Tromso 02: Surprises!

by Alejandro Ramirez
8/3/2014 – Fire on the board, and it is only round two! Ukraine did not win their match against Norway Two - but it was far from the only upset of the day. World's number one and two - Carlsen and Aronian - was unable to win their games as they both drew against Nyback and Smerdon respectively. Tomorrow's round promises very exciting matches. Round two report!

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...

Second Round

Olympiad Tromsø 2014 - Round 2 midnight report by GM Daniel King

Round 2 on 2014/08/03 at 14:00
Bo. 1 Russia (RUS) Rtg - 57 Qatar (QAT) Rtg 3½: ½
1.1 GM Kramnik, Vladimir 2760 - GM Al-Modiahki, Mohamad 2549 1 - 0
1.2 GM Grischuk, Alexander 2795 - GM Zhu, Chen 2461 1 - 0
1.3 GM Karjakin, Sergey 2786 - IM Nezad, Husein Aziz 2365 1 - 0
1.4 GM Nepomniachtchi, Ian 2714 -   Al-Tamimi, Hamad 2186 ½ - ½
Bo. 58 Norway 2 (NOR2) Rtg - 2 Ukraine (UKR) Rtg 2 : 2
2.1 IM Urkedal, Frode 2500 - GM Ivanchuk, Vassily 2744 1 - 0
2.2 IM Elsness, Frode 2477 - GM Eljanov, Pavel 2723 ½ - ½
2.3 IM Hansen, Torbjorn Ringdal 2450 - GM Korobov, Anton 2680 ½ - ½
2.4 IM Tari, Aryan 2440 - GM Moiseenko, Alexander 2707 0 - 1
Bo. 56 Finland (FIN) Rtg - 14 Norway (NOR) Rtg 2 : 2
3.1 GM Nyback, Tomi 2591 - GM Carlsen, Magnus 2877 ½ - ½
3.2 IM Karttunen, Mika 2437 - GM Agdestein, Simen 2630 ½ - ½
3.3 IM Sipila, Vilka 2425 - GM Johannessen, Leif Erlend 2528 ½ - ½
3.4 FM Ebeling, Daniel 2445 - GM Lie, Kjetil A. 2528 ½ - ½
Bo. 3 France (FRA) Rtg - 59 Mongolia (MGL) Rtg 4 : 0
4.1 GM Vachier-Lagrave, Maxime 2768 - GM Batchuluun, Tsegmed 2513 1 - 0
4.2 GM Fressinet, Laurent 2708 - GM Khatanbaatar, Bazar 2390 1 - 0
4.3 GM Edouard, Romain 2680 - GM Gundavaa, Bayarsaikhan 2501 1 - 0
4.4 GM Tkachiev, Vladislav 2624 - IM Munkhgal, Gombosuren 2418 1 - 0
Bo. 60 Australia (AUS) Rtg - 4 Armenia (ARM) Rtg 1 : 3
5.1 GM Smerdon, David 2513 - GM Aronian, Levon 2805 ½ - ½
5.2 IM Ly, Moulthun 2462 - GM Sargissian, Gabriel 2686 0 - 1
5.3 IM Illingworth, Max 2439 - GM Movsesian, Sergei 2672 ½ - ½
5.4 FM Ikeda, Junta 2402 - GM Akopian, Vladimir 2655 0 - 1
Bo. 5 Hungary (HUN) Rtg - 61 Venezuela (VEN) Rtg 2½:1½
6.1 GM Leko, Peter 2740 - GM Iturrizaga Bonelli, Eduardo 2653 ½ - ½
