TWIC is 30. First issue 17th September 1994.
39th Chess Olympiad Khanty-Mansiysk 2010 (6)
Ukraine lead on tie-break from Armenia and Georgia after 6
Mark Crowther - Tuesday 28th September 2010
Magnus, what were you thinking? Photo © Albran. | http://www.theweekinchess.com
Competitively the Olympiad has been incredibly interesting so far and as they passed the half way stage the key fixtures are starting to be played.
Vassily Ivanchuk beat Peter Leko and along with Pavel Eljanov's win against Judit Polgar this led to a 3-1 win for Ukraine over Hungary. Photo © 2010 Albran.
Ukraine lead the Olympiad, one of three teams that have conceded just one draw in their matches so far. The mercurial genius Vassily Ivanchuk is on form it seems with 5/5 on top board with wins against Beliavsky, Ivan Sokolov and Leko so far he plays Baadur Jobava in Round 7.
Georgia against Armenia was tied 2-2. Georgia have been the surprise of the games. Photo © 2010 Albran.
Georgia have been the shock of the Olympiad so far. There is a lot of chess activity there and lack of finances is always a problem. However they're doing themselves proud and are in third, level on points with Ukraine and defending champions Armenia with who they drew 2-2 in Round 6.
Vladimir Kramnik drew against David Navara in Round 6. Photo © 2010 Albran.
After two losses in Round 6 this was a better day for the Russians with a 3-1 win for Russia 2 against the Netherlands and a 2.5-1.5 win against the Czech Republic for Russia 1 due to a win for Sergey Karjakin on board three against Zbynek Hracek.
The USA beat Vietnam due to a win for Nakamura on top board against Le Quang Liem, the other games were drawn. Photo © 2010 Albran.
Azerbaijan beat India (won both white games) 3-1, Poland beat Estonia, Russia 3 drew against Greece and the USA beat Vietnam in notable results in the chasing pack.
Carlsen played the provocative 1. e4 g6 2. d4 Nf6 3. e5 Nh5 as black I was shocked to find that the straightforward 4. Be2 d6 5. Bxh5 gxh5 6. Qxh5 dxe5 7. Qxe5 Rg8 isn't great for white. However Adams slowly exploited the weaknesses of the idea instead. Photo © 2010 Albran.
England have their very best side out and are 12th seeds. Not quite living up to that as they lie 18th but there is still time, the trouble is that almost everyone has close to their best side! In Round 6 they drew three games against Norway whilst Michael Adams dispatched world number one Magnus Carlsen. After 3 moves I already wondered if Carlsen's opening choice wasn't a bit disrespectful towards Adams, I'm sure he didn't mind as he exploited it nicely.
Bermuda are rightly famous for the Olympiad party they give on the eve of the first rest day. Photo © 2010 Albran.
The "Bermuda Party" has been a fixture of the Olympiad for many years. Everyone seems to be having fun here.
Peter Sammut Briffa is working in my home city. He couldn't play for my team last week. Didn't mention he was playing for another team, Malta, in the Olympiad. Photo © 2010 Albran.
My new team-mate Peter Sammut Briffa is captain of the Malta side. He reports amongst other things:
Kirsan has been handing out bags with goodies to all the players (a computer carrier bag, watch, Tshirt, cap, badge, biro and travelling chess set). Standard tactics with him in election year.
The organisation so far has been pretty good. Each team was met at the airport by a tutor (most of whom are sexy ladies studying foreign languages, but we drew the short straw - a guy). This tutor has kept in touch with us everyday to make sure that things are ok. The Maltese team is staying at the new Olympic Hotel (the one that was still being built in August). There's a smell of fresh paint and plaster everywhere but, except for the lifts which are frequently faulty, I can't really complain. The food is plentiful and varied, so I expect most people found something they liked.
The tournament has been smooth. I had a mild disagreement with the chief arbiter. Since I am a playing captain, I wanted to appoint the "resting" player as match captain whenever I play. The chief arbiter told me to notify her personally in writing before the match starts each time - which means having to find her. When the first occasion came, I managed to ambush her at the hotel and told her to wait while while I wrote out the letter. She realised that this would make her life impossible if every team in the same situation stopped her. So she told me to hand in the letter to the TAP (technical advisory panel) with the line-up. That was a more practical solution, and I'm happy to use it.
For me the Olympiad has all been about processing games so far.
