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Armenia and Georgia win gold at Olympiad

25 November 2008, 15.05 CET | Last modified: 10:43 | By Peter Doggers  | Filed under: Reports | Tags: ,

Armenia wins 38th OlympiadArmenia repeated their Olympic success of two years ago in Turin by winning gold at the 38th Olympiad in Dresden as well. Georgia, led by former world champion Chiburdanidze, won gold in the women's section. Final report with games, results, standings, prize giving and a video the full press conference given by the Armenian team.

Yet again, Armenia became the grandiose winners of the Chess Olympiad by beating the Chinese team in the last round, while Ukraine quite surprisingly lost, no, got smashed by the Americans, who won bronze in similar mission-impossible fashion as two years ago.

Israel took bronzesilver medals and its board one Boris Gelfand won individual silver ?¢‚Ǩ‚Äú he was overtaken by Hungary's first board Peter Leko in the last round by the smallest of margins possible: on point in rating performance. Topalov, who was in the race for gold, lost to Shirov in the penultimate round and didn't play in the last ?¢‚Ǩ‚Äú he took bronze.

A great result for Armenia who played almost all of their matches with Aronian, Akopian, Sargissian, and Petrosian; the oldest player of the team is actually “board 5″ Minasian who played just a single game. Amazingly, in a total of 44, the winners only lost 2 games, which were both scored in their lost match against Israel!

Not only Ukraine underperformed, but what to think of the Russian team, who again didn’t win medals. Team captain Alexander Bakh had the highest rated players at his disposal but couldn’t get them to find a good team spirit – exactly what the Armenians do have.

Israel did very well, with a mostly young team (and no Sutovsky or Smirin) led by the experienced Boris Gelfand who found his biggest form since the world championship last year. The Netherlands had the same team setting, where Van Wely and four young GMs played quite well. They had excellent chances to draw their last-round match against Israel, but L’Ami couldn’t convert an ending with a bishop against two pawns – from hindsight that ending might have always been a draw.

The same success for the Americans was seen in the women's section where they also ended third after beating France 2?Ǭ?-1?Ǭ? in the last round. Ukraine robbed Poland, in clear first, from any medals at all, beating them with the same score but it's Georgia that’s going home with the medals of gold, because after their 3-1 victory over Serbia it turned out they had collected just five Sonneborn-Berger points more.

The winning team was led by the legendary former world champion Maia Chiburdanidze who won the gold medal; silver went to Martha Fierro Baquero and third to Hou Yifan (amazingly, the only prize that went to China this year).

Georgia drew with Hungary and Russian and then lost to Poland in round 4 to 6, to drop heavily in the standings. After scoring no less than three 4-0’s in a row, versus Spain, Moldova and Slovenia, they got back into the real world and then proved to be able to beat strong teams as well: China 1?Ǭ?-2?Ǭ? and in the last round Serbia 3-1. Except for the Armenians, Chiburdanidze got the biggest applause at the prize giving.

Like their male collegeagues, the Dutch women played slightly better than their starting rank and especially board one Peng played well, but in the last round, like L’Ami, she was a bishop up but couldn’t win it. And therefore against Russia they also went down 1?Ǭ?-2?Ǭ?.

And so the 38th Chess Olympiad has come to an end. An Olympiad with a record-breaking number of participating federations: 146 teams in the open section and 111 teams in the women’s. And an Olympiad that won’t be forgotten easily because of the many rule changes, of which some were clearly more succesful than others.

There were a total of 13,083 paying spectators coming to the venue (cheapest tickets were 4,50 Euro) and the organizers said to have made nearly 50,000 Euros. There were 25,000 liters of mineral water given to the players, 24 tons of food, 24,000 cups of coffee and there were 25,920 overnight stays. The tournament website had 52 million visitors website. Despite some obvious mistakes, which kind of took away a bit of the friendliness sometimes, this Olympiad can be called a successful one. If only Karen Asrian could have enjoyed it.


Here’s the full press conference given by the Armenian team, as well as all other videos from Dresden:



Results and standings in both the Open and Women’s sections:

38th Olympiad, Dresden | Results round 11 (Open section, top)