6.2 GM Almasi, Zoltan 2690 - IM Ynojosa Aponte, Felix Jose 2448 1 - 0
6.3 GM Rapport, Richard 2704 - IM Rohl Montes, Juan Armando 2390 0 - 1
6.4 GM Polgar, Judit 2676 - FM Guerrero Vargas, Andres 2318 1 - 0
Bo. 64 Colombia (COL) Rtg - 6 United States of America (USA) Rtg 1 : 3
7.1 GM Cuartas, Jaime Alexander 2489 - GM Kamsky, Gata 2706 ½ - ½
7.2 IM Rios, Cristhian Camilo 2427 - GM Onischuk, Alexander 2659 0 - 1
7.3 IM Ruiz C, Joshua D 2382 - GM Akobian, Varuzhan 2653 ½ - ½
7.4 IM Martinez Romero, Martin 2387 - GM Shankland, Samuel L 2624 0 - 1
Bo. 7 China (CHN) Rtg - 63 Albania (ALB) Rtg 3½: ½
8.1 GM Wang, Yue 2718 - GM Dervishi, Erald 2581 ½ - ½
8.2 GM Yu, Yangyi 2668 - IM Mehmeti, Dritan 2416 1 - 0
8.3 GM Ni, Hua 2666 -   Ashiku, Franc 2284 1 - 0
8.4 GM Wei, Yi 2638 -   Pasku, Llambi 2327 1 - 0
Bo. 66 Scotland (SCO) Rtg - 8 Azerbaijan (AZE) Rtg ½ :3½
9.1 GM McNab, Colin A 2441 - GM Mamedyarov, Shakhriyar 2743 ½ - ½
9.2 IM Greet, Andrew N 2431 - GM Mamedov, Rauf 2659 0 - 1
9.3 GM Shaw, John 2419 - GM Safarli, Eltaj 2649 0 - 1
9.4 FM Tate, Alan 2347 - GM Guseinov, Gadir 2613 0 - 1
Bo. 9 Israel (ISR) Rtg - 67 Tajikistan (TJK) Rtg 3½: ½
10.1 GM Gelfand, Boris 2753 - GM Amonatov, Farrukh 2590 1 - 0
10.2 GM Smirin, Ilia 2656 - IM Khusenkhojaev, Muhammad 2410 ½ - ½
10.3 GM Sutovsky, Emil 2624 - IM Khamdamov, Suhrob 2301 1 - 0
10.4 GM Postny, Evgeny 2651 -   Kabilov, Amin 2181 1 - 0
Bo. 68 Singapore (SIN) Rtg - 10 England (ENG) Rtg 1 : 3
11.1 GM Zhang, Zhong 2611 - GM Jones, Gawain C B 2665 ½ - ½
11.2 IM Goh, Wei Ming Kevin 2433 - GM Short, Nigel D 2665 ½ - ½
11.3 WIM Gong, Qianyun 2328 - GM Howell, David W L 2650 0 - 1
11.4 FM Tin, Jingyao 2251 - GM Sadler, Matthew D 2653 0 - 1
Bo. 11 Netherlands (NED) Rtg - 69 Ecuador (ECU) Rtg 4 : 0
12.1 GM Giri, Anish 2745 - GM Matamoros Franco, Carlos S. 2525 1 - 0
12.2 GM L'Ami, Erwin 2631 - IM Munoz Sanchez, Miguel 2296 1 - 0
12.3 GM Tiviakov, Sergei 2664 - IM Mieles Palau, Daniel 2374 1 - 0
12.4 GM Van Wely, Loek 2662 - IM Santos Flores, Alberto 2291 1 - 0
Bo. 71 Norway 3 (NOR3) Rtg - 12 Germany (GER) Rtg 0 : 4
13.1 IM Lie, Espen 2435 - GM Naiditsch, Arkadij 2709 0 - 1
13.2 GM Djurhuus, Rune 2436 - GM Fridman, Daniel 2639 0 - 1
13.3 FM Hauge, Lars Oskar 2346 - GM Nisipeanu, Liviu-Dieter 2689 0 - 1
