World Team Rd4: Cuba takes lead
4/23/2015 – After four rounds Cuba leads the field at the Men's World Team Championship. In the fourth round Cuba won 3-1 against Egypt and took the sole lead because Israel lost 1.5-2.5 against Ukraine. China won 3.5-0.5 against Armenia and Hungary narrowly defeated India 2.5-1.5. The match USA and Russia ended in a 2-2 draw - but not a peaceful one.
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World Team Chess Championship in Tsaghkadzor: Cuba leads
So far the World Team Championship has been full of surprises. The fourth round was no different. Thus Russia, though nominally clear favorite, could not win their match against the USA and had to content themselves with a bitterly fought 2-2 draw. Daniel Naroditsky won against Dmitry Jakovenko, Evgeny Tomashevsky equalized by beating Varuzhan Akobian. The two other games (Sergey Karjakin against Alexander Onischuk and Alexander Grischuk against Sam Shankland) ended in a draw.
Alexander Grischuk, Russia's first board.
Sam Shankland, first board for the US
Even more surprising was the clear 3.5-0.5 victory the Chinese scored against Armenia. Aronian drew on first board against Ding Liren, but the three other Armenians all lost their games.
Ding Liren vs Levon Aronian
Yu Yangyi
China's number one Ding Liren is currently number 12 on the live elo-list.
Bu Xiangzhi
Gabriel Sargissian from Armenia
A rare situation arose in the game between China's young talent Wei Yi and Armenian Hrant Melkumyan: After 19 moves an absolutely symmetrical middlegame was reached. Then Melkumyan went astray and Wei Yi could win.
India narrowly defeated Hungary 2.5-1.5. Indian GM Vidit Santosh Gujrathi, playing with Black against Richard Rapport, scored the decisive point - in a game with a number of unusual knight maneuvres by both sides. However, only a few moves after the last knights vanished from the board Black spotted a small combination that gave him a winning position.
Richard Rapport
Ukraine against Israel
Ukraine won 2.5-1.5 against Israel and in this match the game between Alexander Moiseenko and Evgeny Postny a queenless middlegame suddenly became tactical and showed how helpless bishops sometimes can be.
In the match between Cuba and Egypt a tactical melee could be seen in the game between Lazaro Batista Bruzon against Samy Shoker from Egypt. Shoker, who was playing with Black, felt tempted to play a speculative piece sacrifice on move 20 but the Cuban kept jos calm. He won the game and helped Cuba to win the match 3-1 and to take the lead in the table.
Samy Shoker
Leinier Dominguez, Cuba's board one
Results
| 4.1 | 10 | India | 2½ - 1½ | 7 | Hungary | ||
| 1 | GM | Harikrishna P. | 2731 | ½ : ½ | GM | Leko Peter | 2713 |
| 2 | GM | Sethuraman S.P. | 2634 | ½ : ½ | GM | Erdos Viktor | 2612 |
| 3 | GM | Sasikiran Krishnan | 2654 | ½ : ½ | GM | Almasi Zoltan | 2698 |
| 4 | GM | Vidit Santosh Gujrathi | 2630 | 1 : 0 | GM | Rapport Richard | 2710 |
| 4.2 | 8 | Russia | 2 - 2 | 6 | USA | ||
| 1 | GM | Grischuk Alexander | 2794 | ½ : ½ | GM | Shankland Samuel L | 2661 |
| 2 | GM | Karjakin Sergey | 2757 | ½ : ½ | GM | Onischuk Alexander | 2665 |
| 3 | GM | Tomashevsky Evgeny | 2745 | 1 : 0 | GM | Akobian Varuzhan | 2622 |
| 4 | GM | Jakovenko Dmitry | 2744 | 0 : 1 | GM | Naroditsky Daniel | 2640 |
| 4.3 | 9 | Armenia | ½ - 3½ | 5 | China | ||
| 1 | GM | Aronian Levon | 2770 | ½ : ½ | GM | Ding Liren | 2751 |
| 2 | GM | Sargissian Gabriel | 2674 | 0 : 1 | GM | Yu Yangyi | 2724 |
| 3 | GM | Movsesian Sergei | 2665 | 0 : 1 | GM | Bu Xiangzhi | 2681 |
| 4 | GM | Melkumyan Hrant | 2651 | 0 : 1 | GM | Wei Yi | 2703 |
| 4.4 | 1 | Egypt | 1 - 3 | 4 | Cuba | ||
| 1 | GM | Amin Bassem | 2634 | ½ : ½ | GM | Dominguez Perez Leinier | 2729 |
| 2 | GM | Shoker Samy | 2482 | 0 : 1 | GM | Bruzon Batista Lazaro | 2691 |
| 3 | IM | Ezat Mohamed | 2479 | 0 : 1 | GM | Quesada Perez Yuniesky | 2629 |
| 4 | IM | Farahat Ali | 2389 | ½ : ½ | GM | Ortiz Suarez Isan Reynaldo | 2612 |
| 4.5 | 2 | Israel | 1½ - 2½ | 3 | Ukraine | ||
| 1 | GM | Gelfand Boris | 2747 | ½ : ½ | GM | Ponomariov Ruslan | 2713 |
| 2 | GM | Sutovsky Emil | 2628 | 0 : 1 | GM | Ivanchuk Vassily | 2731 |
| 3 | GM | Rodshtein Maxim | 2667 | 1 : 0 | GM | Eljanov Pavel | 2733 |
| 4 | GM | Postny Evgeny | 2636 | 0 : 1 | GM | Moiseenko Alexander | 2697 |
Replay games of the fourth round
Standings
| Rank | Team | Gam. | + | = | - | MP | Pts. |
| 1 | Cuba | 4 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 7 | 10 |
| 2 | Ukraine | 4 | 3 | 0 | 1 | 6 | 10½ |
| 3 | China | 4 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 6 | 10 |
| 4 | Israel | 4 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 5 | 9½ |
| 5 | India | 4 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 5 | 8 |
| 6 | Hungary | 4 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 4 | 8 |
| 7 | Russia | 4 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 7 |
| 8 | USA | 4 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 7 |
| 9 | Armenia | 4 | 1 | 0 | 3 | 2 | 6 |
| 10 | Egypt | 4 | 0 | 1 | 3 | 1 | 4 |
Pictures: Arman Karakhanyan on the the official tournament site
LinksThe 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. |
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