Tromso 08: It's all about China

by Alejandro Ramirez
8/10/2014 – The match was close, and for a long time it looked as if it would end in a 2-2 tie. The top two boards in China-Azerbaijan ended in a draw, with both White players pushing for a win on the lower ones. However Guseinov overestimated his chances and ended up losing, while Yu Yangyi did convert his position. China leads! Also, is it possible that there is cheating in the Olympiad?!

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Cheating in Tromso?!

Any person with a "captain" or "player" badge has been banned from the Press Center; regardless of whether they have finished their game or not. In the past days it was common for the press to invite guests up to the somewhat lacking press center for interviews or commentary. The official broadcast would take the chance to invite some of the players that were in the press center to the live show.

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.

Players are supposed to be interviewed at the "Mixing area", basically a wind tunnel with three flimsy, small tables that barely hold a chessboard.

ADDENDUM:

The chief Arbiter has assured as that NO CHEATING has been found at the Olympiad, and that the games are being closely monitored. Look for the full letter in this report.

The press center isn't much to begin with

Flimsy chairs with flimsy tables, and now even players have no access to the area

Round Eight Report

Bo. 7 China (CHN) Rtg - 8 Azerbaijan (AZE) Rtg 3 : 1
1.1 GM Wang, Yue 2718 - GM Mamedyarov, Shakhriyar 2743 ½ - ½
1.2 GM Ding, Liren 2742 - GM Radjabov, Teimour 2724 ½ - ½
1.3 GM Yu, Yangyi 2668 - GM Safarli, Eltaj 2649 1 - 0
1.4 GM Ni, Hua 2666 - GM Guseinov, Gadir 2613 1 - 0
Bo. 32 Romania (ROU) Rtg - 16 Czech Republic (CZE) Rtg 2 : 2
2.1 GM Lupulescu, Constantin 2625 - GM Navara, David 2716 ½ - ½
2.2 GM Parligras, Mircea-Emilian 2574 - GM Laznicka, Viktor 2676 ½ - ½
2.3 GM Jianu, Vlad-Cristian 2579 - GM Hracek, Zbynek 2634 ½ - ½
2.4 GM Vajda, Levente 2561 - GM Babula, Vlastimil 2549 ½ - ½
Bo. 42 Bosnia & Herzegovina (BIH) Rtg - 14 Norway (NOR) Rtg 1 : 3
3.1 GM Predojevic, Borki 2604 - GM Carlsen, Magnus 2877 0 - 1
3.2 GM Dizdarevic, Emir 2522 - GM Agdestein, Simen 2630 0 - 1
3.3 GM Stojanovic, Dalibor 2503 - GM Hammer, Jon Ludvig 2628 0 - 1
3.4 IM Kadric, Denis 2473 - GM Lie, Kjetil A. 2528 1 - 0
Bo. 2 Ukraine (UKR) Rtg - 18 Bulgaria (BUL) Rtg 2½:1½
4.1 GM Ivanchuk, Vassily 2744 - GM Topalov, Veselin 2772 ½ - ½
4.2 GM Ponomariov, Ruslan 2717 - GM Cheparinov, Ivan 2681 0 - 1
4.3 GM Eljanov, Pavel 2723 - GM Iotov, Valentin 2553 1 - 0
4.4 GM Korobov, Anton 2680 - GM Rusev, Krasimir 2548 1 - 0
Bo. 3 France (FRA) Rtg - 15 Poland (POL) Rtg 2½:1½
5.1 GM Vachier-Lagrave, Maxime 2768 - GM Wojtaszek, Radoslaw 2735 ½ - ½
5.2 GM Bacrot, Etienne 2720 - GM Gajewski, Grzegorz 2659 1 - 0
5.3 GM Edouard, Romain 2680 - GM Duda, Jan-Krzysztof 2576 ½ - ½
5.4 GM Tkachiev, Vladislav 2624 - GM Socko, Bartosz 2612 ½ - ½
Bo. 12 Germany (GER) Rtg - 13 Cuba (CUB) Rtg 2 : 2
6.1 GM Naiditsch, Arkadij 2709 - GM Dominguez Perez, Leinier 2760 ½ - ½
6.2 GM Meier, Georg 2646 - GM Bruzon Batista, Lazaro 2664 ½ - ½
6.3 GM Fridman, Daniel 2639 - GM Quesada Perez, Yuniesky 2649 ½ - ½
6.4 GM Nisipeanu, Liviu-Dieter 2689 - GM Gonzalez Vidal, Yuri 2550 ½ - ½
Bo. 19 India (IND) Rtg - 4 Armenia (ARM) Rtg 2 : 2
7.1 GM Negi, Parimarjan 2645 - GM Aronian, Levon 2805 ½ - ½
7.2 GM Sethuraman, S.P. 2590 - GM Sargissian, Gabriel 2686 ½ - ½
7.3 GM Sasikiran, Krishnan 2669 - GM Movsesian, Sergei 2672 ½ - ½
7.4 GM Adhiban, B. 2619 - GM Akopian, Vladimir 2655 ½ - ½
Bo. 5 Hungary (HUN) Rtg - 6 United States of America (USA) Rtg 2 : 2
8.1 GM Leko, Peter 2740 - GM Nakamura, Hikaru 2787 ½ - ½
8.2 GM Almasi, Zoltan 2690 - GM Kamsky, Gata 2706 ½ - ½
8.3 GM Rapport, Richard 2704 - GM Onischuk, Alexander 2659 1 - 0
8.4 GM Polgar, Judit 2676 - GM Shankland, Samuel L 2624 0 - 1
Bo. 11 Netherlands (NED) Rtg - 30 Brazil (BRA) Rtg 3½: ½
9.1 GM Giri, Anish 2745 - GM Fier, Alexandr 2570 1 - 0
9.2 GM L'Ami, Erwin 2631 - GM Mekhitarian, Krikor Sevag 2568 1 - 0
9.3 GM Tiviakov, Sergei 2664 - GM Milos, Gilberto 2583 1 - 0
9.4 GM Van Kampen, Robin 2638 - GM El Debs, Felipe De Cresce 2522 ½ - ½
Bo. 1 Russia (RUS) Rtg - 17 Spain (ESP) Rtg 2 : 2
10.1 GM Kramnik, Vladimir 2760 - GM Vallejo Pons, Francisco 2698 0 - 1
10.2 GM Grischuk, Alexander 2795 - GM Anton Guijarro, David 2624 ½ - ½
10.3 GM Karjakin, Sergey 2786 - GM Salgado Lopez, Ivan 2620 1 - 0
10.4 GM Nepomniachtchi, Ian 2714 - GM Vazquez Igarza, Renier 2603 ½ - ½

