World Team Ch. Rd7 – Lightning strikes twice

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 seven report

China's win over Russia not only knocked out Russia's chances for a medal, but now
placed China in prime contention.

They say that lightning never strikes the same place twice, but not only did it do exactly that in Ningbo, but it was a veritable storm of unexpected lightning bolts. The first was Russia's loss to China which represented a change in the guard as Russia no doubt still hoped to fight Armenia for the gold. It was a double lightning bolt of sorts, since it was not just a surprise loss by Russia, though China is certainly strong enough, but all the more since they had every reason to believe they were going to win the match.

Nepomniachtchi finds time to give a broad smile to photographer WGM Gu Xiaobing

Karjakin was Black against Wang Hao, and was doing extremely well, so much that the real question was how he would convert his advantage: in the middlegame, or an endgame? Somehow he failed to find the continuation, and in time trouble panicked and swung from won to lost to won to lost. A dramatic ending to a tough match.

Wang Hao's unexpected victory over Karjakin was a giant windfall to China

Armenia beat Hungary, putting an end to their rise, and cementing a huge lead in the rankings, probably good for the gold. The biggest shock result of the round however was not the Russia-China match, but the USA's astonishing win over second seed Azerbaijan. On board one, Kamsky faced Radjabov and it was hard fought with a strange and dramatic end in and of itself. Radjabov managed to create serious threats against Kamsky, but at the crucial moment failed to find the most precise way to victory and the double-edged position went from much better to worse in the space of a couple of moves. Yet, on move 39 he lost in a worse, but not resignable position, so the question is whether he had a moment of blindness by resigning unnecessarily, or whether he simply lost on time seeking the only move whilst his pieces were hanging left and right.

On board three, Shulman lost to Mamedov, which tied the score up, and then lightning chose to strike twice in the same place, as Seirawan showed he was feeling inspired, and he beat Mamedyarov (2765) when the latter chose to face him with a highly offbeat opening, perhaps expecting to prevail by superior play. It is a debatable decision since Seirawan has been away from high level competition for so many years, he cannot possibly be up to speed in highly theoretical lines so soon after his return. Either way, it was a thunderous result, ensuring there was little to no chance of a medal for Azerbaijan anymore.

Many of the pictures have been courtesy of the charming WGM Gu Xiaobing

Pictures by Gu Xiaobing and FIDE

Results of round seven

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.