13.4 CM Mihajlov, Sebastian 2305 - GM Baramidze, David 2612 0 - 1
Bo. 13 Cuba (CUB) Rtg - 75 Portugal (POR) Rtg 4 : 0
14.1 GM Dominguez Perez, Leinier 2760 - IM Dias, Paulo 2416 1 - 0
14.2 GM Bruzon Batista, Lazaro 2664 - IM Ferreira, Jorge Viterbo 2413 1 - 0
14.3 GM Quesada Perez, Yuniesky 2649 - IM Rocha, Sergio 2392 1 - 0
14.4 GM Gonzalez Vidal, Yuri 2550 -   Rego, Pedro Filipe 2273 1 - 0
Bo. 15 Poland (POL) Rtg - 76 New Zealand (NZL) Rtg 3 : 1
15.1 GM Gajewski, Grzegorz 2659 - IM Wang, Puchen 2449 ½ - ½
15.2 GM Duda, Jan-Krzysztof 2576 - IM Dive, Russell John 2318 1 - 0
15.3 GM Bartel, Mateusz 2640 - FM Li, Zuhao Luke 2365 ½ - ½
15.4 GM Socko, Bartosz 2612 - IM Ker, Anthony F 2316 1 - 0
Bo. 77 Morocco (MAR) Rtg - 16 Czech Republic (CZE) Rtg ½ :3½
16.1 IM Ali, Sebbar 2387 - GM Navara, David 2716 0 - 1
16.2 IM Tissir, Mohamed 2366 - GM Laznicka, Viktor 2676 ½ - ½
16.3 IM Onkoud, Abdelaziz 2383 - GM Hracek, Zbynek 2634 0 - 1
16.4 IM Hifad, Rachid 2311 - GM Babula, Vlastimil 2549 0 - 1
Bo. 78 United Arab Emirates (UAE) Rtg - 18 Bulgaria (BUL) Rtg ½ :3½
17.1 IM Omar, Noaman 2350 - GM Cheparinov, Ivan 2681 0 - 1
17.2 FM Alhuwar, Jasem 2277 - GM Iotov, Valentin 2553 0 - 1
17.3 FM Khouri, Ibrahim Mohamed 2225 - GM Rusev, Krasimir 2548 ½ - ½
17.4   Ahmed, Fareed 1899 - IM Dimitrov, Radoslav 2461 0 - 1
Bo. 79 South Africa (RSA) Rtg - 20 Italy (ITA) Rtg 0 : 4
18.1 IM Solomon, Kenny 2378 - GM Caruana, Fabiano 2801 0 - 1
18.2 IM Steel, Henry Robert 2399 - GM Vocaturo, Daniele 2587 0 - 1
18.3 IM Kobese, Watu 2333 - GM Brunello, Sabino 2560 0 - 1
18.4 FM Van Den Heever, Donovan 2289 - GM Dvirnyy, Danyyil 2530 0 - 1
Bo. 81 Luxembourg (LUX) Rtg - 26 Turkey (TUR) Rtg 1 : 3
19.1 IM Wiedenkeller, Michael 2471 - GM Solak, Dragan 2632 ½ - ½
19.2 WGM Berend, Elvira 2330 - GM Can, Emre 2529 ½ - ½
19.3 IM Berend, Fred 2380 - GM Yilmaz, Mustafa 2569 0 - 1
19.4   Jeitz, Christian 2189 - GM Ipatov, Alexander 2614 0 - 1
Bo. 27 Belarus (BLR) Rtg - 72 Indonesia (INA) Rtg 2½:1½
20.1 GM Zhigalko, Sergei 2678 - GM Megaranto, Susanto 2527 0 - 1
20.2 GM Zhigalko, Andrey 2580 - IM Farid, Firman Syah 2400 1 - 0
20.3 GM Kovalev, Vladislav 2532 -   Ali Lutfi, Muhammad 2339 ½ - ½
20.4 GM Stupak, Kirill 2514 -   Priasmoro, Novendra 2250 1 - 0