I've been working hard at my computing skills recently and I decided to test some ideas I've had in this one of the hardest events. The resulting PGN section is, I hope, a big improvement. Things I'm doing include, checking the results of the games against the results on chess-results.com automatically, I've found a number of errors there. I've also put board numbers in the PGN which actually makes the PGN file look better in ChessBase at least. I also have a program to check the final move and produce a file of games ending in K(e/d)(4/5) which has allowed me to find a number of games with errors in the final move due to the way the results are indicated on digital boards. In addition yesterday I changed the naming format to that in the FIDE rating list (with one or two minor modifications) however I didn't have time to check if this introduced new errors. I'm doing that using the round, match number and board which I guess might be problematic if I have any of those wrong. That's something I'll check today. None of this would have been easy without computing power. I'm hoping I'm nearly set for the rest of the Olympiad. Comments on the PGN files are welcome.
39th Olympiad Men Khanty-Mansiysk (RUS), 21 ix - 3 x 2010
Round 6 (of 11) Pairings
- GEO 2 : 2 ARM
- UKR 3 : 1 HUN
- RUS2 3 : 1 NED
- RUS1 2½ : 1½ CZE
- AZE 3 : 1 IND
- VIE 1½ : 2½ USA
- POL 3 : 1 EST
- RUS3 2 : 2 GRE
- MNE 1½ : 2½ CHN
- CUB 3 : 1 BIH
- SVK 2 : 2 SWE
- ESP 3 : 1 ITA
- FIN 0 : 4 BRA
- IRI 3 : 1 ISL
- CRO 2 : 2 CAN
- PHI 1 : 3 BLR
- AUT 1½ : 2½ FRA
- ENG 2½ : 1½ NOR
- TKM 2½ : 1½ LTU
- MEX ½ : 3½ GER
- COL 2 : 2 RUS4
- RUS5 1 : 3 SLO
- SRB 3 : 1 CHI
- FAI 1 : 3 UZB
- BUL 3 : 1 ECU
- PER ½ : 3½ ISR
- ARG 3½ : ½ JOR
- MGL 2 : 2 AUS
- VEN ½ : 3½ KAZ
- KGZ 2 : 2 IRL
- EGY 2 : 2 SIN
- CRC 1½ : 2½ LAT
- 75 matches
| 39th Olympiad Men Khanty-Mansiysk (RUS), 21 ix - 3 x 2010
Leading Round 6 (of 11) Standings: |
|||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rk. | SNo | Team | Team | Games | + | = | - | TB1 | TB2 | TB3 | TB4 |
| 1 | 2 | Ukraine | UKR | 6 | 5 | 1 | 0 | 11 | 115,0 | 18,5 | 40,00 |
| 2 | 6 | Armenia | ARM | 6 | 5 | 1 | 0 | 11 | 115,0 | 17,0 | 43,00 |
| 3 | 20 | Georgia | GEO | 6 | 5 | 1 | 0 | 11 | 109,5 | 19,5 | 37,00 |
| 4 | 1 | Russia 1 | RUS1 | 6 | 5 | 0 | 1 | 10 | 113,5 | 16,5 | 43,00 |
| 5 | 4 | Russia 2 | RUS2 | 6 | 5 | 0 | 1 | 10 | 112,5 | 18,5 | 40,00 |
| 6 | 15 | Poland | POL | 6 | 4 | 2 | 0 | 10 | 104,0 | 18,0 | 36,00 |
| 7 | 9 | United States of America | USA | 6 | 5 | 0 | 1 | 10 | 102,5 | 17,0 | 39,00 |
| 8 | 7 | Azerbaijan | AZE | 6 | 5 | 0 | 1 | 10 | 101,0 | 18,0 | 36,00 |
