9/5/2012 – A single win is often enough: Russia beat Azerbaijan through a win by Grischuk; the defending champions from Ukraine defeated Spain through a win by Ivanchuk; England defeated Georgia with a win by Nigel Short; and China sensationally beat Armenia with a win by Wang Yue. In the women's section Poland held Russia 2-2. We bring you full GM analysis of two key games.
new: Fritz 20
Your personal chess trainer. Your toughest opponent. Your strongest ally. FRITZ 20 is more than just a chess engine – it is a training revolution for ambitious players and professionals. Whether you are taking your first steps into the world of serious chess training, or already playing at tournament level, FRITZ 20 will help you train more efficiently, intelligently and individually than ever before.
Winning starts with what you know The new version 18 offers completely new possibilities for chess training and analysis: playing style analysis, search for strategic themes, access to 6 billion Lichess games, player preparation by matching Lichess games, download Chess.com games with built-in API, built-in cloud engine and much more.
In almost every chess game there comes a moment when you just can’t go on without tactics. You must strike to not giving away the advantage you have worked for the whole game.
€32.90
The 40th Chess Olympiad is taking place in the Turkish metropole of Istanbul,
from August 27 to September 10th, 2012. A record of 158 national chess federations
have brought teams to Istanbul to participate in this prestigious event, which
is being staged in the WOW Hotel and Convention Center, just minutes away from
the airport.
Round seven
After taking a short break with the previous round, the Russian team (above
with Kramnik and Grischuk) has returned to the winning paths in the Open section.
The Russians and Azerbaijan signed three draws before the time control, but
Alexander Grischuk remained in the seat and kept pressing against Eltaj Safarli,
evenually converting the extra pawn into full point, bringing a 2.5-1.5 victory
to Russia and redeeming himself for yesterday's setback in the match against
Armenia.
Armenia had another tough match, this time against China, above with Wang Yue,
who scored the decisive point against Sergei Movsesian (this game is analysed
by GM Alejandro Ramirez below). With the other three games being drawn, China
celebrated an important victory that leaves them on the shared second place,
right behind Russia.
The defending champions from Ukraine have made a huge leap ahead by defeating
Spain. Vassily Ivanchuk's win on the first board was the only decisive game
in the match, and is analysed by Andrew Martin in the video below. Ukraine will
play Russia in the next round.
The Philippines, seeded only 35th in the starting list, bravely resisted the
fourth seed Hungary (above with Peter Leko) to go home with a 2-2 tie.
Peter Leko and Wesley So played a wild line of the Marshall Attack, but
the game ended in a draw.
Zoltan Almasi took his team into the lead with a win against Oliver Barbosa,
but the legendary Eugenio Torre, first Asian Grandmaster and record holder with
21 appearances in the Olympiads, escaped from a passive position to pull off
a victory against Ferenc Berkes and equalise the score.
Germany edged Moldova 2.5-1-5 (above Akardij Naiditsch vs Viktor Bologan)
The USA (above with Gata Kamsky and Hikaru Nakamura) won against...
...the young Turkish team (above) by 3.5-0.5.
Argentina and India, as well as Israel and France, traded a couple of defeats
for each team to split the points in their respective matches. England defeated
Georgia 2.5-1-5, with Nigel Short scoring the sole victory on board
three..
The spectators of the Women's section witnessed the most exciting match since
the beginning of the Olympiad. Russia and Poland were paired on the top table.
All four games continued well into the fifth hour, and the defending champions
were on the brink of defeat.
Nadezhda Kosintseva's king was running for its life, but Iweta Rajlich couldn't
land the decisive punch and finish the game. The queens endgame was drawn. The
position in Karina Szczepkowska-Natalija Pogonina was roughly equal, but after
the second time control Karina suddenly panicked and gave up the exchange. The
Russian women's champion duly converted the advantage. Around the same time
Jolanta Zawadzka defeated Alexandra Kosteniuk to even the score. European champion
Valentina Gunina and Monika Socko continued to play their rook endgame for about
50 moves, until it finally became obvious that black could not win. A gigantic
battle that ended in a 2-2 tie.
