World Team Rd6: Ukraine and China lead
4/26/2015 – Round six of the World Team championship confirmed the swing in the balance of power, as both the earlier leaders Israel and Cuba, faced the new ones in a match that would either shower them in glory, and relegate them to fighting for a spot on the podium. Both Ukraine and China showed they were up to the task, setting up a decisive clash between the two.
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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
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
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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