Armenia maintains lead in Ningbo
Thanks to a 2.5-1.5 victory over host country China, Armenia retained the lead at the World Team Championship in Ningbo. Russia defeated Egypt 3-1 and the USA recovered by beating India with the same score. Hungary had a good day with a 3.5-0.5 win over Israel while Ukraine won 2.5-1.5 against Azerbaijan.
The China vs Armenia match in round 5General 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 5
During the last few Olympiads China has proved to be a tough opponent for anyone, and on Tuesday it wasn't different for Armenia. Wang Hao and Wang Yue on the top two boards held Levon Aronian and Sergei Movsesian, and so did Li Chao against Vladimir Akopian. The decision came on board four, where Gabriel Sargissian played a textbook game using the themes 'open file' and 'playing on two wings'.Sargissian-Yu Yangyi Ningbo, 2011
39. Kg3!
Giving a new meaning to 'king's attack': attack with your king!
39... Kg8 40. g5 hxg5 41. fxg5 Qd8 42. Kg4 Kh8 43. Qb7 Kg8 44. g6 Qe8 45. Re7 1-0
The clash between Azerbaijan and Ukraine saw the same scenario: draws on boards 1-3 and a decision on board 4. In a quiet Réti/English, Teimour Radjabov won a pawn against Vassily Ivanchuk but the presence of opposite-coloured bishops made everything very drawish. Returning to his beloved Benoni, Vugar Gashimov held a rook ending to a draw by the skin of his teeth, against Pavel Eljanov. Shakhariyar Mamedyarov and Zahar Efimenko created lots of tactics in a Nimzo but also split the point, and so it was Alexander Moiseenko who brought home the two match points with an excellent rook ending win against Gadir Guseinov.
Alexander Moiseenko played strongly against Gadir Guseinov's Accelarated Dragon
You'd say this will end in a draw very soon. Polgar finds a way to play on.
23. Bxe4! Bxe5 24. Bc6! Bxc6 25. Rxe5 Rxe5 26. Bxe5 Rc8 27. Bf6 
Black's pieces are tied down, but he should still be able to hold this.
27... Kf8 28. g4 Re8 29. Kh2 Re6 30. Rd8+ Re8 31. Rd1 Re6 32. g5 Rd6 33. Ra1 Rd2 34. Ra7 Rxf2+ 35. Kg1 Re2 36. Rxc7 
36... Re6?
36... Bd5 37. Rc5 Bxb3 38. Rxb5 Ba4 leads to a similar endgame as in the game, but with an active bishop for Black.
37. Rc8+ Be8 38. Kg2 Re2+ 39. Kf3 Re6 40. h4 h5 41. Rb8 Re1 42. c4 bxc4 43. bxc4 and White won on move 65.
Another win for Judit Polgar in a long ending
Games round 5
Game viewer by ChessTempo| Bo. | 3 | Egypt | Rtg | - | 10 | Russia | Rtg | 1 : 3 |
| 1.1 | GM | Adly Ahmed | 2631 | - | GM | Grischuk Alexander | 2746 | 0 - 1 |
| 1.2 | GM | Amin Bassem | 2609 | - | GM | Nepomniachtchi Ian | 2711 | 0 - 1 |
| 1.3 | IM | Shoker Samy | 2475 | - | GM | Svidler Peter | 2739 | ½ - ½ |
| 1.4 | IM | Ezat Mohamed | 2430 | - | GM | Vitiugov Nikita | 2733 | ½ - ½ |
| Bo. | 4 | China | Rtg | - | 2 | Armenia | Rtg | 1½:2½ |
| 2.1 | GM | Wang Hao | 2718 | - | GM | Aronian Levon | 2805 | ½ - ½ |
| 2.2 | GM | Wang Yue | 2709 | - | GM | Movsesian Sergei | 2700 | ½ - ½ |
| 2.3 | GM | Li Chao B | 2669 | - | GM | Akopian Vladimir | 2667 | ½ - ½ |
| 2.4 | GM | Yu Yangyi | 2672 | - | GM | Sargissian Gabriel | 2663 | 0 - 1 |
| Bo. | 5 | India | Rtg | - | 1 | USA | Rtg | 1 : 3 |
| 3.1 | GM | Harikrishna Pentala | 2669 | - | GM | Kamsky Gata | 2741 | ½ - ½ |
| 3.2 | GM | Sasikiran Krishnan | 2681 | - | GM | Onischuk Alexander | 2675 | 0 - 1 |
| 3.3 | GM | Ganguly Surya Shekhar | 2627 | - | GM | Shulman Yuri | 2617 | ½ - ½ |
| 3.4 | GM | Negi Parimarjan | 2642 | - | GM | Hess Robert | 2609 | 0 - 1 |
| Bo. | 6 | Hungary | Rtg | - | 9 | Israel | Rtg | 3½: ½ |
| 4.1 | GM | Leko Peter | 2717 | - | GM | Roiz Michael | 2669 | 1 - 0 |
| 4.2 | GM | Almasi Zoltan | 2726 | - | GM | Smirin Ilya | 2676 | ½ - ½ |
| 4.3 | GM | Polgar Judit | 2699 | - | GM | Postny Evgeny | 2618 | 1 - 0 |
| 4.4 | GM | Balogh Csaba | 2643 | - | GM | Nabaty Tamir | 2584 | 1 - 0 |
| Bo. | 7 | Azerbaijan | Rtg | - | 8 | Ukraine | Rtg | 1½:2½ |
| 5.1 | GM | Radjabov Teimur | 2744 | - | GM | Ivanchuk Vassily | 2768 | ½ - ½ |
| 5.2 | GM | Gashimov Vugar | 2760 | - | GM | Eljanov Pavel | 2697 | ½ - ½ |
| 5.3 | GM | Mamedyarov Shakhriyar | 2765 | - | GM | Efimenko Zahar | 2706 | ½ - ½ |
| 5.4 | GM | Guseinov Gadir | 2625 | - | GM | Moiseenko Alexander | 2715 | 0 - 1 |
| Rk. | SNo | Team | Partijen | + | = | - | TB1 | TB2 | TB3 |
| 1 | 2 | Armenia | 5 | 3 | 2 | 0 | 8 | 13.5 | 0 |
| 2 | 10 | Russia | 5 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 7 | 12.0 | 0 |
| 3 | 6 | Hungary | 5 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 7 | 11.5 | 0 |
| 4 | 8 | Ukraine | 5 | 3 | 0 | 2 | 6 | 10.5 | 0 |
| 5 | 4 | China | 5 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 5 | 11.0 | 1 |
| 6 | 7 | Azerbaijan | 5 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 5 | 11.0 | 1 |
| 7 | 1 | USA | 5 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 5 | 10.0 | 0 |
| 8 | 9 | Israel | 5 | 2 | 0 | 3 | 4 | 8.0 | 0 |
| 9 | 5 | India | 5 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 3 | 8.0 | 0 |
| 10 | 3 | Egypt | 5 | 0 | 0 | 5 | 0 | 4.5 | 0 |
Photos © WGM Gu Xiaobing, more here
Links
- Official website
- Details at Chess Results
- Games in PGN via TWIC
