2016 Baku Rd10: China to face Russia to decide Women's

2016 Baku Olympiad

All games start at 3 p.m. local time = 1 p.m. in Europe (CEST), one hour earlier in Britain, and 2 p.m. in Moscow. You can find the starting time at your location here.

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Round ten

At this point of the competition, the leaders in the Open section are well-established, but that is not to say the podium is all spoken for. Accidents happen, as will be seen, but barring such mishaps, gold and silver will be determined by the USA and Ukraine.

The US team continues to pursue the dream of gold, a dream that was only last fulfilled in 1976 in Haifa, Israel, which was precisely the only Olympiad since 1952 that did not have the USSR, or numerous eastern countries participating. Having faced all its nearest rivals, with the same going for Ukraine, it is more a question of continuing to stamp their authority and avoiding any tragic upsets.

The opponent of the day was Georgia, and once more, eyes were riveted to the first board. If Caruana would naturally be considered the outright favorite under normal circumstances, this is without taking into consideration Baadur Jobava's fantastic performance that had been in excess of 3000 going into this round. That was the kind of form he had shown. (photo by David Llada)

There was no lack of interested players to come and watch. Russian GM Alexander Grischuk came to see whether the Georgian would continue his miracle run. (photo by M. Emelianova)

Here one can see both Carlsen and Nakamura following the game. In the end, Fabiano was more than up to the task, though neither made any headway, and a draw was agreed. (photo by David Llada)

Sam Shankland, brought back to board four, was one of the key winners in the round, defeating GM Sanikidze. In spite of close calls and escapes that would make Houdini proud, Shankland continues to be undefeated in the Olympiad with 5.5/7 and a 2742 performance. (photo by David Llada)

It wasn't all smooth sailing though, as Hikaru Nakamura, sporting a runny nose and nasty cough, was clearly the worse for shape, which cost him as he lost to GM Mchedlishvili. Luckily, Wesley So was still in red hot form and helped clinch it for the Americans. (photo by David Llada)

Ukraine's lineup might seem weakened by the absence of Vassily Ivanchuk, but other players have managed to shine so brightly that they still are in prime position for a gold. Board four's Andrei Voloktin is the brightest of these comets with a fantastic 7.5/8 and 2994 performance. Enjoy some of his handiwork below. (photo by David Llada)

Andrei Volokitin - Vlastimil Babula (Annotated by GM Elshan Moradiabadi)

David Navara - Pavel Eljanov

Volokitin was not the only winner for Ukraine as Pavel Eljanov capped his victory over David Navara with this tactic. Black to play and win.

Daniel King's video report on Round 10

Russia had been just one point behind the leaders in third place, and had hopes of a last-minute steal. These hopes of gold were dashed in their encounter with previous leaders, India. The first bad news came with Sergey Karjakin's loss to Pentala Harikrishna on board one. (photo by M. Emelianova)

Salvation for the Russians came in the form of Vladimir Kramnik who once again played an exemplary game to defeat Baskaran Adhiban. It should be noted that should the Russian win in round eleven he will finish the month with his highest rating ever, currently 2812 FIDE. (photo by L. Afandiyeva)

England played the very strong Azerbaijani team, and scored an important win. It's true that a medal may be a mathematical impossibility (the permutations are frankly too many for your author to know for sure), but the English fighting spirit has been exemplary. Third board Gawain Jones has definitely been one of the flagholders, scoring well, and fearless play. In round ten he defeated Arkadij Naiditsch. (photo by M. Emelianova)

Fourth board Nigel Short also won a fine game against Eltaj Safarli (2688) with black and has helped his team with solid results. Here he discusses his game, the event, and some of the controversies he has experienced such as the requested body search during a game that he refused.

Naturally, not all arbiters are alike. Here is arbiter Reem Hany Ballan from Qatar. (photo by David Llada)

China, who came as the third seed and with high hopes of defending their historic gold in Tromso 2014, have suffered a nasty slump in the second half. In round ten they drew against Belarus. Ding Liren is probably lost in thought wondering how things got so out of hand. (photo by David Llada)

One of the intriguing encounters was between Norway and the on-the-rise Iranian team. Whatever black magic the Iranians had at their disposal, fizzled in this encounter as they were thumped 3.5-0.5. Only untitled Parham Maghsoodloo (2566) drew Jon Hammer and has already earned another GM norm. Two in fact as norms at the Olympiad are worth double. (photo by Paul Truong)

Magnus Carlsen - Ehsan Ghaem Maghami

Magnus is Magnus, and when you are World Champion you scoff at triple isolate pawns. The rest of us cower and whimper at the idea. White to play and win.

