Round Nine Preview

by Alejandro Ramirez
8/11/2014 – We are in the final stretch in Tromso; the last three rounds are upon us and the battles for the medals are starting to line up. China leads in the men but they face a vicious Ukrainian team. In the Women's section Russia leads by a match point, but there are many teams that are still trying to position themselves in medal contention. Preview and top players so far

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Letter from International Arbiter Takis Nikolopolous

Dear friends,

Just a few minutes ago I read an article in the Chessbase website under the title : Tromso 08:It's all about China, where it was written that : "Starting today, that is not happening anymore as security is far stricter. The reason? "The Chief Arbiter has told us there has been cheating at the Olympiad" according to the people in charge of security in this area."

I have to declare that I have never told to the security people and to anybody else that there has been cheating in the Tromso Olympiad. I just told them that as the tournament reaches to its end, we have to increase the security measures and to avoid any captain and any player who is continuing his/her game, to visit the press room. It was a problem we have faced in Istanbul Olympiad with captains ( some of them were visiting the press room during the games ) and I wanted to avoid it in Tromso. I repeat that I have never said to anybody that there was any cheating in the Olympiad and if the security people said something like this, obviously was a misunderstanding of my words, or their own conclusion.

Additionally I would like to inform you that we have an excellent cooperation with the FIDE Anti cheating Committee in a daily basis and we follow ALL the games of every round in both Open and Women section.

The Match Arbiters have also been instructed to pay extra attention at the behavior of the participants (players, captain and spectators). I have to say that until now (after 8 rounds) the participants have shown excellent sportsmanship, no problems occurred during the games and the results we have from our research shows that there are no suspicious cases.

I would like kindly to ask you to publish my statement in your website, in order to avoid creating absolutely false impressions and conclusions by anybody. IA Takis Nikolopoulos Chief Arbiter 2014 World Chess Olympiad Tromso, Norway

Chief Arbiter Takis Nikolopolous gives his daily announcements before the round

The arbiters and organizers have strictly assured as that there is no cheating going on in the Olympiad, and so far there have been no signs of it. We are also told that the allegations made by the staff was a simple misunderstanding, and that may perfectly be so. With the last rounds coming up in Tromso security is becoming more and more strict, apparently simply as a precautionary measure.

Round Nine Preview

Players by Rating Performance

No. Ti. Name Rtg Team Rp Pts.
Gms
%
Bo.
1 GM Shankland Samuel 2624 USA 3196 7.0
7
100.0
5
2 GM Yu Yangyi 2668 China 2914 7.0
8
87.5
3
3 GM Adams Michael 2740 England 2888 4.5
6
75.0
1
4 IM Michel Yunis Christian 2311 Palestine 2880 6.0
6
100.0
5
5 GM Giri Anish 2745 Netherlands 2849 6.0
8
75.0
1
6 GM Svetushkin Dmitry 2547 Moldova 2846 6.5
7
92.9
2
7 GM Ding Liren 2742 China 2841 5.5
7
78.6
2
8 GM Carlsen Magnus 2877 Norway 2839 5.0
7
71.4
1
9 GM Kasimdzhanov Rustam 2700 Uzbekistan 2833 5.0
7
71.4
1
10 GM Topalov Veselin 2772 Bulgaria 2823 4.0
6
66.7
1
11 GM Nguyen Ngoc T. S. 2634 Vietnam 2814 6.0
7
85.7
2
12 GM Moiseenko Alexander 2707 Ukraine 2810 5.5
6
91.7
5
13 GM Navara David 2716 Czech Rep. 2801 6.5
8
81.3
1
14 GM Iotov Valentin 2553 Bulgaria 2801 6.5
8
81.3
3
15 GM Shirov Alexei 2709 Latvia 2795 5.0
7
71.4
1
16 GM Balogh Csaba 2637 Hungary 2794 4.5
6
75.0
2
17 GM Laznicka Viktor 2676 Czech Rep. 2792 5.5
7
78.6
2
18 GM Edouard Romain 2680 France 2792 5.0
6
83.3
4
19 GM Aronian Levon 2805 Armenia 2781 4.5
7
64.3
1
20 GM Sedlak Nikola 2554 Serbia 2780 5.0
6
83.3
4

Sam Shankland's wonderful performance on the reserve board is what is keeping America afloat in this Olympiad. Yu Yangyi has had a great Olympiad, his 2914 performance defnitely being one of the key reasons of why China is right now in the lead.

