2012 Chess Olympiad Istanbul: Round two

by ChessBase
8/30/2012 – "All the big teams came through unscathed today," says Daniel King in his play-of-the-day commentary, "but things were a lot closer. And there were a few individual stars who had problems. Ivanchuk looked to be in total control, but as we shall see things started happening in this game..." The super-GM lost to Qatari GM Mohamad Al-Modiahki, 227 points below him on the rating scale. A real shocker.

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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 two

The shocker was the board one result of Qatar-Ukraine: GM Vassily Ivanchuk with black was slightly better against GM Mohamad Al-Modiahki, but he carelessly allowed the enemy queen to sneak into the back rank. The super-GM resigned, declining attempts to seek compensation for the piece. His teammates won all their games, so that the result was 3-1.


GM Mohamad Al-Modiahki just before the start of the game

[Event "40th Olympiad Open"] [Site "Istanbul TUR"] [Date "2012.08.29"] [Round "2.1"] [White "Al-Modiahki, Mohamad"] [Black "Ivanchuk, Vassily"] [Result "1-0"] [ECO "B52"] [WhiteElo "2542"] [BlackElo "2769"] [PlyCount "106"] [EventDate "2012.08.28"] [WhiteTeam "Qatar"] [BlackTeam "Ukraine"] [WhiteTeamCountry "QAT"] [BlackTeamCountry "UKR"] 1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 d6 3. Bb5+ Bd7 4. Bxd7+ Nxd7 5. O-O Ngf6 6. Qe2 Rc8 7. c3 Qc7 8. Na3 e6 9. d4 cxd4 10. cxd4 d5 11. e5 Ne4 12. Nb5 Qb6 13. Be3 Be7 14. Rfc1 O-O 15. Nc3 Nxc3 16. bxc3 Rc6 17. Rab1 Qc7 18. h4 Nb6 19. Qd3 Rc8 20. Rb3 Nc4 21. Ng5 Bxg5 22. hxg5 Ra6 23. Rc2 Ra4 24. g3 b6 25. Bf4 Na5 26. Rb1 Qc4 27. Qd2 Nc6 28. Rbb2 Ne7 29. Qd1 Ra3 30. Rb4 Qa6 31. Qd2 Rc4 32. Qe2 Qc8 33. Rxc4 dxc4 34. Bc1 Ra4 35. Qe4 Nd5 36. f4 Qa6 37. a3 Qb5 38. Rb2 Qa5 39. Rc2 g6 40. f5 exf5 41. Qh4 Qb5 42. Rb2 Qd7 43. Rh2 h5 44. gxh6 Kh7 45. Rf2 b5 46. g4 fxg4 47. Kh2 Ra6 48. Kg3 Nxc3 49. Qxg4 Qd5 50. Kh2 Ne4 51. Rf4 f5 52. exf6 Nxf6 53. Qc8 {[#]} Rc6 ({After} 53... Qh5+ 54. Kg2 Qe2+ 55. Rf2 Qe4+ 56. Kg1 (56. Kh2 Qc6 57. Qf8 Qd6+ 58. Qxd6 Rxd6) 56... Re6 57. Qf8 Qg4+ 58. Kh2 Qh5+ 59. Kg2 Qd5+ 60. Kh2 Qd6+ 61. Qxd6 Rxd6 {Black remains a pawn up with winning chances.}) ( 53... Rd6 $4 {loses, e.g.:} 54. Qf8 Qh5+ (54... Rd7 55. Rxf6) 55. Kg3 Qg5+ 56. Kf2 Ne4+ 57. Kf3 Qg3+ 58. Kxe4 Qe1+ 59. Be3 Qh1+ 60. Rf3 Qh4+ 61. Ke5 Qh2+ 62. Bf4) 1-0

The United States bested Lithuania by 3,5-0,5 after Hikaru Nakamura finally broke down the stubborn resistance of Grecian GM Vidmantas Malisauskas in a marathon 107-moves long game. Hikaru once again proved why he is a cerebral assassin. Azerbaijan had no difficulty dispatching their Irish opponents, however the young talent FM Ryan Rhys Griffiths managed to steal the only draw for his team in the game against the seasoned Azeri GM Rauf Mamedov.

France and India defeated Peru and Turkey 2016 respectively, by a 3-1 score. Poland cleanly swept Costa Rica 4-0, while China took 3,5 points against Italy, with Wang Hao defeating the young Italian-American phenom Fabiano Caruana on the top board. Russia allowed two quick draws against Greece, but they continued pushing with the white pieces on the remaining two boards. Both Grischuk and Jakovenko were successful and Russia finished the day with a 3-1 victory.

England defeated Brazil by a narrow margin thanks to the full point of Nigel Short (see Andrew Martin's Game of the Day video at the bottom of the page), while the remaining three games were drawn. The same scenario was seen in Germany-Georgia, only this time the executioner was Arkadij Naiditsch.

