Armenia increases lead in Ningbo, Seirawan on a roll

Armenia is getting closer and closer to winning the World Team Championship in Ningbo, China. With two rounds to go, the team led by Levon Aronian is three match points ahead of China and Ukraine. Yasser Seirawan, who plays for the USA team, is in top form. The 51-year-old American crushed Judit Polgar in round 6, and a day later he also defeated Shakhriyar Mamedyarov to reach a 2811 performance.

General info

The World Team Championship takes place July 15-26 in Ningbo, China. China, Ukraine, Israel, Hungary, Azerbaijan, India, USA, Egypt and Armenia play. Each team consists of five players, one reserve and one coach/captain. The zero tolerance rule for appearing at the board is in effect, as well as a rule against draws before move thirty. The championship is a round-robin of nine rounds. The time control is 90 minutes for 40 moves plus 30 minutes to finish the game with 30 seconds increment starting from move 1. There is one rest day, on Friday, July 22nd. More info here.

Round 6

On the day of the 6th round Judit Polgar celebrated her 35th birthday, and the Chinese organizers didn't forget about it.



As Yasser Seirawan couldn't top that, he decided to give Polgar quite a different present. On third board of the USA-Hungary match, the American crushed her completely!

Seirawan-Polgar Ningbo, 2011



Things went wrong for Black before already. Here the position plays almost by itself, if you find the right plan: 25. Bf2! Start rolling those pawns! 25... Nc6 26. Nd5 Qa5 27. h4 Nd4 28. Bxd4 cxd4 29. g5 Bxd5 30. exd5



There's no way Black can hold this position. 30... hxg5 30... Rb7 31. Rd3 Rdb8 32. b4 Qa6 33. gxh6 gxh6 34. Rg1+-. 31. hxg5 fxg5 31... Rb7 32. gxf6 gxf6 33. Rg2 Rdb8 34. Rh1 Ke7 35. Rg8+-.



32. f6! The threat of 33.Qg6 is killing. 32... Rxb2 33. Kxb2 Nxf6 34. Ka2 Qc7 35. Rg2 Rc8 36. Bxc8 Qxc8 37. Rxg5 Nxd5 38. Qf5+ Qxf5 39. Rxf5+ Nf6 40. c5 Ke7 41. c6 Nd5 42. Rg1 d3 43. Kb3 Ke6 44. Rfg5 1-0



The match between Russian and Ukraine was hard fought, but in the end all games ended in a draw. Interestingly, Vassily Ivanchuk repeated his Pirc defence against Sergey Karjakin, after the disaster at the Kings' Tournament recently. Did the Ukrainian wanted to demonstrate that there's nothing wrong with that opening? Against Karjakin's Austrian Attack Ivanchuk played the rare 6...Nbd7 and then defended a slightly worse ending to a draw.



As the match Israel-Azerbaijan also ended in 2-2, it was an excellent round for the leaders. Armenia defeated India 2.5-1.5 and had two match points more than Russia and Hungary on Saturday night. A key game was Levon Aronian vs Pentala Harikrishna, in which the Armenian uncorked a completely new and sharp plan with h4 and g4 in a well-known Lasker QGD tabiya. This excellent game by the world's number 3 is highly recommended for replay in the viewer below!

