The Week in Chess

The 40th Chess Olympiad Istanbul Round 9 took place on Thursday 6th September 2012. Russia may still win the Olympiad but they could have almost made sure already by drawing or winning against a USA side the out-rated on every board. Instead USA scored a sensational victory. Hikaru Nakamura turned down a repetition, got a winning position against Vladimir Kramnik, messed it up a bit got over the line in the end and overtook his opponent for world number 4 as well. Gata Kamsky played a very provocative Alekhine's Defence against Alexander Grischuk and was rewarded with a better position and finally a win deep in the ending. Sergey Karjakin drew easily with black against Alexander Onischuk but surely his job was to at least play on for a long time against a player he out-rated by over 100 points. Dmitry Jakovenko moved to 6/7 with another win. A sensational match. The USA is in for a tough finish in the final two rounds but are definitely in the hunt for the medals. China took the lead on tie-break but have to play the USA (now 4th) in Round 10. 2nd place Russia have run out of top teams and face Argentina. 3rd placed Armenia play the Netherlands now strengthened by Anish Giri who didn't play the first half because he sent his passport to get a Visa for the Grand Prix in London (he still has a Russian passport) and then had to wait for its return.

Olympiad Round 10 Pairings: CHN (15pts) - USA (15), ARG (14) - RUS (15), NED (14) - ARM (15), AZE (13) - UKR (14), CZE-POL, DEN-HUN, BLR-GER, PHI-VIE (all on 13), IND-CUB, ISR-GEO, UZB-BUL, ROU-FRA, GRE-ESP, SLO-CRO, VEN-MDA, SRB-SUI, ENG-URU etc

China have a one point lead over Russia in the women's event and I just don't see them dropping any points in the final two rounds.

Leading Round 9 Results Open:

USA 2.5-1.5 RUS (Nakamura 1-0 Kramnik, Grischuk 0-1 Kamsky, Karjakin 1/2 Onischuk, Jakovenko 1-0 Robson), PHI 0.5-3.5 CHN (S 1/2 Wang Hao, Ding 0-1 Barbosa, Torre 0-1 Bu, Li 1-0 Paragua), ARM 2.5-1.5 GER (Aronian 1-0 Naidtisch, Khenkin 1/2 Movsesian, Meier dropped his queen in 1 move in losing to Akopian, Fridman 1-0 Sargissian), POL 2-2 AZE (Wojtaszek 1-0 Radjabov, Socko 1-0 Mamedyarov), UKR 3-1 FRA (Ivanchuk sacrificed a piece soundly against Vachier and won when his opponent cracked, Fressinet 1/2 Ponomariov), NED 3-1 ISR (Giri 1/2 Gelfand, Sutovsky 0-1 Van Wely in only 18 moves), SRB 1.5-2.5 ARG (Ivanisevic 0-1 Peralta), HUN 3-2 ITA (Leko 1/2 Caruana), GEO 2-2 IND (Mchedlishvili 1/2 Sasikiran), VIE 3-1 ENG (Le 1-0 Adams, Short 1/2 Nguyen Ngoc Truong Son, Howell 0-1 Nguyen Van Huy, Nguyen Doc Hoa 1/2 Pert), UZB 2-2 SLO (Kasimdzhanov 1/2 Beliavsky), AUT 0-4 CZE (Ragger 0-1 Laznicka) CUB 3.5-0.5 LAT (Dominguez 1-0 Shirov) BUL 3-1 RSA (Topalov 1-0 Solomon)

Leading Round 9 Results Women:

CHN 3-1 FRA (Hou Yifan 1-0 Skripchenko), IND 1-3 RUS (Dronavalli 1/2 Kosintseva), KAZ 2.5-1.5 UZB (Nakhbayeva 1/2 Muminova), USA 1-3 UKR (Zatonskih 0-1 Lahno, Krush 1/2 Muzychuk), BUL 1.5-2.5 POL (Stefanova 1/2 Socko)

Games from the top 22 matches in the men's section available.