10/4/2018 – Being the sole leader at the Olympiad is not an easy task. USA was the sole leader with 15.0/16 going into the ninth round. They were the clear favourites facing the Polish team. But the inspired Poles played out of their skins and beat the US with three draws and the decisive result being Piorun beating Nakamura. In the women's section China has taken the sole lead by beating Kazakhstan 3-1. We have round 9 report from Batumi by Sagar Shah and Amruta Mokal with GM analysis by Surya Sekhar Ganguly.
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Initial moments of round 9 along with explanations of different openings that were played
Round nine saw the clash of two of the best performing teams at the Batumi Olympiad 2018 — Team USA and Poland. Although players from both the sides are playing really well, there is a big difference in the way both the teams are made up. Team Poland has team spirit and unity which would be difficult to match for just about any team. They spend time together. They go to the swimming pool in the evening and have their meals together. USA on the other hand is powering ahead on the basis of individual brilliance. All of their players are big stars and team unity doesn't mean much when each one can do his best on the board. Yet, in team events sometimes it is this synergy which is developed from team bonding, the fact that the player sitting next to you gives you energy and encouragement to fight harder helps ordinary teams achieve extraordinary things.
Poland is by no means ordinary, but in front of USA they are clearly weak. Jan-Krzysztof Duda is young and talented but falls short of the World Championship Challenger Fabiano Caruana. Wojtaszek has played many super tournaments and has beaten the best, but when it comes to consistency Wesley So is miles ahead. The biggest mismatch was perhaps on board three where one of the finest players in the world Hikaru Nakamura was going to fight it out against Kacper Piorun. On the fourth board Jacek Tomczak, although has been having a great tournament, is weaker when compared to Sam Shankland.
Team spirit versus individual brilliance. Which one would triumph? | Photo: Niklesh Jain
The Scandinavian is a rarely employed opening on the hightest level und guides your opponent on much less familiar terrain than for example the Sicilian, French or any 1.e4 e5 system. After 1.e4 d5 Black fights for the initiative from move one.
The match became interesting in the first hour itself when Sam Shankland made a move to sacrifice his queen in the opening!
Tomczak was surprised and he had to move his bishop back to d7 as taking the queen would lose to Nxc6 with big threats. To Jacek's credit he didn't give up. He brought his bishop back to d7 and continued the fight as if nothing had happened. The game later ended in a draw.
Nakamura tried the Scandinavian against Kacper Piorun, retreating his queen back to d8, and was in a slightly inferior position out of the opening. There were a few equalizing chances like the one below, but Naka wanted to win the game at all costs and that's the reason why he made certain poor decisions.
Black should have taken on d4 with his rook. After Bxf5 Rxd1! Qxd1 exf5 the position is round about even. Instead of Rxd4 Nakamura took Bxe4 and after Rxe4 White was better. Kacper managed to keep his cool and calmly converted the rook endgame where he had two extra pawns.
It must be reminded to our readers that Piorun is five-time World problem-solving champion!
Radoslaw Wojtaszek playing on board two had a very comfortable opening position out of the opening with the black pieces. However, towards the endgame, he didn't really play so well and soon landed in a difficult opposite coloured bishop endgame. Wojtaszek defended this very well and finally, the game was drawn after nearly five hours of play.
The focus of the entire match shifted to the top board clash between Fabiano Caruana and Jan-Krzysztof Duda. Out of the opening things progressed normally, but at some point, Duda moved into a tough position. Rather than defending passively he decided to sacrifice a piece and go for an active defence.
Endings with rook and minor piece against rook and minor piece occur very frequently, even more often than rook endings, yet there's not much literature on them. This endgame DVD fills this gap. The four different material constellations rook and knight vs rook and knight, rooks and opposite coloured (and same coloured ) bishops and rook and bishop vs rook and knight are dealt with. In view of the different material constellations Karsten Mueller explains many guidelines like e.g. "With knights even a small initiative weighs heavily".
Caruana had to play ...Be4!! and put his king on e3. He instead went for ...Bg4 and put his king on g3 which was incorrect. After that Duda defended really well and a draw was agreed.
With this draw, the Polish team managed to beat USA with a score of 2½-1½.
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.
Jan-Krzysztof Duda speaks to ChessBase India after his historic draw
Final moments of the Polish team beating USA
The man who provided China with the win against Azerbaijan was Bu Xiangzhi on the last board against Eltaj Safarli | Photo: Amruta Mokal
If you want to learn what chess preparation is at the highest level, you must pay close attention to the game between Shakhriyar Mamedyarov and Ding Liren | Photo: Amruta Mokal
This video gives you a flow of the entire game and also has a post game interview with Ding Liren at the end
Naiditsch had a completely better position against Wei Yi but messed it up towards the end | Photo: Amruta Mokal
Vishy failed to fire with the white pieces against Aronian. It was a quick draw under an hour. | Photo: Niklesh Jain
The key game that sealed India's fate at this event. Haik Martirosyan managed to beat GM Krishnan Sasikiran to give Armenia a 2.5-1.5 win over India. | Photo: Niklesh Jain
This DVD provides everything you need to know to be able to play one of the most classical openings with Black, the Nimzo-Indian, arising after 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nc3 Bb4. Nearly every World Championship and top tournament features the Nimzo-Indian.