India beat Estonia by 3-1 (above GM Harika Dronavalli beating WIM Monika
Tsiganova)
China beat the eternal rivals from Georgia by 2.5-1.5, thanks to the victories
on the lower two boards. Ukraine and France signed four draws, while the match
Serbia-Vietnam was also tied, but only after the opponents exchanged a pair
of victories for each team. Hungary somehow broke the resistance of the young
team from Montenegro. Spain edged Greece and is now in the group of teams on
the shared fourth place.
Summaries from the official web site,
photos by David Llada, Arman Karakhanyan, Anastasiya Karlovich
Game of the day commentary by GM Alejandro Ramirez
This match-up needs little introduction. Armenia is a clear powerhouse, who
is now even stronger by having added Movsesian to their line up. The Chinese
are an extremely young and extremely solid team. Their chess is very 'correct'
and you don't see them speculating too much. Armenia's experience made them
favorites, but if favorites always won in chess, it just wouldn't be much fun.
[Event "40th Olympiad 2012 Open1"] [Site "Istanbul"] [Date "2012.09.04"] [Round
"7"] [White "Movsesian, Sergei"] [Black "Wang, Yue"] [Result "0-1"] [ECO "D15"]
[WhiteElo "2698"] [BlackElo "2685"] [Annotator "Ramirez,Alejandro"] [PlyCount
"69"] [EventDate "2012.??.??"] [EventCountry "TUR"] [WhiteTeam "Armenien"] [BlackTeam
"China"] [WhiteTeamCountry "ARM"] [BlackTeamCountry "CHN"] 1. c4 c6 2. Nf3 Nf6
3. Nc3 d5 4. e3 a6 {I remember a curious happening at one of the Olympiads I
went to. I was casually glancing over the Chinese match, I don't remember against
who, and saw this exact position in all four boards! The Chebanenko, or a6 Slav,
has of late become a very solid option. It's possible to transpose into an a6
Semi-Slav now with the move 5... e6. That variation got a lot of coverage in
the World Championship match earlier this year. Bu himself used it in the fourth
board to hold Sargissian to a draw, but Wang Yue sticks to his old gun of 5...
b5} 5. d4 b5 6. c5 g6 7. Ne5 Bg7 8. f4 { White has a great deal of control over
e5. Black's setup questions what exactly he is going to do with that. After
all, just having a knight on e5 is not an advantage in itself.} a5 {Wang Yue's
pet line. The move is multipurpose. First it prevents some b4-a5 shenanigans,
and second it might allow Black himself to push a4-b4.} 9. Be2 h5 {Ni Hua successfully
drew with this move last year, and it is an improvement over Qc7 which was featured
in Gelfand-Wang Yue two years ago. The Israeli took that one, so it's no surprise
that the Chinese learned from each other and have for the time being switched
to h5. The idea is simple, Black wants to put a bishop on f5 without it being
harrassed.} 10. O-O Bf5 11. Bf3 Ne4 {It's hard to believe White has much of
anything in this position.} 12. a4 $1 {I like this move. White reroutes his
bishop to a good diagonal by first forcing the pawn on b5 to move. Alternatively,
f6 was very dangerous.} b4 (12... f6 13. Nxc6 Nxc6 14. axb5 Nb4 15. Qb3 {and
it is now Black that is not in a happy place. Those passed pawns are going to
be eternally dangerous.}) 13. Nxe4 dxe4 14. Be2 Be6 $1 {Solid play. The bishop
transfers to a wonderful defensive position on d5. It is somewhat time consuming,
but Black is banking on the closed nature of the position to do all these maneouvers
and pawn moves.} 15. Qc2 Bd5 16. f5 $6 { Overzealous. White begins an attack
on the undeveloped Black camp. However his resulting structure is just too weak.
Wang Yue is completely cold blooded in the defence.} (16. Bd2 Nd7 {looks like
Black is alright.}) 16... Bxe5 17. dxe5 gxf5 18. Rxf5 {White's structure is
obviously horrible, but he does have the threat on h5 which seems hard to stop,
after which he will have pressure on f7. Wang Yue gets rid of his weaknesses
by gifting them to his opponent!} Nd7 $1 { This move is just devilish and beautiful.
