World Team Rd6: Ukraine and China lead

by Albert Silver
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

[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

Links

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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.