World Team Championships – the Chinese are coming

The championship takes place in the Yad Lebanim House, Reger Ave, Menahem Begin Square, Beer Sheva City, Israel. The world's strongest teams are participating, headed by Ukraine, Russia, Armenia and the USA. Israel, the host, is ranked fifth worldwide.

Correction: In our previous report we stated that the youngest player is Beer Sheva was Sergey Karjakin, who is 16. Eugene Wee of Singapore points out that this was not correct, since WFM Hou Yifan from the China Women's team was born in 1994, and so is 11 years old.

John Henderson of The Scotsman drew our attention to the fact that the World Team Championship in Beer Sheva was in fact not the first to see a women's team. "I've seen this story in The Times, CNN, Press Association and ChessBase," Henderson writes. "Part of the media hype surrounding the event has been the publicity generated by the participation of the Chinese women's team, which FIDE and the organizers claim to be a 'first' for a women's team playing in such an elite team tournament. But alas, the organizers don't seem to be aware of the history of their own event! They only had to look no further than the 1997 World Team Championships in Lucerne, where the Georgian women's team – that included their all-star line-up of Maia Chiburdanidze, Nino Kurtsidze, Nana Ioseliani, Nona Gaprindashvili and last, but not least, former Scottish champion Ketevan Arakhamia-Grant – took part. China can make the news though for the right reasons. While they continue to dominate women's events with a multi-gold medal winning Olympiad squad, the Chinese men's team has yet to make a major breakthrough on the world stage."

Well, Henderson, old friend, that is exactly what they appear to be doing. After five rounds the Chinese are in the lead, having defeated Georgia 3.5-0.5, while the Russians only managed a 2.5-1.5 against the US. The Chinese men's team also has one round less than the Russians, having rested in round two (the Russians have the day off in round seven).

Standings after five rounds

The official web site has live transmission of the games, which are also broadcast on Playchess.com. The pictures are still uncaptioned, but the organiser informs us that this will soon be rectified. In the Reports section you will find comments and annotated game fragments by Alon Greenfeld.

Picture gallery

Games under way in round four of the World Team Championship

Volokitin and Grischuk analyse their round four game (Grischuk won), while Rublevsky kibitzes

Round five under way

Peter Svidler, Russia, second highest-ranked player in the event

The boy on the left won this fifth round game

The Chinese team mowing down the Georgians

The Teams