Games round 6

Game viewer by ChessTempo


World Team Championship 2011 | Round 6 Results

Bo.	10	Russia	Rtg	-	8	Ukraine	Rtg	2 : 2
1.1	GM	Karjakin Sergey	2788	-	GM	Ivanchuk Vassily	2768	½ - ½
1.2	GM	Grischuk Alexander	2746	-	GM	Eljanov Pavel	2697	½ - ½
1.3	GM	Nepomniachtchi Ian	2711	-	GM	Efimenko Zahar	2706	½ - ½
1.4	GM	Vitiugov Nikita	2733	-	GM	Moiseenko Alexander	2715	½ - ½
Bo.	9	Israel	Rtg	-	7	Azerbaijan	Rtg	2 : 2
2.1	GM	Sutovsky Emil	2700	-	GM	Radjabov Teimur	2744	0 - 1
2.2	GM	Smirin Ilya	2676	-	GM	Gashimov Vugar	2760	½ - ½
2.3	GM	Postny Evgeny	2618	-	GM	Mamedov Rauf	2679	1 - 0
2.4	GM	Nabaty Tamir	2584	-	GM	Mamedyarov Shakhriyar	2765	½ - ½
Bo.	1	USA	Rtg	-	6	Hungary	Rtg	2 : 2
3.1	GM	Kamsky Gata	2741	-	GM	Leko Peter	2717	½ - ½
3.2	GM	Shulman Yuri	2617	-	GM	Almasi Zoltan	2726	0 - 1
3.3	GM	Seirawan Yasser	2635	-	GM	Polgar Judit	2699	1 - 0
3.4	GM	Hess Robert	2609	-	GM	Balogh Csaba	2643	½ - ½
Bo.	2	Armenia	Rtg	-	5	India	Rtg	2½:1½
4.1	GM	Aronian Levon	2805	-	GM	Harikrishna Pentala	2669	1 - 0
4.2	GM	Movsesian Sergei	2700	-	GM	Sasikiran Krishnan	2681	½ - ½
4.3	GM	Akopian Vladimir	2667	-	GM	Ganguly Surya Shekhar	2627	½ - ½
4.4	GM	Sargissian Gabriel	2663	-	GM	Negi Parimarjan	2642	½ - ½
Bo.	3	Egypt	Rtg	-	4	China	Rtg	½ :3½
5.1	GM	Adly Ahmed	2631	-	GM	Wang Hao	2718	0 - 1
5.2	GM	Amin Bassem	2609	-	GM	Wang Yue	2709	0 - 1
5.3	IM	Shoker Samy	2475	-	GM	Li Chao B	2669	½ - ½
5.4	IM	Ezat Mohamed	2430	-	GM	Ding Liren	2654	0 - 1

Round 7

For the moment this World Team Championship is all about one name: Yasser Seirawan. The 51-year-old American is really on a roll now, after beating another strong 2700 player: Shakhriyar Mamedyarov. The game started with a off-beat opening: 1. d4 c5 2. d5 f5 3. e4 fxe4 4. Nc3 Nf6 5. g4 h6 6. h3, which is all theory as well (there's nothing new under the sun). In an ending, Mamedyarov miscalculated:

Seirawan-Mamedyarov Ningbo, 2011



23... a5? Black should have defended with 23... Nc3 24. Nf5 Ne4 25. Re1 g6 although White still has the better chances, it seems. 24. Nf5 a4 25. Nxd6 a3 26. Nxb7 Nb4 26... Nc3 27. d6 a2 28. Ra1 Ne2+ 29. Kf2 Nd4 30. d7 Nc6 31. c5 Kf7 32. d8Q Nxd8 33. Nxd8+ Rxd8 34. Rxa2+-. 27. c3!



This just wins. 27... Nd3 27... Rf8 28. Rc1 Nd3 29. Ra1+-. 28. c5 Nf4 29. d6 1-0

So far Seirawan's return to the chess board must have given the Amsterdam resident lots of joy. We're not sure yet if we can speak of a comeback, but we did note that he's listed among the participants of a strong open tournament in Vlissingen, The Netherlands right after this event. Obviously we'll keep a close eye on Yasser, who used to be among the very best players in the world, but has mainly dedicated himself to writing and online commenting during the last decade or so.



This game was not the only success for the USA on Sunday. Gata Kamsky defeated Teimour Radjabov with Black and with only one win for Azerbaijan (Rauf Mamedov beating Yuri Shulman) the two match points went to the Americans. Despite playing with their strongest possible line-up, the Azeris are having a disappointing championship.

In fact after today's round the Armenians seem to be cruising to victory. They dealt with Hungary themselves today, winning 2.5-1.5, while their other close rival Russia lost with the same score to China.



