Istanbul Chess Olympiad Round 10: Indian Men Draw with Cuba, Women Beat Israel; Abhijeet, Tania in with Chance to Win Board Prize!

Tania Sachdev-Going for gold medal Board prize for India! Photo: David Llada

The tenth round at the 40th Chess Olympiad in Istanbul saw the Indian men drawing with Cuba and the Indian women beating Israel 3.5-0.5. Grandmasters Abhijeet Gupta and Parimajan Negi beat Yuniesky Quezada Perez and Yusnel Bacallao Alonso on the third and fourth boards. Both Sasikiran and Harikrishna lost. Abhijeet Gupta and Tania Sachdev are in with a chance for a board prize! Saturday is a rest day and the final round will be played on Sunday. Here are the tenth-round results:

Top Board Harika Dronavalli. Photo: David Llada

Bo.	13	India (IND)	Rtg	-	15	Cuba (CUB)	Rtg	2 : 2
9.1	GM	Sasikiran, Krishnan	2707	-	GM	Dominguez Perez, Leinier	2725	0 – 1
9.2	GM	Harikrishna, Pentala	2685	-	GM	Bruzon Batista, Lazaro	2711	0 – 1
9.3	GM	Negi, Parimarjan	2664	-	GM	Quesada Perez, Yuniesky	2626	1 – 0
9.4	GM	Gupta, Abhijeet	2637	-	IM	Bacallao Alonso, Yusnel	2583	1 – 0

Bo.	6	India (IND)	Rtg	-	25	Israel (ISR)	Rtg	3½: ½
5.1	GM	Dronavalli, Harika	2503	-	WIM	Porat, Maya	2295	1 – 0
5.2	IM	Sachdev, Tania	2379	-	WIM	Efroimski, Marsel	2174	1 – 0
5.3	WGM	Gomes, Mary Ann	2396	-	IM	Klinova, Masha	2317	½ – ½
5.4	WGM	Soumya, Swaminathan	2271	-	WFM	Shvayger, Yuliya	2202	1 – 0

Rk.	SNo		Team	Team	Games	+	=	-	TB1	TB2	TB3	TB4
1	6		China	CHN	10	8	1	1	17	343.5	28.5	127.00
2	3		Armenia	ARM	10	8	1	1	17	336.5	26.5	132.00
3	1		Russia	RUS	10	8	1	1	17	321.5	25.5	132.00
4	2		Ukraine	UKR	10	8	0	2	16	292.5	26.5	121.00
5	4		Hungary	HUN	10	7	1	2	15	311.5	26.5	122.00
6	5		United States Of America	USA	10	6	3	1	15	307.0	27.5	120.00
7	14		Germany	GER	10	6	3	1	15	282.0	25.0	120.00
8	16		Poland	POL	10	7	1	2	15	259.0	26.0	113.00
9	29		Argentina	ARG	10	6	2	2	14	270.0	24.0	118.00
10	33		Uzbekistan	UZB	10	6	2	2	14	269.0	26.0	114.00
11	35		Philippines	PHI	10	6	2	2	14	268.0	25.0	122.00
12	25		Romania	ROU	10	7	0	3	14	257.5	26.0	109.00
13	9		Netherlands	NED	10	7	0	3	14	252.0	26.0	109.00
14	28		Slovenia	SLO	10	6	2	2	14	249.5	22.5	113.00
15	27		Vietnam	VIE	10	5	4	1	14	246.5	26.0	103.00
16	7		Azerbaijan	AZE	10	5	3	2	13	289.0	26.5	122.00
17	17		Czech Republic	CZE	10	5	3	2	13	284.0	25.0	115.00
18	15		Cuba	CUB	10	6	1	3	13	281.0	28.0	107.00
19	32		Belarus	BLR	10	6	1	3	13	270.5	25.0	109.00
20	13		India	IND	10	3	7	0	13	266.0	24.0	120.00

