World Team 03: Ukraine in the lead

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.

Kids came before the round and presented flowers to the players

Round 3

Armenia brought the American team down to earth with a narrow victory. Aronian was the hero for the defending champions as he took out Nakamura in a long technical game. Akobian and Kamsky didn't have any serious winning chances against Sargissian and Movsesian respectively, and with Onischuk having black it was difficult for him to win. The match ended in a 2.5-1.5 victory for Armenia.

The Armenian squad sharing a joke prior to the game

Akopian was not able to create real winning chances agianst Onischuk despite
having the white pieces, but this was not necessary

The World's number two reminded the new World's number three (Nakamura)
that two is greater than three

America has won one match and lost two, but has played the top three ranked teams

Egypt was able to get a point and a half off Turkey as Amin Bassem vanquished Emre Can and Abdel Razik held his own against Dragan Solak. However Ipatov and Esen stepped up to do their duties and Egypt lost their third match in a row.

Ukraine was able to squeak a victory past Azerbaijan, and with this they lead the tournament. Three draws allowed Moiseenko to be today's hero as he played a relatively strange game against Durarbayli in which neither side seemed to really like having any material. Black's king came under a devastating attack near the end of the game and it could not be repelled.

Areschenko's draw wasn't that solid, it was after all a poisoned pawn Najdorf, but
at the end of the day the game ended in a perpetual not too far from the end of theory

Ivanchuk's game was simply impossible to describe

Nepommniachtchi finally gave some fresh air to Russia as the number one seed beat China 2.5-1.5. Nepo was able to beat Yu Yangyi with Black to win the match.

This man's victory finally gave Russia a match win

Li Chao is one of the lower rated board ones

Finally in the Western Europe match Germany lost to the Netherlands as Anish Giri convincingly beat Igor Khenkin in a long and technical Spanish in which the Dutch player kept trading one advantage for another until Black's position could not be held. This truly came as a much needed win for the Netherlands who had lost their previous two matches.

Giri played a very nice game today and converted a winning endgame

Results

Standings

Teams receive two points for a match win, one for a draw and zero for a loss

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.