World Team Championship starts in Ningbo, China

by ChessBase
7/17/2011 – It is a kind of exclusive Olympiad, in which only ten elite teams compete for top honors. With such a high level selection, including the likes of Aronian, Karjakin, Ivanchuk, and more, there are no weak match-ups, and the very first round saw Goliath versus Goliath, and in one case, a Goliath versus David, with a result similar to the Bible tale. Big opening pictorial.

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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.

According to FIDE Regulations the following Federations are entitled to send a team:

  1. China (host country)
  2. Russia (winner 2009)
  3. Ukraine (Olympiad 2010)
  4. Israel (Olympiad 2010)
  5. Hungary (Olympiad 2010)
  6. Azerbaijan (Europe qualifier)
  7. India (Asia qualifier)
  8. USA (America's qualifier)
  9. Egypt (African qualifier)
  10. Armenia (FIDE President's nomination)

Each team consists of five players (including one reserve) and one coach/captain of the team, for a total of six participants, who are provided with full hospitality including lodging, accommodation in a single room of in the five-star hotel. The team composition for each round must be delivered to the arbiters at 9:00 am in the morning.

System and scoring

The championships is a round robin, with each team playing a match against all other teams. The time control is: 90 min for 40 moves, then 30 min for the rest of the game, with a 30 second increment per move, staring from move one. The scoring is as in the FIDE Chess Olympiads: the winner gets two points, a draw gives each team one point, and a loss is scored as 0 points. If any teams finish with equal match points, the tie is resolved as follows:

  1. by board points in total;
  2. in case of a tie by the scores obtained by the tying teams against each other; if the tie is still not broken;
  3. by the Berger system;
  4. if it is still equal by board count (Berlin System) as follows: a win on Board 1 = 4 points, a win on Board 2 = 3 points, a win on Board 3 = 2 points, a win on Board 4 = 1 points. In case of drawn games these points are shared. If the board-count does not results in the tie being broken then the board points of Board 4 are cancelled, and so on upwards until the tie is broken.
  5. If a tie still results between teams in contention for medals, these teams play a match against each other at a fast time-rate (15 minutes per player for the entire game);
  6. if this match is indecisive, then lots are drawn (with a collective sigh of dismay by the arbiters).

Chief Arbiter is Panagiotis Nikolopoulos (Greece). One Deputy Chief Arbiter and three arbiters are from China.

Schedule

Friday 15 July   Arrival
Saturday 16 July 18:00h Opening Ceremony
Sunday 17 July 15:00h Round 1
Monday 18 July 15:00h Round 2
Tuesday 19 July 15:00h Round 3
Wednesday 20 July 15:00h Round 4
Thursday 21 July 15:00h Round 5
Friday 22 July   Rest Day
Saturday 23 July 15:00h Round 6
Sunday 24 July 15:00h Round 7
Monday 25 July 15:00h Round 8
Tuesday 26 July 10:00h Round 9, closing ceremony
Wednesday 27 July   Departure

Opening ceremony


Digitaries and players during the national anthem at the opening ceremony


Costume and dance performance Chinese style


At this we excel: Chinese gymnastics


Chinese GM Wang Yue singing!


Then a musical recital by US GM Ben Finegold and Tony Rich
of the St. Louis Chess Club


and one with Tian Hongwei, a.k.a. Abigail, Vice General Secretary
of the
Chinese Chess Association (we will try to get videos!)


A well-known collector of musical instruments, playing the world's largest flute...


...and then the world's smallest (less than 3 cm) – check out the faces of the guests!

Yan Fuxing is one of China’s most acclaimed folk musician and artist. Since his youth, he has performed songs on the finger whistle, and imitated the calls of birds. He is skilled in flute, cow horn flute, the xun (hollow wind instrument), the gourd zither and more than 40 Chinese musical instruments. Not only has he performed on the 3.6 meter long flute, but he can also play on the tiny 3 cm bone flute, the shortest in the world. He can converse with birds, and is thus dubbed Chinese Culture’s Remarkable Man; children refer to him as “Bird Uncle”, “Multi-skilled player of flutes”, “Bird king” and other flattering titles. [Source: Arboretum]


Drawing of lots with Chinese fans: Ivanchuk drew eight for the Ukrainian team


The pairings put up on the scoreboard

Round one report

Defending champion Russia beat the US team 3-1 to celebrate a great opening round; the Armenian team went even higher and scored 3.5-0.5 against the Israeli team (sans Gelfand); Ukraine beat Egypt 1.5-2.5, Hungary (with Leko on board one – welcome back Peter!) drew against India 2-2, while the host Chinese team scored the same against Azerbaijan. Here's what happened on board four in the match Ukraine vs Egypt:

