World Cities Chess Team Champion in Al Ain, UAE

12/27/2012 – This Olympiad-like competition is held every two years, and is scheduled to be hosted five times, until 2020, by the Al Ain Chess Club in the United Arab Emirates. 24 teams from cities all over the world gathered for the preliminaries, and 16 qualified out of round robin groups for the knockout phase. There the eight for the quarterfinals went through. Here are all the games and results.

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World Cities Chess Team Champion

This event is held at two-year intervals, with teams representing cities (maximum one city per country). National federations are eligible to play with their national team members representing a city. The FIDE World Cities Championship is a sequel to the Chess Olympiad and Continental Cities Championships.

The Al Ain Chess Club of the United Arab Emirates Chess Federation has committed to organize the World Cities Championship for the Sheikh Zayed Cup for five times until 2020. The prize fund for the 2012 edition is $150,000.

24 teams were at the start of the tournament. Each was ranked by the average rating of their four strongest players as per the 1st December FIDE rating list. If two or more teams have the same average they are ranked according to the rating of the fifth player and then alphabetically. The teams were divided into groups of four teams each, and each group played a single round robin tournament. The top two from each group advanced to the Round-of-16, together with the four best 3rd placed teams.


At the opening ceremony, which also included...


... a local music and dance performance


The start of the event, with FIDE officials applauding the game Grandelius vs Saleh


The setup in the playing hall in Al Ain

Here are the results of the preliminary rounds, with the qualifying teams shown in bold:

Rk
 Team
1
2
3
4
TB1
TB2
TB3
1
 Lund - Sweden
*
2½
2
2½
5
7.0
0
2
 London - UK
1½
*
3
3½
4
8.0
0
3
 Dhaka - Bangladesh
2
1
*
3
3
6.0
0
4
 Al Ain - UAE
1½
½
1
*
0
3.0
0
Rk
 Team
1
2
3
4
TB1
TB2
TB3
1
 Saratov - RUS
*
2½
2½
3
6
8.0
0
2
 Ptuj - SLO
1½
*
2½
2
3
6.0
0
3
 Tashkent - UZB
1½
1½
*
3½
2
6.5
0
4
 Chennai - IND
1
2
½
*
1
3.5
0
Rk
 Team
1
2
3
4
TB1
TB2
TB3
1
 Lviv - UKR
*
1
3
4
4
8.0
0
2
 Athens - GRE
3
*
1½
3
4
7.5
0
3
 Riga - LAT
1
2½
*
3½
4
7.0
0
4
 Canberra - AUS
0
1
½
*
0
1.5
0
Rk
 Team
1
2
3
4
TB1
TB2
TB3
1
 Astana - KAZ
*
2
3½
2½
5
8.0
0
2
 Baku - AZE
2
*
3
2½
5
7.5
0
3
 Istanbul - TUR
½
1
*
3
2
4.5
0
4
 Timisoara - ROM
1½
1½
1
*
0
4.0
0
Rk
 Team
1
2
3
4
TB1
TB2
TB3
1
 Paris - FRA
*
3
3
4
6
10.0
14.00
2
 Chicago - USA
1
*
3
3½
4
7.5
6.50
3
 Teheran - IRI
1
1
*
3½
2
5.5
1.00
4
 Kampala - UGA
0
½
½
*
0
1.0
0.00
Rk
 Team
1
2
3
4
TB1
TB2
TB3
1
 Hoogeveen _ NED
*
2½
2
4
5
8.5
40.5
2
 Novi Sad - SRB
1½
*
2½
3
4
7.0
35.5
3
 Wu Xi - CHN
2
1½
*
2
2
5.5
33.5
4
 Cairo - EGY
0
1
2
*
1
3.0
18.0

Pairings for the knockout phase (Round of 16)

You could feel the tension as the knockout phase started with the Round-of-16 in Al Ain: Athens, Tashkent, Saratov, Hoogeveen, Baku, Wu Xi, Lund and Novi Sad advance to the Quarterfinals.

