World Team CC, Rd 1: Ukraine beats Russia

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.