2010 Chess Olympiad: Ukraine held to draw in round three

The 2010 Chess Olympiad takes place from September 21st to October 3rd in Khanty-Mansiysk, Russia. It is an 11-round Swiss System team event, in which each team has four players with one reserve. Time control: 90 minutes/40 moves + 30 minutes + 30 seconds/move as of move one. Game start: rounds 1-10 at 9 AM UTC (5 AM New York / 2 AM Pacific daylight), and round 11 at 5 AM UTC (1 AM New York / 10 PM Pacific daylight) Rest day: September 26th (after round 5) and October 2nd (after round 10).

2010 Chess Olympiad Khanty-Mansiysk

Round 3

The third round of the Olympiads generally marked the end of the law of the jungle, where the strong had free license to prey on the weak. In other words, the fourth round pairings will pit the fourteen teams with three victories, and still undefeated, against each other. Yesterday we already saw top teams Bulgaria and Azerbaijan bite the bullet in unexpected reversals, and today the surprise was undoubtedly Ukraine’s inability to overcome Croatia.

Ukrainian GM Moiseenko, Eljanov (standing) and Efimeenko.

The latter were behind the surprise defeat of Bulgaria, but what struck one as odd was how it happened. Despite the layoff of first board Ivanchuk, the Ukrainian team still enjoyed a healthy 100+ Elo advantage over their opponents on all boards. Nevertheless, as demonstrated yesterday, if anything, numbers are great on paper, but still need to be converted into results, and while Efimeenko won his game, disaster struck board four with Palac beating Moiseenko. Of course this could hardly be foreseen, but it still makes one question the wisdom of the 15-move draw by Ponomariov right at the beginning. Sure, the game was equal and devoid of any genuine interest, but team events are quite different from individual ones, and it is not unusual to be told in a *lost* position to do one’s best to *win* it.

After defeating England with a timely win over Michael Adams, Ivan Sokolov was once again the key difference in his team’s match, this time against Poland, as he defeated GM Wojtaszek (2711) his second win over a 2700+ player in three rounds, leveling the match at 2-2.

French GM Vachier-Lagrave (2721) gave his team the ideal start with a win over
Israeli GM Boris Gelfand (2751).

While France had every right to be disappointed by their draw against Slovenia in the second round, the third round draw against Israel had to be exceptionally hard to swallow. Top board Vachier-Lagrave had done all that could be asked of him, and outprepared Boris Gelfand in a line until move 25 (see Europe Echecs report below), while French champion finalists, Fressinet and Edouard drew their games. Fourth board Sebastien Feller (2649) had his game against Victor Mikhalevski (2610) solidly under control and even benefited from a blunder to reach a won position. Instead he blundered horribly two moves later and actually lost the game, forcing France to content itself with a draw.

Other top teams, were able to maintain their gold ambitions alive, and Vietnam, the intrepid heroes of round two, defeating Azerbaijan, continued their run, by defeating Uzbekistan, led by Rustam Kazimdzhanov.

A curious bit of news reached the international press regarding the loss by default in round one by the Yemen team against Israel. A number of news services actually published that the Yemen team was being sacked for playing the Israelis.

Yemen sacks chess team for playing against Israel

Yemen has sacked the country's chess team and members of the governing body after its players competed against Israel at a tournament in Belarus.

The Yemeni Sports minister, Hamud Mohammed Ubad, took the unusual decision after players ignored instructions to pull out if drawn against Israel, which is widely criticised in the Middle East for its policies towards the Palestinians.

"This was an individual action contrary to the policy of Yemen, which refuses any normalisation with Israel," said Mr Ubad, adding that the players were on their way home from Minsk.

(Click for full article)

Nevertheless, one need only see the lack of result in the crosstable to know that they did not in fact play, as ordered by their government. This has led to protests, unsurprisingly, and one cannot help but feel sympathetic for the team, unwillingly caught in this crossfire.

Other news services did in fact get the story straight.

Israel charges Yemen forfeited chess matchup for political reasons

By The Associated Press (CP)

JERUSALEM — A Yemeni chess team backed out of a match with Israel at an international competition because of political reasons, officials said Wednesday.

Aviv Bushinsky, chairman of the Israel Chess Federation, says the Yemen delegation didn't arrive for the first-round matchup with Israel Tuesday at the Chess Olympiad in Khanty-Mansiysk, Russia. He said Israel was awarded an automatic 4-0 victory as a result of the forfeit.

In the Yemeni capital of San'a, the deputy youth and sports minister, Moamar al-Ariani, dismissed the automatic win awarded Israel as a "Jewish trick that aims to ruin the reputation of Yemen and Yemeni sport."

(Click for full article)

As to the games, the best of the round was unquestionably that by American GM Gata Kamsky, who played first board today and defeated Chilean GM Morovic in emphatic fashion.

