WCTC – China still in the lead

The championship takes place in the Yad Lebanim House, Reger Ave, Menahem Begin Square, Beer Sheva City, Israel. The world's strongest teams are participating, headed by Ukraine, Russia, Armenia and the USA. Israel, the host, is ranked fifth worldwide.

Comments and correction: Derek Jones of Aylesbury, England does not agree with our assessment that China looked poised for victory after five rounds. "China has played Israel and the three teams that are clearly the weakest. They still have to face the top four rated teams: Russia, Armenia, Ukraine and the USA." Point taken.

In our previous report we admitted that the youngest player in Beer Sheva was not Sergey Karjakin, who is 16, but WFM Hou Yifan from the China Women's team, who is 11 years old. To that we received a further correction: "Sergey was born 12.01.1990, now he is only 15. In your articles yesterday and some days ago was some mistakes about this!" Really? Ah, but the writer should know for sure – she is Tanya Karjakina, Sergey's mom.

That's Tanya and Sergey in Hamburg in August 2004 – i.e. Sergey at 14

Mother and son playing around with a frisbee during that visit

Round Six Report

The Chinese men are doing great: in round six they defeated the Ukraine squad 2.5-1.5, with Ni Hua scoring with the black pieces against Alexander Moiseenko. Russia defeated Armenia by the same score, with Evgeny Bareev scoring against Ashot Anastasian. That leaves China in the lead, half a point ahead of the Russians, but with only five matches played, vs six for Russia.

Georgia, after losing horribly to the Chinese men in round five, defeated the Cubans 3-1 in round six, with Zurab Azmaiparashvili playing on board one and scoring, together with his compatriot Mikheil Mchedlishvili. The USA dutifully defeated the Chinese women 4-0 to take third place on the scoreboard.

Standings after six rounds

The official web site has live transmission of the games, which are also broadcast on Playchess.com. The pictures are now partially captioned, which makes them much more useful. In the Reports section you will find comments and annotated game fragments by Alon Greenfeld.

Picture gallery

FIDE delegate Israel Gelfer kibitzes in the round six game Moiseenko-Ni Hua

Moiseenko,A (2663) - Ni Hua (2603) [D15]
World Team Ch Beer Sheva ISR (6), 07.11.2005
1.d4 d5 2.c4 c6 3.Nc3 Nf6 4.e3 a6 5.Nf3 b5 6.c5 g6 7.Ne5 Bg7 8.Be2 0-0 9.0-0 Nfd7 10.f4 f5 (position in the above picture) 11.Nd3 a5 12.Bd2 Nf6 13.Be1 Nbd7 14.Bh4 Kh8 15.Kh1 Ne4 16.h3 h6 17.g4 b4 18.Nxe4 dxe4 19.Nf2 Nf6 20.Bxf6 Bxf6 21.gxf5 Bxf5 22.Bc4 e6 23.Kh2 g5 24.Qh5 Ra7 25.Ng4 gxf4 26.Nxf6 Qxf6 27.Rxf4 Rg7 28.Rg1 Rfg8 29.Rff1 Rg5

The kingside attack has failed and White is under tremendous pressure. Moiseenko needs to retreat his queen to d1 (possibly after exchanging on g5) to reinforce the neuralgic square g1. 30.Qe2? This allows a quick forced win: 30...Qg6 (threatening 31...Rg1 and mate) 31.Rxg5 Qxg5 32.Qf2 Qh5 33.h4 Rg4 34.Be2 Rxh4+ 35.Kg1 Rh1+ and it's mate in one. 0-1.

An excursion to the Wailing Wall

The "Wailing Wall" is the western wall of an ancient courtyard and for that reason it is also referred to as "The Western Wall." The Romans destroyed the Jewish Temple in 70 AD after the Jewish people revolted against Roman rule. The wall is the only remaining structure of the ancient Temple of Jerusalem. Inside the courtyard King Solomon's glorious temple once stood. The temple was destroyed and rebuilt several times until only part of the western wall remained. The wall is just outside of the Temple Mount and is considered to be Judaism's holiest site.

... and with the Chinese women's team

The entire Chinese women's squad pose for the camera

And the Chinese men's team, who are still in the lead

Top Chinese GMs Zhang Zhong, Bu Xiangzhi and Ni Hua

The old city of Jerusalem

Narrow passages and archways

The Teams