Latvia had a very tough time of it against Canada, and in spite of a win by top-board Alexei Shirov over Evgeny Bareev, they lost 3-1. (photo by M. Emelianova)

Canadian GM Eric Hansen (2582) has played in every single round so far, and scored 8.0/10 with a 2696 performance! He is only beat by his teammate Anton Kovalyov on board two who has an amazing 2865 performance. (photo by David Llada)

15-year-old IM Anton Smirnov from Australia completed his (double) GM norm today and the title, making him Australia's youngest grandmaster ever. A hearty congratulations. (photo by Pascal Simon)

Markus Ragger analyzes his win over Sebastien Mazé

Although this was recorded after round nine, and discusses a fine game from round eight, it is a fine game with great insights you should not miss. We apologize for the delay, but with so much material to edit, upload, and share, it has been a struggle in getting it all to our readers.

Alexandr Fier analyzes his win over Yannick Pelletier (Portuguese)

At the initiative of the Brazilian Chess Federation, and their new YouTube channel, the players of the Open and Women's team have been presenting a video commented game each day of the Olympiad. In round four, it was board one GM Alexandr Fier who analyzed his game against Yannick Pelletier. It is in Portuguese, but is a fine game, and the effort is to be praised.

It needs to be pointed out that well after these two last videos with Markus Ragger and Alexandr Fier had been selected for inclusion in the report, it was not without irony to discover that the last-round pairing was... Austria vs Brazil. You can guess who is on board one for both teams.

Women's Event

If the top spots in the Open competition seem spoken for, the Women's event has been a nailbiter throughout with no shortage of surprises. In the penultimate round it was somewhat of a shock to see the leaderboard read: China 1st, Poland 2nd. If there was a team that had flown under the radar, it was the Polish women, yet numbers and results don't lie, and all credit needs to be given to them.

Great credit must be given to their lower-board players who have scored heavily and consistently for their team. On board three is WGM Karina Szczepkowska-Horowska, rated 2409 FIDE, but with 6.5/8 has a 2547 performance. (photo by M. Emelianova)

Also of note are Klaudia Kulon on board four, and the alternate on board four: Mariola Wozniak (above) who has scored a 'mere' 5.0/5. (photo by E. E. Kublashvili)

In view of this, it is less surprising, and as a result, one of the big matches was China against Poland. This was a wild match that could easily have gone wrong for China, and threatened to end in a draw. Karina Szczepkowska-Horowska was completely winning in her a game against Zhao Xue, but the full point eluded her and the Chinese took the day.

Daniel King has a quick chat with Brazilian player Thauane Ferreira de Medeiros

Gold is not in the pocket just yet as China must now face Russia in a "winner takes all" match. China needs only a draw to secure gold, but if Russia scores an upset, China will be denied once again. Remarkably, if China wins gold, it will be Hou Yifan's very first team gold. (photo by David Llada)

Alejandro Ramirez has a quick chat with IM Dorsa Derakhshani

Photographer Lana Afandiyeva (photo by David Llada)

David Llada is the official photographer of the Baku Olympiad and instrumental in the many beautiful portraits seen in the reports throughout

About GM Elshan Moradiabadi Elshan Moradiabadi is a GM born and raised in Tehran, Iran. He moved to the US in 2012. Ever since, he has been active in US college chess scenes and in US chess. Elshan co-authored "Chess and the Art of War: Ancient Wisdom to Make You a Better Player" with Al Lawrence. He has also published written articles for ChessBase, and edited opening materials for fellow authors. Elshan Moradiabadi is a veteran instructor and teaches chess to every level, with students ranging from beginners to IM. He can be contacted for projects or teaching at his email. You can contact him at his email or follow him on Twitter.

Round ten games (with times per move)

Select games from the list below the board

Open standings after ten rounds