The Week in Chess

The 40th Chess Olympiad Istanbul Round 7 took place on Tuesday 4th September 15:00 local time 13:00 BST. Russia take control of the men's event and having faced down most of their rivals it's theirs to lose as they have a 1 point lead. Grischuk's win took them to a win vs Azerbaijan. Armenia's sights may have to be on the bronze after losing to China who they out rated. China catch Russia and Poland in the women's event.

Live Video - Pairings - Live Games Official.

Leading Men's Results Round 7: AZE 1.5-2.5 RUS (Radjabov 1/2 Kramnik, Grischuk 1-0 Safarli, Mamedyarov 1/2 Karjakin, Jakovenko 1/2 Mamedov) Grischuk slow conversion of an extra pawn puts Russia in a very strong position, CHN 2.5-1.5 ARM (Wang Hao 1/2 Aronian, Movsesian 0-1 Wang Yue, Ding 1/2 Akopian, Sargissian 1/2 Bu. Movsesian's over-aggression just got him into trouble and a massive counter-attack proved decisive) China in good shape for a push for the title, PHI 2-2 HUN (So 1/2 Leko. Wesley So apparently missed a win and in the end the veteran Eugenio Torre had to use all his experience to beat Ferenc Berkes and save the match for PHI), UKR 1-0 ESP (Ivanchuk 1-0 Vallejo was the decisive result. One wonders what would have happened if Ivanchuk had won in round 1. He's struggled a bit since but gets back to a 50% score with this win, Illescas 1/2 Ponomariov), MDA1.5-2.5 GER (Bologan 1/2 Naiditsch) wins for Khankin and Gustafsson win the match for Germany, ARG 2-2 IND (Peralta 1/2 Sasikiran, Ruben Felgaer's win on board 3 was matched by Gupta's on board 4), USA 3.5-0.5 TUR (Nakamura 1-0 Solak, Ipatov 0-1 Kamsky, The US team finally deliver a big win having become becalmed with three drawn matches), ISR 2-2 FRA (Gelfand 1/2 Vachier, Fressinet 0-1 Sutovsky. Sutovsky's win matches for France by Tkachiev's win vs Avrukh), GEO 1.5-2.5 ENG (Mchedlishvili 1/2 Adams, Jones 1/2 Gagunashvili, Pantsulaia 0-1 Short, Howell 1/2 Shanava) Short is in my fantasy team on board 3 exactly because he had the potential to score like this 6/7 undefeated now, MEX 1-3 UZB (Leon Hoyos 1/2 Kasimdzhanov), ITA 1.5-2.5 MKD (Caruana 1-0 Vlad Georgiev but in the end the Italian team is defeated by lower rated Macedonians), BUL 1.5-2.5 NED (Veselin Topalov beat Anish Giri in a fine result for him having struggled for much of the year. Sharp game settled on the run up to first time control. Van Wely 1/2 Cheparinov, Delchev 0-1 Smeets, Stellwagen 1-0 Nikolov),

Leading Women's Results Round 7: RUS 2-2 POL (Gunina 1/2 Socko), GEO 1.5-2.5 CHN (Dzagnidze 1/2 Hou Yifan) If I worked this out right the favourites China take the lead, UKR 2-2 FRA (Lahno 1/2 Skripchenko. All games drawn, Maria Muzychuk dropped a piece but was allowed to give perpetual check by Sophie Milliet), SRB 2-2 VIE (Bojkovic 1/2 Thi), HUN 2.5-1.5 MNE (Hoang 1/2 Vojinovic).

Games from the top 20 men's matches available for viewing and download below.