Bo. 3 CHN China (CHN) Rtg - 9 ARM Armenia (ARM) Rtg 1½:2½
1.1 GM Wang Yue 2736 - GM Aronian Levon 2757 ½ - ½
1.2 GM Bu Xiangzhi 2714 - GM Akopian Vladimir 2679 ½ - ½
1.3 GM Ni Hua 2710 - GM Sargissian Gabriel 2642 ½ - ½
1.4 GM Li Chao B 2622 - GM Petrosian Tigran L 2629 0 - 1
Bo. 35 LTU Lithuania (LTU) Rtg - 11 GER Germany 1 (GER1) Rtg 1½:2½
2.1 GM Kveinys Aloyzas 2533 - GM Khenkin Igor 2647 ½ - ½
2.2 GM Rozentalis Eduardas 2577 - GM Gustafsson Jan 2634 ½ - ½
2.3 GM Sulskis Sarunas 2572 - GM Fridman Daniel 2630 ½ - ½
2.4 IM Zagorskis Darius 2509 - GM Baramidze David 2557 0 - 1
Bo. 10 USA United States of America (USA) Rtg - 2 UKR Ukraine (UKR) Rtg 3½: ½
3.1 GM Kamsky Gata 2729 - GM Ivanchuk Vassily 2786 1 - 0
3.2 GM Nakamura Hikaru 2704 - GM Karjakin Sergey 2730 ½ - ½
3.3 GM Onischuk Alexander 2644 - GM Eljanov Pavel 2720 1 - 0
3.4 GM Shulman Yuri 2616 - GM Efimenko Zahar 2680 1 - 0
Bo. 8 ISR Israel (ISR) Rtg - 20 NED Netherlands (NED) Rtg 2½:1½
4.1 GM Gelfand Boris 2719 - GM Van Wely Loek 2618 ½ - ½
4.2 GM Roiz Michael 2677 - GM Smeets Jan 2604 1 - 0
4.3 GM Avrukh Boris 2657 - GM Stellwagen Daniel 2605 ½ - ½
4.4 GM Rodshtein Maxim 2609 - GM L'Ami Erwin 2610 ½ - ½
Bo. 1 RUS Russia (RUS) Rtg - 12 ESP Spain (ESP) Rtg 2 : 2
5.1 GM Kramnik Vladimir 2772 - GM Shirov Alexei 2726 ½ - ½
5.2 GM Svidler Peter 2727 - GM Vallejo Pons Francisco 2664 ½ - ½
5.3 GM Grischuk Alexander 2719 - GM Illescas Cordoba Miguel 2604 ½ - ½
5.4 GM Jakovenko Dmitry 2737 - GM San Segundo Carrillo Pablo 2564 ½ - ½
Bo. 7 FRA France (FRA) Rtg - 4 AZE Azerbaijan (AZE) Rtg 1½:2½
6.1 GM Bacrot Etienne 2705 - GM Radjabov Teimour 2752 ½ - ½
6.2 GM Vachier-Lagrave Maxime 2716 - GM Mamedyarov Shakhriyar 2731 ½ - ½
6.3 GM Fressinet Laurent 2676 - GM Gashimov Vugar 2703 ½ - ½
6.4 GM Tkachiev Vladislav 2664 - GM Huseynov Gadir 2650 - - +
Bo. 37 VIE Vietnam (VIE) Rtg - 22 SRB Serbia (SRB) Rtg 2½:1½
7.1 GM Nguyen Ngoc Truong Son 2567 - GM Solak Dragan 2595 ½ - ½
7.2 GM Le Quang Liem 2583 - GM Kovacevic Aleksandar 2581 ½ - ½
7.3 GM Dao Thien Hai 2510 - GM Perunovic Milos 2580 1 - 0
7.4 GM Tu Hoang Thong 2496 - GM Vuckovic Bojan 2561 ½ - ½
Bo. 5 HUN Hungary (HUN) Rtg - 23 BLR Belarus (BLR) Rtg 2½:1½
8.1 GM Leko Peter 2747 - GM Zhigalko Sergei 2592 1 - 0
8.2 GM Polgar Judit 2711 - GM Aleksandrov Aleksej 2617 1 - 0
8.3 GM Almasi Zoltan 2663 - GM Fedorov Alexei 2584 0 - 1
8.4 GM Berkes Ferenc 2645 - GM Zhigalko Andrey 2568 ½ - ½
Bo. 17 GEO Georgia (GEO) Rtg - 14 ROU Romania (ROU) Rtg 2½:1½
9.1 GM Jobava Baadur 2664 - GM Nisipeanu Liviu-Dieter 2684 ½ - ½
9.2 GM Mchedlishvili Mikheil 2615 - GM Parligras Mircea 2611 ½ - ½
9.3 GM Pantsulaia Levan 2580 - GM Lupulescu Constantin 2594 ½ - ½
9.4 GM Arutinian David 2584 - GM Vajda Levente 2582 1 - 0
Bo. 24 CRO Croatia (CRO) Rtg - 15 ENG England (ENG) Rtg 2 : 2
10.1 GM Palac Mladen 2583 - GM Adams Michael 2734 ½ - ½
10.2 GM Kozul Zdenko 2593 - GM Short Nigel D 2642 1 - 0
10.3 GM Stevic Hrvoje 2588 - GM Howell David W L 2593 0 - 1
10.4 GM Jovanovic Zoran 2564 - GM Jones Gawain C B 2548 ½ - ½
Bo. 6 BUL Bulgaria (BUL) Rtg - 34 KAZ Kazakhstan (KAZ) Rtg 3 : 1
11.1 GM Cheparinov Ivan 2696 - GM Kazhgaleyev Murtas 2640 1 - 0
11.2 GM Georgiev Kiril 2645 - GM Kotsur Pavel 2563 ½ - ½
11.3 GM Delchev Aleksander 2632 - GM Ibrayev Nurlan 2448 1 - 0
11.4 GM Iotov Valentin 2532 - IM Zhumabayev Rinat 2490 ½ - ½
Bo. 21 POL Poland (POL) Rtg - 28 SLO Slovenia (SLO) Rtg 1½:2½
12.1 GM Socko Bartosz 2631 - GM Beliavsky Alexander G 2619 ½ - ½
12.2 GM Wojtaszek Radoslaw 2599 - GM Pavasovic Dusko 2597 0 - 1
12.3 GM Gajewski Grzegorz 2577 - GM Lenic Luka 2569 ½ - ½
12.4 GM Bartel Mateusz 2602 - IM Borisek Jure 2548 ½ - ½
Bo. 13 IND India (IND) Rtg - 25 SVK Slovakia (SVK) Rtg 3 : 1
13.1 GM Sasikiran Krishnan 2694 - GM Movsesian Sergei 2732 ½ - ½
13.2 GM Harikrishna P 2659 - GM Ftacnik Lubomir 2571 1 - 0
13.3 GM Ganguly Surya Shekhar 2603 - GM Petrik Tomas 2487 1 - 0
13.4 GM Geetha Narayanan Gopal 2548 - IM Vavrak Peter 2478 ½ - ½
Bo. 53 AUS Australia (AUS) Rtg - 16 CUB Cuba (CUB) Rtg 1 : 3
14.1 GM Zhao Zong-Yuan 2567 - GM Bruzon Batista Lazaro 2623 1 - 0
14.2 IM Smerdon David 2470 - GM Quezada Perez Yuniesky 2580 0 - 1
14.3 GM Johansen Darryl K 2446 - GM Hernandez Carmenates Holden 2580 0 - 1
14.4 IM Xie George Wendi 2403 - GM Nogueiras Santiago Jesus 2574 0 - 1
Bo. 49 EGY Egypt (EGY) Rtg - 19 NOR Norway (NOR) Rtg 1½:2½
15.1 GM Adly Ahmed 2586 - GM Carlsen Magnus 2786 0 - 1
15.2 GM Amin Bassem 2560 - GM Lie Kjetil A 2526 ½ - ½
15.3 IM Frhat Ali 2418 - GM Johannessen Leif Erlend 2545 ½ - ½
15.4 FM Abdel Razik Khaled 2406 - IM Hammer Jon Ludvig 2522 ½ - ½
Bo. 41 GER Germany 2 (GER2) Rtg - 50 TUR Turkey (TUR) Rtg 2 : 2
16.1 IM Braun Arik 2567 - GM Gurevich Mikhail 2634 0 - 1
16.2 GM Bindrich Falko 2517 - IM Can Emre 2464 ½ - ½
16.3 IM Bogner Sebastian 2448 - IM Erdogdu Mert 2449 ½ - ½
16.4 IM Huschenbeth Niclas 2417 - IM Haznedaroglu Kivanc 2436 1 - 0
Bo. 27 GRE Greece (GRE) Rtg - 46 SCO Scotland (SCO) Rtg 3 : 1
17.1 GM Kotronias Vasilios 2587 - GM Aagaard Jacob 2528 1 - 0
17.2 GM Banikas Hristos 2572 - GM Shaw John 2469 1 - 0
17.3 GM Halkias Stelios 2584 - IM Arakhamia-Grant Ketevan 2448 0 - 1
17.4 GM Mastrovasilis Dimitrios 2572 - GM McNab Colin A 2455 1 - 0
Bo. 36 SUI Switzerland (SUI) Rtg - 30 SWE Sweden (SWE) Rtg 1½:2½
18.1 GM Korchnoi Viktor 2584 - GM Berg Emanuel 2623 ½ - ½
18.2 GM Pelletier Yannick 2557 - GM Agrest Evgenij 2574 ½ - ½
18.3 GM Jenni Florian 2543 - GM Hillarp Persson Tiger 2543 0 - 1
18.4 GM Gallagher Joseph G 2480 - GM Cicak Slavko 2564 ½ - ½


