2016 Baku Rd7: The day the giants fell

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 seven

Surprises don’t begin to describe the seventh round, whether the Open section or the Women’s, though the lion’s share of unexpected results certainly came from the Open. In such a large event, and certainly with it in full sway with far more balanced pairings, the occasional upset of surprise is the norm, not the exception, but today none of the leaders were spared.

The foremost match of the day was between the sole leaders India and the US Dream Team. On paper, the US was favorite, so to call a win by the Americans a surprise would be to deny the obvious. Still, with the Indians having displayed such great form, no one would have expected the near whitewash the US players inflicted with their 3.5-0.5 score.

It was a key match, and thrilling to follow live. In the end, the USA prevailed by a large score, but it could have gone differently. (photo by Paul Truong)

Truth be told, the final result did not reflect the positions after two plus hours of play, with both Fabiano Caruana in trouble, as well as Sam Shankland. India’s board one, Pentala Harikrishna had a very promising position, with a potential to go for more with a precise sequence, but alas for his team and the Indian fans, he missed it.

Fabiano Caruana and Pentala Harikrisha get ready for the big match (photo by M. Emelianova)

Pentala Harikrishna - Fabiano Caruana (annotated by GM Alejandro Ramirez)

If Caruana could count himself fortunate to draw and have avoided a worse fate, Sam Shankland had to feel he had a Guardian Angel at his side. As he himself explained after the game, he had been so lost that he had debated resigning, but because it was a team event and there was more on the line than just his personal result, he played on, seeking only moves that did not lose outright. Incredibly, his refusal to give up was rewarded, not just by a chance to save, but a full win.

A dramatic win by the United States over India by a crushing 3.5-0.5 takes them to first (photo by M. Emelianova)

Sam Shankland - S.P. Sethuruman (annotated by GM Alejandro Ramirez)

As to boards two and three, Hikaru Nakamura and Wesley So dispatched their rivals, India’s top scorers, in clinical fashion. In fact, it should be noted that the three US stars have all performed above and beyond their duty with superlative rating performances for all. Fabiano Caruana has a 2848 performance, Hikaru Nakamura is at 2835, and Wesley So continues the form he showed at the Sinquefield Cup with 5.0/6 and a 2869 performance.

Wesley So, seen here with Baskaran Adhiban, has been a star with a 2869 performance (photo by David Llada)

It bears noting that they will need this level of performance, since tomorrow they will finally face the Russians, who have demonstrated superb recovery strength. After the loss to Ukraine, the Russians have regrouped and come back firing all cylinders, winning all their subsequent matches and convincingly so. In round seven they faced the Czechs, who had held the US to a draw, and ran over them without looking back, winning by 3.5-0.5.

Sergey Karjakin has more than justified the decision to place him on board one over a higher rated Vladimir Kramnik. With 6.0/7 and a 2872 performance, the World Championship Challenger is promising not only great results at Baku, but a serious threat for the title in November. (photo by E. Kublashvili)

If Karjakin’s performance is worthy of all the accolades, his teammate Ian Nepomniachtchi is enjoying a run like few, with 7.0/7. So far he has been the team’s six-million-dollar man. (photo by E. Kublashvili)

Ian Nepomniachtchi - Zbynek Hracek (annotated by GM Elshan Moradiabadi)

Here is a tactic played by Evgeny Tomashevsky against Viktor Laznicka:

A concerned Andrey Filatov, captain of the Russian team, watches the Russian team (photo by E. Kublashvili)

The Netherlands suffered a second consecutive setback, losing to Latvia after a loss to India (photo by M. Emelianova)

GM Vladimir Tukmakov, Giri's coach and captain of the Dutch team, watches with concern as the action unfolds (photo by E. Kublashvili)

Tied with five others in second is Georgia. Althougha team effort, their 'secret weapon' is Baadur Jobava who has scored 5.0/6 on board one with a staggering 2933 performance. (photo by E. Kublashvili)

The biggest overperforming team has been.... Iran! Ranked no.46 at the start, they have a mostly teenage team and are now 9th in the standings.

Among their players is 13-year-old Alireza Firouzja, the youngest player in the Open section, and current Iranian Champion. After five rounds he has a 2647 performance and has chances for a GM norm should he play the rest of the games. (photo by David Llada)

Also playing for Iran is 17-year old IM Shanin Lorparizangeneh, rated 2478, and closing in on a GM norm himself with 5.0/7 and a 2578 performance (photo by David Llada)

Holding the fort on board one is the veteran GM Ehsan Ghaem Maghami, deeply experienced and once the holder of the World Record for simuls with 604 opponents (photo by David Llada)

After a slightly see-saw start, GM Evgeny Bareev, playing for Canada now, took down his first top scalp of the event: Pavel Eljanov from Ukraine (photo by David Llada)

Another top match of the day was England’s match against the defending gold medalists, China. Although anything could happen, the English fans were cheering and howling as their team emerged victorious with two wins and two draws for a 3-1 victory. It was the fruit of wins by the team’s two oldest players, Michael Adams and Nigel Short, both winning in wildly different manners.

Jon Speelman looks on at the England vs China match (photo by Paul Truong)

Michael Adams entered what seemed perfectly equal rook endgame against Wang Yue, no stranger to fine positional play. What should have been a fairly sedate draw instead went south for the Chinese player who ended up losing the game.

Nigel Short, on the other hand, played a completely different game, with a double-edged see-saw of a position against Li Chao. The Chinese player missed a winner at one point, but the position was so sharp that this swung completely around and instead it was the Englishman who took the point.

A jubilant IM Malcolm Pein, the captain of the English team, shared this image with the title "It's true"

Security and organization

During the game between Nigel Short and Li Chao there was a highly unfortunate incident, related to the slew of security measures and anti-cheating rules set in motion. If on the one hand, many players have been very positive about the event as a whole, with a lovely playing area, and more, for journalists and spectators this has been far more challenging to say the least.

The first sign that things were a bit extreme were the draconian security measures that bar journalists and photographers from being in the area more than 15 minutes after the start. In past events, there have certainly been cordoned off areas to ensure the players their space, but now even that is unavailable. Spectators are also not allowed to bring cameras of any kind. In today's day and age, where cameras and social media is the norm, whether it be Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram, these sorts of rules are highly unusual.

It gets worse though, since even after the games are over, players pass through an area that none of the journalists can access, even outside the playing area. This means that even a simple interview after the games become a challenge. Furthermore, security at all points make sure the players and journalists are prevented from interacting.

The anti-cheating measures have also led to controversies at many points. The first was the set of rules that dictate that players needed to ask permission of an arbiter before going to the bathroom. You can imagine this did not go down well, and the players and captains set up a petition (available online here) for all to sign. This is open to all players period, as the rules could easily be applied to other events.

A picture of the petition and the first signatures. The digital version of this petition, which can be signed by any concerned chess player, is available here at Change.Org

In the end, the arbiters advised they would not be enforcing this rule at all, though anyone displaying unusual behavior, would be noted, and possibly subject to a search.

This last point saw its effects during the game between Nigel Short and Li Chao. That a player is searched before or after a game is quite understandable, but unless there is a genuine belief a player is cheating, this should never happen during a game. To the Englishman’s disbelief, while playing a do-or-die position with the time control closing in, the arbiters decided this was the perfect time to ask him to step away from the board and subject himself to a full search. Short was appalled, and was having none of it. He outright refused. The rules stated that this could lead to a forfeit if he did so, and in his case, it could mean the 3-1 victory by England, could become a 2-2 tie. In the end, fortunately, nothing more than an official warning was issued to him, but one would have thought some common sense would have avoided this episode altogether.

GM Nigel Short was more than a little irate (understandably) at being asked to leave the board for a search when locked in a crucial game with the time control looming (photo by E. Kublashvili)

Nigel Short, commenting for ChessBase, explained: “I got an official warning for refusing to be electronically checked in time-pressure. I was checked both before and extremely thoroughly immediately after the game. Arbiters' relentless arrogation of power has gone too far.”

Hopefully the organizers will reconsider some of these choices, and make the event a more welcome environment, not only for the players, but for those trying to share the event with the world, and bring the Olympiad a greater audience than they ever could alone.

Women’s event

The results of the round threw a monkey wrench into any predictions the pundits had been entertaining. Russia, which had been set to take gold ahead of the Chinese for a fourth time, saw this plan jeopardized after an unexpected draw against Poland on table one.

Valentina Gunina (left) has been the Russian team’s top weapon so far, with 5.0/6 and a 2652 performance. Her win in round seven was also crucial to Russia’s tie, since a draw would have had disastrous consequences for their dreams of gold. (photo by E. Kublashvili)

Anna Muzychuk (left) was responsible for neutralzing Hou Yifan with black (photo by M. Emelianova)

On table two, China faced Ukraine in one of the highest profile matches of the event. Both sides brought their heaviest artillery, and in spite of the Muzychuk sisters neutralizing both Hou Yifan and Ju Wenjun, the Chinese won thanks to Tan Zhongyi’s victory over GM Natalia Zhukova on board three.

Mariya Muzychuk is board two for Ukraine and also drew Ju Wenjun (photo by E. Kublashvili)

However, it was Tan Zhongyi's victory on board three that gave China victory (photo by E. Kublashvili)

The consequence of this is that instead of a sole leader or two, no fewer than five teams share first with only tiebreak scores to separate them: Russia, China, Azerbaijan, USA, and Netherlands. In round eight, Russia will face the USA, making it a double-date in both the Open and Women’s events. Not to be missed!

Video glimpse of Round 7 of the Baku Chess Olympiad with interviews of GM Georg Meier and Sergey Karjakin (video by Vijay Kumar)

Round seven games (with times per move)