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.
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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.
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.
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.
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.
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