38th Olympiad, Dresden | Final Standings (Open section, top 50)

Rk. SNo Team Team + = - TB1 TB2 TB3 TB4
1 9 Armenia ARM 9 1 1 19 400,5 152,0 31,0
2 8 Israel ISR 8 2 1 18 377,5 149,0 28,0
3 10 United States of America USA 8 1 2 17 362,0 146,0 29,0
4 2 Ukraine UKR 7 3 1 17 348,5 163,0 25,5
5 1 Russia RUS 7 2 2 16 375,0 156,0 27,0
6 4 Azerbaijan AZE 7 2 2 16 359,5 147,0 29,0
7 3 China CHN 7 2 2 16 357,5 150,0 27,0
8 5 Hungary HUN 7 2 2 16 341,5 140,0 27,5
9 37 Vietnam VIE 7 2 2 16 340,0 137,0 29,0
10 12 Spain ESP 7 2 2 16 337,5 142,0 27,5
11 17 Georgia GEO 8 0 3 16 321,0 138,0 28,0
12 20 Netherlands NED 7 1 3 15 343,0 146,0 27,5
13 11 Germany 1 GER1 6 3 2 15 339,0 151,0 26,5
14 6 Bulgaria BUL 7 1 3 15 327,5 132,0 29,5
15 15 England ENG 6 3 2 15 320,0 147,0 26,0
16 13 India IND 7 1 3 15 310,0 142,0 26,0
17 28 Slovenia SLO 7 1 3 15 288,0 134,0 26,0
18 23 Belarus BLR 5 4 2 14 307,0 137,0 26,5
19 14 Romania ROU 7 0 4 14 306,5 138,0 25,5
20 22 Serbia SRB 7 0 4 14 302,0 144,0 25,0
21 19 Norway NOR 5 4 2 14 300,0 139,0 24,0
22 7 France FRA 6 2 3 14 295,0 147,0 25,0
23 16 Cuba CUB 6 2 3 14 294,5 142,0 25,5
24 27 Greece GRE 5 4 2 14 292,5 137,0 25,5
25 30 Sweden SWE 6 2 3 14 286,0 133,0 25,5
26 42 Montenegro MNE 6 2 3 14 279,0 129,0 25,5
27 24 Croatia CRO 6 2 3 14 275,5 130,0 24,5
28 48 Canada CAN 6 2 3 14 272,5 109,0 30,0
29 21 Poland POL 6 1 4 13 301,0 134,0 27,0
30 29 Bosnia & Herzegovina BIH 6 1 4 13 294,0 126,0 25,5
31 25 Slovakia SVK 6 1 4 13 290,0 134,0 27,0
32 52 Finland FIN 5 3 3 13 287,5 126,0 27,5
33 51 Estonia EST 5 3 3 13 282,0 115,0 28,0
34 35 Lithuania LTU 5 3 3 13 278,0 134,0 24,5
35 47 Germany 3 GER3 5 3 3 13 276,5 122,0 27,0
36 50 Turkey TUR 5 3 3 13 276,5 121,0 27,5
37 34 Kazakhstan KAZ 6 1 4 13 272,5 132,0 25,5
38 18 Czech Republic CZE 6 1 4 13 270,5 130,0 26,0
39 32 Denmark DEN 6 1 4 13 268,5 131,0 25,0
40 40 Iran IRI 6 1 4 13 265,0 123,0 26,5
41 44 Italy ITA 6 1 4 13 261,0 134,0 25,5
42 41 Germany 2 GER2 5 3 3 13 259,0 130,0 23,0
43 26 Moldova MDA 4 5 2 13 258,5 133,0 23,5
44 43 Latvia LAT 5 3 3 13 257,5 126,0 25,5
45 54 Austria AUT 5 3 3 13 252,5 128,0 24,5
46 38 Philippines PHI 6 1 4 13 250,0 128,0 23,5
47 55 Bangladesh BAN 6 1 4 13 249,0 121,0 25,5
48 64 Paraguay PAR 6 1 4 13 220,5 116,0 24,0
49 59 Colombia COL 5 2 4 12 257,0 130,0 24,5
50 33 Uzbekistan UZB 5 2 4 12 256,5 123,0 25,5


