The Daily Update (In Brief): Greece Beats Russia! (Also, Kamsky Wins Reggio Emilia)
Take that, Mikhail! :) (He had to see that coming.)*
In the second round of the World Team Championships, the Greek team, featuring no players in the top 100 and taking a spot that could have gone to Ukraine, beat the top-seeded Russians 2.5-1.5. Kotronias lost to Jakovenko, but this aberration was evened out by Banikas's win over Tomashevsky and overcome by Papaioannou's obliterating Morozevich in just 25 moves, with Black:
Morozevich (2732) - Papaioannou (2625), 7th World Team Championship (Bursa, Turkey), Round 2:
1. Nf3 Nf6 2. c4 e6 3. Nc3 Bb4 4. g4 O-O 5. g5 Ne8 6. Rg1 d5 7. Qb3 c5 8. cxd5 Nd6 9. Bh3 Na6 10. g6 c4 11. gxh7+ Kh8 12. Qc2 exd5 13. Bxc8 Rxc8 14. Nxd5 Re8 15. Kf1 Ne4 16. Ne3 Qd7 17. Ng5 Nac5 18. Qxc4 Nxg5 19. Rxg5 Ne4 20. Qb5 Rc6 21. Rf5 Nd6 22. Qd3 Rxe3 23. dxe3 Qxf5 24. a3 Qh3+ 25. Kg1 Nf5 0-1
(Further objective, wholly non-partisan coverage later.) The US also won their match to go to 2-0, and in still more good news for US chess Kamsky beat Almasi in the last round of Reggio Emilia to catch him in first and to win on tiebreak.
Reader Comments (5)
How in the world did Morozevich(!) lose a White game in 25 moves?
This can happen if you play 4.g4, 5.g5, 6.Rg1 and 10.g6 but "forget" to develop your queenside pieces - I wonder how Dennis (as well as Russian sources) will comment on this game in due course.
I think among the world top, only Morozevich is "able" to lose in such a way - congrats to Papaioannou and the entire Greek team but Moro helped quite a bit. Did something similar ever happen to him before?
guys even the best chess players can lose quickly and embarrassingly with white... they just don't do it as often as mere mortals.
Viswanathan Anand vs Levon Aronian Tal Memorial 2009 25 moves 0-1 anyone?? Bueller??
http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1563935
Moro lost quick or not in this game it is still the most entertaining game. if not that Moro blundered and allowing a fork queen and rook, this will be a great sharp game.I like it when in move 11 your g pawn already in 7th rank.
Monokroussos sounds greek, so congratulation to the writer of this blog also.
Why picture the Greeks as underdogs?---they have a fistful of 2600 players! Back in the 1980s, a person with my IM title and 2400+ rating could have been champion of a lot of these little European countries, such as France. But those days are long past. Same in soccer---didn't Greece and Portugal kick some major Euro derriere six years ago? And both teams are in the 2010 World Cup. So rather than picture them as an overseas version of "Rudy", I say break 'em up! Brazil should have strewn some golden apples today...