Germany managed to hold France to a 2-2 draw thanks to Liviu Dieter Nisipeanu beating Maxime Vachier Lagrave on board one. The equalizing win for France came from Christian Bauer on board four against Rasmus Svane. | Photo: Niklesh Jain
China is now the sole leader in the women's section with 16.0/18. They beat Kazakhstan. They are followed closely by USA and Armenia who are on 15.0/18.
The Kazakh women proved to be no match for the Chinese team as China won 3-1 | Photo: Niklesh Jain
Ukraine versus Azerbaijan was a hard fought match that ended in a 2-2 draw. Anna Muzychuk's win on top board was balanced by Gulnar Mammadova's win on board three! | Photo: Amruta Mokal
The match between USA and Hungary was moving towards a draw, but Irina Krush showed some unparalleled tenacity to hold Ticia Gara and score a 2½-1½ win for America. | Photo: Amruta Mokal
Lilit Mkrtchian and the Armenian women lost to Ukraine yesterday but came back strongly to beat Iran with a score of 3-1 and keep their medal chances alive | Photo: Amruta Mokal
Can you guess who this famous chess personality is? | Photo: Amruta Mokal
The art gallery at the expo is definitely worth your time! | Photo: Amruta Mokal
Some very nice chess themed paintings | Photo: Amruta Mokal
It was a pleasure to be invited to the commentary room to replace GM Ivan Sokolov for a few hours and commentate with IM Sopiko Guramishvili | Photo: Amruta Mokal
The live commentary by IM Sagar Shah begins at 4 hours and 30 minutes.
That's the dining table at the Hilton hotel and of course, it is chess-themed! | Photo: Amruta Mokal
GM Maurice Ashley with Tania Sachdev. Can you give it a nice caption? | Photo: Amruta Mokal
New in Chess publishing director Remmelt Otten, DGT CEO Hans Pees and New in Chess Magazine Editor-in-Chief Dirk Jan Ten Geuzendam | Photo: Amruta Mokal
Team from Gabon! | Photo: Amruta Mokal
There is Gambia everywhere in that picture! | Photo: Amruta Mokal
That's Jamaica! | Photo: Amruta Mokal
In a team competition, you are quite often distracted by what is going on in your teammate's game! | Photo: Amruta Mokal
The passage that connects hall one to two has Georgian chess history on both its walls. It is really well done and a walk through the passage looking at the posters can give you all the information you need about Georgian chess history. | Photo: Amruta Mokal
A video that takes you back in time, into the Georgian chess history
Sagar ShahSagar is an International Master from India with two GM norms. He loves to cover chess tournaments, as that helps him understand and improve at the game he loves so much. He is the co-founder and CEO of ChessBase India, the biggest chess news portal in the country. His YouTube channel has over a million subscribers, and to date close to a billion views. ChessBase India is the sole distributor of ChessBase products in India and seven adjoining countries, where the software is available at a 60% discount. compared to International prices.
Caption: Let's play, you are Black, I start., my move is 1. e4
Edwin Meijer 10/5/2018 12:28
I've got a nice caption; Tania to Maurice: How many times do i have to log in to the chessbase website to download a fucking game? It is absolutely ridiculous! Besides a caption, this is also a question directed at the team behind the website.
Wis3boi 10/5/2018 01:32
In the Mamedyarov - Liren video, the Black and White pieces are from different chess sets!
rubinsteinak 10/4/2018 08:05
In Duda:Caruana, after 64. gxh4 the game is not drawn, as indicated above. Black is winning with Rd2+, just as in the game, but as you noted, black must play 65...Be4, not Bg4.
Daniel Miller 10/4/2018 08:02
It is amazing to me that Anita Gara did not play 107. Rg8 against Krush, with an easy win mating on the first rank before black queens, which is in every endgame book. Seriously, it is basic first level endgame theory and she is rated 2370. Worked out well for team USA though.
eloquence45 10/4/2018 06:20
Thanks for mentioning Wesley's "consistency". Another factor on the Team USA line-up is their cultural background or roots. Look at their names: very un-American.
Hhorse 10/4/2018 04:52
Tania to Maurice: Yes I should have also just provided humor and eye candy to the team and they would have been a medal contender like the USA.
ngnn 10/4/2018 03:01
I admit this is just nitpicking, but why "15.0" and not just 15 in the sentence "The English team beat Norway and with 15.0/18 have moved to fifth position"? Team points can never be split anyways. Also when it comes to individual scores, I consider this .0 used by Chessbase unnecessary information – it could be just 5/7 instead of 5.0/7. But when it’s about team points, the .0 is even weirder.
To avoid whining too much about non-issues: Excellent article once again, thanks for that guys!
siamesedream 10/4/2018 02:43
Tania to Maurice: "I told you Duda will hold against Fabiano. Now pay me my 100 bucks".
siamesedream 10/4/2018 02:19
famous chess personality is Alina l'Ami?
VVI 10/4/2018 02:03
Vishy Anand`s performance at the Olympiad is a disgrace. He hasn`t added any value to the team`s performance rather the team is better off without him. How many games at 30 move draws ? Ridiculous.
Glad they rested him for the 10th round.
neilparker62 10/4/2018 11:53
Thanks - am enjoying the coverage of this olympiad.
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