
Though Israel had been unable to keep an impeccable record, their star player in this event had been Maxim Rodshtein who had had a perfect 4.0/4 start. Nevertheless, China fielded their youngest participant, Wei Yi, to take on the challenge.

Recording the moment
With the top three boards having drawn their games in 27 moves or less, it was clear that either board four produced a result, or the match would be a lackluster 2-2.
Wei Yi vs Maxim Rodshtein

[Event "10th World Teams 2015"] [Site "Tsaghkadzor ARM"] [Date "2015.04.25"] [Round "6.4"] [White "Wei, Yi"] [Black "Rodshtein, Maxim"] [Result "1-0"] [ECO "C48"] [WhiteElo "2706"] [BlackElo "2654"] [PlyCount "157"] [EventDate "2015.04.19"] [WhiteTeam "China"] [BlackTeam "Israel"] [WhiteTeamCountry "CHN"] [BlackTeamCountry "ISR"] 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bb5 Nf6 4. Nc3 Nd4 5. Ba4 c6 6. Nxe5 d5 7. d3 Bd6 8. f4 Bc5 9. exd5 O-O 10. dxc6 bxc6 11. h3 Re8 12. Qd2 Nd7 13. Kd1 Nxe5 14. fxe5 Rxe5 15. Re1 Rxe1+ 16. Qxe1 Bf5 17. Qe5 Qf8 18. Bxc6 Nxc6 19. Qxf5 Nd4 20. Qf4 Re8 21. Bd2 Qe7 22. Qg5 Qb7 23. b4 Bb6 24. Qd5 Qc7 25. Kc1 Rd8 26. Qc4 Qg3 27. Kb2 Qxg2 28. Ne4 Qxh3 29. Qxf7+ Kxf7 30. Ng5+ Kg8 31. Nxh3 Nf3 32. Bf4 Bd4+ 33. c3 Bf6 34. Nf2 Bh4 35. Be3 Re8 36. Ne4 Ne1 37. Rd1 a6 38. a4 Nxd3+ 39. Rxd3 Rxe4 40. b5 axb5 41. axb5 h5 42. Bd4 Bg5 43. b6 Bf4 44. Rf3 g5 45. Kc2 h4 46. Kd3 Re7 47. c4 Rh7 $1 {The correct plan and should hold for Black} 48. c5 h3 49. Rxf4 gxf4 50. c6 h2 51. b7 {[#]} Rh3+ $4 {A tragic and fatal blunder. The point is simply that without the rook to protect the seventh rank, Black is in dire trouble after the mutual queen promotion.} (51... h1=Q $1 52. b8=Q+ Kf7 53. Qxf4+ Ke8 {and it will draw.}) 52. Kc4 h1=Q 53. b8=Q+ Kh7 (53... Kf7 54. Qxf4+ Ke8 55. Qe5+ Kf8 56. Qf5+ Ke8 57. Qg6+ Kd8 (57... Kf8 58. Bc5#) 58. Bb6+ Ke7 59. Bc5+ Kd8 60. Qd6+ Kc8 61. Qd7+ Kb8 62. Qb7#) 54. Qh8+ Kg6 55. Qf6+ Kh5 56. Qf5+ Kh6 57. Qf6+ Kh5 58. Qf5+ Kh6 59. Qxf4+ Kg6 60. Qf6+ Kh5 61. Qf5+ Kh6 62. Qf4+ Kg6 63. Qg4+ Kh6 64. Qe6+ Kh5 65. Qf5+ Kh6 66. Qf6+ Kh5 67. c7 Qc1+ 68. Bc3 Rh4+ 69. Kd5 Qd1+ 70. Kc5 Qg1+ 71. Kb5 Qb1+ 72. Kc5 Qg1+ 73. Bd4 Qc1+ 74. Kb6 Qb1+ 75. Ka7 Qa2+ 76. Qa6 Qf7 77. Qb5+ Kg6 78. Qb6+ Kf5 79. Kb8 1-0

Luck, resilience, whatever you wish to call it, Wei Yi's eleventh hour
victory ensured the Chinese would not fall behind Ukraine, setting up
a decisive encounter between the two teams.

Team Ukraine, headed by Ruslan Ponomariov, Vasil Ivanchuk, Pavel Eljanov, and Yury Kryvoruchko,
neautralized the top-scoring Cubans on the top boards, while leveraging their much higher rated
fourth board to secure the match

After a fairly appalling event, the USA finally scored their first team victory, defeating Egypt
by 3-1. Both Aleksandr Lenderman (above) and Varuzhan Akobian were instrumental.

The Indians faced Russia who held a hefty 100 Elo edge on average, though considering
the shocking start, anything could still happen. Santosh Gujirathi Vidit (above) did his job
by holding Nikita Vitiugov to a draw, but Sethuraman succumbed to Karjakin and the Russians
took it by 2.5-1.5

