Author: Shubham Kumthekar

The leaders spot at the World Team Chess Championship 2015 changed hands again as overnight leaders Cuba narrowly lost to Israel while Ukraine and China won their respective matches to take up the lead after Round 5.

In the Ukraine vs India encounter, GM Yuriy Kryvoruchko’s win over GM Krishnan Sasikiran proved decisive as the rest of the games finished in draws. While the China vs Egypt match-up was expected to be an easy one for China, the Egyptians made the matters really close as GM Samy Shoker stunned GM Yu Yangyi. In the end, the Chinese won by a narrow 2.5-1.5 margin, courtesy of the victories by Ding Liren and Wei Yi. The same scoreline was also witnessed in the Armenia vs U.S.A. encounter, with the Armenians coming out on top.

Top seeds Russia, meanwhile, registered their first match win of the tournament en route to a thumping 3.5-0.5 win over Hungary.

The full pairings and results can be checked here: http://www.chess-results.com/tnr170346.aspx?lan=1&art=2&turdet=YES&flag=30&wi=984

The Indian team registered a couple of important match-points as Harikrishna and Co. narrowly beat the strong Hungarian team. With the top 3 games ending in draws, GM Vidit Gujrathi’s fantastic win over the creative GM Richard Rapport proved decisive.

The clash of the big guns – China vs Armenia – saw the Chinese team trounce Armenia 3.5-0.5 with GM Levon Aronian managing the lone half point for the Armenians. In another important match-up, Ukraine defeated overnight joint-leaders Israel 2.5-1.5. With this result, Israel descended to the 2nd spot in the rankings table while the Cubans took up the sole lead following a comfortably 3-1 victory over Egypt.

Meanwhile, Russia’s woes continued as the 9th-seeded U.S.A. team held the top seeds to a 2-2 draw, thanks to GM Daniel Naroditsky’s (U.S.A.) crucial win over GM Dmitry Jakovenko (RUS).

The full pairings and results can be checked here: http://www.chess-results.com/tnr170346.aspx?lan=1&art=2&turdet=YES&flag=30&wi=984

The men from Cuba registered their second consecutive upset victory as they overcame 3rd seeds Armenia in the 3rd round of the World Team Chess Championship 2015. GMs Bruzon and Quesada scored the full points for Cuba while GM Dominguez (CUB) held GM Aronian (ARM) to ensure the Cubans a 2.5-1.5 victory. Meanwhile, the giant encounter between China and Russia resulted in a draw with all the four games ending peacefully.

Overnight leaders India had a tough day as Israel comprehensively beat them 3.5-0.5. Only GM Harikrishna’s draw against GM Gelfand saved India the blushes.

After 3 rounds, Israel and Cuba lead the rest with 5 Match-points.

Round 3 Results:

The full pairings and results can be checked here: http://www.chess-results.com/tnr170346.aspx?lan=1&art=2&turdet=YES&flag=30&wi=984

The second round of the World Team Chess Championship 2015 produced a major upset as 8th seeds Cuba stunned top seeds Russia 2.5-1.5 to hand the Russians their second loss on the trot. GM Dominguez scored the winner for Cuba by defeating World No. 5 GM Grischuk in a rather long game.

In another surprising turn of events, Egypt held Israel to a 2-2 draw with GM Samy Shoker scoring the full point for the Egyptians. Meanwhile, the battle of the heavyweights – Ukraine vs Armenia – resulted in a narrow victory for Armenia courtesy of GM Aronian’s victory over GM Ponomariov.

The India-U.S.A. and Hungary-China matches followed a peaceful path with all the games in each of the matches ending in draws. In fact, as many as 16 games out of 20 played in this round resulted in draws.

The full pairings and results can be checked here: http://www.chess-results.com/tnr170346.aspx?lan=1&art=2&turdet=YES&flag=30&wi=984