The biggest news of the day without a doubt is Ukraine's inability to beat the much lower rated team of Norway Two. With draws by Korobov and Eljanov against Hansen and Elsness and a win by Moiseenko against the young talent Tari it all came down to Ivanchuk's game:

Oops! Ivanchuk did it again!

[Event "41st Olympiad Tromso 2014 Open"]
[Site "Tromsø"]
[Date "2014.08.03"]
[Round "2"]
[White "Urkedal, Frode"]
[Black "Ivanchuk, Vassily"]
[Result "1-0"]
[ECO "A04"]
[WhiteElo "2487"]
[BlackElo "2744"]
[Annotator "Ramirez,Alejandro"]
[PlyCount "57"]
[EventDate "2014.??.??"]
[EventCountry "NOR"]
[WhiteTeam "Norwegen"]
[BlackTeam "Ukraine"]
[WhiteTeamCountry "NOR"]
[BlackTeamCountry "UKR"]

1. Nf3 f5 2. d3 Nc6 3. d4 {This strange move is surprisingly the computer's
first choice. The point is something along the lines that the knight on c6
would be misplaced in a stonewall position.} (3. e4 d6 {is not so bad for
Black, but maybe still better for White.}) 3... e6 4. g3 d5 5. Bg2 Rb8 {Only
Ivanchuk can come up with a move like this.} 6. O-O Nf6 7. Bf4 b5 8. b3 Ba6 9.
Qc1 Bd6 10. Nbd2 O-O 11. e3 Ne4 {Despite Black's stranges moves it is clear
that his position is fine right now.} 12. Re1 Qe7 13. a3 Na5 14. Bf1 Rb6 15. c3
g5 16. Bxd6 cxd6 17. b4 Nb7 $6 (17... Nc4 $11) 18. a4 Rc8 19. Nxe4 fxe4 20. Nd2
Nd8 {This knight has very little future.} 21. axb5 Bxb5 22. Bxb5 Rxb5 23. Ra3
Rxb4 $2 {Trading the two rooks for the queen is not good for Black.} 24. cxb4
Rxc1 25. Rxc1 Qb7 26. Rac3 {Maybe Ivanchuk underestimated how weak his king is!
} Nf7 27. Rc8+ Kg7 28. R1c7 Qxb4 29. Nf1 {Black is simply helpless against the
threaet of Rxa7 and Rcc7. The rook can also go to d7 or e7.} 1-0

The young talent Aryan Tari was the only loss in Norway Two 2-2 against Ukraine

Movsesian was in trouble again in Armenia's match. Again he won, which was quite important since Aronian was unable to crack Smerdon's defense. Armenia took that match 3-1. In the top board Kramnik demolished Al-Modiahki while Grischuk played a nice win against Zhu Chen. However Nepomniachtchi was unable to win against a 2100 so Russia only took 3.5 points.

Kramnik played a crushing game

And speaking of Kramnik, we have a lengthy interview with him!:

Vachier-Lagrave led France to a 4-0 victory against Mongolia

Carlsen's debut in the Olympiad was definitely not what the locals were hoping for. His draw was rather dull and it was one of four draws in the match, the 2-2 split definitely being a good result for Finland. Interestingly enough one of the games started 1.Na3 e5 2.Nc4. That's one way of avoiding preparation!

America beat Colombia after Onischuk's opponent blundered and Shankland won a bizarre game:

Attack meets counterattack! Sam Shankland vs. Martin Martinez

[Event "41st Olympiad Tromso 2014 Open"] [Site "Tromsø"] [Date "2014.08.03"] [Round "2"] [White "Shankland, Samuel L"] [Black "Martinez Romero, Martin"] [Result "1-0"] [ECO "B64"] [WhiteElo "2624"] [BlackElo "2387"] [SetUp "1"] [FEN "r4rk1/pp3pp1/2n2b2/q4P2/3pNQ2/8/PPP4P/2KR1B1R b - - 0 18"] [PlyCount "38"] [EventDate "2014.??.??"] [EventCountry "NOR"] [WhiteTeam "Vereinigte Staaten"] [BlackTeam "Kolumbien"] [WhiteTeamCountry "USA"] [BlackTeamCountry "COL"] 18... Be5 19. Qg5 $1 Nb4 $1 {A surprising resource} (19... Qc7 20. Rd2 $1 Bf4 21. Nf6+ $1 Kh8 22. Qh5+ Bh6 23. Ng4 $16) 20. f6 Bf4+ {The point, it is the only way to avoid immediate mate and Black's attack is powerful.} 21. Qxf4 Rac8 22. Bd3 $1 (22. Rd2 Qxa2 23. Kd1 Nd5 24. Qg5 g6 25. Ke2 $1 {is winning, and not human.}) 22... Qa4 23. Qf2 (23. c3 $3 dxc3 24. Qg5 Nxd3+ 25. Rxd3 cxb2+ 26. Kd2 $1 Rc2+ 27. Ke3 Re2+ 28. Kxe2 Qxe4+ 29. Kf2 Qg6 30. Qxg6 $18 {is winning and DEFINITELY not human.}) 23... Rxc2+ 24. Bxc2 Rc8 25. Rd2 Qxa2 26. Kd1 Qa1+ 27. Ke2 Qxh1 28. Qg3 $1 {Counter attack is the best defense!} g6 29. Bd3 Nxd3 30. Kxd3 Rd8 (30... Qc1 $1 31. Nd6 $1 $16) 31. Qf4 b5 32. Ng3 Qc6 33. Ke2 Rd6 $2 (33... Re8+ {is still not easy.}) 34. Ne4 Re6 35. Rxd4 Qc2+ 36. Kf3 Qb3+ 37. Nc3 {a strange but fascinating game.} 1-0

