World Team Championship starts in Ningbo, China

The Chinese Chess Association with the patronage and support of the Ningbo Municipal Government and Ningbo Sports Bureau is staging the 2011 World Team Chess Championship in Ningbo, China. The event is being held from July 15 2011 (arrival) to July 26 2011 (Departure) at the playing venue in the five-star New Century Grand Hotel Ningbo.

According to FIDE Regulations the following Federations are entitled to send a team:

1. China (host country)
2. Russia (winner 2009)
3. Ukraine (Olympiad 2010)
4. Israel (Olympiad 2010)
5. Hungary (Olympiad 2010)
6. Azerbaijan (Europe qualifier)
7. India (Asia qualifier)
8. USA (America's qualifier)
9. Egypt (African qualifier)
10. Armenia (FIDE President's nomination)

Each team consists of five players (including one reserve) and one coach/captain of the team, for a total of six participants, who are provided with full hospitality including lodging, accommodation in a single room of in the five-star hotel. The team composition for each round must be delivered to the arbiters at 9:00 am in the morning.

System and scoring

The championships is a round robin, with each team playing a match against all other teams. The time control is: 90 min for 40 moves, then 30 min for the rest of the game, with a 30 second increment per move, staring from move one. The scoring is as in the FIDE Chess Olympiads: the winner gets two points, a draw gives each team one point, and a loss is scored as 0 points. If any teams finish with equal match points, the tie is resolved as follows:

1. by board points in total;
2. in case of a tie by the scores obtained by the tying teams against each other; if the tie is still not broken;
3. by the Berger system;
4. if it is still equal by board count (Berlin System) as follows: a win on Board 1 = 4 points, a win on Board 2 = 3 points, a win on Board 3 = 2 points, a win on Board 4 = 1 points. In case of drawn games these points are shared. If the board-count does not results in the tie being broken then the board points of Board 4 are cancelled, and so on upwards until the tie is broken.
5. If a tie still results between teams in contention for medals, these teams play a match against each other at a fast time-rate (15 minutes per player for the entire game);
6. if this match is indecisive, then lots are drawn (with a collective sigh of dismay by the arbiters).

Chief Arbiter is Panagiotis Nikolopoulos (Greece). One Deputy Chief Arbiter and three arbiters are from China.

Schedule

Opening ceremony

Digitaries and players during the national anthem at the opening ceremony

A well-known collector of musical instruments, playing the world's largest flute...

...and then the world's smallest (less than 3 cm) – check out the faces of the guests!

Yan Fuxing is one of China’s most acclaimed folk musician and artist. Since his youth, he has performed songs on the finger whistle, and imitated the calls of birds. He is skilled in flute, cow horn flute, the xun (hollow wind instrument), the gourd zither and more than 40 Chinese musical instruments. Not only has he performed on the 3.6 meter long flute, but he can also play on the tiny 3 cm bone flute, the shortest in the world. He can converse with birds, and is thus dubbed Chinese Culture’s Remarkable Man; children refer to him as “Bird Uncle”, “Multi-skilled player of flutes”, “Bird king” and other flattering titles. [Source: Arboretum]

Drawing of lots with Chinese fans: Ivanchuk drew eight for the Ukrainian team

The pairings put up on the scoreboard

Round one report

Defending champion Russia beat the US team 3-1 to celebrate a great opening round; the Armenian team went even higher and scored 3.5-0.5 against the Israeli team (sans Gelfand); Ukraine beat Egypt 1.5-2.5, Hungary (with Leko on board one – welcome back Peter!) drew against India 2-2, while the host Chinese team scored the same against Azerbaijan. Here's what happened on board four in the match Ukraine vs Egypt: