The Week in Chess

The 40th Chess Olympiad Istanbul Round 10 took place on Friday 7th September 2012.

After 10 rounds 1st China, 2nd Armenia and 3rd Russia are all tied on 17 points. In the final round UKR-CHN, HUN-ARM, RUS-GER, POL-USA. England play the Czech Republic. Ukraine is a very tough assignment for the leaders so it is all to play for in these pairings. I don't understand the tie-breaks and I'm sure I'm not alone but they will be key. The official site needs to provide a guide in the light of Sunday's final round pairings..

China beat the USA 2.5-1.5 but only after Liren Ding beat Alexander Onischuk in a drawn Rook and Pawn ending. Russia had to sweat on their win against Argentina as their heavy scorer Dmitry Jakovenko had to defend a worse position for a long time against Sandro Mareco. Armenia were comfortable 3-1 winners against Netherlands where they were better on every board and Aronian beat Giri on Board 1.

The Chinese women still lead after 10 rounds but it is almost unbelievable they didn't beat a Kazakhstan team whose highest rated player was 2291, Ding Yixin on bottom board (2424) was beaten by Madina Davletbayeva (2165). The match finished 2-2. Russia share the lead but have a worse tie-break, or at least I think so somehow they're number 1 in the pairing list. Final Round RUS-KAZ and BUL-CHN. 5th seeds USA are 17th but Irina Krush has scored 8/9.

Live Video - Pairings - Live Games Official.

Leading Round 10 Pairings Men: CHN 2.5-1.5 USA (Wang Hao 1/2 Nakamura, Kamsky 1/2 Wang Yue, Ding 1-0 Onischuk, Akobian 1/2 Bu), ARG 1.5-2.5 RUS (Peralta 1/2 Grischuk, Karjakin 1-0 Flores, Tomeshevsky 1/2 Felgaer, Jakovenko 1/2 Mareco), NED 1-3 ARM (Giri 0-1 Aronian, Movsesian 1/2 Van Wely, Sokolov 0-1 Akopian, Sargissian 1/2 Smeets), AZE 1.5-2.5 UKR (Radjabov 1/2 Ivanchuk, Ponomariov 1-0 Sufarli), CZE 1-3 POL (Laznicka 0-1 Wojtaszek, Socko 0-1 Navara), DEN 0-4 HUN (Sune-Berg Hansen 0-1 Leko, Rasmussen 0-1 Polgar), BLR 1.5-2.5 GER (Sergei Zhigalko 1/2 Naiditsch), PHI 2-2 VIE (So 1/2 Le), IND 2-2 CUB (Sasikiran 0-1 Dominguez), ISR 2-2 GEO (Gelfand 1/2 Mchedlishvili), UZB 3-1 BUL (Kasimdzhanov 1-0 Topalov. Kasimdzhanov crushed Topalov perhaps using preparation initially planned for use by Anand), ROU 2.5-1.5 FRA (Lupulescu 1/2 Vachier), ENG 4-0 URU (Adams 1-0 Rodriguez, Crosa 0-1 Jones, Howell 1-0 Roselli, Ulaneo 0-1 Pert),

Leading Round 10 Pairings Women: CHN 2-2 KAZ (Hou Yifan 1/2 Nakhbayeva), ARM 0.5-3.5 RUS (Danielian 0-1 Tatiana Kosintseva), UKR 2.5-1.5 POL (Lahno 1/2 Socko), AZE 1.5-2.5 FRA (Mamedjarova 0-1 Skripchenko), IND 3.5-0.5 ISR (Dronavalli 1-0 Porat),

Games from the top 22 boards of the men's section now available for viewing and download.