The 2012 Chess Olympiad under way

by ChessBase
8/29/2012 – In the first round of this event, 158 teams are paired with the top half facing the bottom half (1 vs 79, 2 vs 80, etc.). This meant many 4-0 wipe-outs, but with a few upsets on individual boards. We bring you pictures and results and all available games from this massive event in Istanbul, Turkey, and now also include play-of-the-day commentary by GM Daniel King.

ChessBase 17 - Mega package - Edition 2024 ChessBase 17 - Mega package - Edition 2024

It is the program of choice for anyone who loves the game and wants to know more about it. Start your personal success story with ChessBase and enjoy the game even more.

More...

The 40th Chess Olympiad is scheduled to take place in the Turkish metropole of Istanbul, from August 27 to September 10th, 2012. A record of 158 national chess federations have brought teams to Istanbul to participate in this prestigious event, which is being staged in the WOW Hotel and Convention Center, just minutes away from the airport.

Round one

Since in the first round top seeded teams were paired against those from the second half of the rankings most of the matches were clean walk-overs, and most of the world's best players sat out of the round.

The highest ranked player to actually play a game was world number four Teimour Radjabov (above), who scored a win for Azerbaijan against IM Michael Wiedenkeller of Luxembourgon (for a 4-0 victory for his team). Other 4-0 wins were scored by Ukraine over Iraq, USA against Jordan, France against Zimbabwe, India against Wales, Cuba over Japan, Poland over Monaco, Greece over Barbados and Italy over Guatemala.

Armenia scored 3-1 against Bolivia, with the South American country's first and only grandmaster, Oswaldo Zambrana, 2471, scoring a stunning victory over GM Sergei Movsesian, who is 228 points higher than him on the Elo scale.

In the pairing Russia vs the Dominican Republic (above with Alexander Gischuk, 2763, vs IM Munoz Santana, Jose Lisandro, 2428, on board one) FM William Puntier (board three, in the yellow shirt) held GM Evgeny Tomashevsky to a draw in one of the longest games of the day.

Round one: Team-Pairings - Open

No.
SNo
Team
Team
Res.
Res.
Team
Team
SNo
1
78
DOM
Dominican Rep.
½
Russia
RUS
1
2
2
UKR
Ukraine
4
0
Iraq
IRQ
79
3
80
BOL
Bolivia
1
3
Armenia
ARM
3
4
4
HUN
Hungary
3
1
Kyrgyzstan
KGZ
81
5
82
JOR
Jordan
0
4
USA
USA
5
6
6
CHN
China
½
Zambia
ZAM
83
7
84
LUX
Luxembourg
0
4
Azerbaijan
AZE
7
8
8
FRA
France
4
0
Zimbabwe
ZIM
85
9
86
MAS
Malaysia
Netherlands
NED
9
10
88
AND
Andorra
½
England
ENG
11
11
90
WLS
Wales
0
4
India
IND
13
12
14
GER
Germany
½
New Zealand
NZL
91
13
92
JPN
Japan
0
4
Cuba
CUB
15
14
16
POL
Poland
4
0
Monaco
MNC
93
15
94
TUN
Tunisia
½
Czech Republic
CZE
17
16
18
ESP
Spain
½
Lebanon
LIB
95
17
96
PUR
Puerto Rico
½
Croatia
CRO
19
18
20
SRB
Serbia
½
Myanmar
MYA
97
19
98
BAR
Barbados
0
4
Greece
GRE
21
20
22
ITA
Italy
4
0
Guatemala
GUA
99

Results of all 79 pairings here

Tthe Women's Section saw more top seeded teams scoring clean sweeps over their lesser rivals: China, Russia, Georgia, USA, India and Poland chalked up against Bandgladesh, Bolivia, Guatemala, New Zealand, FYROM and Dominican Republic, respectively.


The Russian Women's team, with WGM Pogonina Natalija, IM Gunina Valentina,
GM Kosteniuk Alexandra and GM Kosintseva Tatiana


The Chinese women's team, with WGM Ding Yixin, 2424, WGM Huang Qian, 2449;
WGM Ju Wenjun, 2528, and GM Zhao Xue, 2549.

