Russia takes revenge with rapid and… football
29 September 2008, 12.22 CET | Last modified: 12:26 | By Peter Doggers | Filed under: Reports | Tags:
After they lost the most important (classical) part of their match against China 26-24, the Russian team took revenge by winning the rapid part and… the football match on the rest day. We’re not sure about the blitz…
The 5th match between China and Russia took place September 18-27 in Ningpo, China. Here are the players who participated this year:
China - Russia 2008 Teams
| Russia (men) | Rtg | China (men) | Rtg | Russia (women) | Rtg | China (women) | Rtg |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Peter Svidler | 2738 | Bu Xiangzhi | 2710 | Tatiana Kosintseva | 2511 | Zhao Xue | 2522 |
| Dmitry Jakovenko | 2709 | Ni Hua | 2705 | Natalija Pogonina | 2469 | Ruan Lufei | 2499 |
| Evgeny Alekseev | 2708 | Wang Yue | 2704 | Nadezhda Kosintseva | 2460 | Xu Yuhua | 2483 |
| Ernesto Inarkiev | 2675 | Wang Hao | 2691 | Ekaterina Korbut | 2459 | Shen Yang | 2445 |
| Evgeny Tomshevsky | 2646 | Li Chao | 2590 | Ekaterina Kovalevskaya | 2435 | Huang Qian | 2430 |
| Average | 2695 | 2680 | 2467 | 2476 |
The first phase in this match (which followed the Scheveningen sytem) consisted of five rounds played with the FIDE time control, which was won by China 26-24.
After the rest day the players went on to rapid chess. The website of the Russian Chess Federation tells us that the Russian men won on matchpoints 13-7 (individual points: 28-22). The women teams tied 10-10 in match points (25-25 on individual results).
On Saturday, the last day of the event, the Chinese men won the blitz match 14-6 and the Russian women defeated their Chinese opponents 11-9. Unfortunately no games are available, and it’s also not very clear which score was used.
The Russian Chess Federation writes that this year the overall match was won by the Russian team, “which has won three matches, lost two and drawn one completed.” But if we follow the scores that are mentioned, we end up with this table:
China - Russia 2008 Score
| Teams | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | Rapid | Blitz | Score |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| China (men) | 3.5 | 2.5 | 2.5 | 3.5 | 2.5 | 7.0 | 14.0 | 35.5 |
| China (women) | 2.5 | 1.5 | 2.5 | 3.5 | 1.5 | 10.0 | 9.0 | 30.5 |
| China (total) | 6.0 | 4.0 | 5.0 | 7.0 | 4.0 | 17.0 | 23.0 | 66.0 |
| Russia (men) | 1.5 | 2.5 | 2.5 | 1.5 | 2.5 | 13.0 | 6.0 | 29.5 |
| Russia (women) | 2.5 | 3.5 | 2.5 | 1.5 | 3.5 | 10.0 | 11.0 | 34.5 |
| Russia (total) | 4.0 | 6.0 | 5.0 | 3.0 | 6.0 | 23.0 | 17.0 | 64.0 |
Perhaps one of our readers can help us to get this correct…
On the rest day (Tuesday, September 23rd) the players left the industrial city of Ningpo for some outdoor Chinese culture. To start with, what can be more Chinese than tea? The excursion started with a visit to fields with lots of 茶 plants.
Tea is the common name of the shrub Camellia sinensis, which has been cultivated from antiquity in China
The ladies through the fields - we think we recognize Ruan Lufei and Shen Yang
Dmitry Jakovenko, already wearing the outfit for later that day, together with Peter Svider
Natalija Pogonina, Tatiana and Nadezhda Kosintseva enjoying their view
Evgeny Alekseev doing the same
The traditional group photo
If you were wondering what Yuri Dokhoian, former Kasparov second, is doing these days - well, coaching talented Russian girls!
Among many traditions, football matches are becoming a usual part of chess events these days - here we see Bu Xiangzhi and Evgeny Alekseev
Keeping up traditions, Peter Svidler defends Russia's goal.
Russia's best soccer player is Dmitry Jakovenko and indeed his pose looks highly professional - but wait, what's Petya exactly doing there?
In Sochi Svidler was one of many players who left the pitch with an injury, but in China everything seems to be fine again.
Wang Yue can't believe that his team just got beaten - at least it wasn't at chess
Photos excursion © Mark Gluhovsky | football photos © Natalija Pogonina
Links:
Is this the beginning of the end for Russia?
Great pictures!
Hardly the beginning of the end for Russia…they just didn’t have their best players there, and the Chinese did. Check this out:
http://ratings.fide.com/topfed.phtml
As you can see, going by the average rating of a country’s top 10, Russia is by far #1, Ukraine by far #2, and China only narrowly #3, just 5 points ahead of the U.S. and Israel, with Hungary not far behind.
Chinese men and Russian women won the blitz. So Russia won the event 3 wins 2 losses 1draw.Hou played blitz instead of Ruan.
http://blog.sina.com.cn/s/blog_4d9c4d550100aqtd.html
“China-Russia 2008 Score” is puzzling,as you use game points inclassical and match points in rapid and blitz. And the blog above is also wrong about the total score of the women blitz match.Adding the indivisual points and you see that the russian women won the blitz part.
http://blog.sina.com.cn/s/blog_4c7269040100b2xi.html?tj=1
Some nice photos of the closing ceremony.
The Chinese are so strong in Chess now a days, it is quite amazing…..