38th Olympiad, Dresden | Best players after rd 11 (rating perf.; Open section)

No. Title Name Rtg Team Rp Pts. Games % Bo.
1 GM Sargissian Gabriel 2642 Armenia 2869 9,0 11 81,8 3
2 GM Leko Peter 2747 Hungary 2834 7,5 10 75,0 1
3 GM Gelfand Boris 2719 Israel 2833 7,5 10 75,0 1
4 GM Topalov Veselin 2791 Bulgaria 2821 6,5 8 81,3 1
5 GM Akopian Vladimir 2679 Armenia 2813 8,0 11 72,7 2
6 GM Vallejo Pons Francisco 2664 Spain 2807 9,0 11 81,8 2
7 GM Movsesian Sergei 2732 Slovakia 2794 7,0 9 77,8 1
8 GM Jakovenko Dmitry 2737 Russia 2794 7,0 9 77,8 5
9 GM Blagojevic Dragisa 2522 Montenegro 2792 8,0 9 88,9 4
10 GM Delchev Aleksander 2632 Bulgaria 2788 8,0 9 88,9 4
11 GM Kotronias Vasilios 2587 Greece 2781 8,5 11 77,3 2
12 GM Meier Georg 2558 Germany 2 2779 7,0 9 77,8 1
13 GM Rodshtein Maxim 2609 Israel 2776 7,0 9 77,8 5
14 GM Wang Yue 2736 China 2773 6,5 10 65,0 1
15 GM Kamsky Gata 2729 United States of America 2768 6,5 10 65,0 1
16 GM Bacrot Etienne 2705 France 2766 6,5 10 65,0 1
17 GM Gashimov Vugar 2703 Azerbaijan 2765 6,5 9 72,2 3
18 GM Hillarp Persson Tiger 2543 Sweden 2762 8,0 10 80,0 3
19 GM Jobava Baadur 2664 Georgia 2758 6,5 10 65,0 1
20 GM Carlsen Magnus 2786 Norway 2757 7,5 11 68,2 1


38th Olympiad, Dresden | Results round 11 (Women section, top)

