2012 Chess Olympiad Istanbul: Round three

The 40th Chess Olympiad is scheduled to take 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 three

This saw the first real clash of the intellectual titans, in which higher rated teams were pitted against each other. Many matches could have swayed in either direction, and the close contests made it a delightful joy for chess fans.

The Ukrainian team squeezed out a victory against Israel from a very suspicious position: GM Ruslan Ponomariov (above) was clearly worse against his Israeli counterpart GM Maxim Rodstein, but the former World Champion somehow turned the tables after the first time control and managed to win the game. GM Boris Avrukh ground down GM Pavel Eljanov, but...

... GM Andrei Volokitin (above) showed no mercy against GM Evgeny Postny. With Ivanchuk and Gelfand drawing on the top board, Ukraine won the match by 2.5-1.5.

Russia again played safely, scoring three draws and a win by Jakovenko (above) in their match against Latvia.

After yesterday's exhausting game with Lithuania, USA top board Hikaru Nakamura (above) played the necessary 30 moves to take a draw with GM Eduardo Iturrizaga of Venezuela. Nakamura's team-mates cleared the rest of the opposing team for the convincing 3.5-0.5 victory.

Levon Aronian (above with a fan) led the Armenian team to a narrow victory against Spain...

Aronian defeated Paco Vallejo with white, while the remaining three boards were drawn.

You guys miss me? This is the first Chess Olympiad for Spain without Alexei Shirov-

Azerbaijan readily dispatched the Faroe Island team with 3.5-0.5. England won the derby match against Cuba 3-1 with two full points by the most experienced players Adams and Short.

Thanks to a rook endgame win by Maxime Vachier-Lagrave (above) against Veselin Topalov, France scored a victory against Bulgaria, as the remaining Frenchmen drew their games.

Round three: Top twenty team pairings – Open

In the Women's Section World Champion Hou Yifan took the helm of team China for one of the greatest challenges in the whole Olympiad – the match against the 4th seed Ukraine. IM Mariya Muzychuk won another nice game as she brought down the higher rated GM Zhao Xue, but Yifan struck back and defeated Kateryna Lahno on the top board. With the other two games drawn the match ended with a 2-2 score. Ukraine, a medal contender, neutralized one of their main competitors.

Women's World Champion Hou Yifan brought home a vital point in round three

Top Ukrainian women's player GM Kateryna Lahno in her game against Hou Yifan

Georgia and Germany traded punches but neither could deliver a knockout, ending their contest in a drawn match. Poland and France pushed ahead by defeating their respective opponents Hungary and Austria by a score of 3-1. Serbia demolished the higher rated Spain with 3.5-0.5, with Russia and Greece doing the same to Mongolia and Peru respectively. The Czech Republic edged the higher-seeded Romania.

A match that was not supposed to be exciting had people on the edge of their seats. The underrated Uzbekistan held the USA to a draw delivering losses to Foisor and Goletiani. When all looked lost or suspect at best, Zatonskih and Abrahamyan brought home the full points to tie the match and avert a devastating loss to a low seeded team. Team USA will have to regroup after this knowing that China, Russia, and Ukraine will show no mercy and give no opportunity to come back from behind.

Game of the day commentary by GM Alejandro Ramirez

For people watching the Olympaid, specially for the first time, it might seem that all boards are the same. After all, a point scored on board 4 is worth exactly the same as one scored on board 1. However, having played in different boards throughout my Olympic experience, I have always felt that this is not the case. There is a special prestige of playing board one, but it is not just that. Board 1 in many ways sets the pace. It's the game everyone is watching. And, usually, it is the closest game.

For this reason, many, many matches are not decided until board one finishes. In today's matches in the men's section, Spain was only slightly outrated against Armenia, and it was Levon Aronian on board one that took out Vallejo Pons to secure the 2.5-1.5 for the Armenians. After Adams sealed the deal against Dominguez, no one would have bet on a Cuban comeback no matter the odds. Indeed, England took the match comfortably. In matches where relatively weak countries face stronger ones, it is not unusual for their first board to be the one to take a half or even full point. For example, Venezuela is not a chess powerhosue, but Iturrizaga with his 2650 rating is a strong match for any player in the world. Today he was pressing but unable to create anything against USA's Hikaru Nakamura. Lastly, let us not forget the super classical match between Kramnik and Shirov, probably the only interesting game in the Russia-Latvia matchup.

The game I present to you was the last one played in the match, and the World Champion was in a must-win situation to tie the match after Muzychuk handily beat Zhao Xue.

Round three: Top twenty team pairings – Women

Top rankings after three rounds

• Full rankings: Open – Women

Summaries from the official web site,
photos by David Llada, Arman Karakhanyan, Anastasiya Karlovich

Andrew Martin: Game of the Day Rd 3 – Harikrishna vs Beliavsky

Live video coverage of the Olympiad

Remaining schedule of the Olympiad

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.

Links Official event web site All available games in zipped PGN: Open + Women All ChessBase reports on the Olympiad 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.