Tromso Final

Final Round

The race for the gold medal was decided surprisingly quickly today. China's Ding Liren and Yu Yangyi obtained winning positions before the second hour of play was over. Ni Hua held the slightest of advantages against Bartel and he hurried into a drawn endgame in which he could not really lose, while Wang Yue did his best to keep the position solid against Wojtaszek.

Ding Liren vs. Gajewski in board two of Poland vs. China

Ding Liren converted first against Gajewski in a very one-sided game, then Ni Hua sealed the draw followed shortly after by the split half point between Wojtaszek and Wang Yue. This gave China the gold as there was no way they could lose on board three:

Wojtaszek's game did not quite matter by the second hour of play

Bartel played a Siclian, somewhat uncommon for him, but he did not reach any type of sharp position. The draw suited China just fine.

Hungary vs. Ukraine was also a very important match in the standings. The first two games to finish were Leko vs. Ponomariov and Almasi vs. Korobov, in both games Ukraine held their draw with black.

Things were tense as in both boards locked positions arose, but in both only Black could be worse. Rapport managed to hold his while Eljanov's position came down to this:

Leko took an extra pawn from Ponomariov but his technique was not good enough. He was unable to convert a much better position.

Ponomariov held on, which was crucial for Ukraine

France vs. Russia was extremely close. Kramnik went all out against Vachier-Lagrave with a four-pawn set up against a strange King's Indian type of position. The game finished in a hard-fought draw in which White had the better chances. Karjakin uneventfully drew Fressinet, but somehow surprisingly Edouard lost his way in a position where he could have given a perpetual and Nepomniachtchi won a very important win. This win gave Hungary the Silver medal... Russia did not get bronze on tiebreaks.

Nakamura was not America's hero today

Everything went well for Azerbaijan in the last round. A clean opening by Mamedyarov put him in a strong advantage against Nakamura. Safarli was clearly worse against Shankland but the American missed his chances to win and the Azeri somehow held a draw. Radjabov drew Kamsky without problems while Onischuk never had chances against Mamedov. Mamedyarov then finished Nakamura off and it was Azerbaijan 2.5-1.5 USA.

Hammer helped Norway in a 4-0 clean sweep of the very weak team of Malaysia

Last but certainly not least in the competitors for medals was the match India vs. Uzbekistan. With any correct series of results either team could win a bronze. India struck first with a nice win by Sasikirian, and although Vakhidov returned the favor for Uzbekistan, Negi's position started to look great against Kasimdzhanov. The Uzbekistan lost his way in a complex knight and rook endgame and he ended up losing. Filppov could not break Sethuramana and the Indians won the match. In a last minute surprising turn of events India's last round performance was so good that they obtained the bronze medal!

Germany finished with a 2-2 draw against Australia, certainly a disappointing result for the Europeans. Fridman was the only full point scorer of Germany in the last round.

Aronian won another important game. Today he beat Navara on the white side of an exchange Slav while Sargissian won his game as well. Armania 3-1 Czech Republic.

In a battle of strong fourth boards Matthew Sadler split the point with Isan Ortiz Suarez. Cuba took the match against the strong English squad.

Spain edged out Vietnam thanks to wins by Vallejo and Salgado. Israel did the same against Croatia while Belarus surprisingnly defeated Bulgaria, a team that had a really good olympiad but did not finish as high as they should have.

The Netherlands squashed Parguay (not the strongest team, but certainly not one that should go down by 4-0) and surprisingly Peru annihilated Italy, and Caruana can consider himself lucky to not have lost (which would have made the final result of that match 4-0).

Final Standings

A surprising India wiggled themselves into Bronze and actually were only half a tiebreak point off from Silver! Congratulations to them! China was without question the surprise of the tournament and what an excellent result for the Chinese team. Hungary continues with their legacy of good results, and what a nice way to see Judit Polgar off... silver medal for her and her team!

Women's Section

Russia's Kateryna Lagno got into severe trouble against Antoaneta Stefanova, while Iva Videnova also held her advantage against Valentina Gunina. With the fourth board situation unclear it didn't seem that the Russians would have an easy day, but it all changed around very quickly. Somewhere around the third hour of play Videnova blundered horribly and Gunina took a full point, Kosteniuk finished Nikolova off and Pogonina gained a big advantage. Pogonina took a draw to secure the gold medal and the match finished 2.5-1.5.

Kosteniuk quickly reached a great position against...

Nikolova from Bulgaria.

Videnova also did not use her position to the best of its potential

Ukraine vs. China was topsy-turvy. Zhao Xue held a strong advantage against Ushenina but she spoilt all of it and did not manage to win. Also with a strong advantage Ju Wenjun could not convert against Muzychuk. Zhukova-Guo Qi was always equal. The final game was between Muzychuk and Hou Yifan. The game was interesting but level through-out, and that sealed the fourth draw of the match, which was if anything lucky for Ukraine. This left China with the silver and Ukraine with the bronze by virtue of tiebreaks.

Zhao Xue had what could be called a winning position against Ushenina, but was not able to convert.

Georgia overwhelmed Germany taking them out of medal contention. Interestingly Georgia rested Dzagnidze to secure her gold medal, but that was quite fine as Georgia convincingly won 4-0, quite an unusual score so late in the tournament. There was actually another 4-0 score today as USA crushed Argentina in the battle to determine who would take top American team.

Ohme had a good tournament, but today was a tough day for the Germans

Krush helped USA wipe out Argentina today

Armenia edged out Spain, though importantly for medal standings Matnadze won her game. Kazakhstan beat the Czech Republic by winning every board except for the first.

Romania vs. India was a nail biter that went to the last moment. With three draws in the top boards it all came down to the last game between Gomes and Cosma. Black was pressing for most of the game, but at the end it was a draw and India and Romania split 2-2.

Pourkashiyan (left) is Iran's first board. In a bizarre decision (actually, complete incomprehensible) their second board Sara Khadem (her name is much longer, but it is commonly abbreviated it as such) was put in the line-up today. She lost and lost her silver medal on second board.

Final Standings

Board Medals:

Photos by Alejandro Ramirez, Pascal Simon and André Schulz

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