For Armenia to hope to sneak onto the podium, they needed to overcome Hungary, and although
Levon Aronian defeated Viktor Erdos on board one, the Hungarians returned the favor with Csaba
Balogh beating Hrant Melkumyan on board four. Gabriel Sargissian (above) drew against Zoltan Almasi
This draw between the two teams helped neither.
Photos by Arman Karakhanyan
Results of round six
Bo. |
10 |
India |
Rtg |
FED |
- |
8 |
Russia |
Rtg |
FED |
1½:2½ |
1.1 |
GM |
Harikrishna, P. |
2731 |
IND |
- |
GM |
Grischuk, Alexander |
2794 |
RUS |
½ - ½ |
1.2 |
GM |
Sethuraman, S.P. |
2634 |
IND |
- |
GM |
Karjakin, Sergey |
2757 |
RUS |
0 - 1 |
1.3 |
GM |
Sasikiran, Krishnan |
2654 |
IND |
- |
GM |
Tomashevsky, Evgeny |
2745 |
RUS |
½ - ½ |
1.4 |
GM |
Vidit, Santosh Gujrathi |
2630 |
IND |
- |
GM |
Vitiugov, Nikita |
2736 |
RUS |
½ - ½ |
Bo. |
9 |
Armenia |
Rtg |
FED |
- |
7 |
Hungary |
Rtg |
FED |
2 : 2 |
2.1 |
GM |
Aronian, Levon |
2770 |
ARM |
- |
GM |
Erdos, Viktor |
2612 |
HUN |
1 - 0 |
2.2 |
GM |
Sargissian, Gabriel |
2674 |
ARM |
- |
GM |
Almasi, Zoltan |
2698 |
HUN |
½ - ½ |
2.3 |
GM |
Akopian, Vladimir |
2656 |
ARM |
- |
GM |
Rapport, Richard |
2710 |
HUN |
½ - ½ |
2.4 |
GM |
Melkumyan, Hrant |
2651 |
ARM |
- |
GM |
Balogh, Csaba |
2651 |
HUN |
0 - 1 |
Bo. |
1 |
Egypt |
Rtg |
FED |
- |
6 |
USA |
Rtg |
FED |
1 : 3 |
3.1 |
GM |
Amin, Bassem |
2634 |
EGY |
- |
GM |
Shankland, Samuel L |
2661 |
USA |
½ - ½ |
3.2 |
GM |
Shoker, Samy |
2482 |
EGY |
- |
GM |
Lenderman, Aleksandr |
2617 |
USA |
0 - 1 |
3.3 |
GM |
Adly, Ahmed |
2595 |
EGY |
- |
GM |
Onischuk, Alexander |
2665 |
USA |
½ - ½ |
3.4 |
IM |
Farahat, Ali |
2389 |
EGY |
- |
GM |
Akobian, Varuzhan |
2622 |
USA |
0 - 1 |
Bo. |
2 |
Israel |
Rtg |
FED |
- |
5 |
China |
Rtg |
FED |
1½:2½ |
4.1 |
GM |
Gelfand, Boris |
2747 |
ISR |
- |
GM |
Ding, Liren |
2751 |
CHN |
½ - ½ |
4.2 |
GM |
Sutovsky, Emil |
2628 |
ISR |
- |
GM |
Yu, Yangyi |
2724 |
CHN |
½ - ½ |
4.3 |
GM |
Smirin, Ilia |
2652 |
ISR |
- |
GM |
Bu, Xiangzhi |
2681 |
CHN |
½ - ½ |
4.4 |
GM |
Rodshtein, Maxim |
2667 |
ISR |
- |
GM |
Wei, Yi |
2703 |
CHN |
0 - 1 |
Bo. |
3 |
Ukraine |
Rtg |
FED |
- |
4 |
Cuba |
Rtg |
FED |
2½:1½ |
5.1 |
GM |
Ponomariov, Ruslan |
2713 |
UKR |
- |
GM |
Dominguez Perez, Leinier |
2729 |
CUB |
½ - ½ |
5.2 |
GM |
Ivanchuk, Vassily |
2731 |
UKR |
- |
GM |
Bruzon Batista, Lazaro |
2691 |
CUB |
½ - ½ |
5.3 |
GM |
Eljanov, Pavel |
2733 |
UKR |
- |
GM |
Quesada Perez, Yuniesky |
2629 |
CUB |
½ - ½ |
5.4 |
GM |
Kryvoruchko, Yuriy |
2686 |
UKR |
- |
GM |
Gonzalez Vidal, Yuri |
2557 |
CUB |
1 - 0 |
Current standings
Rk |
Team |
1 |
2 |
3 |
4 |
5 |
6 |
7 |
8 |
9 |
10 |
TB1 |
TB2 |
TB3 |
1 |
Ukraine |
* |
|
2½ |
2½ |
2½ |
2½ |
1½ |
|
|
4 |
10 |
15.5 |
168.0 |
2 |
China |
|
* |
2½ |
|
2 |
|
3½ |
2 |
2½ |
2½ |
10 |
15.0 |
162.5 |
3 |
Israel |
1½ |
1½ |
* |
2½ |
|
3½ |
2½ |
|
|
2 |
7 |
13.5 |
156.0 |
4 |
Cuba |
1½ |
|
1½ |
* |
2½ |
|
2½ |
2 |
|
3 |
7 |
13.0 |
142.8 |
5 |
Russia |
1½ |
2 |
|
1½ |
* |
2½ |
|
3½ |
2 |
|
6 |
13.0 |
160.0 |
6 |
India |
1½ |
|
½ |
|
1½ |
* |
|
2½ |
2 |
3 |
5 |
11.0 |
118.3 |
7 |
Armenia |
2½ |
½ |
1½ |
1½ |
|
|
* |
2 |
2½ |
|
5 |
10.5 |
135.8 |
8 |
Hungary |
|
2 |
|
2 |
½ |
1½ |
2 |
* |
2½ |
|
5 |
10.5 |
128.8 |
9 |
USA |
|
1½ |
|
|
2 |
2 |
1½ |
1½ |
* |
3 |
4 |
11.5 |
121.5 |
10 |
Egypt |
0 |
1½ |
2 |
1 |
|
1 |
|
|
1 |
* |
1 |
6.5 |
85.0 |
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