World Team Chess Championship - Round 5

ROUND 5

Board Pairings

Team Pairings

Rank after round 5

Official website

Round 5 Photo Gallery

With today's round we have already more than half of the tournament behind us. Tomorrow there's a rest day fortunately, so players will finally have a chance to break the vicious cycle eat-prepare-sleep-play etc. Luckily also the press officers! But ok now let's have a look at today's round which was just as exciting as the ones before.

In perhaps the toughest battle today two superpowers, USA and China clashed against each other. Nakamura won a pretty game against Li Chao, which he also commentated afterwards for the fans. Except a blackout against Aronian Hikaru has been doing really well in this championship, although this time his efforts haven't been rewarded with a match win. Ding Liren was again the hero of his team, beating Kamsky in a magnificent game on second board. The young Chinese star who's for sure to get his steady place at the very top of chess soon thus continued with his fine form in this tournament. On the third board Onischuk and Yue Wang played a well-played game which resulted in a drawn rook endgame. Bu Xiangzhi hasn't got anything from the opening against Ray Robson but when Robson embarked on a faulty plan of exchanging his dark square bishop to play d5, Bu played really well to take the advantage and punished further mistakes of Robson very smoothly. Thus China scored an important win and moved to the shared third place before the rest day.

Bu Xiangzhi


Ivanchuk - Ipatov

The most exciting and also the longest match of the day was Armenia-Azerbaijan, which is kind of a derby match in chess for various reasons. Armenia was the favourite before the round of course, especially since Radjabov and Mamedyarov is not playing in this championship. But one should never underestimate the will of talented young players full of energy. Durarbayli-Sargissian was a Ruy Lopez in which the strong piece attack of white on kingside forced black to give up an exchange, which the Azeri player carried successfully to the endgame after which Gabriel Sargissian had to resign. Armenia's sole win in the match came from the second board. Akopian got a pressure on the open files in both queenside and kingside after a Kan Sicilian, which resulted in pawn win. Nidjat Mamedov tried the thematic Rxc3 exchange sacrifice to get the pawn back at the expense of the exchange but the beautiful white bishop on d5 and rooks proved to be too much and Akopian won easily. As Safarli-Movsesian game was drawn, everything depended on the first board, Levon Aronian-Rauf Mamedov game. And it has lasted for ages! Aronian got nothing from the opening but he was forced to play for a win against Mamedov for a match win. No one could say he didn't try, he has tried it for 127 moves! The best he could get was a rook+bishop vs. rook endgame which Mamedov had to defend with a few minutes time in his clock, mostly depending on the increment. For many famous players it has proved to be an extremely difficult task but Mamedov managed to defend for 50 moves. Not exactly though, as to the disappointment of Levon when he finally had the mating position on the board Mamedov anounced the draw. If the rule has been 53 moves at least, we would be talking about Levon's win. Congratulations to both players for their efforts!


Nakamura - Li

The leader Ukraine had to play against the host country today. Turkey fought really well on all boards and came very close to disappoint the leader by holding them to a match draw but in a tough opposite color bishop endgame Esen finally lost his way against Kryvorouchko and this sole win brought the win to Ukraine once again! Ukraine has really tough matches coming up but their advantage is so big that they can afford a loss and perhaps a match draw too or even more. So now they have a very good chance to be the champion, although it's a little bit early to speak of that still.


Aronian - Mamedov

Kramnik rested today but it didn't help much to Germans anyway as they lost terribly. The only draw for Germany was Nepomniatchi-Fridman game and in the rest of the games German players played very badly and Russians didn't really have to do anything special to win the games except to wait for his opponent self-collapse. Russia is now in second place, three points behind Ukraine.


Karjakin - Khenkin

Netherlands won very convincingly against Egypt with 3-1 score. Even in one of the two draws it was L'Ami pressing against L'Abib in a pawn up rook endgame, but L'Abib saved the game easily as it was quite elementary. Shoker got the other draw against Tiviakov who played on second board since Van Wely had a day off today. Giri's and Sokolov's wins decided the score for Netherlands. Despite losing in the first two rounds, winning the next three now Netherlands is one point behind Russia at the third place! This is a sign that still everything can change in this tournament. But before all the excitement let's all enjoy a free Sunday!

