NDTV.com, India –
June 4 2006
Chess: Anand crashes in penultimate round

Sunday, June 4, 2006 (Turin):
World number two Viswanathan Anand crashed to a shocking defeat as
Indian men suffered another humiliation going down to a low ranked
Canada by a 1.5-2.5 margin in the 12th and penultimate round at the
Chess Olympiad.
Anand lost early against Pascal Charbonneau on the top board and that
set the tone for another disaster as Surya Shekhar Ganguly was also
stunned by unheralded International Master Thomas Roussel-Roozmon
later in the day.
Former World Junior champion P Harikrishna saved some blushes for the
Indians with a victory on the third board against Krnan Tomas while
Krishnan Sasikiran could only manage a draw against GM Mark
Bluvshtein on the second.
The second seeded Indian team struggled from the first round despite
starting as the second favourites in the 37th edition of the
Olympiad.
Meanwhile, at the top of the tables, Armenia took a huge 2.5 points
lead over nearest rivals China with a clinical 2-2 draw with France
without much ado.
Armenian players settled for peace pretty quickly while the Chinese
men had to work hard for a 3-1 victory over Czech republic and now
they are firmly in second place on 31.5 points, a half point adrift
of nearest rival Russia.
Russian also did well to beat Cuba by a 3-1 margin and even as
Armenia is now almost confirmed for the gold medal the fight for the
silver is still on between Russia and China. (PTI)

Caucaz, Georgia
June 4 2006
Robert Kocharian has `modest expectations’ from meeting on June 4
with Ilham Aliyev
Yerevan, 4 June 2006 (Regnum – website) – `I have modest expectations
from forthcoming meeting with Ilham Aliyev,’ Armenian President
Robert Kocharian stated to the press. According to him, a variant,
which will enable long-term and peaceful settlement, is being
discussed. `However, I have an impression that the Azerbaijani side
does not wish peaceful conflict settlement at all; militarist
statements made in Baku are evidence of that,’ the Armenian head
stressed.
`There has been no case after establishment of the UN, that some
nation that used its right for self-determination and achieved
independence de-facto, changed its opinion and rejoined the state it
separated from. I do not understand why the Armenian people and
Karabakh residents should be first, who will decide that independence
does not suit them because of some reasons. We have given no occasion
for such conclusions,’ Robert Kocharian resumed.
The meeting of the Armenian and Azerbaijani presidents will take
place on June 4 in Bucharest.

Zaman, Turkey
June 4 2006
‘Enacting the So-called Genocide Law is Difficult’
By Cihan News Agency, Amsterdam
Published: Sunday, June 04, 2006
zaman.com
Enacting the proposed law presented to the Dutch Parliament which
criminalizes denial of the so-called Armenian genocide’ is decidedly
difficult.
Turkish origin Dutch parliamentarian, Fadime Orgu, considers that
legislative proposal that upset Turks in the Netherlands will be
delayed in the commission.
Orgu said the Armenian lobby seeking the support of the public
opinion in various countries now tries to stir the Netherlands, `the
country of tolerance’, and Turks in the Netherlands will not allow
this to happen.
Liberal Party member Orgu pointed out the groundless and pointless
draft was proposed by only three members of the Christian Union (CU)
party at the 150-seat Dutch parliament and the proposal will be
discussed first in the concerned commission.
Turkish Deputy said: `We will deal with the matter with our friends
within and outside the party. We need to be calm, strategic and
diplomatic. A huge responsibility has been entrusted to Turkish civil
institutions, businessmen and the public.
If we strengthen our lobby, we can stop the draft in its initial
stage.’ Orgu said it will be very difficult to pass the draft even if
it passes the commission.