Yesterday we reported that if one of the last three boards was an upset in Venezuela-Hungary there was a chance that the European team would not win. Juan Rohl surprised Rapport as the Venezuelan convincingly won. Luckily for Rapport, Almasi and Polgar won while Leko pressed the entire game against Iturrizaga and at the end drew.

Not a good day for the Hungarian prodigy Richard Rapport

In some of the close matches of the day India destroyed Canada despite only being a slight favorite. Spain edged out Argentina thanks to a win from Anton Guijarro over Felgaer. Iran surprised Slovenia as they won the match 2.5-1.5, this was largely due to Beliavsky showing up late to the game and losing to the zero tolerance rule.

Round Two games

Women's Section

Round 2 on 2014/08/03 at 14:00
Bo. 1 China (CHN) Rtg - 49 Venezuela (VEN) Rtg 4 : 0
1.1 WGM Ju, Wenjun 2559 - IM Sanchez Castillo, Sarai Carolina 2207 1 - 0
1.2 GM Zhao, Xue 2508 - WIM Rovira Contreras, Tairu Manuela 2076 1 - 0
1.3 WGM Tan, Zhongyi 2468 - WFM Gutierrez Salazar, Leonela 2096 1 - 0
1.4 WGM Guo, Qi 2453 - WIM Montilla, Jorcerys 2118 1 - 0
Bo. 48 Ecuador (ECU) Rtg - 38 Norway (NOR) Rtg 0 : 4
2.1 WGM Heredia Serrano, Carla 2168 - WIM Sahl, Sheila Barth 2216 0 - 1
2.2 WFM Bosch Garcia, Jacqueline 2173 - WIM Bjerke, Silje 2189 0 - 1
2.3 WIM Moncayo Romero, Evelyn 2119 - WGM Dolzhikova, Olga 2166 0 - 1
2.4 WIM Vasquez Ramirez, Rocio 2122 - WIM Hagesather, Ellen 2182 0 - 1
Bo. 50 Brazil (BRA) Rtg - 2 Russia (RUS) Rtg 0 : 4
3.1 WIM Feliciano Ebert, Vanessa 2226 - GM Lagno, Kateryna 2540 0 - 1
3.2 WIM Terao, Juliana Sayumi 2222 - GM Gunina, Valentina 2524 0 - 1
3.3 WIM Ribeiro, Regina 2000 - WGM Girya, Olga 2484 0 - 1
3.4 WFM Chang, Suzana 1991 - WGM Pogonina, Natalija 2479 0 - 1
Bo. 3 Ukraine (UKR) Rtg - 51 Australia (AUS) Rtg 3 : 1
4.1 GM Muzychuk, Anna 2555 - IM Berezina, Irina 2182 ½ - ½
4.2 GM Ushenina, Anna 2487 - WFM Nguyen, Thu Giang 2165 ½ - ½
4.3 GM Zhukova, Natalia 2468 - WIM Dekic, Biljana N. 2048 1 - 0
4.4 IM Gaponenko, Inna 2379 -   Yu, Sally 1953 1 - 0
Bo. 54 Montenegro (MNE) Rtg - 4 Georgia (GEO) Rtg 1 : 3
5.1 WFM Milovic, Aleksandra 2170 - GM Dzagnidze, Nana 2550 0 - 1
5.2   Blagojevic, Tijana 2095 - GM Khotenashvili, Bela 2494 0 - 1
5.3 WFM Stojanovic, Marija R 2100 - IM Melia, Salome 2475 1 - 0
5.4   Misovic, Sanja 1862 - IM Batsiashvili, Nino 2435 0 - 1
Bo. 5 India (IND) Rtg - 56 Denmark (DEN) Rtg 3½: ½
6.1 GM Harika, Dronavalli 2521 - WFM De Blecourt, Sandra 2122 1 - 0
6.2 IM Sachdev, Tanya 2418 - WFM Guindy, Esmat 2074 ½ - ½