Bo. 9 POL Poland (POL) Rtg - 2 UKR Ukraine (UKR) Rtg 1½:2½
1.1 IM Socko Monika 2434 - GM Lahno Kateryna 2488 ½ - ½
1.2 IM Rajlich Iweta 2404 - WGM Zhukova Natalia 2488 0 - 1
1.3 WGM Zawadzka Jolanta 2378 - IM Ushenina Anna 2496 0 - 1
1.4 WIM Majdan Joanna 2284 - IM Gaponenko Inna 2473 1 - 0
Bo. 12 GER Germany 1 (GER1) Rtg - 20 SWE Sweden (SWE) Rtg 3 : 1
2.1 IM Paehtz Elisabeth 2471 - GM Cramling Pia 2550 ½ - ½
2.2 IM Kachiani-Gersinska Ketino 2371 - WIM Agrest Svetlana 2258 ½ - ½
2.3 WGM Michna Marta 2399 - WIM Tetenkina Irina 2243 1 - 0
2.4 WFM Ohme Melanie 2237 -   Agrest Inna 2215 1 - 0
Bo. 4 GEO Georgia (GEO) Rtg - 10 SRB Serbia (SRB) Rtg 3 : 1
3.1 GM Chiburdanidze Maia 2489 - IM Maric Alisa 2405 1 - 0
3.2 IM Dzagnidze Nana 2503 - IM Bojkovic Natasa 2420 ½ - ½
3.3 IM Javakhishvili Lela 2473 - WGM Stojanovic Andjelija 2357 ½ - ½
3.4 IM Khukhashvili Sopiko 2409 - WGM Chelushkina Irina 2360 1 - 0
Bo. 7 USA United States of America (USA) Rtg - 5 FRA France (FRA) Rtg 2½:1½
4.1 IM Krush Irina 2452 - GM Sebag Marie 2533 0 - 1
4.2 IM Zatonskih Anna 2440 - IM Skripchenko Almira 2455 ½ - ½
4.3 WGM Goletiani Rusudan 2359 - IM Collas Silvia 2352 1 - 0
4.4 WGM Rohonyan Katerina 2334 - WGM Milliet Sophie 2366 1 - 0
Bo. 17 NED Netherlands (NED) Rtg - 1 RUS Russia (RUS) Rtg 1½:2½
5.1 GM Peng Zhaoqin 2455 - IM Kosintseva Tatiana 2513 ½ - ½
5.2 WIM Bensdorp Marlies 2303 - IM Kosintseva Nadezhda 2468 0 - 1
5.3 WIM Van Weersel Arlette 2209 - IM Korbut Ekaterina 2459 1 - 0
5.4   Schut Lisa 2153 - WGM Pogonina Natalija 2474 0 - 1
Bo. 16 ROU Romania (ROU) Rtg - 3 CHN China (CHN) Rtg 2 : 2
6.1 WGM Cosma Elena Luminita 2340 - WGM Hou Yifan 2578 ½ - ½
6.2 WGM Voicu Carmen 2239 - GM Zhao Xue 2518 0 - 1
6.3 WIM Paulet Iozefina 2307 - WGM Shen Yang 2450 1 - 0
6.4 WGM Motoc Alina 2313 -   Ju Wenjun 2397 ½ - ½
Bo. 11 IND India (IND) Rtg - 6 ARM Armenia (ARM) Rtg 1½:2½
7.1 IM Harika Dronavalli 2462 - IM Danielian Elina 2513 0 - 1
7.2 IM Tania Sachdev 2425 - IM Mkrtchian Lilit 2443 ½ - ½
7.3 WGM Swathi Ghate 2320 - WGM Aginian Nelly 2325 ½ - ½
7.4 WGM Gomes Mary Ann 2298 - WIM Galojan Lilit 2305 ½ - ½
Bo. 8 HUN Hungary (HUN) Rtg - 43 UZB Uzbekistan (UZB) Rtg 2 : 2
8.1 GM Hoang Thanh Trang 2483 -   Muminova Nafisa 2240 0 - 1
8.2 IM Vajda Szidonia 2380 - WIM Sabirova O 2185 0 - 1
8.3 IM Madl Ildiko 2376 - WFM Gevorgyan Irina 2179 1 - 0
8.4 WGM Rudolf Anna 2318 -   Nodirjanova Nodira 2118 1 - 0
Bo. 33 ITA Italy (ITA) Rtg - 19 GRE Greece (GRE) Rtg 2½:1½
9.1 IM Sedina Elena 2365 - IM Dembo Yelena 2446 ½ - ½
9.2 WGM Zimina Olga 2368 - WGM Botsari Anna-Maria 2308 ½ - ½
9.3 WFM Ambrosi Eleonora 2128 - WGM Makropoulou Marina 2265 ½ - ½
9.4 WFM De Rosa Maria 2083 - WIM Fakhiridou Ekaterini 2248 1 - 0
Bo. 29 ARG Argentina (ARG) Rtg - 26 BLR Belarus (BLR) Rtg 1 : 3
10.1 IM Lujan Carolina 2366 - WGM Sharevich Anna 2322 0 - 1
10.2 WGM Amura Claudia 2344 - WIM Popova Natalija 2264 0 - 1
10.3 WIM Zuriel Marisa 2189 - WIM Azarova Nadezhda 2308 ½ - ½
10.4 WFM Plazaola Maria De Los Angeles 2126 - WIM Berlin Tatiana 2218 ½ - ½


38th Olympiad, Dresden | Final Standings (Women section, top 50)

