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