The top matches saw some quick results in the top boards. Wang Yue and Ding Liren drew within the first two hours against Mamedyarov and Radjabov, leaving the result of the match up to the last two boards. Yu Yangyi played a very nice game against Safarli and won a technical marvel. Meanwhile on board four Guseinov was certainly pushing for a win... but he pushed too hard! He found himself on the wrong side of a knight being trapped and he had to concede a full point.

Wang Yue drew his game...

...as did Ding Liren

Cheparinov achieved a winning position very quickly against Ponomariov; something that certainly put pressure on the Ukrainian team. Eljanov steppted up to the game and defeated Iotov very cleanly, putting a dent in a fantastic tournament for the Bulgarian. With Ivanchuk drawing Topalov (from a very suspicious position) it all came down to the match Korobov-Rusev, which favored the Ukrainian. 2.5-1.5 Ukraine.

Korobov put the finishing touch in Ukraine's important win today

In the India-Armenia match Negi and Aronian drew in a solid game. The match came down to the wildly sharp endgame between Sasikirian and Movsesian, which ended in a perpetual check.

Sasikirian was the last to finish in India-Armenia

Parimarjan Negi has had a strong showing. Today he drew...

World number two Levon Aronian!

Rapport took advantage of a huge blunder by Onischuk, who simply fell for a two move tactic, losing a piece, but America struck back when their super-star reserve Sam Shankland beat Judit Polgar. Two draws at the top and the point was split.

Polgar fell victim to Shankland and the match finished 2-2

Kramnik lost to Vallejo in yet another dismal performance for the Russian player. With the miraculous hold of Anton Guijarro against Grischuk Spain managed to hold Russia to a 2-2 draw!

Poland against France saw Bacrot obtain a crushing position before time control. Gajewski had a great position around move 30 but he put way too much faith on his passed a-pawn. After sacrificing some material to see it through he realized that he had simply given up too much, and the rewards he reaped were simply not enough to compensate what was lost. This eventually was the decisive game as all the other boards drew.

Carlsen won his game against Predojevic and Norway beat Bosnia & Herzegovina

Romania continues surprising people and held the strong Czech Republic to a tie with four draws. Maybe this is a team that definitely deserves more attention!