Kamsky,Gata (2705) - Morovic Fernandez,Ivan (2580)
39th Olympiad Khanty-Mansiysk 2010 (3), 23.09.2010

1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.Nc3 Bb4 4.e5 Ne7 5.a3 Bxc3+ 6.bxc3 b6 Black's main alternative to the ...c5 lines, the idea being to solve the Bc8 quandry. 7.Qg4 Ng6 8.a4 A rare continuation though. 8.h4 is the usual path. 8...Ba6 9.Bxa6 Nxa6 10.h4 h5 11.Qe2 Nb8 12.Bg5 Qd7 13.a5 Nc6 14.axb6 cxb6 15.Qf3 By playing the queen to f3 instead of Nf3, White keeps the h5 pawn under fire, making kingside castling impossible. 15...Nge7 16.Ne2 0-0-0 Very risky and putting the king under fire. 16...Na5 was certainly worth consideration, though if it does not work out, then something earlier will need to be found. 17.0-0 Nf5 18.Nf4 g6 19.Bf6 Rf8 This may not look great for black, but the alternative is queenside castling which came under heavy attack in the game. 17.Nf4 g6 18.0-0 Kb7 19.Rfb1 Rb8.

20.c4! Nxd4 The alternative 20...dxc4 was no better. 21.Bxe7 Qxe7 22.Ne2 Rhc8 (22...Qd7 23.Nc3 Qxd4? 24.Nb5 Qd7 25.Rxa7+) 23.Nc3 a6 24.d5! Nxe5 25.Qe4 Qd6 26.Rxa6!! Kxa6 27.Ra1+ Kb7 28.Ra7+ Kxa7 29.Nb5+ Ka6 30.Nxd6+- 21.Qa3 Nec6 22.c3! Nf5 23.cxd5 exd5 24.Rb5 Ka8 25.Nxd5 Na5 26.Qb4 Qc6.

27.Nxb6+!! Kamsky misses nothing in this game, and delivers surgically precise shots throughout. 27...Rxb6 27...axb6 28.Raxa5+ bxa5 29.Rxa5+ Qa6 30.Rxa6# 28.Qxa5 Rb7 29.Rxb7 Qxb7 30.Bd8 Kb8.

31.e6! Threatening Qe5+ winning the rook. 31...Re8 32.Bc7+! Kc8 32...Qxc7 33.Qb5+ Qb7 34.Qxe8+ 33.exf7 Rf8 34.Re1 Rxf7 35.Re8+ Kd7 36.Rd8+ 1-0 [Click to replay]

Another remarkable game was by Mexican champion GM Manuel Leon Hoyos (2579), who defeated Georgian GM Baadur Jobava (2711) in style.

2010 Mexican champion GM Manuel Leon Hoyos stares down GM Baadur Jobava
before the game's start.

Leon Hoyos,Manuel (2579) - Jobava,Baadur (2710)
39th Olympiad Khanty-Mansiysk 2010 (3), 23.09.2010

1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 d6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nc3 a6 6.Be3 e5 7.Nb3 Be6 8.Be2 Be7 9.0-0 Nbd7 10.a4 Rc8 11.Qd2 Nb6 12.Rfd1 0-0 13.Bg5 Kh8 14.Na5 Qc7 15.Bxf6 Bxf6 16.Qxd6 Be7 17.Qxc7 Rxc7 18.Nd5 Bxd5 19.exd5 Bb4.

20.d6! This shot was probably missed by Black. 20...Rxc2 Jobava no doubt saw too late that 20...Rd7? fails to

21.Nxb7!! Rxb7 22.c3! Bc5 23.b4 and the bishop will be recaptured with a winning position. Ex: 23...Bxb4 24.cxb4 Nd7 25.Rab1 Nb8 26.b5 axb5 27.Rxb5 Rxb5 28.Bxb5+- 21.Bd3 Rxb2 22.Nxb7 Ra8 23.Rac1! g6 24.a5! Nd5 25.d7 Nc3.

26.Bxa6! Nxd1 27.Rc8+ Kg7 28.d8Q Rb1 29.Qh8+ Kh6 30.Bd3 Ra1 31.Bf1 Be1 32.Qf8+ Kh5 33.Be2+ Kg5 34.h4+ 1-0 [Click to replay]

Tomorrow's pairings include Russia 1 vs USA, Hungary vs China, Russia 2 vs India, and Georgia vs Norway, though Carlsen's challenge is not slight as Norway is probably the weakest overall team among the leaders.

Men's team pairings for round 4
Women's team pairings for round 4

Photographs by FIDE, Turkish Chess Federation, and CNC.

Watching the games

It goes without saying that the options to watch the games live are wide and varied. You can watch them at no cost on Playchess, enjoying the software's new options to display multiple boards at the same time, and if you are a Premium member, live grandmaster commentary will be provided on Playchess for every round by GM Daniel King, author of the best-selling Power Play series, and GM Yasser Seirawan. If you miss the live games, you can always watch the commentary after the fact, or get an abridged tale via the Daily Roundup show also hosted on Playchess at 6 PM UTC (2 PM New York). Again, if you miss the show, it remains available on the server at your disposal.

Video reports

We received video reports by both Elmira Mirzoeva and Europe Echecs which we are sharing with their kind permission.

 
The third round report includes post-game interviews of Italian Brunello and French Vachier-Lagrave.

 
Round three report gives the result and a focus on women in chess.

Top men's results

Top women's results

Sponsors

Links Official tournament site Men's games in PGN Women's games in PGN The games are being broadcast live on the official web site and on the chess server Playchess.com. If you are not a member you can download the free PGN reader ChessBase Light, which gives you immediate access. You can also use the program to read, replay and analyse PGN games. New and enhanced: CB Light 2009!