Istanbul Chess Olympiad R9: Russia Loses to USA; Indian Men Draw with Georgia, Women Lose to Russia

Round 9 was played at the 40th Chess Olympiad in Istanbul on Thursday. The Indian team did their best to draw with Georgia in the open section. The Indian women’s team did their best to hold up against Russia, but lost because of the very high rating of their opponents. Two more rounds are to be played. Though, the Indian men are out of medal contention, the Indian women have an easy tenth round against Israel and could be well on the winning dias after Round 11.

Results Round 9 @ 40th Chess Olympiad in IstanbulGeorgia (GEO)-India (IND)2 : 2

9.1 GM Mchedlishvili, Mikheil2659-GM Sasikiran, Krishnan2707½ – ½9.2 GM Gagunashvili, Merab2578-GM Harikrishna, Pentala2685½ – ½9.3 GM Sanikidze, Tornike2585-GM Gupta, Abhijeet26370 – 19.4 GM Pantsulaia, Levan2575-GM Gopal, Geetha Narayanan25501 – 0

India-Russia 1 : 32.1 GM Dronavalli, Harika2503-GM Kosintseva, Tatiana2530½ – ½2.2 IM Karavade, Eesha Sanjay2371-IM Gunina, Valentina25070 – 12.3 IM Sachdev, Tania2379-GM Kosintseva, Nadezhda2524½ – ½2.4 WGM Soumya, Swaminathan2271-GM Kosteniuk, Alexandra24890 – 1

Standings after Round 9 have India in the nineteenth place in the open section and twelfth place in the women’s section. Here are the pairings for Round 10 which you can watch live from India time 5.30 pm at the official website. A live video feed is available at this link.

Top board for Indian women – the talented Harika Dronavalli Photo: Arman Karakhanyan

Bo. 13 India (IND) Rtg – 15 Cuba (CUB) Rtg 0 : 09.1 GM Sasikiran, Krishnan 2707 – GM Dominguez Perez, Leinier 27259.2 GM Harikrishna, Pentala 2685 – GM Bruzon Batista, Lazaro 27119.3 GM Negi, Parimarjan 2664 – GM Quesada Perez, Yuniesky 26269.4 GM Gupta, Abhijeet 2637 – IM Bacallao Alonso, Yusnel 2583

Bo. 6 India (IND) Rtg – 25 Israel (ISR) Rtg 0 : 05.1 GM Dronavalli, Harika 2503 – WIM Porat, Maya 22955.2 IM Sachdev, Tania 2379 – WIM Efroimski, Marsel 21745.3 WGM Gomes, Mary Ann 2396 – IM Klinova, Masha 23175.4 WGM Soumya, Swaminathan 2271 – WFM Shvayger, Yuliya 2202

Vladimir Kramnik-Hikaru Nakamura: Nakamura was escorted out of the playing hall for a drug test after winning this game! Anti-doping tests are conducted randomly at the Chess Olympiad. Photo: David Llada

Meanwhile, the big talk of the ninth round was of course Russia’s disastrous loss to the United States! This allowed three other teams to catch up with them as their sole lead vanished in a single match. Alex Onischuk and Sergey Karjakin made a relatively quick draw and then Dmitry Jakovenko outplayed the young Ray Robson. But, both Hikaru Nakamura and Gata Kamsky defeated Russian top stars Vladimir Kramnik and Alexander Grischuk.

Philippines’ tremendous run was put to a stop by the powerful China. Ding Liren achieved another quick victory and his team-mates followed up with a huge 3-0 advantage. Wesley So was the only to take a draw for Philippines, in the game against Wang Hao. Armenia remained in the contention for the gold medal after defeating the European champion Germany with 2.5-1.5. The decisive moment was when Georg Meier blundered a Queen in an approximately equal ending.

Shakhriyar Mamedyarov played another excellent game to gain the lead for Azerbaijan in the match against Poland. However, the well-prepared Radoslaw Wojtaszek, who had been Vishy Anand’s second for several years, defeated Teimour Radjabov in his favourite King’s Indian defence. the other two games were drawn and the match ended in a 2-2 tie.

The game Vassily Ivanchuk – Maxime Vachier-Lagrave was very interesting. The French player practically “forced” Ivanchuk to execute the typical sicilian sacrifice on d5. Black defended well for awhile, but apparently he forgot about the danger hiding behind the opening of the g-file. Ivanchuk efficiently concluded the game. Another Ukrainian victory by Aleksandr Moiseenko sealed the fate of the French team. Netherlands are making their way to the top as they defeated Israel thanks to Loek Van Wely’s swift victory against Emil Sutovsky and Jan Smeets’ effort on the 4th board.

