The Week in Chess

The 40th Chess Olympiad Istanbul Round 5 took place on Saturday 1st September. Live Video - Pairings - Live Games Official.

Olympiad Round 5, The battle of the four leaders saw one decisive game in each match. Aronian made light work of Ivanchuk in Armenia's 2.5-1.5 defeat of Ukraine. Alexander Grischuk needed no second invitation to launch a decisive king-side attack after Almasi's queen became completely misplaced on the queen-side. This win saw Russia beat Hungary 2.5-1.5. Leko and Kramnik drew on top board. So it will be Russia against Armenia on Monday. Rest day Sunday.

Other top pairings: GER 2-2 MNE, CRO 2.5-1.5 FRA, USA 2-2 CZE, CAN 0.5-3.5 AZE, IND 2-2 ENG (all 7 pts), POL (6pts) 2.5-1.5 ARG (7).

Women's Olympiad: RUS 2.5-1.5 FRA was the only match with teams on 100% so Russia lead alone now. SRB 2.5-1.5 BUL, GRE 1.5-2.5 POL, GEO 2-2 UKR, LAT 1.5-2.5 SVK, CHN 3.5-0.5 IND all on 7pts.

Leading player highlights: Saric drew with Vachier on top board and Kozul beat Bauer on bottom board to win the match for Croatia against France. All the games in the USA vs Czech Republic match were drawn including Nakamura-Laznicak and Kamsky-Navara. Canada were heavily outrated and lost 3.5-0.5 to Azerbaijan including a win for Radjabov against Sambuev. Sasikiran drew with Adams, Nigel Short played very riskily against Negi. This and Jones-Harikrishna saw favourable Rook endings for the Indians eventually finish in draws. Wang Hao beat Ghaem Maghami as part of China's win against Iran. Topalov beat Cori and Caruana beat Maznitsin as part of Bulgaria and Italy's comfortable wins vs Peru and Kyrgystan. Games now available for viewing and download for the top 20 boards of the men's event.