World Team Rd8: China is sole leader

by Albert Silver
4/28/2015 – As the saying goes: You can't keep a good man down. Or boy for that matter. Indeed although a team event, some individual players have been taking matters into their own hands as they help change the fate of their squad. The US beat Ukraine thanks to an important win by Lenderman over Ivanchuk, while China takes the lead helped by Ding Liren and top-scoring Wei Yi.

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It was a big round with surprising results overall. Perhaps the biggest and most noteworthy was Ukraine's fall from grace as they lost to the USA, a team that had rivaled Russia for worst start.

It was very much helped by Aleksandr Lenderman, who has now scored
three consecutive wins, and made the US a contender for the bronze medal,
though Armenia remains the favorite.

Daniel Naroditsky has also been a key help, and is cruising on 3.5/6 with a 2723 performance

Ruslan Ponomariov has had a tough time with all draws and one loss, but he has also played
every game on board one and faced every heavy hitter the competition has had to offer.

After key wins by Armenia over Russia and now India, the home crowd has to be delighted
that its team is now sole third, and thus the favorite for bronze. Levon Aronian has been a
key figure, with 5.0/8.

Although his results have been hot and cold throughout the event, today Hrant Melkumyan
was the hero as he clinched the match for Armenia against India.

That Russia defeated Egypt by a crushing 3.5-0.5 is hardly a surprise,
less usual is that top-seed Alexander Grischuk has been unable to win
a game so far and is losing 14 Elo. Their top scorer has instead been
Evgeny Tomashevsky with 4.5/7.

China's win over the now floundering Cuban contingent with 3-1 has allowed them to wrest
sole control of the gold spot entering the last round. Though all the players have brought in
the bacon, the no.1 point bringer has been 15-year-old Wei Yi with 6.0/8.

Wei Yi - Yuri Gonzalez

[Event "10th World Teams 2015"] [Site "Tsaghkadzor ARM"] [Date "2015.04.27"] [Round "8.4"] [White "Wei, Yi"] [Black "Gonzalez Vidal, Yuri"] [Result "1-0"] [ECO "C88"] [WhiteElo "2706"] [BlackElo "2557"] [PlyCount "77"] [EventDate "2015.04.19"] [WhiteTeam "China"] [BlackTeam "Cuba"] [WhiteTeamCountry "CHN"] [BlackTeamCountry "CUB"] 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bb5 a6 4. Ba4 Nf6 5. O-O Be7 6. Re1 b5 7. Bb3 d6 8. a4 b4 9. d4 Bg4 10. dxe5 dxe5 11. Qxd8+ Rxd8 12. Nbd2 O-O 13. h3 Bxf3 14. Nxf3 Bc5 15. Bc4 a5 16. c3 Rd6 17. Bb5 Rfd8 18. Be3 Bxe3 ({White's dastardly idea is that after} 18... Nxe4 {he does not play the obvious Bxc5, but rather} 19. Ng5 $1 Nxg5 (19... Bxe3 20. Nxe4 $1) 20. Bxc5 Rg6 21. Red1 $16) 19. Rxe3 Nd7 20. cxb4 $6 ({White misses a chance to win material with} 20. Bxc6 Rxc6 21. cxb4 axb4 22. Rd3 $1 Rd6 {More or less forced due to the threat of Rad1, doubling on the d-file.} 23. Rxd6 cxd6 24. Rd1 {and a pawn is going down since} Nc5 25. Nxe5 Nxa4 26. Nc6 Rd7 27. e5 Nc5 (27... Nxb2 $2 28. Rxd6 Rxd6 29. exd6) 28. exd6) 20... Nxb4 21. Rc1 c6 22. Bc4 h6 23. g3 g6 24. Kg2 Kg7 25. h4 f6 26. h5 g5 27. Be2 Nf8 28. Bc4 Nd7 29. Kh3 Nc5 30. Kg4 Nxa4 31. Ra3 {In time trouble, the position threatens to swing to Black's favor, but the young GM has an idea and successfully follows through with it.} Nc5 32. Rxa5 Nxe4 33. Kf5 Nxf2 34. Be6 {Objectively Black is now winning, but there are threats that must be seen and prevented with seconds on the clock.} e4 35. Ra7+ Kh8 (35... Kf8 {was forced.} 36. Rf7+ Ke8 37. Ra1 c5 38. Raa7 Nc6 39. Rg7 Nxa7 40. Rg8+ Ke7 41. Rg7+ {etc.}) 36. Nd4 Nbd3 $2 37. Rxc6 Rxc6 (37... Rxd4 38. Rcc7 {and Rh7 mate.} ) 38. Nxc6 Rf8 39. Kg6 {Threatening Rh7 mate.} 1-0

Israel drew its match against Hungary, and while it has stopped the rot, it is still a contender
for bronze if Armenia slips on the last day. No heavy results by Boris Gelfand who has scored
draws throughout, but has also neutralized the highest rated dangers.

Photos by Arman Karakhanyan

Results of round eight

Bo. 10 India Rtg FED - 9 Armenia Rtg FED 1½:2½
1.1 GM Harikrishna, P. 2731 IND - GM Aronian, Levon 2770 ARM ½ - ½
1.2 GM Sethuraman, S.P. 2634 IND - GM Sargissian, Gabriel 2674 ARM ½ - ½
1.3 GM Sasikiran, Krishnan 2654 IND - GM Movsesian, Sergei 2665 ARM ½ - ½
1.4 GM Vidit, Santosh Gujrathi 2630 IND - GM Melkumyan, Hrant 2651 ARM 0 - 1
Bo. 1 Egypt Rtg FED - 8 Russia Rtg FED ½ :3½
2.1 GM Amin, Bassem 2634 EGY - GM Grischuk, Alexander 2794 RUS ½ - ½
2.2 GM Shoker, Samy 2482 EGY - GM Tomashevsky, Evgeny 2745 RUS 0 - 1
2.3 IM Ezat, Mohamed 2479 EGY - GM Jakovenko, Dmitry 2744 RUS 0 - 1
2.4 GM Adly, Ahmed 2595 EGY - GM Vitiugov, Nikita 2736 RUS 0 - 1
Bo. 2 Israel Rtg FED - 7 Hungary Rtg FED 2 : 2
3.1 GM Gelfand, Boris 2747 ISR - GM Leko, Peter 2713 HUN ½ - ½
3.2 GM Smirin, Ilia 2652 ISR - GM Erdos, Viktor 2612 HUN ½ - ½
3.3 GM Rodshtein, Maxim 2667 ISR - GM Almasi, Zoltan 2698 HUN ½ - ½
3.4 GM Postny, Evgeny 2636 ISR - GM Balogh, Csaba 2651 HUN ½ - ½
Bo. 3 Ukraine Rtg FED - 6 USA Rtg FED 1½:2½
4.1 GM Ponomariov, Ruslan 2713 UKR - GM Shankland, Samuel L 2661 USA ½ - ½
4.2 GM Ivanchuk, Vassily 2731 UKR - GM Lenderman, Aleksandr 2617 USA 0 - 1
4.3 GM Eljanov, Pavel 2733 UKR - GM Onischuk, Alexander 2665 USA ½ - ½
4.4 GM Kryvoruchko, Yuriy 2686 UKR - GM Naroditsky, Daniel 2640 USA ½ - ½
Bo. 4 Cuba Rtg FED - 5 China Rtg FED 1 : 3
5.1 GM Dominguez Perez, Leinier 2729 CUB - GM Ding, Liren 2751 CHN ½ - ½
5.2 GM Bruzon Batista, Lazaro 2691 CUB - GM Yu, Yangyi 2724 CHN 0 - 1
5.3 GM Quesada Perez, Yuniesky 2629 CUB - GM Bu, Xiangzhi 2681 CHN ½ - ½
5.4 GM Gonzalez Vidal, Yuri 2557 CUB - GM Wei, Yi 2703 CHN 0 - 1

Current standings

Rk Team 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10  TB1   TB2   TB3 
1 China  *  2 3½ 2 2½ 2½ 2 3   2½ 13 20.0 309.8
2 Ukraine 2  *  1½ 2½ 2½ 1½   2½ 2½ 4 11 19.0 285.8
3 Armenia ½ 2½  *  2½ 1½ 2½ 2 1½ 2½   9 15.5 260.0
4 Russia 2 1½ 1½  *    2 3½ 1½ 2½ 3½ 8 18.0 267.8
5 Israel 1½ 1½ 2½    *  1½ 2 2½ 3½ 2 8 17.0 260.3
6 USA 1½ 2½ 1½ 2 2½  *  1½   2 3 8 16.5 257.3
7 Hungary 2   2 ½ 2 2½  *  2 1½ 2½ 8 15.0 230.0
8 Cuba 1 1½ 2½ 2½ 1½   2  *  1½ 3 7 15.5 235.8
9 India   1½ 1½ 1½ ½ 2 2½ 2½  *  3 7 15.0 222.0
10 Egypt 1½ 0   ½ 2 1 1½ 1 1  *  1 8.5 142.5

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.