Armenia beats Russia; Chinese women held by USA

In the 7th round of the Olympiad the Armenian team did very well in their efforts to win another gold medal by beating the Russian favorites 2?Ǭ?-1?Ǭ?. Still undefeated, Germany is now sharing second with Israel and France. The Chinese women dropped their first match point against the USA. Round 7 report with games, results, standings and the press conference on 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.

The 7th round included the crucial match between Armenia and Russia, which was decided on board three where Sargissian beat Grischuk. In what might have been a great bit of preparation, or just an excellent over-the-board reaction to Black's novelty 11...Nc7, White sacrificed a piece for long-term attacking chances and after he got e5-e6 in, he could comfortably play for a win. The final king march was very nice as well.

Aronian-Kramnik was a very interesting Anti-Moscow Gambit where Kramnik improved upon Aronian-Caruana, played in the first round of this Olympiad, with 13...Qf6. In a sharp ending Aronian decided to go for perpetual. Akopian used Jeroen Piket's pet line in the Closed Ruy Lopez to draw against Svidler and Jakovenko couldn't win a double rook ending with an extra a-pawn - something that's usually won with just one pair of rooks.

Despite Naiditsch's first loss, against Nisipeanu, Germany stayed undefeated and actually beat Romania 2?Ǭ?-1?Ǭ?. Gustafsson improved upon his game of last month against Sargissian and then easily refuted Istratescu's piece sac and Baramidze played a great game where his opponent Vajda was just blow away after the opening, and especially after eating the poisened pawn on f5.

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Round 7 press conference with, among others, Fabiano Caruana and Jan Gustafsson:

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China and Ukraine shared match points with four draws and France and Israel fought themselves up the special stage by beating India and Spain respectively. USA beat Hungary (who decided to leave out Polgar) and will face Russia today. France takes up Armenia on the top boards and Israel will play the Germans. (Oh, and by the way round 7 included quite an upset on board 15 where New Zealand beat Bosnia & Herzegovina 2?Ǭ?-1?Ǭ?!)

The Chinese ladies lost their first match point in this Olympiad against the US ladies; Hou Yifan did win on one against Krush but top scorer Tan Zhongyi lost to Katerina Rohonyan. Both Germany-Italy and Russia-Poland were hard-fought 2-2's but Ukraine crushed The Netherlands to take over clear second place with 12 out of 7, behind China's 13/7.

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

[TABLE=483] [TABLE=484] [TABLE=485] [TABLE=486] [TABLE=487] [TABLE=488]

Here's a selection of round 7 games for replay:















































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, Men rd 7 & Women rd7