Tromso 09: No changes at top

Round Nine Report

Pavel Eljanov drew his game as did everyone else in the China-Ukraine match. Some of the games were rather interesting but it doesn't seem as if any player missed a clear win at any point, or even some way of creating a strong advantage. Four solid draws is good for China.

Ivanchuk suffered a little against Wang Yue, but he kept the half point

Bacrot wins yet again a very important game as he dispatched Laznicka. This gave France an early lead in the match which proved to be decisive.

Romania played an incredible match against Azerbaijan. The Azeris had no problems holding draws on boards two and four, probably hoping for wins on one and three with the White pieces. Jianu's position on board three against Mamedov looked suspicious for a few moves, but he was able to sacrifice some material to achieve a fortress in a rook vs. queen endgame. Meanwhile on board one Lupulescu was the only one with winning chances against Mamedyarov, even missing a win at some point, and at the end the match was drawn.

The White pieces were of utmost importance for Hungary as both Balogh Csaba and Richard Rapport won against Maxim Rodshtein and Emil Sutovsky. This gave Hungary the win against Israel.

Bulgaria had another great match, this time against Cuba. Topalov won against Dominguez and Iotov did the same against Quesada. With Cheparinov's draw, the result was clear, even though Isan Ortiz won his game to make it only 2.5-1.5 for Bulgaria.

Smirin had a tough game against Zoltan Almasi

Rafael Leitao from Brazil; the South Americans beat Canada without problems

Finland had a tough opponent in Uzbekistan. Nyback

Stefansson drew his game on board one of Qatar vs. Iceland; a very close match that

We were able to grab a quick chat with Axel Bachmann as he was on his day off:

A tough match for the Netherlands! Van Kampen (pictured) drew his game against Stupak and Belarus vs. Netherlands was on a 1.5-1.5 tie with one game to go.

Carlsen won a very dubious game against Solak while Can beat Agdestein. With a draw on board three the fate of the match depends on the game Ipatov-Johanenssen in which the Norwegian is up a pawn in a queen endgame.

USA found themselves in a tough spot when Gata Kamsky blundered a piece in a bad position and lost his third game this tournament. Shankland held on in a worse situation against Nisipeanu while Akobian struck back for the Americans, leveling the score. Nakamura-Naiditsch at the top was a draw and the point was split.

Samuel Shankland's 7.5/8 is team America's star player at the moment:

However the top player in America is still certainly Hikaru Nakamura

The Russian team barely beat Norway Two. A result that is not really acceptable for the rating point difference.

Finally we had a chance to talk to Austria's number one: Markus Ragger

France and China share the lead, the two countries will duke it out tomorrow for the lead.

Women's Section

The World Champion Hou Yifan chose a bizarre way of simplication in the opening and she ended up with a rook and a pawn against two pieces. Normally this is a disadvantage, but Black never seemed to get into any problems at all and the draw in the top board was all China needed to win the match as Ju Wenjun crushed Millet and Guo Qi did the same with Congiu. Tan Zhongyi finished the French off 3.5-0.5

The Russia-Armenia match was very, very close. Kateryna Lagno dropped a full point to Danielian, and things started to look really bad as Llit Galojan obtained a crushing position against Girya. Gunina struck back for the Russians as did Pogonina, leaving the Galojan-Girya as the last game of the match. A miraculous draw by Girya saved the 2.5-1.5 and Russia keeps the lead.

Marie Sebag couldn't beat Hou Yifan, the Chinese Women took the match easily against France

Ju Wenjun crushed Millet after the French player inexplicably lost a tempo in the opening

WIM Aranaz from Spain

The Spaniards were absolutely merciless against Argentina. With wins on boards one, three and four there was no doubt at all of which was the better team. Poland suffered a small hiccup when Socko lost against Batkhuyag.

Georgia finally put a stop to Indonesia. In a complex position Sukandar pushed too hard against Dzagnidze, probably trying to take advantage of her opponent's time trouble. With early losses on boards one and four the match went to Georgia without problems.

In an almost incredible result the American women were unable to beat Montenegro. Losses by Abrahamyan and Krush (who has a horrible 3.5/8 and is losing over 20 rating points), both with White, gave Montenegro a 2-2 tie.

In India-Ukraine Mariya Muzychuk won a huge game against Tania Sachdev. The game was a clean positional game by the Ukrainian. The match boiled down to Mary Ann Gomes playing against Zhukova. The Indian player had an extra pawn and the better position but drew at the end so the match ended in favor of Ukraine.

Russia keeps their implacable pace while China is the only one within striking distance. Can Ukraine change this story tomorrow?

Photos by Alejandro Ramirez, Pascal Simon and André Schulz

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

Interviewing Indian IM Tania Sachdev immediately after her game

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Schedule of live commentary, TV shows, training and tournaments

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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.
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All ChessBase reports on the 2014 Olympiad in Tromsø