ETCC R09: Russia triumphs with double gold

by Albert Silver
11/24/2015 – In the ninth and final round Russia convincingly won gold in the open section and in the women’s section. The Russian men drew without much trouble 2-2 against Hungary and won the tournament with 15/18, and in the women’s tournament Russia beat Germany to secure gold with 17/18. Here is the final illustrated report.

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The final round

Talent has never been in shortage in Russia, and one might argue that it was no big surprise that a Team Russia that lacked its absolute biggest guns still took first, but that would be to ignore history. While Russia may not lack talent (over 25% of the Top 100 are Russian), neither do they hold have any special claims as the past Olympiads have shown. Though the team came with names that have no shortage of titles and accolades, the key word to describe their results would have to be consistency, with nearly every team member performing as expected or slightly better. It wasn’t a win as a result of any single super performance, it was a win with everyone clinching a point when needed.

Though Hungary could theoretically cause an upset, if they lost they would also miss the
podium, thus a draw suited both teams.

Still, if any of the Russians had to be highlighted, it would be Peter Svidler on board one
with 5.0/8 and a 2800 performance.

Going into the final round, the only team that had any chance of an upset for the gold was
Hungary, captained by Judit Polgar, whose youngest player, Richard Rapport  was also its
brightest star, with a fantastic 2828 performance. Four draws later, they had secured bronze
ahead of several close rivals.

Armenia’s silver medal on the other hand, was very much the result of a few overperformers. The first was a welcome return to form of Levon Aronian, whose 2835 performance was just what the doctor ordered. Of special note also was second board Gabriel Sargissian, whose own 2800+ performance took him into the 2700 club for the first time of his career.

While Levon Aronian's result was one of the best of the tournament, Victor Bologan's performance
was even better with a 2845 TPR

Team pairings and results of round nine (final)

No. Sd Team
Pts.
MP
Res.
:
Res.
MP
Pts.
Team Sd
1 7 Hungary
20½
12
2
:
2
14
20½
Russia 1
2 9 Netherlands
19
11
:
11
18½
France 4
3 6 Armenia
19½
11
3
:
1
11
19½
Georgia 17
4 10 Germany
17½
11
2
:
2
10
18½
Azerbaijan 3
5 25 Moldova
18
10
:
10
17½
Ukraine 2
6 14 Spain
17½
9
:
½
9
18
Latvia 13
7 15 Serbia
17
9
:
9
18½
Czech Republic 12
8 5 England
16½
9
 
:
 
8
18
Romania 20
9 11 Norway
17
8
:
8
16
Poland 8
10 16 Croatia
15½
8
:
8
16½
Italy 23
11 33 Lithuania
15
8
:
7
16
Turkey 19
12 24 Iceland
14½
7
4
:
0
7
15
Sweden 22
13 28 Switzerland
15
7
1
:
3
7
15½
Slovenia 21
14 18 Greece
13½
6
:
7
15
Montenegro 29
15 32 Belgium
13
5
:
6
13
Finland 31
16 26 Austria
16½
5
:
5
11½
Faroe Islands 34
17 35 Scotland
3
½
:
5
12½
Iceland Legends 27
18 36 Kosovo*
10½
2
½
:
5
14½
Denmark 30

Full pairings and results

Final rankings (after nine rounds)

Rk. SNo FED Team
  + 
  = 
  – 
 TB1 
 TB2   TB3 
1 1 RUS Russia
6
3
0
15
224,5 22,5
2 6 ARM Armenia
5
3
1
13
218,5 22,5
3 7 HUN Hungary
5
3
1
13
217,0 22,5
4 4 FRA France
5
3
1
13
211,5 21,0
5 2 UKR Ukraine
6
0
3
12
188,0 20,0
6 10 GER Germany
5
2
2
12
166,0 19,5
7 3 AZE Azerbaijan
4
3
2
11
182,5 20,5
8 14 ESP Spain
5
1
3
11
180,5 21,0
9 17 GEO Georgia
4
3
2
11
178,5 20,5
10 12 CZE Czech Republic
4
3
2
11
162,0 21,0
11 9 NED Netherlands
5
1
3
11
160,5 20,5
12 25 MDA Moldova
4
2
3
10
165,0 19,5
13 8 POL Poland
4
2
3
10
165,0 18,5
14 23 ITA Italy
4
2
3
10
160,5 19,0
15 15 SRB Serbia
3
3
3
9
161,0 18,5
16 5 ENG England
3
3
2
9
145,5 16,5
17 19 TUR Turkey
4
1
4
9
132,5 18,5
18 13 LAT Latvia
4
1
4
9
128,0 18,5
19 24 ISL Iceland
4
1
4
9
128,0 18,5
20 21 SLO Slovenia
4
1
4
9
120,0 18,5
21 11 NOR Norway
4
0
5
8
154,5 18,5
22 16 CRO Croatia
3
2
4
8
128,5 17,0
23 18 GRE Greece
3
2
4
8
123,5 16,0
24 20 ROU Romania
3
2
3
8
119,5 18,0
25 31 FIN Finland
4
0
5
8
112,0 15,5
26 33 LTU Lithuania
3
2
4
8
108,0 16,5
27 29 MNE Montenegro
2
3
4
7
139,0 16,5
28 22 SWE Sweden
3
1
5
7
121,5 15,0
29 28 SUI Switzerland
3
1
5
7
112,0 16,0
30 26 AUT Austria
3
1
5
7
96,5 19,0
31 30 DEN Denmark
3
1
5
7
91,5 18,0
32 27 ISL Iceland Legends
3
1
5
7
91,0 16,0
33 32 BEL Belgium
2
1
6
5
86,0 14,5
34 34 FAI Faroe Islands
2
1
6
5
59,5 13,0
35 35 SCO Scotland
1
1
7
3
19,5 6,0
36 36 KOS Kosovo*
1
0
8
2
63,5 11,0