| 9 | 5 | Hungary | HUN | 6 | 5 | 0 | 1 | 10 | 98,5 | 14,5 | 46,00 |
| 10 | 24 | Brazil | BRA | 6 | 4 | 1 | 1 | 9 | 103,5 | 17,5 | 38,00 |
| 11 | 14 | Russia 3 | RUS3 | 6 | 4 | 1 | 1 | 9 | 102,0 | 14,5 | 44,00 |
| 12 | 3 | China | CHN | 6 | 4 | 1 | 1 | 9 | 100,0 | 16,0 | 41,00 |
| 13 | 35 | Belarus | BLR | 6 | 4 | 1 | 1 | 9 | 96,5 | 17,0 | 35,00 |
| 14 | 13 | Netherlands | NED | 6 | 4 | 1 | 1 | 9 | 94,5 | 14,0 | 44,00 |
| 15 | 18 | Cuba | CUB | 6 | 4 | 1 | 1 | 9 | 90,5 | 16,0 | 38,00 |
| 16 | 16 | Spain | ESP | 6 | 4 | 1 | 1 | 9 | 89,5 | 16,0 | 37,00 |
| 17 | 10 | France | FRA | 6 | 3 | 3 | 0 | 9 | 89,5 | 15,0 | 39,00 |
| 18 | 12 | England | ENG | 6 | 4 | 1 | 1 | 9 | 81,5 | 15,5 | 34,00 |
| 19 | 38 | Iran | IRI | 6 | 4 | 1 | 1 | 9 | 79,0 | 16,0 | 36,00 |
| 20 | 69 | Turkmenistan | TKM | 6 | 4 | 1 | 1 | 9 | 79,0 | 15,5 | 36,00 |
| 21 | 17 | Czech Republic | CZE | 6 | 4 | 0 | 2 | 8 | 110,0 | 17,0 | 42,00 |
| 22 | 27 | Vietnam | VIE | 6 | 4 | 0 | 2 | 8 | 93,5 | 14,5 | 47,00 |
| 23 | 42 | Germany | GER | 6 | 4 | 0 | 2 | 8 | 93,0 | 16,5 | 32,00 |
| 24 | 33 | Uzbekistan | UZB | 6 | 4 | 0 | 2 | 8 | 88,0 | 15,0 | 38,00 |
| 25 | 26 | Argentina | ARG | 6 | 4 | 0 | 2 | 8 | 87,5 | 15,5 | 39,00 |
| 26 | 28 | Croatia | CRO | 6 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 8 | 87,5 | 14,5 | 42,00 |
| 27 | 22 | Slovakia | SVK | 6 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 8 | 86,5 | 15,0 | 39,00 |
| 28 | 25 | Greece | GRE | 6 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 8 | 86,0 | 16,0 | 36,00 |
| 29 | 11 | Israel | ISR | 6 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 8 | 84,5 | 16,0 | 37,00 |
| 30 | 29 | Slovenia | SLO | 6 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 8 | 84,0 | 15,0 | 40,00 |
| 31 | 34 | Sweden | SWE | 6 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 8 | 82,5 | 13,5 | 40,00 |
| 32 | 8 | Bulgaria | BUL | 6 | 4 | 0 | 2 | 8 | 82,0 | 17,0 | 33,00 |
| 163 teams | |||||||||||
39th Olympiad Women Khanty-Mansiysk (RUS), 21 ix - 3 x 2010
Round 6 (of 11) Pairings
- RUS1 2½ : 1½ UKR
- GEO 2½ : 1½ USA
- HUN 4 : 0 POL
- RUS3 1 : 3 CHN
- IND 3 : 1 ITA
- BUL 2 : 2 SRB
- ARM 2 : 2 RUS2
- SUI 2 : 2 GER
- EST 1½ : 2½ ROU
- UZB 2½ : 1½ ESP
- CRO 2½ : 1½ LAT
- SLO 2½ : 1½ ISR
- CZE 1½ : 2½ KAZ
- KGZ 0 : 4 CUB
- AUS ½ : 3½ FRA
- IRI 3½ : ½ ARG
- BLR 3½ : ½ CAN
- COL 3 : 1 LTU
- INA 2½ : 1½ TKM
- AZE 3 : 1 TUR
- ALB 1½ : 2½ PER
- ISL 1½ : 2½ SVK
- AUT ½ : 3½ GRE
- PHI 4 : 0 MEX
- BOL 3 : 1 IBCA
- MGL 4 : 0 SRI
- NOR 3 : 1 BIH
- MDA 2 : 2 SIN
- TJK 3 : 1 ZAM
- 58 matches