Rank after Round 10 – Women

Rk.	SNo		Team	Team	Games	+	=	-	TB1	TB2	TB3	TB4
1	1		China	CHN	10	7	3	0	17	357.0	29.0	131.00
2	2		Russia	RUS	10	7	3	0	17	348.0	29.0	126.00
3	4		Ukraine	UKR	10	6	4	0	16	325.0	27.0	127.00
4	14		France	FRA	10	7	1	2	15	294.0	27.5	120.00
5	22		Kazakhstan	KAZ	10	6	3	1	15	281.0	27.0	112.00
6	9		Germany	GER	10	7	1	2	15	277.5	26.5	113.00
7	6		India	IND	10	7	1	2	15	277.5	25.5	122.00
8	7		Poland	POL	10	6	2	2	14	282.0	26.0	122.00
9	13		Bulgaria	BUL	10	6	2	2	14	260.0	26.0	107.00
10	8		Armenia	ARM	10	7	0	3	14	259.5	24.0	117.00
11	35		Uzbekistan	UZB	10	6	2	2	14	259.0	24.0	118.00
12	10		Romania	ROU	10	7	0	3	14	253.5	26.0	105.00
13	37		Peru	PER	10	6	2	2	14	229.5	24.5	104.00
14	3		Georgia	GEO	10	5	3	2	13	280.5	26.0	119.00
15	25		Israel	ISR	10	6	1	3	13	264.0	25.5	112.00
16	26		Iran	IRI	10	6	1	3	13	261.0	27.5	107.00
17	5		United States of America	USA	10	5	3	2	13	260.5	26.5	109.00
18	27		Azerbaijan	AZE	10	6	1	3	13	258.5	24.5	119.00
19	11		Spain	ESP	10	6	1	3	13	251.0	24.0	112.00
20	36		Belarus	BLR	10	5	3	2	13	245.5	26.0	101.00

The last round is going to be an exciting one on Sunday. China, Armenia and Russia (according to tie-break score) are in joint lead. China’s top striker Ding Liren nicely outplayed Alexander Onischuk in the Rook endgame, and with the other three games being drawn, China signed an important victory against USA.

The Chinese men: Are they unstoppable? Photo: David Llada

Russia assumed a quick lead against Argentina as Diego Flores lost the wandering Knight right from the opening. But Argentinians held two draws with white pieces and Sandro Mareco pressed hard against Dmitry Jakovenko. Mareco was a pawn up but he couldn’t convert the advantage and the match finally ended in Russia’s favour. Armenia achieved a relatively easy win against Netherlands. Levon Aronian won a nice game against Anish Giri, while Vladimir Akopian sacrificed a piece for three pawns and proceeded to an endgame where his phalanx was unstoppable. Armenia won 3-1.Ukraine went ahead to the 4th place thanks to a narrow 2,5-1,5 victory against Azerbaijan. Czech Republic took an early lead with David Navara’s win, but then the Polish team switched the gear and won the remaining three games. As the leaders have already played against each other, in round 11 they are paired with the teams in the lower point groups: Ukraine – China, Hungary – Armenia and Russia – Germany.

The Ukrainians. Photo: Anastasiya Karlovich

In the Women’s Section, 22nd-seed Kazakhstan held the leading China to a 2-2 draw else the gold would have been decided in the tenth round itself. WIM Guliskhan Nakhbayeva held the World Champion Hou Yifan to a draw, while Madina Davletbayeva totally outplayed Ding Yixin. Zhao Xue could only even up the score with a victory against Gulmira Dauletova.

Russia convincingly defeated Armenia by 3,5-0,5, as Lilit Galojan was the only player to make a draw for her team. Russia is now even with China in the term of match points, while China still holds some edge in the tie-break.

Ukraine narrowly beat Poland 2,5-1,5, with Natalia Zhukova bringing the key point, and is now in serious contention for one of the medals. From the other matches, it should be noted that the 2011 World Junior Champion Deysi Cori beat the top-rated player in the Section, Anna Muzychuk (2606), as Peru defeated Slovenia by 2,5-1,5. Top round 11 matches are Russia – Kazakhstan, Bulgaria – China, Ukraine – Germany and France – India.