GM Amin Bassem


Azerbaijan

The leading team Ukraine has beaten Germany with a 3-1 score in a very convincing fashion and thus they continue being the only team with perfect score. With the loss of Armenia today, they are also the only unbeaten team. Wounded boars present the most dangerous threats to hunters, Ukraine should keep it in mind and not relax. In today's match their wins came from first and last boards, Ivanchuk and Kryvoruchko respectively. Kryvoruchko played an interesting game against Baramidze's pet line, Breyer System. It's hard to believe that Baramidze resigned after 25 moves in Breyer but he must have mixed up some moves as he ended up with a totally locked bishop and almost no breathing room for black pieces. It's understandable that he got disgusted with his position and resigned quickly to avoid torture. As for Ivanchuk, he punished Khenkin for playing a little bit tame and won in a very clean and technical way. On the remaining two boards Ukrainian players played solid games and made draw with their opponents and thus Ukraine secured another important victory on the way to gold medal. The question whether someone will be able to stop them or not still remains open. 


Li Chao


Li - Aronian


GM Gata Kamsky

Another important match of the round was Russia-Azerbaijan. Russia seemed to be the heavy favourite of course, but since they haven't had a good showing so far in this tournament, Azeris did have a reason to have high hopes about it. Indeed they put up a good fight and came close to a draw. Rauf Mamedov even enjoyed an edge and was up a pawn in a rook+bishop vs. rook+knight endgame but against Kramnik it wasn't enough. Nidjat Mamedov-Alexander Grischuk was a non-game actually, they followed the drawn Carlsen-Anand game in Berlin Defense from the recent World Championship exactly. Guseinov came well prepared to play King's Indian against Vitiugov and managed to draw in the end. Everything went well for Azerbaijan except the second board. Safarli played bravely against Karjakin, sacrificing pawn for attack. Karjakin however fended off the attack and won the ensuing pawn endgame up a pawn to bring a much needed victory to Mother Russia. 


GM Varuzhan Akobian


GM Ivanchuk's hat

The other two matches were very one-sided. In the Egypt-USA match the only draw came from Egypt's leading player GM Bassem Amin who played against the rising American star Ray Robson. The most memorable moment from other games of the match was Onischuk's final move 44.Qe4, which was a little joke at the end. In Turkey-Netherlands match, the only draw came from the last board in which a lifeless draw was played between Erwin L'Ami and Emre Can. Van Wely has outplayed Solak very methodically and Tiviakov converted his pawn advantage in the endgame nicely against Yilmaz. Also Giri's fine win against Ipatov must be mentioned. It was a bad day for Turkish team but the Dutch team is clearly getting back in shape with two wins in a row. Tomorrow they will play against Egypt and they have a good chance to increase their winning series to three matches, but it's only on paper of course. Egyptian players will do their best to stop them from doing so. 

Tomorrow there are very tough matches like Russia-Germany, USA-China and another classical rivalry in chess, Armenia-Azerbaijan so do not miss the games and live commentary! So far it has been full of great fighting games and you can be sure that tomorrow won't be an exception. Stay tuned! 


Germany


China

Board Pairings

Team Pairings

Official website

Round 3 Photo Gallery

It was a day of 2,5 points as all the winners on five boards won with the same score. Charlie Sheen would rather like to be in Astana this March for Women's World Team Championship for obvious reasons but we can safely say that today teams have paid a homage to the TV serie "Two and A Half Men" he was acting at.

The most important ones of all those matches with same score were Russia-China and Armenia-USA battles. The game of the day was of course Aronian-Nakamura from the latter match. Nakamura had beaten Kramnik in a very impressive fashion yesterday and fans were curious if he can repeat the same against world #2 Levon Aronian. As it happened things didn't go well this time. In the Lasker Variation of Queen's Gambit, Aronian showed his deep opening preparation, playing incredibly fast until 20th move. At that point he had 50(!) minutes more than his opponent and it was clear that Nakamura was surprised. Aronian's play after the opening preparation wasn't the most precise perhaps but finally when Nakamura gave his d-pawn with 26...d4? Aronian got excellent winning chances and carried the game to a close to winning -if not winning- rook endgame with a pawn more. Nakamura defended rather poorly and made things easier for the Armenian star but the game was probably lost anyway. Congratulations to Levon Aronian who showed once again how a leader should be! Other boards made draws and thus with the sole win on the first board Armenia marched forward in the race for the first place, just behind Ukraine. If they can beat Ukraine too, the kings of team matches can get yet another title.


Ian Nepomniachtchi

Russia-China match was a very close battle and could have ended in a draw if Nepomniatchi couldn't create another miracle. Just like he saved a lost position against Armenia before, today he won a position which didn't seem like to be very promising to say the least, after Yu Yangyi went wrong under time pressure. On the other boards, Kramnik tried to press Li Chao but to no avail as Li defended well; Yue Wang-Karjakin was a normal draw and on the third board Grischuk acquired a better position but the great resource 42...Nd4! found by Bu Xiangzhi decided the result immediately and Grischuk had to be content with draw.