| 39th Olympiad Women Khanty-Mansiysk (RUS), 21 ix - 3 x 2010
Leading Round 6 (of 11) Standings: |
|||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rk. | SNo | Team | Team | Games | + | = | - | TB1 | TB2 | TB3 | TB4 |
| 1 | 1 | Russia 1 | RUS1 | 6 | 6 | 0 | 0 | 12 | 123,0 | 17,5 | 43,00 |
| 2 | 9 | Hungary | HUN | 6 | 5 | 1 | 0 | 11 | 120,5 | 18,0 | 42,00 |
| 3 | 4 | Georgia | GEO | 6 | 5 | 0 | 1 | 10 | 121,0 | 18,5 | 44,00 |
| 4 | 3 | Ukraine | UKR | 6 | 5 | 0 | 1 | 10 | 120,5 | 17,5 | 46,00 |
| 5 | 2 | China | CHN | 6 | 5 | 0 | 1 | 10 | 117,0 | 17,5 | 43,00 |
| 6 | 8 | India | IND | 6 | 5 | 0 | 1 | 10 | 113,5 | 18,0 | 39,00 |
| 7 | 14 | Romania | ROU | 6 | 4 | 1 | 1 | 9 | 104,5 | 17,0 | 42,00 |
| 8 | 6 | United States of America | USA | 6 | 4 | 1 | 1 | 9 | 104,5 | 16,5 | 43,00 |
| 9 | 7 | Armenia | ARM | 6 | 4 | 1 | 1 | 9 | 99,5 | 17,0 | 38,00 |
| 10 | 17 | Serbia | SRB | 6 | 4 | 1 | 1 | 9 | 96,0 | 17,0 | 39,00 |
| 11 | 5 | Russia 2 | RUS2 | 6 | 3 | 3 | 0 | 9 | 96,0 | 15,0 | 40,00 |
| 12 | 16 | Germany | GER | 6 | 3 | 3 | 0 | 9 | 94,0 | 17,0 | 39,00 |
| 13 | 12 | Bulgaria | BUL | 6 | 4 | 1 | 1 | 9 | 91,0 | 14,0 | 43,00 |
| 14 | 27 | Croatia | CRO | 6 | 4 | 1 | 1 | 9 | 87,0 | 14,5 | 41,00 |
| 15 | 13 | Slovenia | SLO | 6 | 4 | 1 | 1 | 9 | 82,0 | 14,0 | 37,00 |
| 16 | 33 | Uzbekistan | UZB | 6 | 4 | 1 | 1 | 9 | 79,0 | 17,0 | 33,00 |
| 17 | 46 | Switzerland | SUI | 6 | 4 | 1 | 1 | 9 | 68,0 | 14,5 | 36,00 |
| 18 | 18 | Cuba | CUB | 6 | 4 | 0 | 2 | 8 | 94,5 | 17,0 | 37,00 |
| 19 | 29 | Iran | IRI | 6 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 8 | 84,0 | 15,5 | 39,00 |
| 20 | 37 | Kazakhstan | KAZ | 6 | 4 | 0 | 2 | 8 | 84,0 | 15,5 | 38,00 |
| 21 | 10 | Poland | POL | 6 | 4 | 0 | 2 | 8 | 82,5 | 16,0 | 39,00 |
| 22 | 11 | France | FRA | 6 | 4 | 0 | 2 | 8 | 81,5 | 16,5 | 33,00 |
| 23 | 30 | Italy | ITA | 6 | 4 | 0 | 2 | 8 | 81,5 | 13,5 | 43,00 |
| 24 | 26 | Azerbaijan | AZE | 6 | 4 | 0 | 2 | 8 | 80,5 | 14,0 | 41,00 |
| 25 | 21 | Greece | GRE | 6 | 4 | 0 | 2 | 8 | 79,0 | 16,0 | 38,00 |
| 26 | 40 | Colombia | COL | 6 | 4 | 0 | 2 | 8 | 78,5 | 16,5 | 30,00 |
| 27 | 36 | Russia 3 | RUS3 | 6 | 4 | 0 | 2 | 8 | 75,0 | 16,5 | 33,00 |
| 28 | 50 | Indonesia | INA | 6 | 4 | 0 | 2 | 8 | 74,0 | 14,5 | 39,00 |
| 29 | 35 | Peru | PER | 6 | 4 | 0 | 2 | 8 | 69,0 | 14,5 | 35,00 |
| 30 | 52 | Philippines | PHI | 6 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 8 | 66,5 | 16,5 | 31,00 |
| 31 | 15 | Slovakia | SVK | 6 | 4 | 0 | 2 | 8 | 65,0 | 15,5 | 36,00 |
| 32 | 34 | Belarus | BLR | 6 | 4 | 0 | 2 | 8 | 63,0 | 15,0 | 31,00 |
| 129 teams | |||||||||||