Rk. SNo Team Team + = - TB1 TB2 TB3 TB4
1 4 Georgia GEO 8 2 1 18 411,5 148,0 31,0
2 2 Ukraine UKR 7 4 0 18 406,5 146,0 30,0
3 7 United States of America USA 8 1 2 17 390,5 145,0 30,5
4 1 Russia RUS 7 3 1 17 367,0 144,0 29,5
5 9 Poland POL 8 1 2 17 364,5 157,0 27,5
6 6 Armenia ARM 8 0 3 16 353,0 145,0 28,0
7 10 Serbia SRB 7 2 2 16 318,5 146,0 26,5
8 3 China CHN 6 3 2 15 392,5 159,0 27,5
9 21 Israel ISR 6 3 2 15 325,0 137,0 27,5
10 26 Belarus BLR 6 3 2 15 317,5 119,0 29,5
11 16 Romania ROU 7 1 3 15 306,5 146,0 26,5
12 33 Italy ITA 6 3 2 15 280,0 130,0 26,5
13 5 France FRA 6 2 3 14 336,5 137,0 29,5
14 8 Hungary HUN 6 2 3 14 321,0 148,0 26,5
15 11 India IND 6 2 3 14 320,5 145,0 25,0
16 15 Slovakia SVK 7 0 4 14 299,5 134,0 26,0
17 47 Mongolia MGL 6 2 3 14 289,0 140,0 23,5
18 17 Netherlands NED 7 0 4 14 286,0 143,0 24,0
19 13 Bulgaria BUL 6 2 3 14 282,0 127,0 26,5
20 30 Croatia CRO 7 0 4 14 281,5 123,0 27,5
21 12 Germany 1 GER1 5 4 2 14 279,0 132,0 24,5
22 43 Uzbekistan UZB 6 2 3 14 267,0 137,0 24,0
23 22 Spain ESP 7 0 4 14 266,5 135,0 24,5
24 19 Greece GRE 6 1 4 13 307,5 124,0 29,5
25 25 Cuba CUB 6 1 4 13 288,0 125,0 28,0
26 24 Vietnam VIE 6 1 4 13 272,5 133,0 25,0
27 36 Austria AUT 6 1 4 13 269,5 135,0 24,5
28 27 Latvia LAT 5 3 3 13 266,5 124,0 26,0
29 29 Argentina ARG 6 1 4 13 262,0 125,0 27,0
30 42 Turkey TUR 6 1 4 13 249,5 121,0 25,5
31 28 Azerbaijan AZE 5 3 3 13 246,5 141,0 21,5
32 46 Estonia EST 6 1 4 13 245,5 118,0 26,0
33 32 Moldova MDA 6 1 4 13 238,0 132,0 23,0
34 48 Germany 2 GER2 6 1 4 13 236,0 131,0 23,0
35 34 Montenegro MNE 6 1 4 13 227,5 119,0 24,5
36 18 Czech Republic CZE 5 2 4 12 270,0 126,0 26,0
37 14 Slovenia SLO 5 2 4 12 260,0 134,0 25,0
38 20 Sweden SWE 5 2 4 12 258,5 120,0 26,5
39 39 Iran IRI 5 2 4 12 258,0 122,0 27,5
40 38 Switzerland SUI 5 2 4 12 257,5 127,0 24,5
41 44 Colombia COL 6 0 5 12 255,5 122,0 26,5
42 67 Indonesia INA 5 2 4 12 237,5 122,0 25,5
43 51 Philippines PHI 5 2 4 12 232,0 118,0 24,5
44 41 Luxembourg LUX 5 2 4 12 227,5 119,0 23,5
45 35 Kazakhstan KAZ 5 2 4 12 226,5 122,0 24,0
46 49 Portugal POR 6 0 5 12 218,0 121,0 23,0
47 50 Germany 3 GER3 5 2 4 12 208,5 109,0 25,0
48 62 Brazil BRA 6 0 5 12 196,0 107,0 24,5
49 60 Kyrgyzstan KGZ 6 0 5 12 182,0 115,0 22,5
50 31 England ENG 5 1 5 11 250,0 124,0 24,5


38th Olympiad, Dresden | Best players after rd 11 (rating perf.; Women section)

No. Title Name Rtg Team Rp Pts. Games % Bo.
1 GM Chiburdanidze Maia 2489 Georgia 2715 7,5 9 83,3 1
2 WIM Majdan Joanna 2284 Poland 2621 9,5 11 86,4 4
3 IM Fierro Baquero Martha L 2361 Ecuador 2613 7,5 8 93,8 1
4 IM Kosintseva Nadezhda 2468 Russia 2591 8,5 10 85,0 3
5 IM Zatonskih Anna 2440 United States of America 2571 8,0 10 80,0 2
6 IM Khukhashvili Sopiko 2409 Georgia 2564 6,0 7 85,7 5
7 WGM Hou Yifan 2578 China 2563 7,5 11 68,2 1
8 IM Socko Monika 2434 Poland 2563 6,5 10 65,0 1
9 WGM Zhukova Natalia 2488 Ukraine 2553 7,0 10 70,0 2
10 IM Mkrtchian Lilit 2443 Armenia 2549 8,0 11 72,7 2
11 WGM Goletiani Rusudan 2359 United States of America 2542 9,0 11 81,8 3
12 GM Peng Zhaoqin 2455 Netherlands 2533 6,5 10 65,0 1
13 IM Moser Eva 2376 Austria 2531 8,5 10 85,0 1
14 WIM Linares Napoles Oleiny 2261 Cuba 2530 9,0 10 90,0 4
15 WGM Zdebskaja Natalia 2419 Ukraine 2528 7,0 8 87,5 5
16 IM Dzagnidze Nana 2503 Georgia 2526 7,0 10 70,0 2
17 WGM Munguntuul Batkhuyag 2410 Mongolia 2517 7,0 10 70,0 1
18 GM Cramling Pia 2550 Sweden 2515 8,0 9 88,9 1
19 GM Sebag Marie 2533 France 2507 6,5 9 72,2 1
20 WGM Pogonina Natalija 2474 Russia 2489 6,0 7 85,7 5

Medal winners:

Open section

Board 1: Gold Peter Leko | Silver Boris Gelfand | Bronze Veselin Topalov
Board 2: Gold Vladimir Akopian | Silver Paco Vallejo | Bronze Vassilios Kotronias
Board 3: Gold Gabriel Sargissian | Silver Vugar Gashimov | Bronze Tiger Hillarp Persson
Board 4: Gold Dragisa Blagojevic | Silver Aleksandr Delchev | Bronze Daniel Fridman
Board 5: Gold Dmitry Jakovenko | Silver Maxim Rodshtein | Bronze Ferenc Berkes