Tie Break1: Matchpoints (2 for wins, 1 for Draws, 0 for Losses)
Tie Break2: Olympiad-Sonneborn-Berger-Tie-Break without lowest result (Khanty-Mansiysk)
Tie Break3: points (game-points)

Women's section

The Russian Women's team relax before the prize ceremony

The jubilant Russian Women's team

In the Women’s event, the Russian team dominated the competition through and through with eight match wins and one draw. Alexandra Kosteniuk did a notable job on board one, but the highest performance was by Alexandra Goryachkina, whose 7.0/8 was worth a 2668 TPR.

Taking silver was Ukraine, led also by their brightest star, Mariya Muzychuk, who also scored
7.0/8,except in her case on board one!  If Russia was the strongest team, Mariya Muzychuk’s
fantastic result has now made her the world no.3, right behind Humpy Koneru and Hou Yifan.

Taking bronze was Georgia, led by their top performer IM Lela Javakhishvii.

Team pairings and results of round nine (final)

No. Sd Team
Pts.
MP
Res.
:
Res.
MP
Pts.
Team Sd
1 2 Russia
23
15
3
:
1
11
19½
Germany 7
2 1 Georgia
18½
13
2
:
2
10
16
Austria 19
3 3 Ukraine
24
13
:
½
9
19½
Netherlands 10
4 15 Italy
18
10
2
:
2
10
18½
Poland 4
5 12 Serbia
18½
9
½
:
9
17½
France 5
6 17 Greece
17½
9
2
:
2
9
18
Spain 11
7 9 Hungary
16
9
3
:
1
8
18
Latvia 21
8 8 Romania
15½
8
:
8
13
Montenegro 22
9 6 Armenia
15½
8
:
½
8
15½
Czech Republic 16
10 13 Azerbaijan
16
7
:
½
7
18½
England 18
11 23 Norway
15
6
2
:
2
7
16½
Turkey 14
12 20 Slovenia
14½
7
4
:
0
6
12½
Iceland 29
13 26 Denmark
12½
5
:
6
12
Sweden 27
14 28 Belgium
10
3
2
:
2
5
14½
Lithuania 25
15 30 Finland
5
0
0
:
4
5
11
Switzerland 24

Full pairings and results

Final rankings (after nine rounds)

Rk. SNo FED Team
  + 
  = 
  – 
 TB1 
 TB2   TB3 
1 2 RUS Russia
8
1
0
17
268,5 26,0
2 3 UKR Ukraine
7
1
1
15
281,5 27,5
3 1 GEO Georgia
6
2
1
14
196,5 20,5
4 4 POL Poland
5
1
3
11
194,0 20,5
5 5 FRA France
5
1
3
11
185,5 21,0
6 7 GER Germany
5
1
3
11
169,5 20,5
7 9 HUN Hungary
5
1
3
11
162,0 19,0
8 15 ITA Italy
5
1
3
11
152,0 20,0
9 19 AUT Austria
5
1
3
11
147,0 18,0
10 8 ROU Romania
4
2
3
10
153,0 18,0
11 6 ARM Armenia
4
2
3
10
149,5 19,0
12 11 ESP Spain
4
2
3
10
145,5 20,0
13 17 GRE Greece
4
2
3
10
145,5 19,5
14 12 SRB Serbia
3
3
3
9
164,0 19,0
15 10 NED Netherlands
4
1
4
9
154,5 20,0
16 13 AZE Azerbaijan
4
1
4
9
126,5 19,5
17 20 SLO Slovenia
3
3
3
9
105,5 18,5
18 21 LAT Latvia
4
0
5
8
145,5 19,0
19 14 TUR Turkey
3
2
4
8
141,5 18,5
20 16 CZE Czech Republic
4
0
5
8
102,0 16,0
21 22 MNE Montenegro
3
2
4
8
93,5 14,5
22 27 SWE Sweden
3
2
4
8
68,5 14,5
23 18 ENG England
3
1
5
7
136,5 19,0
24 23 NOR Norway
3
1
5
7
108,0 17,0
25 24 SUI Switzerland
2
3
4
7
95,0 15,0
26 25 LTU Lithuania
2
2
5
6
112,5 16,5
27 29 ISL Iceland
2
2
5
6
69,0 12,5
28 26 DEN Denmark
2
1
6
5
75,0 14,0
29 28 BEL Belgium
1
2
6
4
61,0 12,0
30 30 FIN Finland
0
0
9
0
28,5 5,0

Tie Break1: Matchpoints (2 for wins, 1 for Draws, 0 for Losses)
Tie Break2: Olympiad-Sonneborn-Berger-Tie-Break without lowest result (Khanty-Mansiysk)
Tie Break3: points (game-points)

Pictures by Maria Emelianova on the official facebook page of ETCC 2015


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Born in the US, he grew up in Paris, France, where he completed his Baccalaureat, and after college moved to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. He had a peak rating of 2240 FIDE, and was a key designer of Chess Assistant 6. In 2010 he joined the ChessBase family as an editor and writer at ChessBase News. He is also a passionate photographer with work appearing in numerous publications, and the content creator of the YouTube channel, Chess & Tech.

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