Los Angeles Times, CA
June 4 2006
Pounding at the Box Office
Sparse crowd attends card a day after title bout was canceled because
of Castillo’s failure to make weight. Promoters will take a financial
bath.
By Steve Springer, Times Staff Writer
June 4, 2006
LAS VEGAS – As the two preliminary fighters circled each other in the
ring at Thomas & Mack Center, Diego Corrales watched from a tunnel,
his infant daughter, Daylia, in his arms, agony in his eyes.
“It’s tough watching people throw punches,” Corrales said, “knowing I
can’t hit anybody because of him.”
By “him,” Corrales was referring to Jose Luis Castillo, who was back
home in Mexico on Saturday night instead of in the ring battling
Corrales for the World Boxing Council lightweight title. The fight
was canceled Friday afternoon when Castillo weighed in at 139 1/2
pounds, 4 1/2 pounds over the lightweight limit. Corrales came in at
exactly 135.
“Why didn’t he call me up and tell me, ‘I can’t make the weight?’ ”
Corrales said. “This fight could have been salvaged. I would have
done [an agreed-upon] weight of 137 pounds, 136 pounds if we had
known earlier. This is heartbreaking, being here and not being able
to fight.”
Instead, the scheduled semi-main event between International Boxing
Federation flyweight champion Vic Darchinyan, an Armenian living in
Australia, and Luis Maldonado of Mexico became the main event on a
card that included six other fights.
But the public wasn’t buying. Certainly not, for the most part, at
full price.
Arena officials would not release a crowd figure, but there appeared
to be between 2,000 and 2,500 people scattered among the great
expanse of empty red seats and that might be a generous estimate.
Gary Shaw, Corrales’ promoter, estimated the crowd would have been
between 10,000 and 12,000 had Castillo and Corrales fought.
With the hotels dropping their price to one quarter of face value,
Shaw estimated the live gate at $30,000. Shaw, who is suing Castillo,
figures both he and Bob Arum, Castillo’s promoter, will lose about
$250,000 each.
And that’s not counting a $175,000 penalty due the Showtime cable
network, according to one source.
A reporter seeking fans who’d laid out actual money for tickets went
through two sections before finding two paying customers from
Arkadelphia, Ark.
“We had never seen a live fight,” said Fred Owens.
“We were here in town anyway. And some is better than none,” said
Randy Wade.
Coincidentally, among those in the crowd was Eddie Mustafa, who
failed to make weight for his 1981 fight against Michael Spinks. That
was the only other instance longtime boxing observers could remember
when a fight failed to materialize because of a weight issue.
Mustafa, who weighed in at 177 in Washington, D.C., for the 175-pound
match, continued to maintain Saturday night, a quarter of a century
later, that, unlike Castillo, he was the victim of a rigged scale.
The crowd finally made its presence felt during the
Darchinyan-Maldonado fight with Australian, Armenian and Mexican
flags battling for supremacy in the stands.
Darchinyan retained his title and remained unbeaten (26-0, 21
knockouts) by handing Maldonado (33-1-1, 25) his first loss. The
fight was stopped at 1:38 of the eighth round by referee Joe Cortez
after Darchinyan had previously knocked Maldonado down in the sixth.
Most fans may not have paid full price, but some were still willing
to buy Corrales-Castillo shirts, said David Goldfarb, whose company
produces them.
“They think they could be collectors’ items,” Goldfarb said.
Keith Kizer, executive director of the Nevada State Athletic
Commission, reiterated Saturday that penalties against Castillo could
be announced this week, which would be followed by an appeals
process. Castillo could be fined and/or have his license suspended or
revoked. A revocation would mean Castillo could not reapply for a
license for a year.
That would be fine with Shaw.
“Something like this breaks down the fabric of the sport,” Shaw said.
“This is a flagrant violation. The public has been defrauded.”
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Boston Globe, MA
June 4 2006
The silence of God
By Jeff Jacoby, Globe Columnist | June 4, 2006
“WHERE WAS God in those days?” asked Pope Benedict XVI as he stood
in Auschwitz last week. “Why was he silent? How could he permit this
endless slaughter, this triumph of evil?”
It is the inevitable question in Auschwitz, that vast factory of
death where the Nazis tortured, starved, shot, and gassed to death as
many as a million and a half innocent human beings, most of them
Jews. “In a place like this, words fail,” Benedict said. “In the
end, there can be only a dread silence, a silence which itself is a
heartfelt cry to God: Why, Lord, did you remain silent?”
News reports emphasized the pope’s question. Every story noted that
the man who voiced it was, as he put it, “a son of the German
people.” No one missed the intense historical significance of a
German pope, on a pilgrimage to Poland, beseeching God for answers at
the slaughterhouse where just 60 years ago Germans broke every record
for shedding Jewish blood.
And yet some commentators accused Benedict of skirting the issue of
anti-Semitism. The national director of the Anti-Defamation League
said that the pope had “uttered not one word about anti-Semitism;
not one explicit acknowledgment of Jewish lives vanquished simply
because they were Jews.” The National Catholic Register likewise
reported that he “did not make any reference to modern
anti-Semitism.”
In fact, the pope not only acknowledged the reality of Jew-hatred, he
explained the pathology that underlies it. Anti- Semites are driven
by hostility not just toward Jews, he said, but toward the message of
God-based ethics they first brought to the world.
“Deep down, those vicious criminals” — he was speaking of Hitler
and his followers — “by wiping out this people, wanted to kill the
God who called Abraham, who spoke on Sinai and laid down principles
to serve as a guide for mankind, principles that are eternally valid.
If this people, by its very existence, was a witness to the God who
spoke to humanity and took us to himself, then that God finally had
to die and power had to belong to man alone — to those men, who
thought that by force they had made themselves masters of the world.”
The Nazis’ ultimate goal, Benedict argued, was to rip out Christian
morality by its Jewish roots, replacing it with “a faith of their
own invention: faith in the rule of man, the rule of the powerful.”
Hitler knew that his will to power could triumph only if he first
destroyed Judeo-Christian values. In the Thousand-Year Reich, God and
his moral code would be wiped out. Man, unencumbered by conscience,
would reign in his place. It is the oldest of temptations, and
Auschwitz is what it leads to.
“Where was God in those days?” asked the pope. How could a just and
loving Creator have allowed trainload after trainload of human beings
to be murdered at Auschwitz? But why ask such a question only in
Auschwitz? Where, after all, was God in the Gulag? Where was God when
the Khmer Rouge slaughtered 1.7 million Cambodians? Where was God
during the Armenian holocaust? Where was God in Rwanda? Where is God
in Darfur?
For that matter, where is God when even one innocent victim is being
murdered or raped or abused?
The answer, though the pope didn’t say so clearly, is that a world in
which God always intervened to prevent cruelty and violence would be
a world without freedom — and life without freedom would be
meaningless. God endows human beings with the power to choose between
good and evil. Some choose to help their neighbor; others choose to
hurt him. There were those in Nazi Europe who herded Jews into gas
chambers. And there were those who risked their lives to hide Jews
from the Gestapo.
The God “who spoke on Sinai” was not addressing himself to angels or
robots who could do no wrong even if they wanted to. He was speaking
to real people with real choices to make, and real consequences that
flow from those choices. Auschwitz wasn’t God’s fault. He didn’t
build the place. And only by changing those who did build it from
free moral agents into puppets could he have stopped them from
committing their horrific crimes.
It was not God who failed during the Holocaust or in the Gulag, or on
9/11, or in Bosnia. It is not God who fails when human beings do
barbaric things to other human beings. Auschwitz is not what happens
when the God who says “Thou shalt not murder” and “Thou shalt love
thy neighbor as thyself” is silent. It is what happens when men and
women refuse to listen.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Press-Enterprise (subscription), CA
June 4 2006
Patient Darchinyan breaks through
IBF Flyweight Title: A solid 1-2 combination helps him stop
Maldonado.