Women’s section

Board 1: Gold Maia Chiburdanidze | Silver Martha Fierro Baquero | Bronze Hou Yifan
Board 2: Gold Anna Zatonskih | Silver Natalia Zhukova | Bronze Lilit Mkrtchian
Board 3: Gold Nadezhda Kosintseva | Silver Rusudan Goletiani | Bronze Ildiko Madl
Board 4: Gold Joanna Majdan | Silver Oleiny Linares Napoles | Bronze Maia Lomineishvili
Board 5: Gold Natalia Zdebskaja | Silver Mary Ann Gomes | Bronze Alina Motoc

Here’s a selection of round 11 games for replay:

Kirsan first move

Ilyumzhinov waiting to make the last first move

Wang yue

Can China do it this time?¢‚Ǩ¬¶?

kiss

Last preparations: a quick kiss for Pia Cramling from the daughter?¢‚Ǩ¬¶

lipstick

?¢‚Ǩ¬¶or even more important last-minute things

audience

Quite some chaotic moments on stage but hey, it's the last round

Serzh Sargsyan

President Serzh Sargsyan of Armenia had travelled to Dresden to support his players

Petrosian

Tigran Petrosian, who decided the match by beating?¢‚Ǩ¬¶

Li Chao

...China's board four Li Chao

Ukraine-USA

Ukraine ended disappointingly with a terrible loss against the USA who repeated their fantastic last-round trick of two years ago, winning bronze again

Press conference

The Armenian team during the press conference that started at 19:00 hrs, an hour before the prize giving

Press conference

And of course they already posed before the photographers

Percussion

The prize giving started a few minutes after eight, first with a cultural part; percission drum?¢‚Ǩ¬¶

ballet

?¢‚Ǩ¬¶some ballet?¢‚Ǩ¬¶

musicians

?¢‚Ǩ¬¶and some musician from Khanty-Mansyisk, where the next Olympiad will be held, to bring us a bit in the mood already?¢‚Ǩ¬¶

Spectators

?¢‚Ǩ¬¶all watched by hundreds of participants from many different countries

Kirsan

And then the official part started, naturally with a speech by FIDE President Kirsan Ilyumzhinov

Board five men

The men's board five medal winners: Ferenc Berkes (Hungary, bronze), Dmitry Jakovenko (Russia, gold) and Maxim Rodshtein (Israel, silver)

Board four women

The women's board four medal winners: Oleiny Linares Napoles (Cuba, silver), Joanna Majda (Poland, gold), Maia Lomineishvili (Georgia, bronze)

Board three men

The men's board three medal winners: Daniel Fridman (Germany, bronze), Dragisa Blagojevic (Montenegro, gold), Aleksandr Delchev (Bulgaria, silver)

Board three women

The women's board three medal winners: Rusudan Goletiani (USA, silver), Nadezhda Kosintseva (Russia, gold), Ildiko Madl (Hungary, bronze)

Board two men

The men's board three medal winners: Tiger Hillarp Persson (Sweden, bronze), Gabriel Sargissian (Armenia, gold), Vugar Gashimov (Azerbaijan, silver)

Board two women

The women's board two medal winners: Natalia Zhukova (Ukraine, silver), Anna Zatonskih (USA, gold), Lilit Mkrtchian (Armenia, bronze)

Board two women

The men's board two medal winners: Vassilios Kotronias (Greece, bronze), Vladimir Akopian (Armenia, gold), Paco Vallejo (Spain, silver)

Board one women

The women's board one medal winners: Martha Fierro Baquero (Ecuador, silver), Maia Chiburdanidza (Georgia, gold), Hou Yifan (China, bronze)

Board one men

The men's board one medal winners: Veselin Topalov (Bulgaria, bronze), Peter Leko (Hungary, gold), Boris Gelfand (Israel, silver)

Chiburdanidze

Chiburdanidze won the best rating performance prize

Sargissian

Sargissian won the best rating performance prize

Nona

Nona Gaprindashvili just handed out her prize to a Ukraine representative, for finishing first in the combined sections

USA

Bronze medals: USA

Ukraine

Silver medals: Ukraine

Georgia

Gold medals: Georgia

Georgia

Bronze medals: USA

Israel

Silver medals: Israel

Armenia

Gold medals: Armenia (again with their President supporting them)

Arshak

Arshak Petrosian showing the cup to everyone

Links:

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Comments

26 Responses to “Armenia and Georgia win gold at Olympiad”

  1. Armen on November 25th, 2008 3:37 pm

    Yeah!

  2. ChessGirl on November 25th, 2008 3:41 pm

    If it hadn?Ǭ¥t been for Efimenko?Ǭ¥s incredible performance, Ukraine wouldn?Ǭ¥t have even had the chance of smelling the gold. Maybe for next time the president of the Ukrainian Chess Federation Viktor Petrov can learn, stop exploiting his players, pay them and count with ALL Ukraine?Ǭ¥s best professionals.

  3. shy_guest on November 25th, 2008 4:09 pm

    So who won the women’s gold – Ukraine or Georgia ?

    & who gets the men’s (errr … open) bronze ?

  4. Claude on November 25th, 2008 5:13 pm

    ?ê?æh, second win in a row 4 Armenia, what a great success. Gabriel Sargissian and Vladimir Akopian were simply outstanding. Very good job. Congratulations from France.

  5. Raymond Armagnac on November 25th, 2008 5:30 pm

    Good for the Armenian Team,

  6. Vahag on November 25th, 2008 6:00 pm

    such a great performance for Armenians. Impressed!!!