Alexander Moiseenko

The only team left with perfect score is Ukraine and they managed to do that today when Moiseenko found all the good moves after an interesting piece sacrifice of Azeri grandmaster Durarbayli. Safarli-Korobov was a clean draw and the theoretical battle in the Poisoned Pawn Variation of Najdorf Defense between Guseinov and Areshchenko ended in a draw as usually it happens in such cases despite a 50 minute think by the Azeri player. Ivanchuk-Mamedov was an interesting fight in King's Indian Defense and just as it seemed when Ivanchuk is finally winning thanks to his domination on the queenside and material advantage, the Azeri player found a tactical resource to save the game. Another example for the sharp nature of KID, both sides should be tactically alert throughout the game.


Vassily Ivanchuk

The luckless Dutch team finally broke the curse that befell them today and won against Germany. The first victory of Netherlands meant for Germany the bitter first loss. Anish Giri played an excellent game against Khenkin and won convincingly and the rest of boards except Naiditsch-L'Ami saw solid draws. Naiditsch-L'Ami ended up in an unclear rook+knight Berlin endgame, which seemed to be better for black at one point but that evaluation changed throughout the course game, finally a draw was probably a fair result.


Ipatov - Solak

The hosts also got their first points today against Egypt. Bassem Amin played a good endgame against Emre Can on fourth board and Abdel Razik held Solak to a draw but wins by Ipatov and Esen brought hosts the win. Finally the hosts decided not to be too hospitable!

Tomorrow we have China-Armenia, Azerbaijan-Russia, Germany-Ukraine, Egypt-USA and Turkey-Netherlands matches. See you all in the live broadcast!

It's only getting better with each round in Antalya! Well everything except the weather here but who cares when such great games are being played in the tournament hall? With only two rounds so far, it already deserves to be on the list of greatest tournaments of 2013, especially for chess fans who are bored of seeing highly theoretical and ultra-safe played games one after the other.

Today all the eyes were focused on one match: USA-Russia. A classic rivalry in all kinds of sports, USA-Russia battles have always drawn the attention of fans worldwide. Today's match was again a fantastic battle, living up to the expectations. Perhaps not to the expectations of Russian team though. It was sure that Kramnik won't have an easy time against Nakamura with black but few expected such a ruthless win by the American. Nakamura made Kramnik taste his own drop of poison, by very precise moves he exploited the bad position of black knight in an almost mathematical fashion. Certainly a very pleasant game for the American and for sure Kramnik will be thirsting for revenge in their next encounter. In the other decisive game of the match, the young American star Ray Robson overcame Vitiugov in a very complicated fight ensued after the ultra-sharp Marshall Gambit variation in Semi-Slav. The game lasted just 28 moves and this spectacular win of Robson will probably make its way into the list of exciting games of the year. A peculiar fact of the match was that both teams had players of name Alexander -ischuk, Grischuk(RUS) and Onischuk(USA). Both made a draw with their opponents respectively and thus the match has ended in a very clean score for USA: 3-1! While the Americans do have a very good reason to party tonight, Russian team will have to think about how to make a comeback after this slow start. Hear the train A (America) coming! 

GM Hikaru Nakamura (USA)

GM Ray Robson (USA)

The other important match of the round was Ukraine vs. China. Both teams had won their first round matches with the score 2,5-1,5 and obviously they were in a very fine mood before the match. After the match however only one of them could be happy and it was Ukraine. The first game to end was Yue Wang against Kryvorouchko. The Chinese grandmaster set problems to his opponent continuously which he couldn't solve and after Kryvorouchko realized his final blunder he resigned. Having a point in hand China could look forward to a match win one would think, but in the first two boards they were in a bad shape. Especially Ivanchuk's game against Li Chao was a joy to watch with its non-standard opening play and position afterwards, once again Chucky showed the greatness of his talent by outplaying a world-class opponent in a non-standard position. To break the rules is a privilege of titans such as Vassily! On the second board Korobov squeezed Ding Liren positionally and when the positional bind was resolved he was left with a strong passed pawn on e6 which ultimately led to the resignation of Ding. As the fourth board game was drawn, the match score was settled: 2,5-1,5 for Ukraine! Let's see if they can continue their winning streak tomorrow. 

GM Loek Van Wely (NED)

Teimour Radjabov and Shakhriyar Mamedyarov may be resting for this tournament but the Azeri team continues to show that no one should underestimate them! Going into the third round they share the lead with Germany and Ukraine. They managed to inflict another defeat on Netherlands thanks to wins by Safarli and Nidjat Mamedov on second and third boards: 3-1. Such a luckless start is a bitter pill to swallow for the Dutch team as one can guess. However there are seven more rounds and it's always possible to make it up for two-three losses. 

