World Team CC, Rd 1: Ukraine beats Russia

by André Schulz
4/20/2015 – On Sunday, 19th April 2015, the 10th World Team Championship began in Tsaghkadzor, Armenia - with a number of small surprises. Ukraine won 2.5-1.5 against Russia, and with the same result Israel, led by Boris Gelfand, won against Armenia, and China against the USA. India won 3-1 against Egypt while Hungary drew against Cuba. Impressions...

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World Team Championship in Tsaghkadzor

In contrast to the Chess Olympiad where all nations of the world can participate only ten teams take part in the World Team Championship. Usually these are the best teams in the world - plus teams that qualified by winning Continental Championships. However, such teams - in this year Egypt - are usually outsiders in a very strong field.

Azerbaijan qualified for the World Championship but waived its right to play because of political tension between Aserbaijan and its neighbouring country Armenia.

The very first round brought a match between two favorites - Ukraine had to play against Russia. Ukraine won 2.5-1.5. Matchwinner was Pavel Eljanov who beat Evgeny Tomashevsky in an endgame queen and rook vs. queen and rook.

 

 

The "Technical Meeting" before the start of the tournament

Levon Aronian

Peter Leko

Boris Gelfand

Chess historian John Donaldson, who captains the American team, is reading a book

The venue: the Golden Palace Zakhkadzor Hotel  (Photo: Barev Armenia)

Results

1.1 1 Egypt     1   -  3 10 India
1 GM Shoker Samy 2482      0   :  1 GM Harikrishna P. 2731
2 IM Ezat Mohamed 2479      1   :  0 GM Sethuraman S.P. 2634
3 GM Adly Ahmed 2595      0   :  1 GM Vidit Santosh Gujrathi 2630
4 IM Farahat Ali 2389      0   :  1 GM Sengupta Deep 2576


 

1.2 2 Israel 2½ - 1½ 9 Armenia
1 GM Gelfand Boris 2747     ½  : ½ GM Aronian Levon 2770
2 GM Sutovsky Emil 2628 ½  : ½ GM Sargissian Gabriel 2674
3 GM Smirin Ilia 2652 ½  : ½ GM Movsesian Sergei 2665
4 GM Rodshtein Maxim 2667 1  : 0 GM Akopian Vladimir 2656


 

1.3 3 Ukraine 2½ - 1½ 8 Russia
1 GM Ponomariov Ruslan 2713 ½  : ½ GM Grischuk Alexander 2794
2 GM Ivanchuk Vassily 2731 ½  : ½ GM Karjakin Sergey 2757
3 GM Eljanov Pavel 2733 1  : 0 GM Tomashevsky Evgeny 2745
4 GM Kryvoruchko Yuriy 2686 ½  : ½ GM Jakovenko Dmitry 2744


 

1.4 4 Cuba 2 - 2 7 Hungary
1 GM Dominguez Perez Leinier 2729 ½  : ½ GM Leko Peter 2713
2 GM Bruzon Batista Lazaro 2691 ½  : ½ GM Almasi Zoltan 2698
3 GM Quesada Perez Yuniesky 2629 1  : 0 GM Rapport Richard 2710
4 GM Ortiz Suarez Isan Reynaldo 2612 0 : 1 GM Balogh Csaba 2651

 

1.5 5 China 2½ - 1½ 6 USA
1 GM Ding Liren 2751 1  : 0 GM Shankland Samuel L 2661
2 GM Yu Yangyi 2724 ½  : ½ GM Lenderman Aleksandr 2617
3 GM Bu Xiangzhi 2681 ½  : ½ GM Onischuk Alexander 2665
4 GM Wei Yi 2703 ½  : ½ GM Akobian Varuzhan 2622

 

 

Standings after the first round

Rank Team Gam. + = - MP Pts.
1 India 1 1 0 0 2 3
2 Israel 1 1 0 0 2 2½
3 Ukraine 1 1 0 0 2 2½
4 China 1 1 0 0 2 2½
5 Cuba 1 0 1 0 1 2
6 Hungary 1 0 1 0 1 2
7 USA 1 0 0 1 0 1½
8 Russia 1 0 0 1 0 1½
9 Armenia 1 0 0 1 0 1½
10 Egypt 1 0 0 1 0 1

Replay the games from the first round

 

Pictures from the opening ceremony

The team spirit of the Armenian team is famous

The Russian team

Boris Gelfand, Israel's number one, chats with Emil Sutovsky

The officials including the Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan, Kirsan Ilyumzhinov, and Smbat Lputjan.

The national anthems are played

A chess performance opened the tournament

Pictures: Official tournament site

 

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 13 or any of our Fritz compatible chess programs.

 

André Schulz started working for ChessBase in 1991 and is an editor of ChessBase News.