The sixth round of the Italian Team Chess Championship 2015 witnessed a major surprise as 8th seeds ‘Banca Nuova Palermo’ shockingly overcame the top seeds ‘Obiettivo Risarcimento Padova’. Untitled Ferro Mario starred for Palermo as he scored a crucial victory over GM Dvirnyy. With GM Palac holding Top GM Vachier-Lagrave to a draw and FMs Mazzali and Amato drawing their Grandmaster opponents, Palermo clinched the match 2.5-1.5.
After 6 rounds, 4 teams are tied for the top spot with 9 points each. However, owing to their better board points, A.S.D. Circolo Scacchi are ahead of the rest.
In a surprising turn of events, young Italian FM Altini Nicola stunned Super GM Maxime Vachier-Lagrave and starred in A.S.D. Arrocco Chess Club’s surprise draw against top-seeds ‘Obiettivo Risarcimento Padova’. The third and fouth board players for Arrocco – FM Boscolo and untitled Cappai – also came to the party as they drew GMs Vocaturo and Mogranzini respectively.
Despite this setback, O.R. Padova comfortably lead the pack with 9 match-points, followed by four teams on 7 points.
After 3 rounds, A.S.D. Circolo Scacchi and S.S. Lazio Scacchi lead the table with 6 match-points each. The teams will clash today in a crucial last round encounter.
GM Sabino Brunello held World #5 GM Nakamura (not in the picture) to a draw, albeit in a losing cause. (Pic Source: http://www.chess.com/)
After 3 rounds of the CIS Master Italian Team Championship 2015, top seeds ‘Obiettivo Risarcimento Padova’, boasting of such players as Nakamura, Vachier-Lagrave and Bacrot, took the sole lead with a perfect score of 6 match-points. This became possible courtesy of a comfortable 3-1 victory over 2nd seeds ‘WorldTradingLab Club 64 Modena’ in Round 3. Although Padova’s star-player GM Nakamura could only manage a draw against GM Brunello, their young Italian GMs Vocaturo and Dvirnyy came to the party with wins over IM D’Amore and IM Caprio respectively.
The battle between the 3rd and the 4th seeds – A.S.D. Circolo Scacchi vs P.W. Napoli – ended in a well-fought 2-2 draw with FM Bonafede scoring for A.S.D. Circolo Scacchi and IM Collutiis equalizing for Napoli. The other two games finished in draws, thus ensuring 1 match-point each for both the teams.
In the Women’s Section, A.S.D. Circolo Scacchi and S.S. Lazio Scacchi won their respective matches 3-0, and as such, have taken up the joint lead after Round 1 in this 5 round tournament.
Team China: The Champions! (Pic Source: http://wtcc2015.am/)
With a massive lead of 3 match-points over its nearest competitor Ukraine, Team China clinched the Gold medal in a dominant fashion at the World Team Chess Championship 2015. The last round saw the Chinese GMs record a comfortable 3-1 victory over India, with GM Yu Yangyi and GM Wei Yi winning their respective games. The Ukrainians had to settle for the Silver while the Armenians took Bronze.
The surprise package of the tournament proved to be Team USA as they secured a creditable 5th place with a total of 10 match-points. A comprehensive 3-1 victory over Cuba in the last round saw the Americans finish far ahead of their starting rank of 9. India, however, could only manage 7 match-points and finished 9th in the final standings.
A happy unit: The Georgian women! (Pic Source: chengdu2015.fide.com)
With a close victory over China in the final round, the Georgian women clinched Gold at the World Team Chess Championship 2015 with a comprehensive margin of 2 match-points over the second placed Russia. IM Meri Arabidze, again, scored a crucial victory for Georgia, this time over IM Shen Yang. Meanwhile, the Russian women came up with a fantastic 3.5-0.5 victory over U.S.A. to clinch the Silver while Team China secured the Bronze.
The Indian women, despite being out of contention for any medal, did not show any signs of complacency as they scored a resounding 3-1 victory over Armenia to finish fourth in the final rankings. Although GM Koneru Humpy (IND) suffered a shock defeat at the hands of IM Mkrtchian Lilit (ARM), the rest of the Indian women won their respective games and ensured a nice finishing victory for their team.
The 8th round of the World Team Chess Championship 2015 turned out to be quite eventful with U.S.A. surprising overnight joint-leaders Ukraine 2.5-1.5, thanks to GM Lenderman’s crucial win over GM Ivanchuk. The other overnight leader – China – took full advantage of this unexpected result as a 3-1 victory over the Cubans propelled the Chinese into sole lead ahead of the final round.