The trap that it sets up is not so easy to see.} 19. Bxh5 {This runs into a
surprising refutation.} (19. e6 {Was better according to the machine but I don't
know of any human who would play this.} Bxe6 20. Rf2 Nf6 $17 {looks like a pawn
to me.}) 19... e6 $1 {The bishop is under attack on h5, so White has no choice.}
(19... Be6 $2 20. Rg5 $14) 20. Bxf7+ {White just took two pawns for free and
is now giving check! And yet, his position is completely lost. His coordination
is nonexistent, Black's king is surprisingly safe on e7 and it is White who
will soon be under attack. How quickly tides turn in the game of chess!} Ke7
21. Rf1 Qc7 {A quiet move before the storm. Black threatens Nxe5 and a subsequent
discovery.} (21... Nxe5 $2 22. Qf2 {spoils the position.}) 22. Bg6 (22. Qf2
Raf8 {and since the N on d7 is covering f6, Black is winning.}) 22... Nxe5 23.
Bxe4 Nd3 $1 { Beautiful! The assault continues! The knight must be taken because
of the interposition between the queen and the bishop, which means e4 is hanging.}
24. Qxd3 Qxh2+ 25. Kf2 Raf8+ 26. Ke2 Rxf1 27. Kxf1 Qg3 {And yet another quiet
move to seal the deal. The threat is obviously Rh1, and it cannot be stopped.}
28. Ke2 Rh1 29. Bd2 Rxa1 30. Bxd5 cxd5 31. Qh7+ Kd8 32. Kd3 Qg4 {The mate threats
continue, and since White is down the exchange he can't afford to go around
trading queens. This is hopeless.} 33. Qh8+ Kd7 34. b3 Qf5+ 35. Kd4 {A powerful
game by the Chinese player. If you wish, go over it again and see how quickly
he powered up pieces that seemed completely dormant. This ability to realize
pieces' power is the sign of a truly great player. Take a look at move 18 and
where the knight and queen are placed, and then see them 5 moves later! The
victory was specially tasty for China, as they defeated Armenia 2.5-1.5 and
placed themselves in an excellent tournament situation!} 0-1
Daniel King: Round 7 Play of the Day: Movsesian vs Wang Yue
Andrew Martin: Game of the Day Rd 7: Ivanchuk vs Vallejo
Summary of round 7 from the official video coverage
Live video coverage of the Olympiad
Remaining schedule of the Olympiad
There is live commentary of the most interesting games on Playchess.com,
beginning around half an hour after the games have started.
4 September 2012
15.00
7th Round
Reeh/Müller
5 September 2012
15.00
8th Round
Daniel King
6 September 2012
15.00
9th Round
Valery Lilov
7 September 2012
15.00
10th Round
Daniel King
8 September 2012
Free Day
9 September 2011
11.00
11th Round, Closing
Daniel King
10 September 2011
Departure
Some hours after the end of each round we will be posting video summaries by
Daniel King on our news page. If possible they will appear on the same night,
otherwise early the next morning. We also expect best-game video commentary
from Andrew Martin.
The top 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
11 or any of our Fritz
compatible chess programs.
2nd Move Anti-Sicilian Powerbase 2025 is a database and contains a total of 12090 games from Mega 2025 or the Correspondence Database 2024, of which 874 are annotated.
Ruy Lopez Powerbase 2025 is a database and contains a total of 12092 games from Mega 2025 and the Correspondence Database 2024, of which 1276 are annotated.
In this 60 Minutes, Andrew Martin guides you through all the key ideas you need to know to play with confidence. Whether you’re looking to surprise your opponents, or simply want a straightforward weapon against e5, the Centre Attack has you covered.
€9.90
We use cookies and comparable technologies to provide certain functions, to improve the user experience and to offer interest-oriented content. Depending on their intended use, analysis cookies and marketing cookies may be used in addition to technically required cookies. Here you can make detailed settings or revoke your consent (if necessary partially) with effect for the future. Further information can be found in our data protection declaration.
Pop-up for detailed settings
We use cookies and comparable technologies to provide certain functions, to improve the user experience and to offer interest-oriented content. Depending on their intended use, cookies may be used in addition to technically required cookies, analysis cookies and marketing cookies. You can decide which cookies to use by selecting the appropriate options below. Please note that your selection may affect the functionality of the service. Further information can be found in our privacy policy.
Technically required cookies
Technically required cookies: so that you can navigate and use the basic functions and store preferences.
Analysis Cookies
To help us determine how visitors interact with our website to improve the user experience.
Marketing-Cookies
To help us offer and evaluate relevant content and interesting and appropriate advertisement.