Germany had four draws against Cuba and the two teams split the points.

Dominguez drew Naiditsch, as did the other three boards.

Strong players watching strong games

Women's Section

Round 8 on 2014/08/10 at 14:00
Bo. 2 Russia (RUS) Rtg - 13 Hungary (HUN) Rtg 3½: ½
1.1 GM Lagno, Kateryna 2540 - GM Hoang, Thanh Trang 2485 ½ - ½
1.2 GM Gunina, Valentina 2524 - IM Madl, Ildiko 2347 1 - 0
1.3 GM Kosteniuk, Alexandra 2531 - IM Gara, Anita 2327 1 - 0
1.4 WGM Pogonina, Natalija 2479 - WGM Gara, Ticia 2321 1 - 0
Bo. 33 Turkey (TUR) Rtg - 38 Norway (NOR) Rtg 1½:2½
2.1 WGM Yildiz, Betul Cemre 2296 - WIM Sahl, Sheila Barth 2216 ½ - ½
2.2 WIM Isgandarova, Khayala 2190 - WIM Bjerke, Silje 2189 0 - 1
2.3 WIM Topel, Zehra 2156 - WGM Dolzhikova, Olga 2166 1 - 0
2.4 WCM Cemhan, Kardelen 2019 - WGM Koskela, Niina 2213 0 - 1
Bo. 1 China (CHN) Rtg - 8 Poland (POL) Rtg 3 : 1
3.1 GM Hou, Yifan 2661 - GM Socko, Monika 2470 1 - 0
3.2 WGM Ju, Wenjun 2559 - WGM Zawadzka, Jolanta 2398 ½ - ½
3.3 GM Zhao, Xue 2508 - WGM Bartel, Marta 2359 ½ - ½
3.4 WGM Guo, Qi 2453 - WIM Kulon, Klaudia 2301 1 - 0
Bo. 9 France (FRA) Rtg - 7 United States of America (USA) Rtg 2½:1½
4.1 GM Sebag, Marie 2480 - IM Zatonskih, Anna 2466 ½ - ½
4.2 IM Milliet, Sophie 2385 - WGM Abrahamyan, Tatev 2366 0 - 1
4.3 WGM Guichard, Pauline 2375 - WGM Nemcova, Katerina 2315 1 - 0
4.4 WIM Congiu, Mathilde 2318 - WGM Foisor, Sabina-Francesca 2252 1 - 0
Bo. 3 Ukraine (UKR) Rtg - 4 Georgia (GEO) Rtg 2½:1½
5.1 GM Muzychuk, Anna 2555 - GM Dzagnidze, Nana 2550 0 - 1
5.2 IM Muzychuk, Mariya 2530 - GM Khotenashvili, Bela 2494 ½ - ½
5.3 GM Ushenina, Anna 2487 - IM Javakhishvili, Lela 2478 1 - 0
5.4 GM Zhukova, Natalia 2468 - IM Melia, Salome 2475 1 - 0
Bo. 30 Colombia (COL) Rtg - 10 Armenia (ARM) Rtg ½ :3½
6.1 WIM Rodriguez Rueda, Paula Andrea 2368 - GM Danielian, Elina 2490 0 - 1
6.2 WIM Franco Valencia, Beatriz Irene 2210 - IM Mkrtchian, Lilit 2453 0 - 1
6.3 WIM Rivera Banquez, Ingris 2210 - IM Galojan, Lilit 2275 ½ - ½
6.4 WIM Franco Valencia, Angela 2186 - WGM Kursova, Maria 2313 0 - 1
Bo. 5 India (IND) Rtg - 23 Indonesia (INA) Rtg 3 : 1
7.1 GM Harika, Dronavalli 2521 - WGM Sukandar, Irine Kharisma 2396 ½ - ½
7.2 IM Sachdev, Tanya 2418 - WGM Aulia, Medina Warda 2397 ½ - ½
7.3 WGM Gomes, Mary Ann 2352 - WIM Sihite, Chelsie Monica Ignesias 2206 1 - 0
7.4 WGM Padmini, Rout 2318 - WFM Fisabilillah, Ummi 2029 1 - 0
Bo. 19 Cuba (CUB) Rtg - 12 Germany (GER) Rtg 1½:2½
8.1 WGM Ordaz Valdes, Lisandra Teresa 2345 - IM Paehtz, Elisabeth 2464 ½ - ½
8.2 WGM Marrero Lopez, Yaniet 2324 - WGM Melamed, Tatjana 2364 ½ - ½
8.3 WGM Pina Vega, Sulennis 2270 - WGM Ohme, Melanie 2301 ½ - ½
8.4 WGM Vigoa Apecheche, Yanira 2317 - WGM Hoolt, Sarah 2318 0 - 1
Bo. 20 Vietnam (VIE) Rtg - 21 Iran (IRI) Rtg 2½:1½
9.1 WIM Nguyen, Thi Mai Hung 2307 - WGM Pourkashiyan, Atousa 2352 ½ - ½
9.2 WGM Hoang, Thi Bao Tram 2329 - WGM Khademalsharieh, Sarasadat 2324 ½ - ½
9.3   Luong, Phuong Hanh 2171 - WIM Hakimifard, Ghazal 2232 1 - 0
9.4 IM Pham, Le Thao Nguyen 2331 - WFM Asgarizadeh, Minoo 2147 ½ - ½
Bo. 6 Romania (ROU) Rtg - 22 Azerbaijan (AZE) Rtg 2½:1½
10.1 IM Peptan, Corina-Isabela 2422 - WGM Mamedjarova, Zeinab 2229 ½ - ½
10.2 IM Foisor, Cristina-Adela 2404 - WGM Mammadova, Gulnar 2334 1 - 0
10.3 IM Bulmaga, Irina 2354 - WGM Mamedjarova, Turkan 2274 0 - 1
10.4 WGM Cosma, Elena-Luminita 2327 - WIM Ibrahimova, Sabina 2263 1 - 0

