Istanbul Chess Olympiad: Indian Men Finish 35th, Women 4th!

Armenia is World Chess Olympiad Champions 2012

Photos: David Llada, Arman Karakhanyan

The last round at the 40th Chess Olympiad in Istanbul was as exciting as it could get with the results being decided with tiebreaks after all the final games were played! Indian men finished with the 35th place below their seeding of ninth. Indian women finished with the fourth place above their seeding of sixth. National Champion Abhijeet Gupta picked up an individual Silver Medal as board prize for the fourth board. Tania Sachdev picked up an individual bronze medal as board prize for the third board.

Indian women on their way to beating France in the last round and finishing fourth at the Istanbul Chess Olympiad.

The Final round saw India lose to Azerbaijan with Shakhriyar Mamedyarov beating Pentala Harikrishna. All other boards were draw. Indian women beat France in an exciting match.

Bo.	7	Azerbaijan (AZE)	Rtg	-	13	India (IND)	Rtg	2½:1½
9.1	GM	Safarli, Eltaj	2620	-	GM	Sasikiran, Krishnan	2707	½ – ½
9.2	GM	Mamedyarov, Shakhriyar	2729	-	GM	Harikrishna, Pentala	2685	1 – 0
9.3	GM	Mamedov, Rauf	2634	-	GM	Negi, Parimarjan	2664	½ – ½
9.4	GM	Guseinov, Gadir	2613	-	GM	Gopal, Geetha Narayanan	2550	½ – ½

Bo.	14	France (FRA)	Rtg	-	6	India (IND)	Rtg	1½:2½
4.1	IM	Skripchenko, Almira	2442	-	GM	Dronavalli, Harika	2503	0 – 1
4.2	IM	Milliet, Sophie	2411	-	IM	Sachdev, Tania	2379	½ – ½
4.3	WGM	Maisuradze, Nino	2284	-	WGM	Gomes, Mary Ann	2396	1 – 0
4.4	WIM	Bollengier, Andreea	2253	-	WGM	Soumya, Swaminathan	2271	0 – 1

In the last round of the 40th World Chess Olympiad Armenia was matched against Hungary. Levon Aronian secured a perpetual against Peter Leko, and the other games continued. After the time control Gabriel Sargissian drew the rook endgame against Ferenc Berkes, and Sergei Movsesian scored a crucial victory against Zoltan Almasi. Eventually Vladimir Akopian held Judit Polgar to a draw to mark the start of huge celebration for Armenian gold medal. Congratulations!

Russia employed their trademark strategy and signed two quick draws with Germany – both with black pieces. This worked perfectly as Vladimir Kramnik and Sergey Karjakin won with white to secure the overall 3-1 victory for Russia. Russia finished equal first on match points but with weaker tie-breaks and thus is awarded with the silver medal.

Defending champions Russia retain their gold in the women’s section at the 40th Chess Olympiad.

China was in good position to fight for the gold medal but a defeat in the match with Ukraine pushed them down in the standings to the 4th place. Vassily Ivanchuk won a nice attacking game against Wang Hao, while Pavel Eljanov outplayed Bu Xiangzhi. the other two games were drawn. With this victory Ukraine climbs up and grabs the bronze medal!

In the Women’s Section Russia easily crushed the young team of Kazakhstan with 4-0. At the same time China was struggling to keep the pace as Bulgaria proved to be a respectable opponent. Hou Yifan and Antoaneta Stefanova drew, while Margarita Voiska beat Ju Wenjun. However, Zhao Xue and Huang Qian defeated their opponents to turn the tables and win the match. Both Russia and China finished with 19 match points, but the tie-break awarded the gold medal to Russia, while China team had to console themselves with silver. Ukraine demolished Germany 3,5-0,5 to secure the third place and the bronze medal.

