World Teams: India beats Azerbaijan, Russia beats USA
The World Team Championship is just three rounds old an already there's no team left that hasn't suffered a loss. Yesterday Russia recovered and defeated the USA while Azerbaijan lost to India.
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 3
After three rounds, Armenia has a slim lead of just half a board point but Azerbaijan, India, Israel, Russia and the United States also have four match points. Yesterday they beat Turkey 3.5-0.5; the draw was scored by IM Mert Erdogdu (2513) who was under slight pressure with White against Levon Aronian, but just didn't make a mistake.
Boards 2 and 3 went smoothly for the Armenians; Sargissian's opponent Emre Can went all or nothing with a King's-Gambit-19th-century-style, and got less than nothing. On 4, Baris Esen got his chances when Arman Pashikian, close to the time control, almost spoilt a winning position with 37.Rd4? (the simple 37.Qxc6, protecting Nf3, is just winning).
37...Rxg2+! was good here (do you see the main idea on move 39 for Black?), but 44...Kf7? a blunder. Perhaps White is winning anyway, but like this it was over instantly.
Azerbaijan suffered a surprising loss to India. Radjabov sacrificed a pawn against Harikrishna and got a strong, close to winning initiative in return, but then lost track. Black would have suffered after both 19.exf6 Bxf6 20.h4! and 21.Bd5 followed by 22.e6. On board 3 Ganguly defeated Guseinov, who plays at a higher board than Mamedyarov, repeating a successful strategy from last year's European Team Championship. "Shakh" has proven to be very good at beating weaker players, and yesterday Gopal was his victim.
Things were decided when Sasikiran beat Gashimov in a game that started as a rare Nimzo/Benoni hybrid. 13...Nxc3 was new compared to Dao Thien Hai-Garcia, Amsterdam (Donner Memorial) 1996, and as it turns out this variation was played by Donner himself with both colours! In the game, Sasikiran got wonderful play for just one pawn, with a terrible lack of development among the black troops. Gashimov saw it coming and decided to return the material and exchange queens, but even in the ending with rooks and opposite-coloured bishops Sasikiran managed to keep the initiative. The big question is: can White win after the obvious 46...Rb1 or 47...Rb1 - with 46...f5? Gashimov gave away the game and the match.
Russia was too strong for the USA, but not on boards 1 and 2. Nakamura played the Leningrad Dutch against Grischuk and at some point had much better bishops, but there was no way to get through. Onischuk was fine in the middlegame but snatching b7 was dangerous. If Morozevich had found Nd1 a move earlier he might have won the game. Shulman was completely crushed by Malakhov and Akobian clearly erred somewhere in the opening against Vitiugov because already at move 13 he was a pawn down in an ending, with White.
The surprise of the round: Egypt's upset against Greece, who had beaten Russia the round before. Israel defeated Brazil thanks to Gelfand who scored an easy win on board one against Vescovi. In Leitao-Sutovsky 28...Nxe4 looks dangerous, but it might be possible for Black.
World Team Ch 2010 | Results round 3
World Team Ch 2010 | Round 3 standings
Games round 3
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Founder and editor-in-chief of ChessVibes.com, Peter is responsible for most of the chess news and tournament reports. Often visiting top events, he also provides photos and videos for the site. He's a 1.e4 player himself, likes Thai food and the Stones.
Comments
guncha
2 years 1 month ago
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Russians beat Azeri team. Russians prove they don't need Ukrainians to beat one of the strongest teams in the World with its best lineups. Actually they've done better than with Svidler in ECh.
unknown
2 years 1 month ago
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Go Poland!
MamedyarovFan
2 years 1 month ago
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A great report as usual Peter. But please consider correcting the typo "Mamedyarov saw it coming ..." to "Gashimov saw it coming ..." for readers unaware that Shakh actually has 100% score ;-)
Mariano Piñeyro
2 years 1 month ago
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See my column in www.ajedrezmartelli.org.ar, in english and spanish. Also too www.ajedrezespectacular.net, of Spain. Brazil is the best latin american country of chess. Im from Argentina. Here chess is amateur. Player with 2550 ELO escape for other countrys, and never come back. I talk to Alexander Fier and Gilberto Milos, in the school of chess of Villa Martelli. And the level of boths is higger!. Concepts of chess. Experience. I hope that Brazil finish five in the table of positions. And Russia first, United States second. Thanks.
