontseva

Round nine

The FIDE Open and Women’s World Team Chess Championships is taking place from June 16 to June 27, 2017 (June 21 is a free day) in the the Ugra Chess Academy of the oil-book town of Khanty-Mansiysk, in western Siberia. Ten open and ten women's teams are participating. Games start at 3 p.m. local time – 12 noon CEST, 6 a.m. New York (check your location).

Open section

For board wise break down, click here

Without wishing to take anything away from the other teams, who all came and competed to their fullest, there was no question that only two matches would have everyone riveted, save for nationals rooting for their home team of another country. The matches in question were China versus Poland, and Russia versus the USA. The main reason for this intense interest was the gold medal, and while it seemed a virtual certainty China would take gold, it was not guaranteed.

Fur Russia to score an upset, first of all China would need to be held to a draw against Poland. This was hardly impossible, and Turkey had managed this feat earlier in the event, and they were weaker than Poland on paper. Still, even if this happened, Russia would still need to beat the USA by at least 3.5-0.5. Of the conditions to meet, this seemed like a very tall order, after all, while the USA might not be playing with their Big Three, nor was Russia playing with their Olympic team.

However, Russia did even better as they completely smashed the US team by 4-0. It was not as clear-cut as the score suggests of course. Ian Nepomniachtchi did not take long to show his cards as he sacked a pawn on move six to aggressively fight for an opening advantage against Sam Shankland.

Ian Nepomniachtchi vs Sam Shankland

Maxim Matlakov also came up with a bit of ingenious opening preparation, though not quite as early as Nepo’s, and in a lengthy but sharp line of the Queen’s Gambit Declined, he came up with a powerful novelty with 17. Bf5! against Ray Robson.

Matlakov vs Robson

Although this gave him a nice edge, he soon squandered it as the two showed nerves, and it wasn’t until a serious mistake in the endgame that things well and truly soured. There might be many explanations for it, but quite likely, it was after feeling constantly on the verge of getting into big troubles for so many moves, the chance to enter a plain knight endgame, had to feel like he was out of trouble. Tragically, and typically, for such Murphy’s Law moments, it was that last queen exchange that made his life difficult, and ultimately cost him the game.

Matlakov vs Robson

Russia's 4-0 win over Team USA was the only clean sweep in the Open section

While Alexander Onischuk lost badly to Nikita Vitiugov, one of the least clear games was that between the two youthful talents: Jeffery Xiong and Vladimir Fedoseev. It was a great battle with many fascinating moments. Consider this position after 23…gxh3

Xiong vs Fedoseev

Still, it was not enough, and while Fedoseev was not perfect either, it was White who spent his time alternating between ‘may be ok’ and ‘in big trouble’.

Jeffery Xiong vs Vladimir Fedoseev

So Russia had done all it could, but their fate was still not in their hands, since China still had to fail to win their match. It almost seemed as if this might be possible, were it not for Li Chao’s superb win that ensured China the gold.

Li Chao (CHN) vs Mateusz Bartel (POL) (annotated by GM Krikor Mekhitarian)

After taking gold in the 2016 Olympiad, they came in full battle gear and were gold in the World Team Championship as well.

It was a valiant effort, and Russia did well as they came in second and silver

Poland fought a great campaign, and finished in a deserved third place

The surprising Turks came in 5th in the end, ahead of several notable teams, such as the USA. Impressive.

Crosstable of Open section

Women's section

For a board wise break down, click here

In the women's section, the only way Ukraine could threaten Russia was by beating them 4-0, and contrary to the Open section where such scores did take place, there were to be no heroic measures in the last round, and Ukraine was defeated 3-1 by Russia. As a result of their second consecutive defeat, Ukraine was unable to even make the podium, since they were tied with Georgia and India, but with the worse tiebreak.

The proud Russian women took gold in Khanty-Mansiysk

In spite of a fairly lackadaisical start, China did manage to come in clear second and take silver

Georgia came in third thanks to a better tiebreak than...

... India, who lost to Russia and drew against the second and third place finishers.

Crosstable of Women's section

Links

• Official tournament site
• All Open games in PGN or Replay them directly here (many analyzed)
• All Women games in PGN or Replay them directly here (many analyzed)

You can use ChessBase 14 or any of our Fritz compatible chess programs to replay the games in PGN. You can also download our free Playchess client, which will in addition give you immediate access to the chess server Playchess.com..