WIM Lougain Dahdal of Jordan defeated IM Lilit Galojan of Armenia to reduce the losing margin to 1-3. WFM Gabriela Maria Avelar Bonilla from El Salvador snatched a draw from the much higher rated IM Anna Ushenina from Ukraine.

Round one: Team-Pairings - Women

No.
SNo
Team
Team
Res.
Res.
Team
Team
SNo
1
1
CHN
China
4
0
Bangladesh
BAN
63
2
64
BOL
Bolivia
0
4
Russia
RUS
2
3
3
GEO
Georgia
4
0
Guatemala
GUA
65
4
66
ESA
El Salvador
½
Ukraine
UKR
4
5
5
USA
USA
4
0
New Zealand
NZL
67
6
68
MKD
FYROM
0
4
India
IND
6
7
7
POL
Poland
4
0
Dominican Rep.
DOM
69
8
70
JOR
Jordan
1
3
Armenia
ARM
8
9
72
LUX
Luxembourg
½
Romania
ROU
10
10
11
ESP
Spain
3
1
Egypt
EGY
73
11
74
SYR
Syria
½
Hungary
HUN
12
12
76
SCO
Scotland
0
4
France
FRA
14
13
15
CUB
Cuba
4
0
Finland
FIN
77
14
78
URU
Uruguay
0
4
Slovenia
SLO
16
15
17
NED
Netherlands
½
Algeria
ALG
79
16
80
CRC
Costa Rica
1
3
Greece
GRE
18
17
19
SRB
Serbia
4
0
Jamaica
JAM
81
18
83
MAS
Malaysia
½
Slovakia
SVK
20
19
21
MGL
Mongolia
Turkey 2016
TUR16
84
20
85
KGZ
Kyrgyzstan
0
4
Kazakhstan
KAZ
22

Results of all 63 pairings here


IM Tea Lanchava, 2351, playing for the Netherlands


Polgar Judit, 2698, on board two of the Hungarian (men's!) team

The Japanese team, with its best player, Shinya Kojima (with the hat), who has been playing many tournaments this year in Hungary – "First Saturday" in Budapest and Kecskemet. He did not achieve a desire IM norm but gained a lot of experience. In Japan it is much more difficult to encounter experienced players with international tittles. For the first time on the team is 11-year-old Karen Hoshino (blue dress on the left). In the first round of the Olympiad the men's team faced Cuba, with players 400-500 points stronger, and were defeated 0-4, but after some stubborn fights.


The Turkish teams with the Minister of Youth and Sports Suat Kilic, TCF and FIDE dignitaries, trainers

Photos Anastasiya Karlovich, Frederic Friedel in Istanbul


GM Daniel King: Istanbul Olympiad 2012 Round 1 play of the day

Andrew Martin: Istanbul Olympiad 2012 Game of the Day Rd 1


Remaining schedule of the Olympiad

There is live commentary of the most interesting games on Playchess.com,
beginning around half an hour after the games have started.

29 August 2012 15.00 2nd Round
Daniel King
30 August 2012 15.00 3rd Round
Valery Lilov
31 August 2012 15.00 4th Round
Daniel King
1 September 2012 15.00 5th Round
Lawrence Trent
2 September 2012   Free Day
3 September 2012 15.00 6th Round
Daniel King
4 September 2012 15.00 7th Round
Yasser Seirawan
5 September 2012 15.00 8th Round
Daniel King
6 September 2012 15.00 9th Round
Yasser Seirawan
7 September 2012 15.00 10th Round
Yasser Seirawan
8 September 2012   Free Day
9 September 2011 11.00 11th Round, Closing
Daniel King
10 September 2011 Departure

Some hours after the end of each round we will be posting video summaries by Daniel King on our news page. If possible they will appear on the same night, otherwise early the next morning. We also expect best-game video commentary from Andrew Martin.


Links

The top 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 11 or any of our Fritz compatible chess programs.


Reports about chess: tournaments, championships, portraits, interviews, World Championships, product launches and more.

Discuss

Rules for reader comments

 
 

Not registered yet? Register