Thomas
2 years 1 month ago
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@guncha:
"In remaining matches only Armenia and Israel could beat Russia but we all know that it won’t happen."
Maybe you know, I know nothing but had a look at Russia's earlier results in team competitions - for reasons given below, I also give Morozevich's individual result (if he isn't mentioned, he didn't play that round)
European Team Championship 2009
Russia-Israel 3-1
Russia-Armenia 2.5-1.5 (Moro-Akopian 1-0)
[so far so good for Russia, but they drew Croatia, Netherlands, Azerbaijan and Spain in the same event]
Olympiad 2008
Russia-Armenia 1.5-2.5
ETC 2007 (only event won by Russia in my list)
Russia-Armenia 2.5-1.5 (Moro-Akopian 1-0)
Olympiad 2006
Russia-Armenia 2-2 (Moro-Sargissian 0-1)
Russia-Israel 1-3 (Moro-Avrukh 0-1) [this was in the last round, turning a so-so tournament into a bad one]
Unlike their loss against Greece, it wouldn't be a major surprise if Russia loses (or at least draws) one or both of those matches this year? And quite a bit seems to depend on Moro's form, which isn't good so far.
As Russia plays Israel in the last round, another empirical-historical detail: In these four tournaments, they won only one of their last-round matches (against Bulgaria in 2007) - plus the already mentioned loss against Israel and two draws against Spain.
All of this isn't necessarily bad news for the Russian team, but may question your rather categorical suggestion!?
Peter Doggers
2 years 1 month ago
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Oops, thx, corrected.
redwhitechess
2 years 1 month ago
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The Chinese team still mentioned in 2nd paragraph!
Nice report and thanks to Greece and India for making the tournament more interesting to follow.
chiss
2 years 1 month ago
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why is the live ratings site not updated? are they on holidays?
unknown, why you are talking about poland? are you from poland?
Thomas
2 years 1 month ago
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And another correction: Ganguly-Guseinov was board 3.
But applying Arne Moll's triangle: I prefer an interesting, fast and not 100% correct report to a boring, slow and "perfect" one - we readers take care of the rest ... :)
Peter Doggers
2 years 1 month ago
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Wow how many erros can one make in one article. :-) Corrected.
guncha
2 years 1 month ago
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The main match of the tournament takes place today. Russian team without Ukrainians and without Kramnik and Svidler will compete against top Azeri lineup.
christos (greece)
2 years 1 month ago
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By the way, did you mean 37.Qxc6 instead of 37.Qxc7?
Peter Doggers
2 years 1 month ago
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*getting a strong coffee*
Pal G.
2 years 1 month ago
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I will take some of the heat off Peter by asking a potentially dumb question: I like to read both Chessvibes and Chessbase News during tournaments, to receive as much coverage as I can get. Is there a reason there is no mention of this tournament on their news page? Sometimes they exclude what I would consider big tournaments. Is there a political, economical, legal, or even whimsical reason for this?
Peter Doggers
2 years 1 month ago
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No idea. Spanish and German versions are covering it.
Thomas
2 years 1 month ago
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@guncha: How do you know the result? Were you watching live at one of the (rare) moments when the live transmission was actually working?
When I last checked, Malakhov had won in 13 moves (rumors say Mamedov's cellphone rang) and Grischuk was more than a queen up - but that was obviously a transmission error.
Oh well, the PGN's will be up in due course - hopefully the correct ones. How much strong coffee, or what else do the Turkish organizers need?
guncha
2 years 1 month ago
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After 4 rounds Russia, India, Israel, USA and Armenia lead with 6 points. Tomorrow Russia will play against Turkey while Armenia will head against India; Israel against USA. Russia is in excellent to overtake the lead from Armenia and USA tomorrow.
Russia should be the main favorites since they haven't played with Egypt as well. In remaining matches only Armenia and Israel could beat Russia but we all know that it won't happen.
aun1
2 years 1 month ago
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two nice wins in a row for team russia after their disappointing loss to greece.
T. Goto
2 years 1 month ago
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Confirmed. According to the official website, Russia beat Azeris. Grischuk has been in a great shape, a trend continuing from 2009. Maybe we will see him delivering some early promises... That's the positive side (Well, I have nothing against Azeri team; this comment is purely personal preference, not based on nationalities. While I like young talents, I tend to like older guys like myself). Sadly, Morozevich has been experiencing some difficulties lately. Nakamura's Dutch is quite impressive though. He was OK against Grischuk.
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