I must focus! Photo: Arman Karakhanyan

In the women’s section, China continued the winning streak by defeating France. Again the top two boards were at work, securing the final score of 3-1 in the favour of China. Russia drew with black, won with white, for the overall score of 3-1 in the match with India. Poland recovered from the drama in the previous two rounds and bounced back by signing a minimal win 2,5-1,5 against Bulgaria. Jolanta Zawadzka delivered the decisive punch.

Kazakhstan edged the equally talented team of Uzbekistan by a narrow margin 2,5-1,5. Ukraine and Armenia beat USA and Iran respectively by 3-1, while Azerbaijan stunned the 3rd-seeded Georgia. Israel shocked the higher-rated Serbia by imposing them a 3-1 defeat.

Rk.	SNo		Team	Team	Games	+	=	-	TB1	TB2	TB3	TB4
1	6		China	CHN	9	7	1	1	15	272.0	26.0	100.00
2	1		Russia	RUS	9	7	1	1	15	268.5	23.0	107.00
3	3		Armenia	ARM	9	7	1	1	15	258.5	23.5	104.00
4	5		United States Of America	USA	9	6	3	0	15	252.0	26.0	93.00
5	2		Ukraine	UKR	9	7	0	2	14	240.0	24.0	99.00
6	9		Netherlands	NED	9	7	0	2	14	218.0	25.0	85.00
7	29		Argentina	ARG	9	6	2	1	14	216.5	22.5	90.00
8	17		Czech Republic	CZE	9	5	3	1	13	247.0	24.0	92.00
9	7		Azerbaijan	AZE	9	5	3	1	13	246.5	25.0	97.00
10	4		Hungary	HUN	9	6	1	2	13	233.5	22.5	98.00
11	14		Germany	GER	9	5	3	1	13	228.5	22.5	99.00
12	35		Philippines	PHI	9	6	1	2	13	209.5	23.0	95.00
13	39		Denmark	DEN	9	6	1	2	13	204.5	24.0	74.00
14	32		Belarus	BLR	9	6	1	2	13	203.0	23.5	84.00
15	16		Poland	POL	9	6	1	2	13	202.0	23.0	92.00
16	27		Vietnam	VIE	9	5	3	1	13	193.0	24.0	79.00

Rank after Round 9 – Women

Rk.	SNo		Team	Team	Games	+	=	-	TB1	TB2	TB3	TB4
1	1		China	CHN	9	7	2	0	16	287.0	27.0	102.00
2	2		Russia	RUS	9	6	3	0	15	266.5	25.5	102.00
3	4		Ukraine	UKR	9	5	4	0	14	266.0	24.5	103.00
4	22		Kazakhstan	KAZ	9	6	2	1	14	236.0	25.0	91.00
5	7		Poland	POL	9	6	2	1	14	236.0	24.5	97.00
6	8		Armenia	ARM	9	7	0	2	14	231.0	23.5	92.00
7	14		France	FRA	9	6	1	2	13	242.5	25.0	99.00
8	25		Israel	ISR	9	6	1	2	13	223.5	25.0	86.00
9	27		Azerbaijan	AZE	9	6	1	2	13	221.0	23.0	96.00
10	11		Spain	ESP	9	6	1	2	13	213.5	23.0	88.00
11	35		Uzbekistan	UZB	9	6	1	2	13	213.5	22.0	96.00
12	6		India	IND	9	6	1	2	13	208.5	22.0	99.00
13	9		Germany	GER	9	6	1	2	13	202.5	23.5	89.00
14	5		United States of America	USA	9	5	2	2	12	212.5	24.5	88.00
15	16		Slovenia	SLO	9	3	6	0	12	210.0	21.5	97.00
16	12		Hungary	HUN	9	5	2	2	12	204.0	23.0	89.00
17	17		Netherlands	NED	9	5	2	2	12	202.5	23.5	88.00
18	10		Romania	ROU	9	6	0	3	12	199.5	22.5	89.00
19	21		Mongolia	MGL	9	6	0	3	12	199.0	23.0	91.00
20	13		Bulgaria	BUL	9	5	2	2	12	198.5	23.0	86.00