  7. Merijn on November 25th, 2008 6:35 pm

    Congratulations to my Armenian friends!!! :-)

  8. Lajos Arpad on November 25th, 2008 8:15 pm

    Armenia retained the gold medal. Great success for them. Congratulations!
    L?ɬ©k?ɬ? had an excelent tournament. He has the best performance on board one. Congratulations!
    Sargissian has an even better performance! This could be easily a guiness record: best performance on board 3.
    The olimpiad was very nice, Armenia absolutely deserved the gold. I just would have liked to see more rounds.

  9. Hovig Aramali on November 25th, 2008 8:17 pm

    Armenia wins the gold medal for the second time in a row with one difference from the gold in Turin: The absence of great Karen Asrian!

    With his physical absence, Asrian’s soul blessed all of the four (five) players in the Armenian team and HE leaded them to this brilliant victory over teams such as: Russia, Ukraine, Azerbaijan, Israel…

    Therefore, all the Armenians in the world offer this win to the amaranth Armenian player’s, Karen Asrian’s, soul!!!!

    I congratulate Armenia for his indelible, overwhelming and splendid victory!

    I also want to wish hard luck for the remaining team.

    Finally, I want to congratulate Lebanese team in his fair performance.
    Good job Fadi, Faical, Tony, Nassim and Abdo.

  10. ChessGirl on November 25th, 2008 9:41 pm

    You?Ǭ¥re right, Akopian rocks. He saved his team Linex-Magic more than once in the Spanish league

  11. flowerkraut on November 25th, 2008 9:46 pm

    Caucasus rulez!
    Congratulations to the Georgian women and to the Armenian chess players!!!! Lets also mention that the Ukraine is winning the Gaprindaschvili-Cup!

    If Russia will fail in two year time in Siberia, than Mikhail Khodorkovsky will probably have the change to meet some chessplayers. ;)
    or I better take this one :(

  12. Jonas on November 25th, 2008 10:04 pm

    Poor russia, when they finally will understand that if you want to win a tournament you must win games and not just make draws. If not Jakovenko things could have been much worse for russia. They have so many great players and they still chose these draw likes svidler and kramnik.

  13. doaxV on November 25th, 2008 10:10 pm

    Completely agree with ChessGirl

  14. newage on November 26th, 2008 1:06 am

    Francisco Vallejo is the best rated together with Gabriel Sargissian!!

  15. John on November 26th, 2008 1:42 am

    Will there be a video posted of Armenia’s press conference with Susan Polgar?

  16. patrickj on November 26th, 2008 1:55 am

    go usa! i can not believe the usa team actually beat out so many other good teams!

  17. Peter Doggers on November 26th, 2008 3:24 am

    @John – just did! ;-)

  18. Dave on November 26th, 2008 5:56 am

    Best performance of olympiad – Armenian president. Must be an election year.

  19. hairulov on November 26th, 2008 7:27 am

    ….Israel took bronze medals and its board one Boris Gelfand won individual silver ?¢‚Ǩ‚Äú he was overtaken by Hungary?¢‚Ǩ‚Ñ¢s first board Peter Leko in the last round by the smallest of margins possible: on point in rating performance. Topalov, who was in the race for gold, lost to Shirov in the penultimate round and didn?¢‚Ǩ‚Ñ¢t play in the last ?¢‚Ǩ‚Äú he took bronze…..

    Israel took silver right?

  20. Arne Moll on November 26th, 2008 7:32 am

    It’s funny to see which countries carry their flags and which don’t.

  21. Eiae on November 26th, 2008 12:23 pm

    I think Vietnam is the biggest possitive surprise of the event, well done.

  22. Sumit Balan on November 26th, 2008 1:21 pm

    Armenian Success is the result of Akopians 1.e4 and Sargassians 1.d4!!

  23. xtra on November 26th, 2008 3:09 pm

    I just decided I wanted to know the average rating of Armenia and Israel in the tournament…only taking into account opponent team average (those who played in the actual match, not including the reserve) and the team score since that was what counted.

    Armenia: 2922
    Israel: 2844

  24. xtra on November 26th, 2008 3:27 pm

    interestingly, Ukraine, finishing 4th with one point less than Israel, has gets the average raring 2848, almost the same. so it shows pretty well what resistance the Israel team faced. Not saying Israel did bad, just that the system used in this tournament really cant be the best one…

  25. Jonathan Berry on November 26th, 2008 6:24 pm

    Arne Moll:

    I think that the gold medal winners get to display their flag. That is what I remember from Calvia. Possibly the one country in the photos that wasn’t the gold medal winner … “smuggled” theirs onto the stage. What sanction FIDE might devise for that, I shudder to contemplate. Maybe they’ll have to give knight odds to their first round opponent in the next Olympiad.

    Or maybe it’s just that among the teams confident enough to bring a big flag to the Olympiad, always reside the gold medal winners.

  26. MamedyarovFan on November 26th, 2008 10:25 pm

    A special thanks to Peter and Chessvibes for adding so much to the massive Dresden event. What dedication they showed in the time-consuming tasks of giving us news, fascinating insights and superb videos in such a timely fashion. Well done and I hope that now you can relax, although the pleasantness and enthusiasm exhibited in the reports on this site strongly suggrest that your work was a labour of love and hence an enjoyable experience for the Chessvibes team. As a big Thank You, I will analyse that Chessvibes stuff from some months back if it hasn’t been done yet…. email it to me if you wish. Much appreciation.

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