Tromso Penultimate Preview

Round Ten Preview

France and China will be having a tough fight for first place. Bacrot has been an incredibly key player for France in the last two rounds giving the decisive point for his team in both encounters, once against Poland and the other against the Czech Republic. Today he is white against Ding Liren, China's highest rated player in this Olympiad.

Ukraine vs. Azerbaijan is an absolute duel of powerhouses. Much of this match will depend on how well Ivanchuk decides to play today; he is known to swing between absurdity and genius beyond words. Hungary will be facing the surprising Romania, a win for either team will catapult them to the medal positions. Another surprising team, Bulgaria, will be facing Poland. Jan-Krzysztof Duda is Poland's star player, with an astonishing 7.5/9 and most of them with the black pieces!

Cheparinov and Topalov have been working together for a long time; in this Olympiad they have been performing rather well, but it has been Iotov and Rusev in the lower boards that are really putting Bulgaria in the top spots.

Ding Liren's 2742 makes him China's #1 in the Olympic team, but he is playing second board

Ukraine faces the strong team from Azerbaijan. The Ukrainians have bounced back after a bad start.

Duda: 2768 rating performance

Women's Section

The match of the day is obviously the grudge encounter between Ukraine and Russia. This is important not only for the political situation of both countries, but also because Kateryna Lagno used to be Ukraine's board number one. She will now be playing against Muzychuk (Anna, not Mariya, who is in second board) in the first board encounter. Russia will want to preserve their full match point lead over China, but it will not be easy.

Melanie Ohme is one of the Olympiad's Ambassadors

The Lilits: Galojan (right) and Mrktchian (left)

The Spanish team has had a good second half of the Olympiad and has risen to the top boards. However today they face China, which seems to be quite a tough match up.

Germany vs. Romania is a close match. Neither team has faced the top boards quite yet so they have a good chance for a surprise in the last round if they are victorious today.

Poland is still in striking distance of the top teams, but they will need a win against the tough squad of Georgia.

Amina Mezioud from Algeria

And here's a little puzzle for you: can you guess who this young lady is?

Hint: in her television interview she says her goal is to become a chess grandmaster...

... and not a famous dancer. The answer will follow in our round ten report.

Photos by Alejandro Ramirez, Pascal Simon and André Schulz

Live commentary, interviews, analysis

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During the games we have live broadcast by expert commentators,
with post-game interviews and analysis directly from the venue.

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