10:00 PM PDT on Saturday, June 3, 2006
By DAVID A. AVILA
The Press-Enterprise

LAS VEGAS – Eager to show that little guys can pop, Australia’s Vic
Darchinyan used his powerful left hand to stop Mexico’s Luis
Maldonado in a world flyweight title bout at the Thomas and Mack
Center on Saturday.
AP photo

A sparse audience of about 2,900 people — the scheduled main event
between Diego Corrales and Jose Luis Castillo was called off Friday
— saw IBF champion Darchinyan crank it up slowly against Maldonado
(33-1-1, 25 KOs), who switched from right- to left-handed style
constantly in the battle between undefeated 112-pound fighters.
“My trainer told me to be patient,” said Darchinyan (26-0, 21 KOs),
who fights out of Sydney, Australia. “I didn’t use my left hand until
the sixth round.”
In the sixth round a left hand behind the ear and a slight push
forced Maldonado to a knee. Referee Joe Cortez called it a knockdown.
Maldonado tried to use a body attack to weaken the Armenian from
Australia, but had limited success. In almost every exchange
Maldonado got the worst of it.
“He’s too strong,” Maldonado said. “You can’t tell where the punches
are coming from.”
After the knockdown Darchinyan began to slip into a more aggressive
gear.
“I didn’t want to rush, but I knew I could knock him out,” Darchinyan
said, who is trained by former Aussie great Jeff Fenech.
A solid 1-2 combination snapped Maldonado’s head back and Darchinyan
moved in quickly with more wallops. Cortez decided it was too much
punishment and stopped the fight at 1:38 of the eighth round.
Darchinyan wants to meet the other flyweight titleholders or move up
to heavier weight divisions.
“I’d like to unify the titles, but I don’t mind moving up to junior
bantamweight or bantamweight,” Darchinyan said.
Other bouts
Former Olympian Vanes Martirosyan (9-0, 6 KOs) stormed out of the
corner and stopped Oscar Gonzalez (9-5-1, 3 KOs), of Florida, in 2:14
of the first round. Three successive uppercuts dropped Gonzalez for
the first knockdown, then a straight right hand finished the job in a
junior middleweight bout.
Las Vegas boxer Jose “Little Bazooka” Magallon traded knockout blows
with Mexico’s Abraham Esquivel for all four scheduled rounds. It was
only surprising that no one hit the canvas in the bantamweight
contest. The judges scored it 40-36, 39-37 twice for Magallon