6.3 IM Karavade, Eesha 2392 -   Olsen, Miriam F 2019 1 - 0
6.4 WGM Gomes, Mary Ann 2352 - WFM Stolberg-Rohr, Thomine 1960 1 - 0
Bo. 7 USA Rtg - 58 Belgium (BEL) Rtg 3 : 1
7.1 GM Krush, Irina 2474 - WFM Goossens, Hanne 2178 1 - 0
7.2 IM Zatonskih, Anna 2466 - WFM Morozova, Iuliia 2060 1 - 0
7.3 WGM Nemcova, Katerina 2315 -   Barbier, Wiebke 1944 0 - 1
7.4 WGM Foisor, Sabina-Francesca 2252 -   Dierckens, Sarah 1873 1 - 0
Bo. 59 Bangladesh (BAN) Rtg - 10 Armenia (ARM) Rtg 0 : 4
8.1 WIM Shamima, Akter Liza 2147 - IM Mkrtchian, Lilit 2453 0 - 1
8.2 WFM Khan, Nazrana 2001 - IM Galojan, Lilit 2275 0 - 1
8.3 WIM Hamid, Rani 1995 - WGM Kursova, Maria 2313 0 - 1
8.4 WFM Sultana, Sharmin Shirin 1984 -   Sargsyan, Shushanna 2109 0 - 1
Bo. 60 Egypt (EGY) Rtg - 12 Germany (GER) Rtg 1½:2½
9.1 WGM Mona, Khaled 2169 - IM Paehtz, Elisabeth 2464 0 - 1
9.2 WGM Wafa, Shrook 2065 - WGM Schleining, Zoya 2369 1 - 0
9.3 WIM Moaataz, Ayah 1954 - WGM Melamed, Tatjana 2364 ½ - ½
9.4 WIM Wafa, Shahenda 1932 - WGM Hoolt, Sarah 2318 0 - 1
Bo. 13 Hungary (HUN) Rtg - 61 Lebanon (LIB) Rtg 4 : 0
10.1 GM Hoang, Thanh Trang 2485 - WIM Mouradian, Knarik 2188 1 - 0
10.2 IM Gara, Anita 2327 - WFM Nekrasova, Elena 2076 1 - 0
10.3 WGM Gara, Ticia 2321 - WFM Jalloul, Maya M. 1922 1 - 0
10.4 WGM Papp, Petra 2274 -   Bedrosian, Danielle 1715 1 - 0
Bo. 62 Norway 2 (NOR2) Rtg - 14 Bulgaria (BUL) Rtg ½ :3½
11.1   Machlik, Monika 2081 - GM Stefanova, Antoaneta 2505 0 - 1
11.2   Reppen, Ellisiv 2016 - WGM Videnova, Iva 2342 0 - 1
11.3   Gronnestad, Anita 1997 - WGM Nikolova, Adriana 2325 0 - 1
11.4   Jorgensen, Line Jin 1939 - WGM Djingarova, Emilia 2303 ½ - ½
Bo. 63 Chile (CHI) Rtg - 18 Slovakia (SVK) Rtg ½ :3½
12.1 WFM Abarca Gonzalez, Damaris 2049 - IM Repkova, Eva 2358 0 - 1
12.2 WIM Jorquera Cabello, Valentina 1999 - WGM Kochetkova, Julia 2338 0 - 1
12.3 WFM Reyes Jara, Paula 2041 - WFM Machalova, Veronika 2214 ½ - ½
12.4   Fuentes Inzunza, Lesly 1895 - WFM Gazikova, Veronika 2034 0 - 1
Bo. 19 Cuba (CUB) Rtg - 64 Iceland (ISL) Rtg 3½: ½
13.1 WGM Ordaz Valdes, Lisandra Teresa 2345 - WGM Ptacnikova, Lenka 2273 ½ - ½
13.2 WGM Marrero Lopez, Yaniet 2324 -   Thorsteinsdottir, Hallgerdur 1982 1 - 0
13.3 WGM Pina Vega, Sulennis 2270 -   Finnbogadottir, Tinna Kristin 1915 1 - 0
13.4 WGM Vigoa Apecheche, Yanira 2317 -   Johannsdottir, Johanna Bjorg 1862 1 - 0

Player of the Day: Irina Krush

The women section had almost no surprises. The matches saw relatively few surprises as most of the top boards won 4-0 or at least they won in a convincing fashion. Tomorrow's rounds will surely be more interesting.

