World Team Rd5: New leaders appear

by Albert Silver
4/24/2015 – A round earlier, and the Israel-Cuba match would have been the key match of the event, but time waits for no one. After losing in round four, and beating Cuba in round five with a key win by Maxim Rodshtein who has scored 4.0./4, the result was both teams relegated to 3rd-4th, while Ukraine and China took advantage to move into the lead.
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A round earlier, and the Israel-Cuba match would have been the key match of the event, but time waits for no one. After losing in round four, and beating Cuba in round five with a key win by Maxim Rodshtein who has scored 4.0./4, the result was both teams relegated to 3rd-4th, while Ukraine and China took advantage to move into the lead.

Nevertheless, Cuba was the leader after four rounds, so there was no question, a good result by them over their rivals would mean one step closer to the ineffable gold. It wasn't to be, and the only decisive result of the match was the excellent win by Maxim Rodshtein, who has also been the Israeli secret weapon so far.

Maxim Rodshtein has a fantastic 4.0/4 so far

Maxim Rodshtein vs Reynaldo Ortiz Suarez

[Event "10th World Teams 2015"] [Site "Tsaghkadzor ARM"] [Date "2015.04.23"] [Round "5.4"] [White "Rodshtein, Maxim"] [Black "Ortiz Suarez, Isan Reynaldo"] [Result "1-0"] [ECO "E11"] [WhiteElo "2654"] [BlackElo "2625"] [SetUp "1"] [FEN "3r3k/2p4p/1pR3p1/1Pn1q3/3p4/3B2P1/4PP1P/2Q3K1 w - - 0 32"] [PlyCount "11"] [EventDate "2015.04.19"] [WhiteTeam "Israel"] [BlackTeam "Cuba"] [WhiteTeamCountry "ISR"] [BlackTeamCountry "CUB"] 32. Bxg6 $1 Qg7 (32... hxg6 33. Qh6+ Kg8 34. Rxg6+ Kf7 35. Qh7+ {followed by mate.}) 33. Qf4 $1 {and the bishop continues to be untouchable.} Rf8 (33... hxg6 34. Qh4+ Kg8 35. Qxd8+ Qf8 36. Rxg6+) 34. Qh4 d3 35. exd3 Kg8 36. Bxh7+ Qxh7 37. Qg5+ {with Rg6 or Rh6.} 1-0

The successive stumbles by both Israel and Cuba now, meant a window of opportunity had presented itself.

Ukraine overcame India with draws on all boards except one, the victory of Kryvoruchko
over Sasikiran. Ponomariov held Harikrishna to a draw on board one.

After nearly whitewashing Armenia in round four, China was expected to have a fairly 'easy' match playing Egypt, the lowest rated team of the competition. While they did indeed win, it was not as smooth as they had hoped, with a surprise upset by Samy Shoker, who defeated Yu Yangyi in spectacular fashion in a wild Reti.

Samy Shoker vs Yu Yangyi

[Event "10th World Teams 2015"] [Site "Tsaghkadzor ARM"] [Date "2015.04.23"] [Round "5.2"] [White "Shoker, Samy"] [Black "Yu, Yangyi"] [Result "1-0"] [ECO "A09"] [WhiteElo "2466"] [BlackElo "2724"] [PlyCount "77"] [EventDate "2015.04.19"] [WhiteTeam "Egypt"] [BlackTeam "China"] [WhiteTeamCountry "EGY"] [BlackTeamCountry "CHN"] 1. Nf3 d5 2. c4 d4 3. b4 f6 {Certainly one of the stranger lines of the Reti.} 4. e3 dxe3 5. fxe3 e5 6. c5 {The dataabase gives this or 6.a3 as most played, while the engines prefer 6.Qb3 and 6.Qa4+. All lines are given as a small edge for White, nothing more.} Bg4 7. Bb2 Nc6 8. b5 Nb4 9. Qb3 Bxc5 10. Bc4 e4 11. Ng5 $1 {[#]} fxg5 $2 {O Ye of Little Faith!} ({The only move was} 11... Nd3+ $1 12. Bxd3 Qxd3 13. Qf7+ Kd8 14. Nc3 {Remember mate on e2 is threatened.} fxg5 15. Qxg7 Bxe3 $1 16. dxe3 Qxe3+ 17. Kf1 {and Black has a perpetual}) 12. Bxg7 Ne7 13. O-O Kd7 14. Nc3 Bf5 15. Bf6 {with the idea Rxf5} Bg6 16. Be6+ Kd6 17. Bf7 Bxf7 18. Nxe4+ Kd7 19. Nxc5+ Ke8 20. Qxb4 Rg8 21. Nxb7 Qd7 22. Nc5 Qd6 23. Qe4 Rb8 24. Bxe7 Qxe7 25. Qc6+ Kd8 26. Nb7+ Rxb7 27. Qxb7 Be6 28. Qxa7 Qd6 29. a4 Rg6 30. Qd4 Qxd4 31. exd4 Kd7 32. a5 Rg8 33. a6 Bd5 34. Rf5 Ba8 35. a7 Kc8 36. Rf7 Kb7 37. Rxh7 Rd8 38. Rg7 Rd5 39. Rg8 {and the threat of Rb8+ and Rxa8 is indefensible.} 1-0

Top Chinese player Ding Liren is currently world no.11

While Sam Shankland did manage to stave off Levon Aronian's ambitions, the USA still fell
to the higher rated team 2.5-1.5 with Daniel Naroditsky's loss to Hrant Melkumyan on board
four. Unable to display the rare form from the Tromso Olympiad the USA is next to last so far.

