2012 CHESS OLYMPIAD ISTANBUL: ROUND TEN
Chessbase News
Sept 7 2012
Germany
08.09.2012- After nine rounds four teams were in the joint lead in
match points. One of them, the USA, suffered a fairly devastating loss
against another from the group: China. The other two, Russia and
Armenia, both won their matches, so that now they are three in the
lead. In the women’s section Russia crushed Armenia to join China in
the lead. Express report with GM commentary.
The 40th Chess Olympiad is taking place in the Turkish metropole of
Istanbul, from August 27 to September 10th, 2012. A record of 158
national chess federations have brought teams to Istanbul to
participate in this prestigious event, which is being staged in the
WOW Hotel and Convention Center, just minutes away from the airport.
Pictures to follow…
Round ten summary by GM Alejandro Ramirez
The match situation was of course, very tense. With four teams tied
for first place it seemed like anything could happen. Of course, the
match-up of the day was China-USA, which ended in a victory for the
Chinese after Ding Liren managed to convert a seemingly drawn endgame
against usually super solid Alexander Onischuk. The rest of the games
were relatively uneventful draws, though you could say that USA was
slightly lucky to get the full 1.5/3 on those boards.
On the second table was a very unexpected match. Argentina is by no
means a ‘weak’ team. They field four GMs near 2600, but by Olympiad
standards they are nothing special. Yet somehow, after losing a match
to Poland and drawing India, they find themselves only one point
behind the leaders. Since Russia had already played the other teams
with 15 points, they had to ‘bring up’ someone. The match should’ve
been somewhat easy for the top ranked team, at least in theory.
However Russia really suffered, their black pieces being held to draws
with no problems and Sandro Mareco putting on the pressure (as black!)
against Jakovenko. Unfortunately for the latin community Mareco could
only draw and Flores lost disastrously to Karjakin in a miniature.
Russia prevails with their typical 2.5-1.5 and joins the Chinese in
the lead.
The last team with 15 points was Armenia, who got a strong opponent in
the Netherlands. The Dutch team started the Olympiad horribly, losing
to Venezuela (!) and Georgia in rounds 2 and 3, but they recovered and
bested Israel in the last round. However, Armenia showed them why they
have been playing nothing but the top boards the entire event.
Akopian also won with black after Sokolov pushed his pawns too far in
an Exchange Slav and a timely piece sacrifice left White’s pawns too
weak to defend. The ensuing endgame proved that four passed connected
pawns have more potential value than a knight. Specifically four
queens more valuable. Armenia took the match and set up a
heartstopping last round. Since the top three teams already played
each other, they will be pulling up from the trailers, Ukraine at 16,
USA, Hungary, Poland and Germany at 15. Will the top teams maintain
their momentum? Who will lose the gold medal in the very last game?
Sunday will be a big day.
For results, tables and games, go to