Batumi Olympiad Round 8: USA beats Azerbaijan in a thriller

Initials moments before the start of the 8th round! Enjoy the feel of the atmosphere!

It was the most exciting round of the entire event. In the top ten matches we had nine decisive ones and only one draw! That shows how hard the players are trying and also the fact that when the stakes start to rise, mistakes happen more often. This is how the results look for the eighth round:

Results of Round 8 (Open)

Complete list

The biggest news of the day was definitely team USA beating Azerbaijan. The Azeri guys have been playing some phenomenal chess at this event with Mamedyarov leading from the front. It seemed as if they would continue their good form when Teimour Radjabov scored the first blood by beating Wesley So. Hikaru Nakamura couldn't get much against Arkadij Naiditsch and had to split the point. The score was 1½/2 in favour of Azerbaijan with two games in progress. Fabiano had a slight edge against Mamedyarov and Shankland was pressing against Rauf Mamedov. It didn't seem as if USA would be able to win both the games, especially because there was so much pressure. But both Fabiano and Sam delivered and USA managed to beat Azerbaijan with a score of 2½-1½.

Team USA extremely focused and concentrated on the job at hand | Photo: Amruta Mokal

The Azeri team is always in good spirits before the game, but they met their match in the form of USA | Photo: Amruta Mokal

Fabiano Caruana has been absolutely splendid in this tournament | Photo: Amruta Mokal

Caruana is just 4.5 Elo points away from Carlsen! | Source 2700chess

Fabiano Caruana explains his win against Shakhriyar Mamedyarov

Final moments of Fabiano Caruana beating Shakhriyar Mamedyarov captured on camera

Sam Shankland speaks about his game and also about Anish Giri calling him a weak-link in team USA

Sam realized that the only break available to him was to play g5 followed by h5. But for that he should be well prepared and the king should not stand on g8. Hence he played Kf7 and moved his king all the way to b7 where it was safe and then executed the plan on the kingside. 

Final moments of Shankland beating Rauf Mamedov

The Polish team fought really hard and had an edge in the match against Armenia, but in the end all four games ended in a draw and it was a 2-2 tie | Photo: Amruta Mokal

Jan-Krzysztof Duda speaks about his amazing game against Levon Aronian!

The English Opening Vol. 1

Williams main teaching method behind this set of two DVDs is to teach you some simple yet effective set ups, without the need to rely on memorising numerous complicated variations.

Sasikiran Krishnan beat GM Jiri Stocek on board four to ensure that team India beat the Czech Republic, 2½-1½, with all other games drawn

The German team has been doing really well and managed to beat Spain thanks to the victory of Daniel Fridman on board three over Joseph Martinez | Photo: Amruta Mokal

In the other decisive results of the day England managed to beat Israel with a score of 2½-1½. Luke McShane came out on top board three by beating Maxim Rodshtein. France was able to beat Ukraine and Netherlands was defeated by China.

Ranking in the Open section

Complete list

In the women's section, we now have two leaders with the score of 14.0/16 — Ukraine and China. There are five teams on 13.0/16 and they include USA, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Hungary and Kazakhstan. Hungary and Kazakhstan managed to create the upsets of the day by beating India and Georgia 1 respectively.

Results of Round 8 (Women)

The Armenian women's team had been doing really well in this tournament, but they were beaten comprehensively by the Ukrainian team. Elina Danielian lost to Anna Muzychuk and Anna Sargsyan (board three) lost to Anna Ushenina | Photo: Amruta Mokal

The top board of the Ukrainian team Anna Muzychuk defeated Elina Danielian | Photo: Amruta Mokal

Anna Ushenina also won her game against Anna Sargsyan | Photo: Amruta Mokal

Gulnar Mammadova is pregnant and yet playing such a high-stress event. Kudos to her! The Azerbaijani team won their match 2½-1½ against Georgia 2 | Photo: Amruta Mokal

Team India suffered a defeat at the hands of Hungary 3-1 | Photo: Amruta Mokal

Thanks to victories by Tatev Abrahamyan (above) and Irina Krush, team USA is back on track and beat Italy with a score of 3-1 | Photo: Amruta Mokal

Zhansaya Abdumalik with her win help Kazakhstan to beat Georgia 1

Ranking in the Women section

Complete list

Photo Gallery by Amruta Mokal

We saw a lot of players with books today. Here are a few:

Wesley So and Hikaru Nakamura preparing for the game by reading a book! | Photo: Amruta Mokal

That's what Hikaru's reading! | Photo: Amruta Mokal

One of the books we found in the playing hall | Photo: Amruta Mokal

David Navara shows the book that he carries (on Korchnoi) with himself to prove to Vishy that he isn't using any chess analysis from the book | Photo: Amruta Mokal

That's the number of arbiters you need to hold a successful Olympiad! | Photo: Amruta Mokal

One of the most famous photographers in the world Boris Dolmatovsky is 80+ years old, but is still searching for nice moments in the playing hall! | Photo: Amruta Mokal

We could caption this as a reaction after making a blunder, but in reality is fellow is having a quick nap! | Photo: Amruta Mokal

President of IBCA Charudatta Jadhav (right) with his escort Murthy Manjunatha | Photo: Amruta Mokal

The official photographer of the event David Llada has many jobs to handle. One of them being taking care of his 9-year-old daughter Nahui. | Photo: Amruta Mokal

Elmira Mirzoeva is reporting here for Russian television | Photo: Amruta Mokal

Nosing around! | Photo: Amruta Mokal

Everyone loves a selfie with Vishy! | Photo: Amruta Mokal

Wesley So spends some time with his friends from the Philippines before the game! | Photo: Amruta Mokal

A photograph with the star — Phiona Mutesi, also known as the Queen of Katwe | Photo: Amruta Mokal

Three Ukrainians: Coach of the Ukrainian team Olexander Sulypa, top player Pavel Eljanov and FIDE Press Officer Anastasiya Karlovich | Photo: Amruta Mokal

Those are the twin sisters from Colombia — Angela and Beatriz Franco! | Photo: Amruta Mokal

The Muzychuk sisters! | Photo: Amruta Mokal

Sisters from Hungary Anita and Gara Ticia | Photo: Amruta Mokal

The Olympiad is a wonderful place to meet your friends — Lilit Mkrtchian (right) from Armenia with Elisabeth Paehtz (left) from Germany! | Photo: Amruta Mokal

ChessBase won the FIDE Commission of Chess Journalists award for the best chess news website. ChessBase Editor-in-Chief Macauley Peterson receives the award on behalf of his entire team! | Photo: Amruta Mokal

Rani Hamid won the love for chess award. She has qualified for the Women's World Cup that will be held later this year on the basis of winning Asian Zonals. All of this at the age of 73! It was a great gesture by FIDE and the organizers of the Olympiad to felicitate her. | Photo: Amruta Mokal

Turkish chess Federation President Gulkiz Tulay receives the award from FIDE for the best website maintained by any national federation | Photo: Amruta Mokal

Pairings for Round 8 (Open)

Pairings for Round 8 (Women)

• Official website
• Round 1: Li Chao is the biggest casualty
• Round 2: Improve your chess with the Olympians
• Round 3: Top seeds sail through!
• Round 4: Poles beat the mighty Russians!
• Round 5: Chinese men stunned, USA women are sole leaders
• Round 6: Poland, Azerbaijan lead in open and USA, Armenia in the women's
• Round 7: 
• The best ever chess opening ceremony!
• ChessBase India Youtube Channel