World Team Ch. Rd4 – Azerbaijan crushes Russia 3-1

The Chinese Chess Association with the patronage and support of the Ningbo Municipal Government and Ningbo Sports Bureau is staging the 2011 World Team Chess Championship in Ningbo, China. The event is being held from July 15 2011 (arrival) to July 26 2011 (Departure) at the playing venue in the five-star New Century Grand Hotel Ningbo.

Round four report

The only clear thing about the rankings after fourth round is that Armenia leads...barely. After that it is a giant jumble with no fewer than four teams tied for second. In a normal round-robin, such parity would usually be accompanied by a crosstable filled withy draws, but in this elite team event, it has been a constant strike and counterstrike with teams winning, then losing, rinse and repeat.

Karjakin drew against Radjabov, but could only have saved the team by beating him 2-0

The biggest news of the day was Russia's crushing loss to Azerbaijan. Though the Azerbaijan team was certainly strong enough to defeat the Russians, one could hardly expect to read about a 3-1 victory over a team fielding players such as Karjakin, Grischuk, Nepomniachtchi and Svidler. Yet that is what happened, with both Gashimov and Guseinov coming up with the goods against Grischuk and Svidler respectively.

Gashimov's win over Grischuk helped the Azerbaijani's beat the Russians 3-1

The American team, all wearing smart jackets, shake hands before their rout

If the Americans were on a high after their 3.5-0.5 win yesterday, they were on the receiving end this time after losing by the very same score to the Chinese.

17-year-old Yu Yangyi is on the fast track after jumping from 2607 in January to 2672
on the July rating list.

The Indians, who had been having trouble winning their matches, posted their first victory over Israel, with a first board win by Harikrishna over Sutovsky. As to Hungary, they won their second straight victory, this time at the expense of Ukraine. Their hero of the day was Peter Leko, who had a very tough 2010, and came up with excellent opening preparation to beat Ivanchuk in a Spanish Marshall.

Ivanchuk lost the homework battle to Leko, allowing Hungary to notch their second win

Pavel Eljanov secured the second board against Almasi

Ivanchuk pondering his move just before the position began to look suspicious

Results of round four

Rank table

Schedule

Links Official tournament site All games in PGN 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 11 or any of our Fritz compatible chess programs.

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