Both matches were decided on one board only: Sergei Movsesian, who recently changed federations back to Armenia, defeated Zoltan Almasi from a King's Indian Attack while Wang Hao was the hero of the day for the Chinese, beating Sergey Karjakin on top board. It must have been a big disappointment for the Russians, since Karjakin was clearly better before the time trouble phase started, but then completely collapsed, while Peter Svidler was two pawns up against Yu Yangyi but his ending turned out to be drawn.

Games round 7

Game viewer by ChessTempo


World Team Championship 2011 | Round 7 Results

Bo.	4	China	Rtg	-	10	Russia	Rtg	2½:1½
1.1	GM	Wang Hao	2718	-	GM	Karjakin Sergey	2788	1 - 0
1.2	GM	Wang Yue	2709	-	GM	Grischuk Alexander	2746	½ - ½
1.3	GM	Li Chao B	2669	-	GM	Nepomniachtchi Ian	2711	½ - ½
1.4	GM	Yu Yangyi	2672	-	GM	Svidler Peter	2739	½ - ½
Bo.	5	India	Rtg	-	3	Egypt	Rtg	2½:1½
2.1	GM	Harikrishna Pentala	2669	-	GM	Amin Bassem	2609	1 - 0
2.2	GM	Sasikiran Krishnan	2681	-	GM	El Gindy Essam	2510	½ - ½
2.3	GM	Ganguly Surya Shekhar	2627	-	IM	Shoker Samy	2475	1 - 0
2.4	GM	Gopal G.N.	2576	-	IM	Ezat Mohamed	2430	0 - 1
Bo.	6	Hungary	Rtg	-	2	Armenia	Rtg	1½:2½
3.1	GM	Leko Peter	2717	-	GM	Aronian Levon	2805	½ - ½
3.2	GM	Almasi Zoltan	2726	-	GM	Movsesian Sergei	2700	0 - 1
3.3	GM	Polgar Judit	2699	-	GM	Akopian Vladimir	2667	½ - ½
3.4	GM	Balogh Csaba	2643	-	GM	Sargissian Gabriel	2663	½ - ½
Bo.	7	Azerbaijan	Rtg	-	1	USA	Rtg	1½:2½
4.1	GM	Radjabov Teimur	2744	-	GM	Kamsky Gata	2741	0 - 1
4.2	GM	Gashimov Vugar	2760	-	GM	Onischuk Alexander	2675	½ - ½
4.3	GM	Mamedov Rauf	2679	-	GM	Shulman Yuri	2617	1 - 0
4.4	GM	Mamedyarov Shakhriyar	2765	-	GM	Seirawan Yasser	2635	0 - 1
Bo.	8	Ukraine	Rtg	-	9	Israel	Rtg	2½:1½
5.1	GM	Ivanchuk Vassily	2768	-	GM	Sutovsky Emil	2700	1 - 0
5.2	GM	Eljanov Pavel	2697	-	GM	Roiz Michael	2669	0 - 1
5.3	GM	Moiseenko Alexander	2715	-	GM	Postny Evgeny	2618	1 - 0
5.4	GM	Areshchenko Alexander	2682	-	GM	Nabaty Tamir	2584	½ - ½

World Team Championship 2011 | Round 7 Standings

Rk.	SNo	Team	#	+	=	-	TB1	TB2	TB3
1	2	Armenia	7	5	2	0	12	18.5	0
2	4	China	7	4	1	2	9	17.0	0
3	8	Ukraine	7	4	1	2	9	15.0	0
4	10	Russia	7	3	2	2	8	15.5	0
5	6	Hungary	7	3	2	2	8	15.0	0
6	1	USA	7	3	2	2	8	14.5	0
7	7	Azerbaijan	7	2	2	3	6	14.5	0
8	5	India	7	2	1	4	5	12.0	0
9	9	Israel	7	2	1	4	5	11.5	0
10	3	Egypt	7	0	0	7	0	6.5	0

Photos © WGM Gu Xiaobing, more here

Links

• Official website
• Details at Chess Results
• Games in PGN via TWIC