The Russian collapse at the start had to have been hard to swallow by the chess-crazed
nation, but they are showing signs of recovery, as they crushed Hungary 3.5-0.5. Sergey
Karjakin (above) beat Viktor Erdos...

... while Peter Leko was the only one to avoid defeat as he drew Alexander Grischuk.

Photos by Arman Karakhanyan

Results of round five

Bo. 3 Ukraine Rtg FED - 10 India Rtg FED 2½:1½
1.1 GM Ponomariov, Ruslan 2713 UKR - GM Harikrishna, P. 2731 IND ½ - ½
1.2 GM Ivanchuk, Vassily 2731 UKR - GM Sethuraman, S.P. 2634 IND ½ - ½
1.3 GM Kryvoruchko, Yuriy 2686 UKR - GM Sasikiran, Krishnan 2654 IND 1 - 0
1.4 GM Moiseenko, Alexander 2697 UKR - GM Vidit, Santosh Gujrathi 2630 IND ½ - ½
Bo. 4 Cuba Rtg FED - 2 Israel Rtg FED 1½:2½
2.1 GM Dominguez Perez, Leinier 2729 CUB - GM Gelfand, Boris 2747 ISR ½ - ½
2.2 GM Bruzon Batista, Lazaro 2691 CUB - GM Sutovsky, Emil 2628 ISR ½ - ½
2.3 GM Quesada Perez, Yuniesky 2629 CUB - GM Smirin, Ilia 2652 ISR ½ - ½
2.4 GM Ortiz Suarez, Isan Reynaldo 2612 CUB - GM Rodshtein, Maxim 2667 ISR 0 - 1
Bo. 5 China Rtg FED - 1 Egypt Rtg FED 2½:1½
3.1 GM Ding, Liren 2751 CHN - GM Amin, Bassem 2634 EGY 1 - 0
3.2 GM Yu, Yangyi 2724 CHN - GM Shoker, Samy 2482 EGY 0 - 1
3.3 GM Wei, Yi 2703 CHN - IM Ezat, Mohamed 2479 EGY 1 - 0
3.4 IM Wang, Chen 2531 CHN - IM Farahat, Ali 2389 EGY ½ - ½
Bo. 6 USA Rtg FED - 9 Armenia Rtg FED 1½:2½
4.1 GM Shankland, Samuel L 2661 USA - GM Aronian, Levon 2770 ARM ½ - ½
4.2 GM Lenderman, Aleksandr 2617 USA - GM Movsesian, Sergei 2665 ARM ½ - ½
4.3 GM Onischuk, Alexander 2665 USA - GM Akopian, Vladimir 2656 ARM ½ - ½
4.4 GM Naroditsky, Daniel 2640 USA - GM Melkumyan, Hrant 2651 ARM 0 - 1
Bo. 7 Hungary Rtg FED - 8 Russia Rtg FED ½ :3½
5.1 GM Leko, Peter 2713 HUN - GM Grischuk, Alexander 2794 RUS ½ - ½
5.2 GM Erdos, Viktor 2612 HUN - GM Karjakin, Sergey 2757 RUS 0 - 1
5.3 GM Almasi, Zoltan 2698 HUN - GM Tomashevsky, Evgeny 2745 RUS 0 - 1
5.4 GM Balogh, Csaba 2651 HUN - GM Vitiugov, Nikita 2736 RUS 0 - 1

Current standings

Rk Team 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10  TB1   TB2   TB3 
1 Ukraine  *    2½   2½ 2½ 1½     4 8 13.0 114.8
2 China    *        2 3½ 2 2½ 2½ 8 12.5 102.8
3 Israel 1½    *  2½ 3½   2½     2 7 12.0 113.8
4 Cuba     1½  *    2½ 2½ 2   3 7 11.5 99.0
5 India 1½   ½    *      2½ 2 3 5 9.5 80.3
6 Russia 1½ 2   1½    *    3½ 2   4 10.5 108.5
7 Armenia 2½ ½ 1½ 1½      *    2½   4 8.5 95.3
8 Hungary   2   2 1½ ½    *  2½   4 8.5 88.8
9 USA   1½     2 2 1½ 1½  *    2 8.5 84.3
10 Egypt 0 1½ 2 1 1          *  1 5.5 63.8

Tie Break 1: Matchpoints (2 for wins, 1 for draws, 0 for losses)
Tie Break 2: points (game-points)
Tie Break 3: FIDE Sonneborn-Berger

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.
Born in the US, he grew up in Paris, France, where he completed his Baccalaureat, and after college moved to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. He had a peak rating of 2240 FIDE, and was a key designer of Chess Assistant 6. In 2010 he joined the ChessBase family as an editor and writer at ChessBase News. He is also a passionate photographer with work appearing in numerous publications, and the content creator of the YouTube channel, Chess & Tech.

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