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 5

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 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.



Hungary had an excellent day and scored 3.5-0.5 against Israel. Peter Leko won his second game in a row - a very smooth win over Michael Roiz. Judit Polgar squeezed a win out of a very tiny edge in an endgame.

Polgar-Postny Ningbo, 2011



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.

Games round 5

Game viewer by ChessTempo


World Team Championship 2011 | Round 5 Results

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

World Team Championship 2011 | Round 5 Standings

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

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