On Sunday, Armenia won the gold medal at the 40th Chess Olympiad in Istanbul. It is their third Olympic gold overall. They also finished first at the World Team Championship last year in Ningbo, China.
Upon arrival in Yerevan on Monday, the jubilant Armenian chess team was treated like national heroes by a cheering crowd and the president of Armenia Serzh Sargsyan who is also the head of the Armenian Chess Federation. Small countries do that. They cherish their victories. The Czech national ice-hockey team, led by Dominik Hasek and Jaromir Jagr, got a similar reception after they returned to Prague from the 1998 Winter Olympics in Nagano with a gold medal.
Ideally, to win medals at chess Olympiads, the team should not lose a match. But nobody went undefeated in the 11-round event in Istanbul. The outcome was decided not by how teams won their matches, but by the timing of their losses. Every time some teams jumped into the lead, they were knocked out like duck pins. Those who lost earlier could still recover. The drama continued into the last round, and when it was over Armenia won nine matches, lost one and tied one. They had the most match points and the best tiebreak.
The final standing: 1. Armenia 19/22, 2. Russia 19, 3. Ukraine 18, 4. China 17, 5. USA 17. The results are based on match points. Shared places were decided by a tiebreak.
In the Women's Olympiad Russia and China scored 19 points, but the gold went to the Russians on a tiebreak. Ukraine won the bronze with 18 points.
Individually, the Czech GM David Navara scored the most points with 9.5/11. GM Shakhriyar Mamedyarov of Azerbaijan posted the best rating performance with 2880 points and a 8.5/10 score.
Let's ride the olympic roller coaster to see the ups and downs of the top five finishers.
The winning Armenian team and their final scores. From left: Tigran Petrosian
(2.5/3),
Gabriel Sargissian (7/11), Vladimir Akopian (7.5/10), Sergei Movsesian (5/10),
Levon Aronian (7/10) and the captain Arshak Petrosian.
Armenia beefed up their line-up, acquiring Movsesian from Slovakia for $50,000. He finished with 50 percent on the second board, but delivered the only win against Hungary in the last round.
In the fifth round, Armenia clashed with Ukraine, the defending champions, and their top board Aronian brought home the victory in the Queen's Indian.
The Soviet team won gold at every chess Olympiad from 1954 till 1990 with the exception of 1978 when the Hungarian team edged them in a tiebreak in Buenos Aires. The team of Russia continued the dominance, winning from 1992 till 2002. Ukraine won in 2004 and 2010 and Armenia in 2006 and in 2008. The Russians wanted the gold back.
In the sixth round Russia met Armenia. Although the match ended 2-2, the former world champion Vladimir Kramnik scored a fine win against Aronian.
After China defeated the Armenians in the seventh round, Russia took the lead, moving closer to their goal.
The previous matches between the Soviets and the Americans were always exciting and the US team didn't come out of it empty-handed. I was still playing on the team when we beat the Soviets in 1984 and in 1986. The younger Americans scored victory over Russia in 2006. With great performances on the top two boards, they beat the Russians again in Istanbul and with two rounds to go shared the lead with Russia, Armenia and China.
Hikaru Nakamura surpassed Bobby Fischer's rating record of 2785 in Istanbul. Hikaru showed great fighting spirit and his 6 points in 9 games was one of the top results on the first board. He took considerable risks in defeating Kramnik.
Gata Kamsky's stellar performance (8.5/11) was the best on the team. He outplayed Russia's Alexander Grischuk marvelously, but when he was about to collect the full point, things began to happen.
The endgame was an 18th century saga transferred to modern times with wonderful tricks and trades. Kamsky played a great technical game and should have won it. Instead, he allowed Grischuk to escape. With a draw in sight, the Russian slipped, proving that this endgame is difficult to defend even for the best players. The drama begins after 45 moves:
In the next round the U.S. team faltered and lost to China, but they fought back and beat Poland in the last round. "Objectively, sharing the place with China was a better result than the bronze medal results in Turin and Dresden." says John Donaldson, the captain of the U.S. team. "We started well and were always within sight of the leaders. With a bit more luck we could have medaled."
The rest of the team performed well: Alexander Onischuk (6.5/10), Varuzhan Akobian (3.5/6), Ray Robson (5.5/8).
The Chinese lost to Russia, but defeated the Armenians. With the victory over the Americans China leaped into a shared lead. They had the best tiebreak and a victory in the last round would have earned them the gold medals. But Ukraine smashed them 3-1 and took them out of medal contention.
The defending champion lost matches against Russia and Armenia. Getting the bronz was considered a miracle, but the Ukrainians managed to do it. Ivanchuk downed Wang Hao in the last round with a nifty combination.
For the record, 157 teams participated in Istanbul. The Women's Olympiad had 127 teams.
Original column here – Copyright Huffington Post
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