Greece on a rollercoaster

Armenia, Russia, Israel, Azerbaijan, USA, and India share the lead at the World Team Chess Championship. They have collected 4 match points each (2 wins, 0 draws, 1 loss). Greece, Brazil, and Egypt have 1 win / 2 losses each and share 7th – 9th position, while Turkey is trailing last with no match points.

Azerbaijan missed their chance to stabilize the lead at what the Azeri players consider “the most important event in the first half of 2010″. Gashimov and Co lost to India, falling into their own tactical trap. Mamedyarov was lined up on the last board with the idea to take a full point and let the rest of the players draw their games. The first part of the plan worked as Mamedyarov defeated GN Gopal, however, the match took unexpected turn as GM Ganguly (second of GM Anand for the last WCC) defeated GM Guseinov. Radjabov and Harikrishna drew their game leaving the match to be decided on board 1. Sasikiran and Gashimov, two of the most progressing players in 2009, battled out the game, with the full point and the match going to India.

USA had a harder task of keeping the lead as they met the “wounded bear” Russia. Still disappointed at their loss to Greece in R2, Russia went all out and defeated convincingly USA 3:1.

Greece could not maintain their form from the match with Russia and lost surprisingly to Egypt. GM Ahmed Adly won the key game for Egypt against GM Kotronias.

Standings

ARMENIA 4 MP 7½ GP

RUSSIA 4 MP 7 GP

ISRAEL 4 MP 7 GP

AZERBAIJAN 4 MP 7 GP

UNITED STATES 4 MP 7 GP

INDIA 4 MP 6 GP

GREECE 2 MP 5½ GP

BRAZIL 2 MP 5½ GP

EGYPT 2 MP 5 GP

TURKIYE 0 MP 2½ GP

Results round 3

2 TURKIYE ½ – 3½ 10 ARMENIA

IM Erdogdu Mert 2513 ½ : ½ GM Aronian Levon 2781

IM Yilmaz Mustafa 2478 0 : 1 GM Akopian Vladimir 2678

IM Can Emre 2442 0 : 1 GM Sargissian Gabriel 2680

IM Esen Baris 2513 0 : 1 GM Pashikian Arman 2647

3 INDIA 2½ – 1½ 1 AZERBAIJAN

GM Sasikiran Krishnan 2653 1 : 0 GM Gashimov Vugar 2759

GM Harikrishna P 2672 ½ : ½ GM Radjabov Teimour 2733

GM Ganguly Surya Shekhar 2654 1 : 0 GM Guseinov Gadir 2614

GM Geetha Narayanan Gopal 2584 0 : 1 GM Mamedyarov Shakhriyar 2741

4 RUSSIA 3 – 1 9 UNITED STATES

GM Grischuk Alexander 2736 ½ : ½ GM Nakamura Hikaru 2708

GM Morozevich Alexander 2732 ½ : ½ GM Onischuk Alexander 2670

GM Malakhov Vladimir 2716 1 : 0 GM Shulman Yuri 2624

GM Vitiugov Nikita 2692 1 : 0 GM Akobian Varuzhan 2628

5 EGYPT 2½ – 1½ 8 GREECE

GM Adly Ahmed 2591 1 : 0 GM Kotronias Vasilios 2599

GM Amin Bassem 2544 1 : 0 GM Papaioannou Ioannis 2625

IM Abdel Razik Khaled 2468 ½ : ½ GM Banikas Hristos 2608

IM Sarwat Walaa 2386 0 : 1 GM Mastrovasilis Dimitrios 2571

6 ISRAEL 2½ – 1½ 7 BRAZIL

GM Gelfand Boris 2761 1 : 0 GM Vescovi Giovanni 2660

GM Sutovsky Emil 2657 ½ : ½ GM Leitao Rafael 2620

GM Postny Evgeny 2648 ½ : ½ GM Fier Alexandr 2601

GM Rodshtein Maxim 2622 ½ : ½ GM Milos Gilberto 2618