Ottawa Citizen, Canada
June 10, 2006 Saturday
Final Edition
Armenia secures gold
by Deen Hergott, The Ottawa Citizen
With a full 2.5 point lead going into the final round of the Chess
Olympiad in Turin, Italy, the Armenian team secured their gold medal
with four quick draws against Hungary — their final tally was 36
points from a possible maximum of 52. Their squad was impressive,
with 10 match wins and no losses in the 13 rounds played.
The silver and bronze were still in the air, however, and the Chinese
win over the Netherlands (2.5-1.5) gave them the silver with 34. The
bronze medal went to the United States, by virtue of a near shutout
of the Norwegians (3.5-0.5) in the final round. Their final score of
33 was equalled by Israel, but the Americans had the superior
tiebreak. Russia, the pre-tournament favourites, finished a
surprising and disappointing 6th with 31, with a 3-1 loss to Israel
in the final round removing any hopes of a finish in the medals.
Canada finished 34th with 29.5 points, ahead of their pre-event
ranking of 47th. A total of 149 teams competed in the main event. In
the Women’s Olympiad, Canada also finished higher than expected — 21
points (out of a possible 39) gave them 41st place; they started the
event seeded 51st/108.
Current World No. 3, Grandmaster Levon Aronian, of Armenia, led his
team to the gold medal with some excellent games. The following is a
must-see for White’s amazing 11th move:
Aronian — GM Daniel Navara: Queen’s Indian Defence
1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nf3 b6 4.g3 Bb7 5.Bg2 Be7 6.Nc3 Ne4 7.Bd2 f5 8.Qc2
Bf6 9.Ne5!?
Uncovering the long diagonal opens up some amazing possibilities.
9…d5 10.cxd5 Nxc3 11.Nf7!!
This must have come as a shock. Black should play 11…Qc8! 12.Nxh8
Nxd5 here, with some chances, but one can hardly fault Black for
losing his way after such an expected shot.
11…Qd7? 12.Bxc3 Bxd5
Black can never capture on f7 when dxe6 comes with tempo.
13.Bxd5 Qxd5 14.e4!
Now White has a clear advantage.
14…fxe4 15.Nxh8 Nc6 16.0-0 Ke7 17.Rae1 Rxh8 18.Rxe4 Rd8 19.Rfe1 Rd6
20.Rf4 g6 21.h4 Rd7 22.h5! Bxd4 23.hxg6 hxg6 24.Qxg6 Ne5 25.Qf6+
Black Resigns
The Canadian highlight was their penultimate round win over
2nd-ranked India (finishing in 30th in the same point group as
ourselves).
Newly crowned GM Pascal Charbonneau on 1st board miraculously
survived a hair-raising attack to take the full point off World No.
2, GM Viswanathan Anand:
Charbonneau — Anand: Sicilian, Taimanov
1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 e6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nc6 5.Nb5 d6 6.c4 Nf6 7.N1c3 a6
8.Na3 Be7 9.Be2 0-0 10.0-0 b6 11.Bf4 Bb7 12.Qd2 Ne5 13.f3 Qc7 14.Rac1
Rac8 15.Rfd1 Qb8 16.Kh1 Rfe8 17.Bf1 Kh8 18.Be3 Ba8 19.Bg1 Rg8 20.Qe3
Ned7 21.Nab1 g5 22.Nd2 Bd8 23.b4 Bc7 24.Qe1 Rg6 25.Bd3 Ne5 26.Be2
Rcg8 27.Be3 Rh6 28.Nf1 Rgg6 29.Qd2 Qg8 30.a4 Bb7 31.c5 dxc5 32.bxc5
bxc5 33.Rb1 Bc6 34.Bxc5 g4 35.f4 g3 36.fxe5 Nxe4 37.Nxe4 Bxe4 38.Bd3
Bxg2+ 39.Qxg2 gxh2 40.Bxg6 Rxg6 41.Ng3 Rxg3 42.Qe4 Rg4 43.Be7 Black
Resigns