World Team Rd8: China is sole leader
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
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
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