The Sweet Science
June 4 2006
Vic Darchinyan retains flyweight titles
Armenian-born but fighting out of Sydney, Australia, Vic Darchinyan
(26-0, 21 KOs) retained his IBF and IBO flyweight titles in Las Vegas
Saturday night with a stoppage at 1:38 of the eighth round over
Mexicali, Mexico’s Luis Maldonado (33-1-1, 25 KOs).
The 5-foot-5, 112-pound, southpaw champ cut Maldonado over the right
eyelid in the third round and put him to the canvas in the sixth.
Darchinyan admitted after the fight, `I feel very good, very
comfortable, very happy.’
The very good, very comfortable, and very happy Darchinyan also
remains very undefeated.
The Darchinyan-Maldonado bout received top billing on Showtime and at
Caesars Las Vegas after the cancellation of the highly anticipated
main event between Diego Corrales and Jose Luis Castillo, because of
Castillo’s inability to make the 135 lb. lightweight limit.

ESPN
June 4 2006
Darchinyan stops Maldonado to retain flyweight title
By Dan Rafael
ESPN.com
LAS VEGAS — Vic Darchinyan, elevated to main-event fighter on 24
hours’ notice, put on an impressive performance in his newfound
spotlight, stopping Luis Maldonado in the eighth round to retain his
flyweight title Saturday night.
The fight came one day after the originally scheduled main event, the
much-anticipated third fight between lightweight champion Diego
Corrales and Jose Luis Castillo, was canceled when Castillo came in
at 4½ pounds over the 135-pound limit.
Castillo was 3½ pounds over the limit for their rematch last fall,
but Corrales went through with the fight and was knocked out in the
fourth round of a non-title bout.
Determined not to give Castillo such an overwhelming advantage again,
Corrales went along with the advice of his entire team and decided
not to fight.
That left Darchinyan and Maldonado to pick up the slack for 2,500 or
so fans who decided to turn out at the Thomas & Mack Center for the
diminished card; a crowd of more than 10,000 had been expected before
the main event was canceled.
While Castillo left town in disgrace Friday night, Corrales was at
ringside mingling with fans and media and participating in the
Showtime broadcast.
Although Showtime offered him a spot on its July card, Corrales
didn’t want to go through another rigorous training camp so soon and
probably will return in September or October.
Corrales’ promoter Gary Shaw, who said he would lose “a few hundred
thousand dollars” on the event, meanwhile, was preparing a lawsuit
against Castillo. Other lawsuits are possible, including against
Castillo promoter Top Rank, headed by Bob Arum.
But that didn’t stop the show from going on.
Darchinyan (26-0, 21 KOs), a southpaw from Armenia who lives in
Australia, moved to 5-0 with five knockouts in championship fights.
He has seven knockouts in a row.
He had his way with Mexico’s Maldonado (33-1-1), a protégé of junior
lightweight star Erik Morales.
“My trainer Jeff Fenech told me to be patient,” Darchinyan said. “I
started using my left hand more in the sixth round. I didn’t want to
rush, but I knew I could knock him out. Jeff Fenech always tells me,
‘Throw the left and don’t stop.’ I knew if I keep throwing punches I
will knock him out.”
>From the opening round, Maldonado looked apprehensive given
Darchinyan’s reputation as a hellacious puncher.
Sure enough, the first left hand Darchinyan landed shook him.
“He’s too strong,” Maldonado said. “I know I landed some good
punches, but he is too strong and you don’t know where the punches
are coming from.”
Darchinyan was the constant aggressor, moving forward and looking to
land his left hand. He was in total control in the fourth round,
hurting Maldonado with a pair of left hands and opening a cut near
his right eye.
He had another big round in the fifth, which Darchinyan finished by
nearly knocking Maldonado down with a flurry of shots, including a
flush uppercut that sent him reeling across the ring.
A left hand during a combination knocked an increasingly weary
Maldonado to his knees late in the sixth round.
Although he didn’t score a knockdown in the seventh, Darchinyan
poured it on with his left hand. He hit Maldonado with it nearly at
will, and each shot that landed seemed to buckle his legs.
As the round ended, he had Maldonado pinned along the ropes as he
continued to dish out punishment, and it appeared as though it was
only a matter of time until Darchinyan could force a stoppage.
He did it in the eighth round, assaulting Maldonado with a continued
assortment of hard shots, including his powerful left. The final one
snapped Maldonado’s head back, and referee Joe Cortez stepped in and
stopped it at 1:38.
“I’d like to unify the belts, but I don’t mind moving up to super
flyweight or even bantamweight,” Darchinyan said. “I love belts and I
have room to put up at least 12 in my room.”
He would most prefer to face Jorge Arce, but Darchinyan has been
unable to lure the Mexican star into the ring.
“Arce is chicken,” Darchinyan said. “He doesn’t want to fight me. He
should just admit he doesn’t want to fight me.”
Also on the card, junior middleweight Vanes Martirosyan (9-0, 6 KOs),
a 2004 U.S. Olympian, knocked Oscar Gonzalez (9-5-1) down twice for a
first-round TKO at 2:14.
Dan Rafael is the boxing writer for ESPN.com.