Muzychuk (above) and Ushenina did not win their games against Australia, but the team won 3-1 anyways

Ju Wenjun played board one again as Hou Yifan rested for the second time in a row

The Russian Women dispatched Brazil without a problem

Round Two Women games

Select from the dropdown menu to replay the games

Round Three Pairings

Open:

Round 3 on 2014/08/04 at 14:00
No. SNo   Team Team Pts. MP Res. : Res. MP Pts. Team     SNo
1 4
 
ARM Armenia 7 4   :   4 8 France     3
2 6
 
USA USA 7 4   :   4 8 Netherlands     11
3 14
 
NOR Norway 3   :   3 6 Montenegro     53
4 12
 
GER Germany 8 4   :   4 7 England     10
5 15
 
POL Poland 7 4   :   4 8 Cuba     13
6 20
 
ITA Italy 8 4   :   4 7 India     19
7 26
 
TUR Turkey 7 4   :   4 8 Georgia     21
8 43
 
ISL Iceland 7 4   :   4 8 Serbia     29
9 51
 
SUI Switzerland 7 4   :   4 8 Vietnam     31
10 54
 
MKD FYROM 7 4   :   4 Russia     1
11 5
 
HUN Hungary 4   :   4 China     7
12 8
 
AZE Azerbaijan 4   :   4 Croatia     24
13 27
 
BLR Belarus 4   :   4 Israel     9
14 16
 
CZE Czech Republic 4   :   4 Iran     39
15 18
 
BUL Bulgaria 4   :   4 6 Spain     17
16 30
 
BRA Brazil 4   :   4 6 Uzbekistan     33
17 44
 
BEL Belgium 4   :   4 6 Bangladesh     55
18 23
 
LAT Latvia 4   :   4 Kazakhstan     49
19 32
 
ROU Romania 4   :   4 6 Slovakia     36
20 2
 
UKR Ukraine 6 3   :   3 Philippines     52

Amazing matches in the top boards! All eyes will be in Armenia vs. France, seeds two and three playing each other - but many other matches are brutally strong. USA vs. Netherlands will be very strong and Nakamura is expected to be able to play that game against Giri. In board eleven the match Hungary vs. China is also very, very strong and could go either way. Round three is already too close to call!

Women:

Round 3 on 2014/08/04 at 14:00
No. SNo     Team Pts. MP Res. : Res. MP Pts. Team     SNo
1 7     United States of America 7 4   :   4 8 China     1
2 38     Norway 7 4   :   4 8 Hungary     13
3 2     Russia 8 4   :   4 7 France     9
4 10     Armenia 8 4   :   4 7 Vietnam     20
5 41     Bosnia & Herzegovina 7 4   :   4 8 Iran     21
6 22     Azerbaijan 8 4   :   4 7 Switzerland     42
7 6     Romania 4   :   4 8 Indonesia     23
8 12     Germany 4   :   4 8 Argentina     24
9 40     Belarus 8 4   :   4 Netherlands     16
10 17     Kazakhstan 4   :   4 India     5
11 33     Turkey 4   :   4 Bulgaria     14
12 35     Croatia 4   :   4 Cuba     19
13 11     Spain 6 4   :   4 7 Ukraine     3
14 18     Slovakia 4   :   4 Austria     34
15 8     Poland 6 4   :   4 Philippines     43
16 4     Georgia 7 4   :   4 6 Italy     31
17 30     Colombia 6 3   :   3 5 Latvia     25
18 46     Uzbekistan 6 3   :   3 Serbia     15
19 27     Czech Republic 2   :   2 4 El Salvador     66
20 67     Wales 4 2   :   2 Egypt     60

The Women's section is going to be equally close. The top match between America and China favors the Asian team who is expected to field Hou Yifan, but it won't be easy at all. Russia vs. France will be an equally strong match while Ukraine, who dropped a full board point today, will be facing the strong squad of Spain.

Photos by Pascal Simon

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


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.

Discuss

Rules for reader comments

 
 

Not registered yet? Register