[Event "8th World Teams"]
[Event "8th World Teams"] [Site "Ningbo CHN"] [Date "2011.07.17"] [Round "1"] [White "Areshchenko, A."] [Black "Shoker, S."] [Result "0-1"] [ECO "B07"] [WhiteElo "2682"] [BlackElo "2475"] [PlyCount "56"] [EventDate "2011.07.17"] 1. e4 d6 2. d4 Nf6 3. Nc3 g6 4. Be3 c6 5. h3 Nbd7 6. Nf3 Qc7 7. Bd3 e5 8. Qd2 exd4 9. Nxd4 Bg7 10. Bh6 Bxh6 11. Qxh6 b5 12. O-O-O b4 13. Nb1 Bb7 14. Nd2 Qb6 15. N4b3 Ba6 16. Bxa6 Qxa6 17. Kb1 c5 18. Nf3 c4 19. Nc1 Ne5 20. Rd4 c3 21. Rhd1 cxb2 22. Nb3 Nc4 {[#]Instead of taking an easy win with 23.Qg7 GM Alexander Areshchenko, rated 2682, blundered with} 23. e5 $4 (23. Qg7 Rc8 24. Ne5) {This gives his opponent, IM Samy Shoker, more than two hundred points below him, a chance to get in} 23... Rc8 24. exf6 Na3+ 25. Kxb2 Rxc2+ 26. Ka1 Nc4 27. Re4+ Kd8 28. Nc1 Qa3 {and mate to follow} 0-1


The hero of round one: IM Samy Shoker, rated 2475, playing for Egypt

The Russians, above with captain Evgeny Bareev, 2010 European champion Ian Nepomniachtchi, Nikita Vitiugov, Sergey Karjakin and Alexander Grischuk, are taking the tournament very seriously. The players and team arrived a week early to acclimatize and prepare.

Results of round one

Bo. 1   USA Rtg
1 : 3
10   Russia Rtg
1.1 GM Kamsky Gata 2741
½ - ½
GM Karjakin Sergey 2788
1.2 GM Onischuk Alexander 2675
0 - 1
GM Nepomniachtchi Ian 2711
1.3 GM Shulman Yuri 2617
½ - ½
GM Svidler Peter 2739
1.4 GM Hess Robert 2609
0 - 1
GM Vitiugov Nikita 2733
Bo. 2   Armenia Rtg
3½: ½
9   Israel Rtg
2.1 GM Aronian Levon 2805
1 - 0
GM Sutovsky Emil 2700
2.2 GM Movsesian Sergei 2700
½ - ½
GM Roiz Michael 2669
2.3 GM Akopian Vladimir 2667
1 - 0
GM Postny Evgeny 2618
2.4 GM Sargissian Gabriel 2663
1 - 0
GM Nabaty Tamir 2584
Bo. 3   Egypt Rtg
1½:2½
8   Ukraine Rtg
3.1 GM Adly Ahmed 2631
0 - 1
GM Ivanchuk Vassily 2768
3.2 GM Amin Bassem 2609
½ - ½
GM Efimenko Zahar 2706
3.3 GM El Gindy Essam 2510
0 - 1
GM Moiseenko Alexander 2715
3.4 IM Shoker Samy 2475
1 - 0
GM Areshchenko Alexander 2682
Bo. 4   China Rtg
2 : 2
7   Azerbaijan Rtg
4.1 GM Wang Hao 2718
½ - ½
GM Radjabov Teimur 2744
4.2 GM Wang Yue 2709
1 - 0
GM Gashimov Vugar 2760
4.3 GM Li Chao B 2669
½ - ½
GM Mamedov Rauf 2679
4.4 GM Yu Yangyi 2672
0 - 1
GM Mamedyarov Shakhriyar 2765
Bo. 5   India Rtg
2 : 2
6   Hungary Rtg
5.1 GM Harikrishna Pentala 2669
½ - ½
GM Leko Peter 2717
5.2 GM Sasikiran Krishnan 2681
1 - 0
GM Almasi Zoltan 2726
5.3 GM Ganguly Surya 2627
0 - 1
GM Polgar Judit 2699
5.4 GM Gopal G.N. 2576
½ - ½
GM Balogh Csaba 2643

Rank table

Rk. Team
Gms
+
Pts 
BPts 
TB3 
1 Armenia
1
1
0
0
2
3.5
0
2 Russia
1
1
0
0
2
3.0
0
3 Ukraine
1
1
0
0
2
2.5
0
4 China
1
0
1
0
1
2.0
1
5 India
1
0
1
0
1
2.0
1
6 Hungary
1
0
1
0
1
2.0
1
7 Azerbaijan
1
0
1
0
1
2.0
1
8 Egypt
1
0
0
1
0
1.5
0
9 USA
1
0
0
1
0
1.0
0
10 Israel
1
0
0
1
0
0.5
0

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 11 or any of our Fritz compatible chess programs.

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