Meanwhile, the Indians had a tough day as they went down to Armenia 1.5-2.5, with yesterday’s hero GM Vidit (IND) losing to GM Melkumyan (ARM) in the decisive encounter. With this loss, India’s Bronze hopes have vanished.
Going into the last round, only China and Ukraine have a chance at Gold, while as many as 5 (!) teams are in a race for the Bronze. The Final round starts at 11 am local time (i.e. 12:30 pm IST or 7 am GMT).
WGM Pogonina scored one of the 2 individual wins for the Russians as they beat Ukraine 2.5-1.5. (Pic Source: http://chengdu2015.fide.com/)
The World Women’s Team Championship 2015 continued to be a fairy-tale for the Georgian women as they beat Armenia 3-1 in the 8th round of this 9-round event. The Georgians still lead with a margin of 2 match-points over the second-placed Russians, who overcame arch-rivals Ukraine with a close 2.5-1.5 scoreline. GM Anna Muzychuk’s (UKR) victory against GM Gunina (RUS) went in vain with WGMs Pogonina and Girya Olga scoring two crucial points for the Russians and GM Kosteniuk (RUS) holding the newly crowned women’s world champion IM Mariya Muzychuk (UKR) to a draw.
The Indian women, although out of contention for a medal, showcased immense determination as they routed 6th-seeds Poland 3.5-0.5. GM Koneru, WGM Soumya and WGM Mary Ann Gomes won their respective games while GM Harika held WGM Zawadzka with the black pieces.
With the 3rd-placed Chinese team taking on Georgia and the Russians facing a struggling American team in the final round, the fight for the top spot promises to be an exciting one as either Georgia or Russia have a chance at fame. The 9th round commences at 11:30 am Local Time and 10 am IST.
Russian GMs Grischuk and Karjakin in action during their match against Armenia. Armenia beat Russia 2.5-1.5. (Pic Source: http://wtcc2015.am/?lang=en)
The seventh round of the World Team Chess Championship 2015 proved to be the most exciting round of the tournament so far, with as many as four matches resulting in 2.5-1.5 while the clash of the leaders – China vs Ukraine – finishing in a 2-2 draw.
In the match of the leaders, GM Ivanchuk (UKR) scored a win over GM Yu Yangyi (CHN) but GM Bu Xiangzhi (CHN) struck back with a victory over GM Eljanov (UKR). With the other two games ending in draws, the match was drawn 2-2.
The battle of the heavyweights – Russia vs Armenia – ended in a narrow victory for the 3rd-seeded Armenians, thanks to GM Sargissian’s crucial win against GM Sergey Karjakin. This loss has pushed the Russians to the 8th spot in the ranking crosstable.
Indians, meanwhile, overcame a strong challenge as they beat the in-form Cubans 2.5-1.5, courtesy of GM Vidit’s important victory over GM Ortiz Suarez. The Americans also achieved quite a similar feat with a narrow 2.5-1.5 win over Israel. On the other hand, Hungary finally reversed its fortunes with a rather close victory against the inspired Egyptian team.
After 7 rounds, Ukraine and China lead jointly with 11 points while 5 teams (!) are tied for the second spot with 7 points each.
The sixth round of the World Team Chess Championship 2015 saw the overnight leaders Ukraine and China maintain their lead as they narrowly overcame Cuba and Israel respectively. Both – Cuba and Israel – were pretty much on the heels of the two overnight leaders and as such, today’s victories by Ukraine and China over the former teams have pushed the leading duo further ahead of the pack.
Meanwhile, the Russians continued their upsurgence with a 2.5-1.5 victory over India. Super GM Sergey Karjakin scored the decisive win for Russia as he beat GM Sethuraman in a 56-move Ruy Lopez battle.
In other matches, Hungary and Armenia split points whereas U.S.A. registered it’s first win of the tournament with a comfortable 3-1 victory over Egypt.
The 7th round will feature the hugely crucial match-up Ukraine vs China while Armenia will take on Russia in the battle of the heavyweights.
The U.S.A. (L) vs Georgia (R) encounter in progress (Pic Source: http://chengdu2015.fide.com/)
Overnight leaders Georgia continued their splendid show at the on-going World Women’s Team Chess Championship as they comfortably overcame the Americans 3-1 to maintain their spot at the top of the table. However, it was the 8th-seeded Kazakhstan’s ‘upset draw’ against China that hogged the limelight in the sixth round. The Kazakh women managed to hold their esteemed 3rd-seeded opponents on each of the four boards, thus making it a 2-2 draw.
The Indian women, meanwhile, registered their second consecutive match victory with an overwhelming 4-0 win over the Egyptians.
