A round earlier, and the Israel-Cuba match would have been the key match of the event, but time waits for no one. After losing in round four, and beating Cuba in round five with a key win by Maxim Rodshtein who has scored 4.0./4, the result was both teams relegated to 3rd-4th, while Ukraine and China took advantage to move into the lead.
Nevertheless, Cuba was the leader after four rounds, so there was no question, a good result by them over their rivals would mean one step closer to the ineffable gold. It wasn't to be, and the only decisive result of the match was the excellent win by Maxim Rodshtein, who has also been the Israeli secret weapon so far.
Maxim Rodshtein has a fantastic 4.0/4 so far
The successive stumbles by both Israel and Cuba now, meant a window of opportunity had presented itself.
Ukraine overcame India with draws on all boards except one, the victory of Kryvoruchko
over Sasikiran. Ponomariov held Harikrishna to a draw on board one.
After nearly whitewashing Armenia in round four, China was expected to have a fairly 'easy' match playing Egypt, the lowest rated team of the competition. While they did indeed win, it was not as smooth as they had hoped, with a surprise upset by Samy Shoker, who defeated Yu Yangyi in spectacular fashion in a wild Reti.
Top Chinese player Ding Liren is currently world no.11
While Sam Shankland did manage to stave off Levon Aronian's ambitions, the USA still fell
to the higher rated team 2.5-1.5 with Daniel Naroditsky's loss to Hrant Melkumyan on board
four. Unable to display the rare form from the Tromso Olympiad the USA is next to last so far.
The Russian collapse at the start had to have been hard to swallow by the chess-crazed
nation, but they are showing signs of recovery, as they crushed Hungary 3.5-0.5. Sergey
Karjakin (above) beat Viktor Erdos...
... while Peter Leko was the only one to avoid defeat as he drew Alexander Grischuk.
Photos by Arman Karakhanyan
| Bo. | 3 | Ukraine | Rtg | FED | - | 10 | India | Rtg | FED | 2½:1½ |
| 1.1 | GM | Ponomariov, Ruslan | 2713 | UKR | - | GM | Harikrishna, P. | 2731 | IND | ½ - ½ |
| 1.2 | GM | Ivanchuk, Vassily | 2731 | UKR | - | GM | Sethuraman, S.P. | 2634 | IND | ½ - ½ |
| 1.3 | GM | Kryvoruchko, Yuriy | 2686 | UKR | - | GM | Sasikiran, Krishnan | 2654 | IND | 1 - 0 |
| 1.4 | GM | Moiseenko, Alexander | 2697 | UKR | - | GM | Vidit, Santosh Gujrathi | 2630 | IND | ½ - ½ |
| Bo. | 4 | Cuba | Rtg | FED | - | 2 | Israel | Rtg | FED | 1½:2½ |
| 2.1 | GM | Dominguez Perez, Leinier | 2729 | CUB | - | GM | Gelfand, Boris | 2747 | ISR | ½ - ½ |
| 2.2 | GM | Bruzon Batista, Lazaro | 2691 | CUB | - | GM | Sutovsky, Emil | 2628 | ISR | ½ - ½ |
| 2.3 | GM | Quesada Perez, Yuniesky | 2629 | CUB | - | GM | Smirin, Ilia | 2652 | ISR | ½ - ½ |
| 2.4 | GM | Ortiz Suarez, Isan Reynaldo | 2612 | CUB | - | GM | Rodshtein, Maxim | 2667 | ISR | 0 - 1 |
| Bo. | 5 | China | Rtg | FED | - | 1 | Egypt | Rtg | FED | 2½:1½ |
| 3.1 | GM | Ding, Liren | 2751 | CHN | - | GM | Amin, Bassem | 2634 | EGY | 1 - 0 |
| 3.2 | GM | Yu, Yangyi | 2724 | CHN | - | GM | Shoker, Samy | 2482 | EGY | 0 - 1 |
| 3.3 | GM | Wei, Yi | 2703 | CHN | - | IM | Ezat, Mohamed | 2479 | EGY | 1 - 0 |
| 3.4 | IM | Wang, Chen | 2531 | CHN | - | IM | Farahat, Ali | 2389 | EGY | ½ - ½ |
| Bo. | 6 | USA | Rtg | FED | - | 9 | Armenia | Rtg | FED | 1½:2½ |
| 4.1 | GM | Shankland, Samuel L | 2661 | USA | - | GM | Aronian, Levon | 2770 | ARM | ½ - ½ |
| 4.2 | GM | Lenderman, Aleksandr | 2617 | USA | - | GM | Movsesian, Sergei | 2665 | ARM | ½ - ½ |
| 4.3 | GM | Onischuk, Alexander | 2665 | USA | - | GM | Akopian, Vladimir | 2656 | ARM | ½ - ½ |
| 4.4 | GM | Naroditsky, Daniel | 2640 | USA | - | GM | Melkumyan, Hrant | 2651 | ARM | 0 - 1 |
| Bo. | 7 | Hungary | Rtg | FED | - | 8 | Russia | Rtg | FED | ½ :3½ |
| 5.1 | GM | Leko, Peter | 2713 | HUN | - | GM | Grischuk, Alexander | 2794 | RUS | ½ - ½ |
| 5.2 | GM | Erdos, Viktor | 2612 | HUN | - | GM | Karjakin, Sergey | 2757 | RUS | 0 - 1 |
| 5.3 | GM | Almasi, Zoltan | 2698 | HUN | - | GM | Tomashevsky, Evgeny | 2745 | RUS | 0 - 1 |
| 5.4 | GM | Balogh, Csaba | 2651 | HUN | - | GM | Vitiugov, Nikita | 2736 | RUS | 0 - 1 |
| Rk | Team | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | TB1 | TB2 | TB3 |
| 1 | Ukraine | * | 2½ | 2½ | 2½ | 1½ | 4 | 8 | 13.0 | 114.8 | ||||
| 2 | China | * | 2 | 3½ | 2 | 2½ | 2½ | 8 | 12.5 | 102.8 | ||||
| 3 | Israel | 1½ | * | 2½ | 3½ | 2½ | 2 | 7 | 12.0 | 113.8 | ||||
| 4 | Cuba | 1½ | * | 2½ | 2½ | 2 | 3 | 7 | 11.5 | 99.0 | ||||
| 5 | India | 1½ | ½ | * | 2½ | 2 | 3 | 5 | 9.5 | 80.3 | ||||
| 6 | Russia | 1½ | 2 | 1½ | * | 3½ | 2 | 4 | 10.5 | 108.5 | ||||
| 7 | Armenia | 2½ | ½ | 1½ | 1½ | * | 2½ | 4 | 8.5 | 95.3 | ||||
| 8 | Hungary | 2 | 2 | 1½ | ½ | * | 2½ | 4 | 8.5 | 88.8 | ||||
| 9 | USA | 1½ | 2 | 2 | 1½ | 1½ | * | 2 | 8.5 | 84.3 | ||||
| 10 | Egypt | 0 | 1½ | 2 | 1 | 1 | * | 1 | 5.5 | 63.8 |
Tie Break 1: Matchpoints (2 for wins, 1 for draws, 0 for losses)
Tie Break 2: points (game-points)
Tie Break 3: FIDE Sonneborn-Berger
LinksThe 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 13 or any of our Fritz compatible chess programs. |
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