The biggest upset was scored by Wu Xi as the Chinese team held the highly favored Lviv to a 2-2 draw. The tie was broken by the Berlin system which gives more weight to points on the top boards. Wu Xi had won two games on boards one and two, and lost the games on boards three and four. The match between Lund and Riga ended 2-2 as well, with Lund advancing because of a win on board two and a loss on board four. Novi Sad advanced despite a 2-2 draw against Ptuj of Slovenia due to a board 1 victory by Serb Ivan Ivanisevic. A summary of the eight matches is to be found in the official bulletin here. Here are the full results:

1.1
 4 Baku:AZE  
2½:1½
1
 Paris:FRA  
1
 GM Safarli Eltaj 2626
½:½
GM
 Vachier-Lagrave Maxime 2711
2
 GM Guseinov Gadir 2628
0:1
GM
 Fressinet Laurent 2700
3
 GM Mamedov Rauf 2647
1:0
GM
 Edouard Romain 2686
4
 GM Durarbayli Vasif 2587
1:0
GM
 Hamdouchi Hicham 2610
1.2
 10 Chicago:USA  
1:3
2
 Hoogeveen:NED  
1
 GM Akobian Varuzhan 2622
0:1
GM
 Giri Anish 2720
2
 GM Ehlvest Jaan 2603
½:½
GM
 Sokolov Ivan 2667
3
 IM Hungaski Robert Andrew 2469
½:½
GM
 Tiviakov Sergei 2663
4
 GM Finegold Benjamin 2498
0:1
GM
 Smeets Jan 2614
1.3
 3 Lviv:UKR  
2:2
16
 Wu Xi:CHN  
1
 GM Moiseenko Alexander 2710
0:1
GM
 Wang Yue 2696
2
 GM Kryvoruchko Yuriy 2671
0:1
Ji Dan 2341
3
 GM Fedorchuk Sergey A. 2661
1:0
IM
 Li Wenliang 2424
4
 GM Kravtsiv Martyn 2593
1:0
Fang Yuxiang 2103
1.4
 15 Dhaka:BAN  
½:3½
5
 Saratov:RUS  
1
 GM Murshed Niaz 2464
½:½
GM
 Tomashevsky Evgeny 2725
2
 GM Rahman Ziaur 2518
0:1
GM
 Lysyj Igor 2617
3
 IM Minhazuddin Ahmed 2401
0:1
GM
 Romanov Evgeny 2616
4
 FM Chatterjee Debaraj 2307
0:1
GM
 Shaposhnikov Evgeny 2544
1.5
 7 Ptuj:SLO  
2:2
6
 Novi Sad:SRB  
1
 GM Lenic Luka 2637
0:1
GM
 Ivanisevic Ivan 2633
2
 GM Beliavsky Alexander G 2630
½:½
GM
 Markus Robert 2619
3
 GM Borisek Jure 2560
½:½
GM
 Perunovic Milos 2614
4
 GM Skoberne Jure 2549
1:0
GM
 Popovic Dusan 2579
1.6
 9 Athens:GRE  
3:1
8
 London:ENG  
1
 GM Papaioannou Ioannis 2618
1:0
GM
 Short Nigel D 2692
2
 GM Banikas Hristos 2620
½:½
GM
 Howell David W L 2634
3
 GM Halkias Stelios 2561
1:0
GM
 Williams Simon K 2515
4
 IM Tzermiadianos Andreas 2434
½:½
IM
 Zhou Yang-Fan 2419
1.7
 14 Tashkent:UZB  
2½:1½
11
 Astana:KAZ  
1
 GM Dzhumaev Marat 2530
½:½
GM
 Jumabayev Rinat 2567
2
 IM Kvon Andrey 2501
0:1
GM
 Kotsur Pavel 2550
3
 GM Barsov Alexei 2510
1:0
GM
 Ismagambetov Anuar 2463
4
 GM Iuldachev Saidali 2455
1:0
IM
 Kuderinov Kirill 2452
1.8
 13 Riga:LAT  
2:2
12
 Lund:SWE  
1
 GM Miezis Normunds 2596
½:½
GM
 Grandelius Nils 2583
2
 GM Neiksans Arturs 2534
0:1
GM
 Tikkanen Hans 2575
3
 GM Sveshnikov Evgeny 2514
½:½
GM
 Carlsson Pontus 2518
4
 GM Starostits Ilmars 2468
1:0
IM
 Smith Axel 2484

Links

The games are being broadcast live on the official web site and on the chess server Playchess.com. If you are not a member you can download a free Playchess client there and get immediate access. You can also use ChessBase 12 or any of our Fritz compatible chess programs.

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