Final Ranking after 11 Rounds – Open

Rk.	SNo		Team	Team	Games	+	=	-	TB1	TB2	TB3	TB4
1	3		Armenia	ARM	11	9	1	1	19	397.0	29.0	155.00
2	1		Russia	RUS	11	9	1	1	19	388.5	28.5	157.00
3	2		Ukraine	UKR	11	9	0	2	18	363.0	29.5	147.00
4	6		China	CHN	11	8	1	2	17	390.5	29.5	157.00
5	5		United States Of America	USA	11	7	3	1	17	361.0	30.0	142.00
6	9		Netherlands	NED	11	8	0	3	16	329.0	29.0	133.00
7	27		Vietnam	VIE	11	6	4	1	16	313.5	29.0	126.00
8	25		Romania	ROU	11	8	0	3	16	310.0	29.0	128.00
9	4		Hungary	HUN	11	7	1	3	15	368.0	28.0	151.00
10	7		Azerbaijan	AZE	11	6	3	2	15	344.0	29.0	144.00
11	15		Cuba	CUB	11	7	1	3	15	338.5	30.5	130.00
12	14		Germany	GER	11	6	3	2	15	334.5	26.0	148.00
13	16		Poland	POL	11	7	1	3	15	313.5	27.5	138.00
14	20		Serbia	SRB	11	6	3	2	15	307.0	28.5	126.00
15	22		Italy	ITA	11	7	1	3	15	306.0	28.0	134.00
16	34		Sweden	SWE	11	7	1	3	15	303.5	28.0	125.00
17	11		England	ENG	11	6	3	2	15	300.5	26.0	137.00
18	39		Denmark	DEN	11	7	1	3	15	270.5	27.0	121.00
19	23		Moldova	MDA	11	6	2	3	14	348.5	29.5	129.00
20	10		Bulgaria	BUL	11	7	0	4	14	321.5	28.0	134.00
21	35		Philippines	PHI	11	6	2	3	14	321.0	26.0	152.00
22	29		Argentina	ARG	11	6	2	3	14	316.0	25.0	146.00
23	8		France	FRA	11	6	2	3	14	305.0	26.5	141.00
24	33		Uzbekistan	UZB	11	6	2	3	14	303.0	27.0	138.00
25	28		Slovenia	SLO	11	6	2	3	14	297.0	24.0	138.00
26	12		Israel	ISR	11	5	4	2	14	296.0	25.0	136.00
27	19		Croatia	CRO	11	6	2	3	14	295.5	25.0	137.00
28	30		Latvia	LAT	11	7	0	4	14	295.0	26.0	136.00
29	32		Belarus	BLR	11	6	2	3	14	289.5	27.0	127.00
30	42		Slovakia	SVK	11	6	2	3	14	264.5	27.0	122.00
31	57		Turkmenistan	TKM	11	6	2	3	14	255.0	24.5	121.00
32	61		Australia	AUS	11	5	4	2	14	252.5	24.5	119.00
33	48		Bangladesh	BAN	11	6	2	3	14	227.5	26.0	120.00
34	17		Czech Republic	CZE	11	5	3	3	13	315.0	26.5	139.00
35	13		India	IND	11	3	7	1	13	309.5	25.5	145.00
36	26		Georgia	GEO	11	5	3	3	13	306.0	26.5	140.00
37	18		Spain	ESP	11	6	1	4	13	286.5	25.0	141.00
38	49		FYROM	MKD	11	6	1	4	13	275.5	25.0	137.00
39	24		Brazil	BRA	11	6	1	4	13	274.0	24.0	132.00
40	21		Greece	GRE	11	5	3	3	13	269.0	28.0	124.00

Final Ranking after 11 Rounds – Women

Rk.	SNo		Team	Team	Games	+	=	-	TB1	TB2	TB3	TB4
1	2		Russia	RUS	11	8	3	0	19	450.0	33.0	155.00
2	1		China	CHN	11	8	3	0	19	416.0	31.5	154.00
3	4		Ukraine	UKR	11	7	4	0	18	408.5	30.5	154.00
4	6		India	IND	11	8	1	2	17	336.0	28.0	148.00
5	10		Romania	ROU	11	8	0	3	16	313.5	28.5	129.00
6	8		Armenia	ARM	11	8	0	3	16	313.0	26.5	140.00
7	14		France	FRA	11	7	1	3	15	347.5	29.0	147.00
8	3		Georgia	GEO	11	6	3	2	15	344.0	28.5	144.00
9	26		Iran	IRI	11	7	1	3	15	339.0	31.0	132.00
10	5		United States of America	USA	11	6	3	2	15	326.0	29.5	133.00
11	9		Germany	GER	11	7	1	3	15	316.0	27.0	144.00
12	22		Kazakhstan	KAZ	11	6	3	2	15	309.0	27.0	138.00
13	21		Mongolia	MGL	11	7	1	3	15	308.0	28.0	134.00
14	36		Belarus	BLR	11	6	3	2	15	292.0	28.5	121.00
15	7		Poland	POL	11	6	2	3	14	336.5	27.5	151.00
16	13		Bulgaria	BUL	11	6	2	3	14	316.5	27.5	136.00
17	12		Hungary	HUN	11	6	2	3	14	303.0	27.5	129.00
18	24		Latvia	LAT	11	6	2	3	14	296.5	28.0	126.00
19	15		Cuba	CUB	11	5	4	2	14	286.0	25.5	129.00
20	17		Netherlands	NED	11	6	2	3	14	285.5	27.0	133.00