Round two: Top team pairings – Open

No.
SNo
Team
Team
Res.
Res.
Team
Team
SNo
1
66
QAT
Qatar
1
3
Ukraine
UKR
2
2
5
USA
USA
½
Lithuania
LTU
67
3
7
AZE
Azerbaijan
½
Ireland
IRL
69
4
71
PER
Peru
½
France
FRA
8
5
13
IND
India
3
1
Turkey 2016
TUR16
72
6
15
CUB
Cuba
½
ICSC
ICSC
75
7
77
CRC
Costa Rica
0
4
Poland
POL
16
8
21
GRE
Greece
1
3
Russia
RUS
1
9
6
CHN
China
½
Italy
ITA
22
10
11
ENG
England
Brazil
BRA
24
11
14
GER
Germany
Georgia
GEO
26
12
31
TUR
Turkey
2
2
Czech Rep.
CZE
17
13
18
ESP
Spain
Belarus
BLR
32
14
33
UZB
Uzbekistan
2
2
Croatia
CRO
19
15
20
SRB
Serbia
2
2
Sweden
SWE
34
16
35
PHI
Philippines
Moldova
MDA
23
17
25
ROU
Romania
Austria
AUT
36
18
37
EGY
Egypt
Mexico
MEX
38
19
39
DEN
Denmark
Kazakhstan
KAZ
40
20
41
BEL
Belgium
Montenegro
MNE
44

Results of all 79 team pairings + board pairings

Multiple teams in the Women's section swept past their opponents with perfect scores: China bested Sweden, while leaving the World Champion Hou Yifan on the bench for the second day in a row; Georgia beat Belgium and Poland beat Venezuela with a 4-0 score each.

In a stunning game, Brazilian WFM Vanessa Feliciano Ebert held European champion Valentina Gunina to a draw but it was not enough to help her team as Brazil fell to the Russian ladies 3,5-0,5. Former U.S. Champion Anna Zatonskih rested today while her team mates handed Estonia a defeat by a score of 3,5-0,5. In an Asia-Pacific match-up, India won against Australia with the same score.

The Bulgarian team miscalculated and underestimated their Indonesian opponents. With the top Bulgarian lady and former World Champion Antoaneta Stefanova resting, the wily Indonesian team seized advantage of her absence and tied the match. The top rated competitor in the Women's Olympiad, Anna Muzychuk of Slovenia, entered the battlefield today to contribute to her team's 2,5-1,5 victory against The Philippines.

Round two: Top team pairings – Women

No.
SNo
Team
Team
Res.
Res.
Team
Team
SNo
1
46
SWE
Sweden
0
4
China
CHN
1
2
2
RUS
Russia
½
Brazil
BRA
47
3
48
BEL
Belgium
0
4
Georgia
GEO
3
4
49
EST
Estonia
½
USA
USA
5
5
6
IND
India
½
Australia
AUS
50
6
53
VEN
Venezuela
0
4
Poland
POL
7
7
54
INA
Indonesia
2
2
Bulgaria
BUL
13
8
14
FRA
France
4
0
Chile
CHI
55
9
56
ICSC
ICSC
2
2
Cuba
CUB
15
10
16
SLO
Slovenia
Philippines
PHI
57
11
58
TKM
Turkmenistan
0
4
Serbia
SRB
19
12
22
KAZ
Kazakhstan
4
0
Canada
CAN
59
13
60
MEX
Mexico
½
Czech Rep.
CZE
23
14
24
LAT
Latvia
½
South Africa
RSA
61
15
62
ISL
Iceland
½
Israel
ISR
25
16
4
UKR
Ukraine
½
Iran
IRI
26
17
27
AZE
Azerbaijan
Romania
ROU
10
18
12
HUN
Hungary
½
Vietnam
VIE
28
19
31
ITA
Italy
Netherlands
NED
17
20
33
LTU
Lithuania
Slovakia
SVK
20

Results of all 63 pairings here + board pairings

Top rankings after two rounds

# Open
+
=
Pts
1 Slovakia
2
0
0
4
2 USA
2
0
0
4
3 Azerbaijan
2
0
0
4
4 France
2
0
0
4
5 Cuba
2
0
0
4
6 Ukraine
2
0
0
4
7 Armenia
2
0
0
4
8 India
2
0
0
4
9 Iran
2
0
0
4
10 China
2
0
0
4
11 Bulgaria
2
0
0
4
12 Israel
2
0
0
4
13 Germany
2
0
0
4
14 Spain
2
0
0
4
15 Romania
2
0
0
4
16 Slovenia
2
0
0
4
17 Kazakhstan
2
0
0
4
18 Canada
2
0
0
4
19 Russia
2
0
0
4
20 Argentina
2
0
0
4
 
# Women
+
=
Pts
1 China
2
0
0
4
2 Georgia
2
0
0
4
3 Poland
2
0
0
4
4 France
2
0
0
4
5 Serbia
2
0
0
4
6 Kazakhstan
2
0
0
4
7 Russia
2
0
0
4
8 USA
2
0
0
4
9 India
2
0
0
4
10 Czech Rep.
2
0
0
4
11 Latvia
2
0
0
4
12 Israel
2
0
0
4
13 Germany
2
0
0
4
14 Slovenia
2
0
0
4
15 Mongolia
2
0
0
4
16 Turkey
2
0
0
4
17 Ukraine
2
0
0
4
18 Hungary
2
0
0
4
19 Spain
2
0
0
4
20 Romania
2
0
0
4

Pictures to follow...

Photos Frederic Friedel in Istanbul


GM Daniel King: Istanbul Olympiad 2012 Round 2 play of the day

Andrew Martin: Game of the Day Rd 2 Istanbul Olympiad 2012

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.

30 August 2012 15.00 3rd Round
Valery Lilov
31 August 2012 15.00 4th Round
Daniel King
1 September 2012 15.00 5th Round
Lawrence Trent
2 September 2012   Free Day
3 September 2012 15.00 6th Round
Daniel King
4 September 2012 15.00 7th Round
Yasser Seirawan
5 September 2012 15.00 8th Round
Daniel King
6 September 2012 15.00 9th Round
Yasser Seirawan
7 September 2012 15.00 10th Round
Yasser Seirawan
8 September 2012   Free Day
9 September 2011 11.00 11th Round, Closing
Daniel King
10 September 2011 Departure

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