No. SNo Team Pts. MP Res. : Res. MP Pts. Team SNo
1 7 China 24 14   :   13 23 Ukraine 2
2 16 Czech Republic 22½ 13   :   13 23 France 3
3 14 Norway 19 11   :   11 20½ Turkey 26
4 8 Azerbaijan 21½ 13   :   13 22½ Romania 32
5 9 Israel 22 12   :   12 21 Hungary 5
6 18 Bulgaria 21 12   :   12 22 Cuba 13
7 27 Belarus 20½ 12   :   12 22 Netherlands 11
8 35 Argentina 21½ 12   :   12 22½ India 19
9 6 United States of America 22 12   :   12 21 Germany 12
10 4 Armenia 21½ 12   :   12 20½ Serbia 29
11 1 Russia 21 11   :   11 19½ Norway 2 58
12 17 Spain 20½ 11   :   11 19 Latvia 23
13 15 Poland 21½ 11   :   11 20 Switzerland 51
14 57 Qatar 20½ 11   :   11 22½ Iceland 43
15 22 Peru 20 11   :   11 21½ Vietnam 31
16 33 Uzbekistan 19 11   :   10 22 Finland 56
17 40 Denmark 22 10   :   10 19½ England 10
18 44 Belgium 19 10   :   10 20½ Croatia 24
19 36 Slovakia 20 10   :   10 18 Scotland 66
20 49 Kazakhstan 18 10   :   10 20 Slovenia 28

China will be trying to defend their lead against Ukraine, certainly a tough match. The Ukrainians seem to have found their groove in the past couple of matches and this will not be easy for the Chinese.

The Czech Republic has a big match against France in the second board. Even though the French have the higher rating, and they are fielding Edouard who is having a fabulous event, it is not expected for either side to win the match by a large margin.

Azerbaijan is facing Romania, which is a relatively nice pairing for a bounce-back. Romania will attempt at giving yet another surprise in the Olympiad, but the rating difference with Azerbaijan might be a little too much.

As usual the boards after this are full of strong and close matches; USA vs. Germany and Israel vs. Hungary being the most noteworthy.

Sergey Karjakin in Russia vs. Norway Two, a match no one expected would happen outside the first few rounds

Anton Smirnov from Australia is now an IM with his performance in this Olympiad!

Viktor Laznicka is Czech Republic's board two against France

Romain Edouard has a massive 2792 performance

Rk. Team Team  TB1   TB2 
1 China CHN 14 223.5
2 France FRA 13 199.0
3 Ukraine UKR 13 198.0
4 Azerbaijan AZE 13 195.5
5 Czech Republic CZE 13 194.0
6 Romania ROU 13 182.0
7 Israel ISR 12 198.5
8 Bulgaria BUL 12 193.5
9 Cuba CUB 12 192.5
10 Netherlands NED 12 192.0
11 India IND 12 191.0
12 Hungary HUN 12 189.5
13 United States of America USA 12 181.5
14 Armenia ARM 12 179.0
15 Serbia SRB 12 179.0
16 Germany GER 12 172.5
17 Belarus BLR 12 163.0
18 Argentina ARG 12 154.5
19 Russia RUS 11 189.0
20 Spain ESP 11 178.0

The best female players by performance

No. Title Name Rtg Team Rp Pts. Gms % Bo.
1 WGM Cosma Elena-Luminita 2327 Romania 2877 6.0 6 100.0 5
2 GM Hou Yifan 2661 China 2711 5.0 6 83.3 1
3 GM Kosteniuk Alexandra 2531 Russia 2663 6.0 7 85.7 3
4 GM Dzagnidze Nana 2550 Georgia 2658 6.0 7 85.7 1
5 GM Lagno Kateryna 2540 Russia 2654 5.5 7 78.6 1
6 IM Ziaziulkina Nastassia 2407 Belarus 2642 7.0 8 87.5 1
7 WIM Ankhchimeg Bayanmunkh 2123 Mongolia 2633 5.0 5 100.0 5
8 GM Gunina Valentina 2524 Russia 2628 5.5 7 78.6 2
9 GM Cramling Pia 2500 Sweden 2596 7.0 8 87.5 1
10 IM Mkrtchian Lilit 2453 Armenia 2584 7.0 8 87.5 2
11 GM Stefanova Antoaneta 2505 Bulgaria 2584 6.0 7 85.7 1
12 WGM Khademalsharieh S. 2324 Iran 2583 6.0 7 85.7 2
13 WGM Guo Qi 2453 China 2576 4.5 5 90.0 5
14 GM Sebag Marie 2480 France 2576 4.0 6 66.7 1
15 WGM Cori T. Deysi 2422 Peru 2568 7.5 8 93.8 1
16 WGM Padmini Rout 2318 India 2565 6.5 7 92.9 5
17 WGM Ju Wenjun 2559 China 2560 6.0 8 75.0 2
18 WGM Sukandar Irine Kharisma 2396 Indonesia 2550 6.0 8 75.0 1
19 GM Khotenashvili Bela 2494 Georgia 2548 5.5 7 78.6 2
20 GM Harika Dronavalli 2521 India 2536 5.5 7 78.6 1

Cosma Elna-Luminita is leading the rating performance battle with her 100% score, an invaluable asset to the Romanian team. Despite Hou Yifan's loss against Lagno she is still the best performing first board at 2711, she keeps accumulating rating points in this Olympiad. The difference between her and Judit Polgar is now only eleven points.

