The Week in Chess

China took firm control of the Online Nations Cup preliminary stage with two more wins on day 3. China first beat one of their main rivals the USA 2.5-1.5 in a very close match in Round 5 where Fabiano Caruana outplayed Wang Hao with the black pieces to win on board 2, Hou Yifan levelled things by beating Irina Krush but the match was settled by the game Yu Yangyi against Leinier Dominguez. Yu had a winning position but two moves before the end 36...Bd5 threw this away, Dominguez didn't notice and resigned a move later. In Round 6 China crushed the Rest of the World team 3.5-0.5. Two teams qualify for the final on Sunday, it already seems that China will be one of them.

India almost scored their first match win after Viswanthan Anand scored a drastic 17 move win against Ian Nepomniachtchi. Two games were then drawn but Pentala Harikrishna lost the final game to finish to Vladislav Artemiev within sight of a draw with what clearly was a mouse slip dropping material. Europe moved into second place with two match wins beating the Rest of the World 2.5-1.5 in Round 5 with wins for Aronian and Dzagnidze, Amin beat Giri for the RoW's point. Europe then beat Russia 2.5-1.5 three games were drawn but on top board there was intrigue. At first it seemed like Maxime Vachier-Lagrave would win quickly but he really didn't play well in the conversion phase and Ian Nepomniachtchi reached a drawn endgame. However Nepomniachtchi then seemed to start to make life difficult for himself by not keeping a third rank defence with his two rooks preventing the advance of his opponent's pawns. Having made life hard for himself Nepomniachtchi then blundered at the end to lose the game and match.

India also let a point go in Round 6 when Anand failed to covert a winning position against Nakamura. Wesley So's win against Adhiban was the only decisive game of the match. This extra point for USA and a point less for Russia could be key for both teams with only four rounds to go.

Round 6 (of 10) Standings: China 11pts, Europe 9pts, USA 7pts, Russia 5pts, India, RoW 2pts

Round 7 May 8th 2pm: USA-Russia, India-RoW, China-Europe.

Round 8 May 8th 3:45pm: Russia-China, Europe-India, RoW-USA