Photo: There was no burden for Vic Darchinyan to shoulder as part of
the main event on Saturday, and he still had his flyweight belt to
show for it.
tory?id=2469837

Seconds Out
June 4 2006
Darchinyan stops Maldonado in 8, then calls out Arce
Vic “Raging Bull” Darchinyan hooks Luis Maldonado – Tom
Casino/Showtime

By Paul Upham: The pure power of IBF/IBO flyweight world boxing
champion Vic “Raging Bull” Darchinyan was evident when he defended
his titles against Mexican Luis Maldonado by 8th round TKO on
Saturday night. Elevated to main event status at the Thomas & Mack
Center in Las Vegas, USA after the cancellation of Corrales-Castillo
III, Darchinyan showed that even though he weighs in at only 112lbs,
he is among the hardest punchers in the world pound for pound.
“It was great. It is a very, very good feeling,” Darchinyan 26-0 (21)
said, after the win. “Today I was fighting as the main event and it
is a very good feeling. I am very happy with the win.”
Fighting in Las Vegas for the first time, 30 year-old Darchinyan’s
speed and left hand power was impressive, even though he may rely on
it a little too much.
“I have very good power in my left hand,” he said. “My trainer Jeff
Fenech, the three-time world champion, he was telling me not to rush
and go for the knockout punch, it will come. I know I have big power
and I am very proud of my left hand and I want to knock them out. I
want to knock them out with my first punch. With my left, I know and
believe that I can knock out anyone. It is inside of me.”