GM Barış Esen (TUR)

Today it was a rest day for Aronian but for the super strong Armenian team it wasn't of a big importance against Egypt at the end of day. Wins with white and draws with black, a perfect strategy for team matches, meant a 3-1 score for Armenia. However the Egyptian players fought well against their stronger opponents and should also be praised for their efforts. Keep it up!

Germany vs. Turkey saw a tough fight however on the second and third boards Meier and Naiditsch outclassed their opponents in impressive fashion to score two wins for Germany. Two draws on the first and last boards were certainly not what hosts desired but what can you do against such a solid team of Germany's caliber? If Germans keep up their fine performance, perhaps we'll be saying that chess is a game which lasts approx. six hours and in the end Germans win; but that still remains to be seen.

Don't forget to watch the live broadcast tomorrow and also follow us on Twitter for updates regarding the championship! 

Round 1 Photo Gallery

2013 World Team Chess Championship has started today in a very combative mood, perhaps the stormy weather in Antalya inspired players to fight at any cost, who knows? In any case, fortunately for chess fans, the opening round was rich in chess content and almost all the games were very instructive and exciting.

The most important pairing of the round was obviously the epic Russia-Armenia battle. The main favourites of the tournament fought until the bitter end. Perhaps the most expected game of the tournament, Kramnik-Aronian, saw a very sharp struggle in a Botvinnik Slav. The exchange sacrifice of Kramnik resulted in an queen+bishop vs. queen+rook ending, where Kramnik had two pawns for the exchange. The position was in dynamic equilibrium and although Kramnik tried a bit to play for a win, Aronian never let him get anything and finally the ex-champion decided to repeat the moves. On the second board Movsesian achieved a nice advantage and wanted to torture Karjakin which didn't materialize in the end as Karjakin managed to exchange pieces to relieve the pressure and saved the game. Also on the fourth board Armenia seemed to have the advantage but when Sargissian missed the double attack 39...Qa7 he had to concede the draw to his resourceful opponent Nepomniatchi. The last game was Grischuk-Akopian in which Russians hoped that Akopian would falter under the pressure of Grischuk in a rook endgame up a pawn but their hopes haven't got realized and the experienced grandmaster Vladimir Akopian saved the game and the match for Armenia: 2-2! 

Another heavyweight battle was between Ukraine and USA. Perhaps under the influence of recent Anand-Carlsen match Nakamura wanted to employ the impenetrable Berlin Wall but Chucky preferred not to bother dealing with it and chose instead the old Two Knights System. As he didn't manage to create something out of this well studied line however the game ended in a draw. Moiseenko-Onischuk was also a quiet affair in which neither side could imbalance the game. On the remaining two boards Akobian couldn't convert his nice positional edge into a full point due to the dynamic defense of Kryvorouchko and thus when Korobov punished Kamsky's over-optimistic pawn sacrifice in a long endgame it was time to cheer for Ukrainians. USA will for sure try to make a comeback in the race for the world team champion title.

Actually the first match to finish in the first round was Netherlands-China. On first board after a Caro-Kann opening Anish Giri decided to force a repetition in a balanced position pretty quickly whereas second and fourth boards saw two longer draws in which Dutch players showed strong and solid play, giving their Chinese opponents no chance to take advantage of white pieces. The only decisive result of the match came from the Tiviakov-Bu Xiangzhi game. Bu had obviously prepared thoroughly for Tiviakov's pet line Alapin Sicilian and even being perhaps the most formidable expert of the variation Tiviakov couldn't achieve any advantage with white. To make things worse for Netherlands he soon lost control of position under time pressure and collapsed giving China the chance to score an important match victory.

One of the most exciting games of the round was played on the fourth board of Germany-Egypt match between Bassem Amin and David Baramidze. Feeling perhaps the need to win as the leading player of Egypt, Amin didn't allow a threefold repetition and instead moved his king to h4 in a complicated middlegame with queens on the board! It was a very risky decision which was at the end efficiently punished by Baramidze. What was perhaps unfortunate for the representative of Africa was the fact that although in the first three boards they were definitely the underdogs they managed to held their ground and their cause of defeat came from the most unexpected board. But such is chess!

Finally in the first round the hosts had a tough challenge against the Azerbaijani team but they were obviously hoping to get a good start to the championship. The positions of Turkish players were looking mostly fine at one point however Azeris didn't give them a chance to score a win in the end and the defeat of Yilmaz at the hands of Nidjat Mamedov meant a disappointing loss for the Turkish team. Let's see if the host country will be able to make use of their home advantage in the coming matches.

The second round will be played tomorrow again at 3 pm local time, featuring this time a classic match: USA-Russia! Also don't forget to follow the live commentary by GM Oleksienko and IM Arduman.