Kosteniuk and Lagno's performances are a very strong reason of why Russia is leading the tournament; if they can keep it up it will certainly be difficult for any team to challenge Russia's gold medal.

No. SNo Team Pts. MP Res. : Res. MP Pts. Team SNo
1 10 Armenia 22½ 13   :   16 25½ Russia 2
2 47 Estonia 17½ 10   :   10 20 Norway 38
3 9 France 23 13   :   14 25 China 1
4 5 India 23½ 12   :   13 21½ Ukraine 3
5 11 Spain 21 12   :   12 23 Argentina 24
6 6 Romania 21½ 12   :   12 21 Vietnam 20
7 12 Germany 21½ 12   :   12 20½ Hungary 13
8 8 Poland 19½ 12   :   11 22 Mongolia 28
9 23 Indonesia 20 11   :   11 21½ Georgia 4
10 7 United States of America 21 11   :   11 21 Montenegro 54
11 15 Serbia 18½ 11   :   11 21 Slovakia 18
12 35 Croatia 21 11   :   11 22 Belarus 40
13 14 Bulgaria 23 11   :   11 21 Colombia 30
14 21 Iran 22½ 10   :   11 18½ Kazakhstan 17
15 46 Uzbekistan 20½ 10   :   10 19 Cuba 19
16 56 Denmark 18 10   :   10 22 Czech Republic 27
17 78 Malaysia 17 10   :   10 20 Switzerland 42
18 22 Azerbaijan 19½ 10   :   10 16 Brazil 50
19 37 Slovenia 20 10   :   10 17½ Italy 31
20 32 Greece 18½ 9   :   9 16 Venezuela 49

Armenia will face Russia, but the way that both teams are playing it is not just the rating difference that gives Russia the upper hand. Surprises always happen though, and if any team can do it it would be Armenia.

France comes from a narrow victory against USA to face China; this does not look good for the French as at the time of publishing this article (an hour from the start of the round) France's second board is already almost lost.

India-Ukraine is a fantastic match between two teams that had big expectations but have not yet met them. The winner of the duel can finally challenge the top teams in the top boards. The strong team of Georgia faces Indonesia, and it will take another miracle for the southeast Asian team to win.

Sarah Hoolt is Germany's fourth board in the close match between Germany and Hungary

Dinara Saduakassova is playing for Kazakhstan; at only 18 years old she is already 2375

Elina Danielian is ready to face Lagno!

The tough match France vs. China

Tijana Blagojevic faces Anna Zatonskih in USA vs. Montenegro

Rk. Team Team  TB1   TB2 
1 Russia RUS 16 252.5
2 China CHN 14 230.5
3 France FRA 13 215.0
4 Armenia ARM 13 182.0
5 Ukraine UKR 13 179.5
6 India IND 12 198.0
7 Spain ESP 12 195.0
8 Romania ROU 12 185.0
9 Germany GER 12 180.5
10 Vietnam VIE 12 179.0
11 Argentina ARG 12 173.0
12 Poland POL 12 170.5
13 Hungary HUN 12 169.0
14 Georgia GEO 11 189.5
15 United States of America USA 11 178.5
16 Indonesia INA 11 175.5
17 Serbia SRB 11 167.0
18 Belarus BLR 11 164.5
19 Bulgaria BUL 11 163.0
20 Slovakia SVK 11 155.0

Photos by Alejandro Ramirez, Pascal Simon and André Schulz


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All you need to know about the Olympiad

  • Full information on the games, the venue, the atmosphere and what's happening on and off the chessboard – 68 pages in PDF, 45 MB in size.
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All ChessBase reports on the 2014 Olympiad in Tromsø


Grandmaster Alejandro Ramirez has been playing tournament chess since 1998. His accomplishments include qualifying for the 2004 and 2013 World Cups as well as playing for Costa Rica in the 2002, 2004 and 2008 Olympiads. He currently has a rating of 2583 and is author of a number of popular and critically acclaimed ChessBase-DVDs.

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