Olympiad, Round 8: U.S. in Clear First
In the Open section, that is. The women are in a five-way tie for third - more on that later.
Entering round 8 (of the Open) three teams led: the U.S., Azerbaijan, and Poland. The first two teams faced off, while Poland took on Armenia. The U.S. team didn't get off to a disappointing start, as Hikaru Nakamura obtained a serious advantage against Arkadij Naiditsch but had it slip away after an inaccurate 28th move. That game finished in a draw, and then Wesley So lost to Teimour Radjabov. It was a remarkably easy win for Radjabov, too: he collected a weak pawn and converted his advantage in a heavy piece ending. The U.S. had its work cut out for it, but it came through. In the match of the Olympiad, the world's #2 and #3 players - Fabiano Caruana and Shakhriyar Mamedyarov, respectively, faced off. Caruana had White and obtained a moderate plus and permanent pressure in a deep theoretical line of the Open Ruy. Mamedyarov's position was fine - for a computer - but the continuous pressure against his king eventually cost him the game. (N.B. With the win, Caruana is only 4.5 points behind Magnus Carlsen on the rating list. A strong finish for Caruana will put him at #1 on the list, the first time in seven years, I think, that anyone else has had the top spot.) Finally, Sam Shankland was quickly better with Black against Rauf Mamedov in an Italian Game, but converting the advantage took forever and a day. It took 96 moves before Mamedov finally forced to throw in the towel, and that's okay: Shankland can take tomorrow off if he's too tired to play.
On to Armenia-Poland. On board 1 Levon Aronian had good chances to beat Jan-Krzysztof Duda, but the latter escaped with a draw. On board 2 Radoslaw Wojtaszek never had much (and generally had nothing) against Gabriel Sargissian: another draw. On boards 3 and 4, as on board 1, White had some advantage, but those games also finished in a draw. Poland thus fell behind the U.S. team, but is ahead of everyone going into round 9, when they will face the leaders.
In other top matches: India beat the Czechs thanks to a win by Sasikiran over Stocek on board 4; Germany beat Spain thanks to Fridman's board 3 win over Lopez Martinez; England beat Israel thanks to McShane's board 2 victory over Rodshtein, France beat Ukraine on account of Bacrot's win against Kryvoruchko on board 2, and China won their match against the Netherlands when Bu Xiangzhi defeated van Wely on board 3. In all five matches, the victory given was the only one of the match!
Here are the top pairings for round 9:
- Poland (7) - USA (7.5)
- Azerbaijan (6.5) - China (6.5)
- India (6.5) - Armenia (6.5)
- Germany (6.5) - France (6.5)
- England (6.5) - Norway (6)
In the Women's section, Armenia led entering the round but was dispatched by Ukraine 3-1. China crushed Romania by an even more impressive 3.5-.5 margin, and joins Ukraine in the lead. They already played (recall Ushenina's failure to hold a drawn rook ending against Huang Qian, allowing the Chinese to draw the match), so they'll drop down to teams in the next score group. That includes the U.S., which defeated Italy 3-1. Other important results: Georgia 1's shocking 3-1 loss to Kazakhstan, Hungary's 3-1 win over India, and Azerbaijan's 2.5-1.5 win over Georgia 2.
Top Women's pairings for round 9:
- Kazakhstan (6.5) - China (7)
- Azerbaijan (6.5) - Ukraine (7)
- USA (6.5) - Hungary (6.5)
- Armenia (6.5) - Iran (6)
Games: I'll try to catch up on them tomorrow.
Reader Comments (1)
Nakamura has been playing weak classical chess beginning the US Championship. He is looking more like a top 100 player not a top 10. His loss to the Polish GM Piorun , who is nearly 150 rating points lower at (2612), probably will cost USA the gold. The fact he still is #2 in rapid and #3 in Blitz tells me he still is a great player. It seems he cannot win classical games, even against relatively weak players.
He has always been one of my favorites because of his amazing tactical prowess. I think he is so successful with shorter time limits , the classical ones which require a lot of preparation, to even beat a well prepared 2400 player, are not getting his best effort.
[DM: It has been a terrible tournament for Nakamura, but only that: a terrible *tournament*. Everyone has them, and it's simply unfortunate that his came at the Olympiad rather than an individual event. He's not going anywhere, and if he wins in the last round to help the U.S. win the gold his loss to Piorun and his many draws won't matter at all.]