With one round to go, Russia is leading the World Championship in Bursa with 13 match points out of 8 rounds. Yesterday they defeated Egypt 3.5-0.5, while the USA lost 1.5-2.5 to Armenia. The top encounter between Aronian and Nakamura, a 9.Ne1 King's Indian, decided the match. Games round 8 with notes.

The 7th World Team Championship takes place at the Merinos Congress Centre in Bursa, Turkey from January 3rd till 14th, 2010. It's a 9-round round-robin with 10 teams of 6 players: 4 players + 2 reserves, and one coach/captain. The time control is 90 minutes for 40 moves +30 minutes to end the game, with 30 seconds increment from the start. At the tournament the zero-tolerance rule is in effect, and draw offers are not allowed before move 30. Teams are Russia, Brazil, China India, Egypt (continental champions), Armenia, Israel, USA (Olympiad qualifiers), Turkey, Azerbaijan, and Greece (organizing country and two invited federations).

Round 8

Until yesterday he had been leading his team with a fine score of 5.5/6, but in round 8 the fun was over for Hikaru Nakamura. Against Levon Aronian he went for the King's Indian one more time; an opening which definitely suits his style, as he has shown with two brilliancies in six months. However, Armenia's number one played the 9.Ne1 line, which is in fact theoretically more critical according to our editors of ChessVibes Openings. They covered the popular 13.Rc1 Ng6 14.c5 Nf6 15.Nb5!? idea in several issues, but Aronian went for the older set-up with Qc2 and Rfc1. Together with his new move 19.Ncd1 White had very nice piece coordination and so it looks like another good way to reach a solid plus against the KID.

However, the question remains if Black can hold it. Deprived from the break g5-g4, Nakamura made many defensive moves on the queenside and even brought his king's bishop over. It seems that only after he accepted Aronian's exchange sacrifice he started to face real problems.

Aronian-Nakamura

Here Black took on c6 but perhaps he should have tried 35...Nf6.

The game looked like a very smooth victory for Aronian, but didn't he give Black a chance to get back in the game on move 41? Nakamura missed 41...Nd6, and with draws on the other three boards, both match points went to the Armenians. The Russians crushed Egypt and so they took over the lead in the standings, with 13 points out of 8 matches. Amin played a fine game and drew with Black against Grischuk, but to have three IMs on boards 2-4 is, well, not exactly strong enough against three Russian super grandmasters.

The Greeks couldn't deliver another surprise; both Banikas and Halkias were not in top shape and lost without a real fight against Radjabov and Mamedyarov respectively. Kotronias, however, was completely winning against Gashimov, with three connected pawns for a piece.

Gashimov-Kotronias

Black in fact just sacrificed his d-pawn on d5, making it slightly more complicated, but he's still winning with 67...Rxd5! 68.Rxd5 e3 69.Re5 Ke2!. In the game after 67...Ke3?? 68.Re5 Gashimov had a narrow escape.

A last fragment comes from the match Turkey-Brazil, which ended in 1.5-2.5.

Lima-Esen

Black seems to be fine if he gives back the piece with 15...Rc8! but in the game he fell for the trick 15...Ne5? 16.Qxe5! and lost quickly.

Pairings of today's last round: Egypt-Armenia, Israel-Russia, Brazil-India, Greece-Turkey and USA-Azerbaijan.

Games round 8

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Links

• Official website
• Games in PGN via TWIC