World Team 01: Black Day

The World Chess Team Championship is currently being held in Antalya, Turkey. The tournament runs from November 26th to December 5th. The tournament is a round robin tournament between the best countries in the world who are sending their top participants. The event will have zero tolerance rules, no draw offers for the first 30 moves and will be played under the standard team tournament system with two points given to a match winner, one for a draw and zero the the loser of a match. Tiebreaks will be decided by board points. The time control is the FIDE 90 minutes for 40 moves and an additional 30 minutes at move 40 with thirty second increment throughout the game.

The following teams are participating in the tournament:

Germany is the qualifier from Europe (they won the Euro Team Championship last year) and are not exactly the favorite to take this event. However they have dangerous players and they are using the interesting strategy of putting their highest rated player on fourth board.

Turkey is the host country and on paper one of the weaker teams of the event. However Ipatov has show amazing results lately and it is possible they give a surprise or two.

The Netherlands always fields a strong team, and they qualified thanks to their strong result in last year's Olympiad. Let's not forget that Sokolov just amazed everyone in the European Team Championship last week where he scored an over 2900 performance rating. Can he repeat the same feat?

The absence of Ponomariov slightly weakens Ukraine, but with every player being over 2700 it is obvious that they are in strong contention for the top positions. Much will depend on Ivanchuk's stability on first board. They qualified thanks to last year's Olympiad.

Russia is always a team to be feared, even if their performance in team tournaments lately has not been stellar. Ratings alone show that they are a monster squad and it's hard to see them not taking one of the top three places. They qualified in last year's Olympiad as well.

Armenia is not as strong as Russia by rating, and they are only comparable to Ukraine, but they are the defending champions and somehow they do amazing in every team tournament. Will their chemistry prevail over Russia's powerhouse?

America always has had a problem and that is the lack of a reliable fourth board. Gareev was unable to participate in the event due to passport issues which means that USA will be missing one of their top rated players and has to rely on Robson and Akobian to hold down the fort on the last board. If Nakamura is on fire and Onischuk can keep his solid style they could even win the tournament. USA crushed the American qualifier to make it to the event, eliminating Cuba on the way.

The obvious absence here is Wang Hao, but despite this China's team is still quite strong. They are not lining up according to rating and it will be interesting to see how well Li Chao can do on board one. A successful result for him would give China excellent chances to medal. They are the Asian qualifier winners.

Azerbaijan, the President's Nominee for the event, fields a pale team in comparison to the squad that won the European Team Championship last week. The absence of Gashimov, Radjabov and Mamedyarov and with young and unstable players on boards one and two it is unlikely that Azerbaijan scores very well in this event.

As usual Egypt is the team that qualified from the African continent. They are missing a key player as Adly was unable to attend due to his military service. Bassem will have to pull miracles on board four for this team to have a chance at not finishing last.

Opening Ceremony

The opening ceremony featured some traditional dances

Also very importantly for the tournament itself it was the time to make the pairings. Each team sent a representative to choose a figurine that held their pairing number on the bottom.

Van Wely was the Netherlands' chosen one

Round 1

Round one came with very few surprises. A super match was featured at the very start as Kramnik and Aronian played board one of Russia vs. Armenia. However not a single board finished in a decisive result and the teams had to split the point.

Grischuk played a very aggressive game against Akopian but was unable to overcome his opponent's Berlin

Kramnik-Aronian was a wild affair in a Botvinnik system. However it ended when White saw nothing better than to give a perpetual.

The players came down to the press conference to analyze their game and to see what was going on in the remaining boards

Karjakin has a record for having amazing performances in team tournaments, even back when he played in Ukraine such as his gold medal in the 2004 Olympiad

Germany was able to squeak a win past Egypt as Shoker surprised Naiditsch with a win with black. However Meier and Baramidze's wins edged the score 2.5-1.5 in favor of the European team. Here is Baramidze game:

Meier, who somehow is a student in America but plays every European event, absolutely annihilated his opponent today in a mere 22 moves

Turkey lost to Azerbaijan as Nidjat Mamedov beat his opponent in a very dragged out position. Mamedov was simply better throughout the entire game.

Bu Xiangzhi's persistence gave his team the victory as his was the only decisive result in the Netherlands vs. China encounter. In yet another win with Black Bu was able to convert a passed pawn a gainst Tiviakov.

Kamsky's pawn sacrifice did not pay off for him and eventually Korobov was able to convert it and give Ukraine the win in the Ukraine vs. USA match.

Akobian is a very solid player, but America will need him to win when he is white. Also don't confuse him with Akopian who plays for Armenia.

Tomorrow's round will surely be very interesting. The official website is providing live commentary and interviews with the players as soon as they are finished with their games.

Replay today's games

Photos by Fatma Koc Ozturk

Links Official tournament site PGN of all games The 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 12 or any of our Fritz compatible chess programs.