The southpaw called out popular WBC Interim flyweight champion Jorge
Arce from Mexico for a showdown at 112lbs.
“I want Arce,” he said. “I went to Mexico to challenge him. He told
me that of course he would fight me. Now he is saying that he is
moving up a division. What does this mean? Does it mean that he is
scared? Mexico has some great fighters, but Arce is a chicken. If he
doesn’t want to fight me, just tell me.”
If not Arce, Darchinyan said he is prepared to move up in weight, as
long as he is fighting for more world titles.
“I don’t have any difficulties making my weight at flyweight,” he
explained. “If anyone wants to fight me who has world title belts, I
am ready. From any weight. I want to fight and I want to fight for
world titles. I don’t just want to defend my titles, I want to win
new belts.”
Darchinyan, who is promoted by Gary Shaw, was in his crouching style
early in round 1 as he followed the 28 year-old Maldonado 33-1-1 (25)
around the ring. There were not many punches thrown in the opening
seconds until Darchinyan started to load up with his left hand.
Maldonado turned southpaw towards the end of the round and used the
stance for the majority of the fight. The Mexican countered to the
body after Darchinyan swung and missed wildly. “Throw your second and
third punch Vic,” trainer Jeff Fenech told him in the corner. “Don’t
go for the one big punch.”
After Darchinyan had done enough to win round 1, round 2 was much
closer with Maldonado from Mexicali, Mexico boxing on the outside
nicely. Darchinyan was still looking to land the one big knockout
blow. Maldonado jabbed nicely as he alternated stances. The two
boxers went toe to toe to end the round to the cheers of the crowd.
Maldonado was leading with his punches in round 3, which was his best
round of the fight. Darchinyan swung himself off his feet such was
the fury of his punches. Two good left uppercuts stung Maldonado. Two
more good left hooks at the end of the round cut Maldonado in the
corner of his right eye. Maldonado’s hand speed was slow compared to
Darchinyan’s and two straight lefts rocked the Mexican. Another left
hand, which landed directly on Maldonado’s eye cut, rocked him
backwards.
Maldonado, who is a protégé of the great featherweight Erik Morales,
was not running in round 5, but trying to box and counter from right
in front of Darchinyan. The round was slower, but then a big left
uppercut from Darchinyan hurt Maldonado and forced him back into the
ropes with a follow up left hand.
Two left hooks stunned Maldonado in round 6, who was dropped to the
canvas as he tried to hang on to the world champion. Beating referee
Joe Cortez’ count, Darchinyan swarmed all over the hurt fighter but
was unable to land the one clean blow he was looking for to finish
the fight. Maldonado’s sheer guts kept him in the fight and the two
stood toe to toe trading in the final ten seconds of the round.
A right hand from Darchinyan landed early in round 7. Maldonado was
trying to box his way back in, but a left hand high on the head
slowed him up again. A series of strong left hands from Darchinyan at
the end of the round saw Cortez go to the Mexican’s corner at the
bell. “If he takes more punches like that, I’m going to stop the
fight,” Cortez told Maldonado’s trainer. In Darchinyan’s corner
Fenech said, “Be tidy and be smart. Short punches Vic.”
The end for Maldonado came in round 8. Darchinyan was crouching and
jumping in from long range to land. A left, right, left combination
forced a hurt Maldonado into the ropes and referee Cortez waved off
the contest at the 1:38 minute mark.
The Armenia born Australian citizen had a large viewing audience
watching the world feed in both countries. “I am coming back and I
will show more and more power and win more and more belts,” he told
them. “I will show what I can do in the future and I know you will be
happy and proud of me.”
Also on the card, the Top Rank promoted Yuri Foreman from Brooklyn,
New York won a shut out points win over Jesus Valverde at junior
middleweight. Judges scored the fight for 25 year-old Foreman 100-89,
99-90 and 99-90.
Paul Upham
Contributing Editor
229&cs=19619

Chessbase News, Germany
June 4 2006
Olympiad R12: Armenia leads, China or Russia for Silver
04.06.2006 There is little doubt that Armenia will take Gold at the
37th Olympiad in Turin. With one round to go, the team is 2.5 points
ahead of China, which is half a point above Russia. Second seed India
has dropped to 33rd place after Vishy Anand lost to Pascal
Charbonneau, almost 300 points below him. In the women’s section,
Ukraine is two points ahead of the field and virtually assured of
Gold.
The Olympiad is in its final round, which begins tomorrow, Sunday, at
10 a.m. In the evening there is a closing ceremony, and on Monday
everyone leaves Turin. This means that we will most likely only
report on the final standings before our departure, and use the
remaining time to collect as much material as possible. Hopefully we
will be able to provide some picture report, stories and reflections
after we have returned to our home base.
Turin 2006: After round twelve
Armenia drew France 2:2, with all games drawn. China defeated the
Czech Republic, which is having a bad strech. Russia defeated Cuba
3:1, with Kramnik, Grischuk and Morozevich winning and Peter Svidler
losing. This reduced the lead of the Armenians to 2.5 points, but
with just one round to go there is little chance that they will miss
their Gold medal. Israel scored a 2.5:1.5 victory over the USA, with
Kamsky losing to Gelfand and Nakamura beating Sutovsky. The USA is
now in place 7-9 (with the Netherlands and Bulgaria). Vishy Anand
lost to Pascal Charbonneau of Canada, rated almost 300 points lower
than him. With the team result 1.5:2.5 number two seed India now
occupies a dismal 33rd place.
Complete scoreboards and photos
sid=3157