Round Nine Preview

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

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.

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

The best female players by performance

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.

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

Photos by Alejandro Ramirez, Pascal Simon and André Schulz

Live commentary, interviews, analysis

Where and how to watch: log into Playchess.com and watch all the games in progress. Analyse with the built-in engine, chat with other spectators. And if you are a premium member you can watch all the lectures, interviews and analysis free of charge. And it isn't at all expensive. Prices for a full year's membership are given in the table below.

During the games we have live broadcast by expert commentators,
with post-game interviews and analysis directly from the venue.

Three of our live game commentators: Yasser Seirawan, Simon Williams, Chris Ward

Interviewing Indian IM Tania Sachdev immediately after her game

Danny King's daily midnight wrapup on Youtube – recorded in the midnight dusk of Tromsø

Schedule of live commentary, TV shows, training and tournaments

Playchess.com is Europe’s largest chess server, as well as being the official server of the German Chess Federation. More than 4,000 players are logged on every evening and you can play, chat, watch grandmaster games or take part in free chess training with friends from anywhere in the world. There is even a special room for beginners and hobby players where you can play games without a clock.

Get your Playchess membership intantly – or try it out with a single mouse click

Links Official tournament site All games in PGN The games are being broadcast live on the official web site and on the chess server Playchess.com. If you are not a member you can download a free Playchess client there and get immediate access. You can also use ChessBase 12 or any of our Fritz compatible chess programs.

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.
• All practical details you need to know before and after your arrival, including information about money, the climate, arriving at Oslo and Tromsø Airports, lost or delayed luggage, check-in at the hotels, the accreditation desk, information offices and the opening ceremony.

All ChessBase reports on the 2014 Olympiad in Tromsø