Russia had, as expected, no problems beating Hungary. China also beat Poland relatively comfortably, especially after Hou Yifan wiped out Socko relatively early.

Lagno drew Hoang Tranh Trang in the top board of Russia vs. Hungary

Hou Yifan posing with the members of Norway Three

Board two of France-America saw an interesting tactic:

[Event "41st Olympiad Tromso 2014 Women"] [Site "Tromsø"] [Date "2014.08.10"] [Round "8"] [White "Abrahamyan, Tatev"] [Black "Milliet, Sophie"] [Result "1-0"] [ECO "C41"] [WhiteElo "2366"] [BlackElo "2385"] [Annotator "Ramirez Alvarez,Alejandro"] [SetUp "1"] [FEN "q4r2/2pn2kp/2b2p2/1p4B1/4p3/2Q4P/B1P2PP1/3R2K1 w - - 0 23"] [PlyCount "7"] [EventDate "2014.??.??"] [EventCountry "NOR"] [WhiteTeam "United States"] [BlackTeam "France"] [WhiteTeamCountry "USA"] [BlackTeamCountry "FRA"] 23. Bb3 {White already has a very pleasant position. After a risky opening Millet was unable to keep up with the complications; now the pair of bishops and the exposed king position are very dangerous for Black.} b4 $2 {Black underestimates the danger to her king!} (23... Ne5 {keeps her in the game for now, but White is still better after} 24. Bf4 $16) 24. Qg3 $1 fxg5 25. Rxd7+ $1 {The point of the tactic!} (25. Qxg5+ Kh8 26. Rxd7 {must have been what Millet saw} Qa1+ $1 $19 {defending the diagonal on time.}) 25... Kg6 (25... Bxd7 26. Qxg5+ Kh8 27. Qe5+ $18 {A surprising checkmate from the diagonals!}) 26. Rg7+ $1 {Very precise! No other move finishes off the game quickly and effectively.} (26. Rg7+ Kxg7 27. Qxg5+ Kh8 28. Qe5+ {is the same checkmate.}) 1-0

Despite Abrahamyan's nice victory France struck back on boards three and four and took the match 2.5-1.5

Daulyte drew her game today in the match Lithuania-Croatia

Ukraine was convincing against Georgia. Even though Anna Muzychuk lost against Dzagnidze, the match has already been decided with a board two draw and wins by Ushenina and Zhukova.

Zhukova gave Ukraine the win in the Women's section today

Armenia put a stop to Colombia as they won handedly with victories by Kursova and Mrktchian. India did the same with Indonesia; the Indians wrecked their opponents on board three and four and neither of Indonesia's top boards had any realistic winning chances at any point, if anything they were fighting for survival.

The Spanish team beat the weaker Uzbekistani squad; Anna Matnadze drew her game

Tania Sachdev and Elizabeth Paehtz, India and Germany

The Polish team really had no chance against China

Photos by Alejandro Ramirez, Pascal Simon and André Schulz


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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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