Armenia and Russia win; Chinese women increase lead

Russia and Armenia are leading the open section in Dresden, after they beat England and Azerbaijan respectively. Ukraine-Germany ended in 2-2. The Chinese women increased their lead by beating Hungary. Round 6 report with games, results, standings and a first video..

The Chess Olympiad takes place 12-25 november in Dresden, Germany. ChessVibes provides on-the-spot coverage from the venue, until the end of the tournament.

In the sixth round, Russia beat England 3-1. Nigel Short surprised Vladimir Kramnik with the rare Chigorin Defence but they left theory quickly. After exchanging queens the ex-world champion went for an ending with two rooks and seven pawns versus rook, two knights and five, and in great style, the one he's famous for, he beautifully outplayed his opponent.

Howell-Svidler was a quiet draw and Jones also reached a draw quite easily against Morozevich, but the way it went was quite odd. The Russian seems to have just blundered a pawn on e4 and a few moves later Jones decided that allowing a threefold repetition against the world's number two is not such a bad idea. Jakovenko beat Conquest with Black to decided the match.

Germany continues their fantastic Olympiad so far with another 2-2, against Ukraine this time. Khenkin lost to Karjakin but this was compensated by Fridman's victory over Efimenko. The politically tense encounter between Armenia and Azerbaijan was won by the reigning Olympiad champions: three draws, but Akopian beating Mamedyarov, in just 26 moves! The game might well be part of the answer to the question why the Classical Sicilian, as Nunn used to call it in his Beating the Sicilian (but Richter-Rauzer it's mostly called, although that's actually White's replay 6.Bg5 to it), is not played very often anymore at top level.

France, who beat Poland today, is slowly but surely climbing up, and so are India (setting aside Bosnia & Herzegovina) and Israel (defeating Sweden today). Bulgaria lost to neighbour Romania and Hungary won, but Judit Polgar lost to Colombia's IM Alder Escobar Forero. The Netherlands scored an excellent victory over Moldova, with Van Wely beating Bologan.

The Scandinavian derby Finland-Norway was tied, and included the upset of Carlsen losing to Nyback. Australia managed to beat Switzerland with Zong-Yuan Zhao taking Kortchnoi on one. Rowson lost to a 2272-player from Japan, and regular commenter Janis pointed out that the average age of Italy's team today was 19, making the whole team together exactly one year younger than Kortchnoi! Canada's GM Charbonneau resigned after 13 moves against Iraq's board one FM H.A. Hussein, because he forgot about the Qa5+-f5 defence to his standard bishop sac on h7.

Then the women: in the top match, at the first three boards Hungary could draw their games, but Tan Zhongyi won her fifth (out of five) game, against Anna Rudolf, to take another two match points for China, 12 out of 6. Russia, The Netherlands, United States, Ukraine and Poland follow with 10.

To start, here's a first video with two short clips of Bu Xiangzhi and Tomi Nyback, and a slightly longer interview with Swedish GM Pontus Carlsson. I shot a lot of footage of the 6th round in the playing hall today and I'm trying to fit it all in a general round 6 video, to be posted somewhere on Thursday.

Click To Play

Results and standings in both the Open and Women's sections:

[TABLE=477] [TABLE=478] [TABLE=479] [TABLE=480] [TABLE=481] [TABLE=482]

Here's a selection of round 6 games for replay:







































Photos: CV = ChessVibes; PT = by Paul Truong.

Links:

• Official website
• All results and standings
• (Live) games for replay
• ICC's Chess.FM blog with videos and lots of other stuff
• GM Ian Rogers blogging for Chess Life Online
• ChessVibes Photos @ Flickr
• Olimpbase
• TWIC's games in PGN: Men rd 1, Women rd1, Men rd 2, Women rd2, Men rd 3, Women rd3, Men rd 4, Women rd4, Men rd 5, Women rd5, Men rd 6 & Women rd6