Tromso 10: Hard to predict!

Round Ten

The first top result of the day was Ukraines draw against Azerbaijan. Earlier today we said that this match would be largely dependent on how Ivanchuk played today; he played absolutely atrociously and he was crushed by Mamedyarov quickly. Thankfully for Ukraine Eljanov used an exchange Slav to pretty much destroy Mamedov. The 2-2 tie was a fair result to the match.

The big news is of course China's victory over France. Yu Yangyi pulled through with a victory over Fressinet. In an uncomfortable endgame Fressinet could not keep his patience, he blundered a pawn and his position fell apart.

In the third board Carlsen lost yet again, this time his executioner was Saric. The game was rather strange, Carlsen simply did not play well. After giving up two pawns in the opening for no apparent reason, the World Champion was simply unable to create any kind of counterplay. Saric's play was precise and powerful, he simplified the position with the use of tactics and he won a clean game. The match was an overwhelming victory for Croatia 3.5-0.5.

Hungary had no problems with Romania. The black pieces won the match for Hungary as both Balogh and Rapport won even before Leko finished his game with Lupulescu.

Armenia-Vietnam finished in a 2-2 tie. Le Quangliem drew Aronian.

Topalov seemed to have a perfect handling of the Najdorf in his game against Wojtaszek, and won very simply. Gajewski struck back on board two for Poland as he dispatched Cheparinov after successfully defending in the King's Indian style structure. Poland's super-star Duda won yet another game with Black as he dispatched Iotov. The match came down to Bartel vs. Dimitrov

USA had a tougher match a gainst Argentina than they expected. Nakamura played a very strange opening against Peralta, but somehow the Argentinean lost his way horribly and lost. Shankland pulled through yet again for America with another win, but this was not enough. Felgaer sacrificed a piece for two pawns to expose his opponent's king and won a nice attacking game. It all came down to Onischuk's game against Mareco. The American was completely lost, but by some miracle or another he held the position and the draw gave USA the match and keeps their medal chance alive.

Serbia lost by the minimum amount against Russia, Vladimir Kramnik finally pulling through with a good victory against Ivanisevic, who played a very dubious opening.

Naiditsch drew a very long game against Negi, India took the match in India vs. Germany

Kramnik destroyed Ivanisevic's questionable opening and was crucial in today's win for Russia

Nisipeanu lost against Sasikirian, giving India the early lead

Gelfand drew against Shirov and Israel squeaked a win against Latvia thanks to Sutovsky

Carlsen was absolutely crushed today. Even World Champions apparently have off days

Bacrot couldn't pull of his magic this time and drew Ding Liren

Women's Section

Colombia lost their last two matches, and lost again today against Netherlands

Lagno drew her game against Anna Muzychuk in Russia's first loss of the tournament

The big news of the Women's section today was Ukraine's victory over Russia. Zhukova won with the Black pieces against Girya. The game was quite sharp, Girya might have missed a chance to be more active after the opening. With her pieces so passive, Zhukova was able to put enough pressure on her opponent's position until it would not hold anymore.

However the Russian girls did catch a lucky break. Despite Hou Yifan's victory the Chinese team did not convert against Spain as Matnadze on the third board beat Tan Zhongyi with Black. This leaves the Russian women still at the top of the leaderboard with one round to go with both Ukraine and China just half a match point behind them.

Germany beat Romania to earn their ticket into the top boards, as did Georgia by handedly beating Poland. The last round pairings will be difficult to predict, but you can be sure that the players will be using their last rest day to prepare very hard for a crucial final round.

Kakhramonova couldn't hold against Teresa Olsarova...

While Kurbonboeva lost to Havlikova...

The Czech team beat Uzbekistan 2.5-1.5.

Photos by Alejandro Ramirez, Pascal Simon and André Schulz

Solution to our quiz

At the end of our round ten preview we showed you two pictures of a young girl, dancing in one and telling us in the other that her real goal in life was to become a chess grandmaster. Our quiz question was: who is this well known chess player? Well, here's the answer:

It was (who else?) IM Tania Sachdev, who is currently playing board two for the Indian Women's team.
The three minute video portrait of a seven-year-old chess prodigy was produced for NDTV
by Sutapa Deb and posted on Youtube in October last year.

Live commentary, interviews, analysis

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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

Danny King's daily midnight wrapup on Youtube – recorded in the midnight dusk of Tromsø

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.
• 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