Armenia takes early lead at World Team Championship

Armenia took an early lead at the World Team Championship in Ningbo, China. In the first round the team, with Levon Aronian on board one and Sergey Movsesian on two, defeated Israel (without Boris Gelfand) 3.5-0.5. Russia beat USA 3-1.

The World Team Championship takes place July 15-26 in the 5-star New Century Grand Hotel in Ningbo, China. This seaport city is located in the northeastern Zhejiang Province in Eastern China and has a population of 2.2 million.





This official FIDE event is organized by the Chinese Chess Association with the patronage and support of the Ningbo Municipal Government and the Ningbo Sports Bureau.

According to FIDE Regulations the following federations were entitled to send a team:

1. China (host country)
2. Russia (winner 2009)
3. Ukraine (Olympiad 2010)
4. Israel (Olympiad 2010)
5. Hungary (Olympiad 2010)
6. Azerbaijan (Europe qualifier)
7. India (Asia qualifier)
8. USA (America’s qualifier)
9. Egypt (African qualifier)
10. Armenia (FIDE President's nomination)

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.

The championship is very strong, with quite a few top 20 players participating for their country. The strongest is Levon Aronian (the world's number 3), who's been Armenia's board one for years. The world's number 4 is there too: Sergey Karjakin, playing on 1 for Russia. It will be very interesting to see how Peter Leko will be doing. The Hungarian, who has been inactive for about a year, is the top board for Hungary, which has Judit Polgar on 3.

It looks like the issues between Vugar Gashimov and the Azerbaijan Chess Federation have been solved, and the world's number 11 plays in the team again. (He had to cancel Biel and was replaced there by Alexei Shirov.) Interestingly, Yasser Seirawan, who returned to tournament chess this year at the U.S. Championships, is now also playing for the U.S. team in China.



Notable absences include World Champion Vishy Anand (India) and his challenger Boris Gelfand (Israel), who both got a new-born son this spring. Vladimir Kramnik (Russia), Hikaru Nakamura (USA) and Ruslan Ponomariov (Ukraine) will be playing in Dortmund which starts soon as well.

In the first round Armenia took a small lead (half a board point) over Russia. The former won with 3.5-0.5 against Israel; the latter scored 3-1 against USA. On this first day only 8 of the 20 games ended in draws. With Biel and Dortmund starting soon, after a relatively quiet period the chess fans will be enjoying a huge amount of top level chess games in the coming weeks.

Games round 1

Game viewer by ChessTempo


World Team Championship 2011 | Round 1 Results

Bo.	1	USA	Rtg	-	10	Russia	Rtg	1 : 3
1.1	GM	Kamsky Gata	2741	-	GM	Karjakin Sergey	2788	½ - ½
1.2	GM	Onischuk Alexander	2675	-	GM	Nepomniachtchi Ian	2711	0 - 1
1.3	GM	Shulman Yuri	2617	-	GM	Svidler Peter	2739	½ - ½
1.4	GM	Hess Robert	2609	-	GM	Vitiugov Nikita	2733	0 - 1
Bo.	2	Armenia	Rtg	-	9	Israel	Rtg	3½: ½
2.1	GM	Aronian Levon	2805	-	GM	Sutovsky Emil	2700	1 - 0
2.2	GM	Movsesian Sergei	2700	-	GM	Roiz Michael	2669	½ - ½
2.3	GM	Akopian Vladimir	2667	-	GM	Postny Evgeny	2618	1 - 0
2.4	GM	Sargissian Gabriel	2663	-	GM	Nabaty Tamir	2584	1 - 0
Bo.	3	Egypt	Rtg	-	8	Ukraine	Rtg	1½:2½
3.1	GM	Adly Ahmed	2631	-	GM	Ivanchuk Vassily	2768	0 - 1
3.2	GM	Amin Bassem	2609	-	GM	Efimenko Zahar	2706	½ - ½
3.3	GM	El Gindy Essam	2510	-	GM	Moiseenko Alexander	2715	0 - 1
3.4	IM	Shoker Samy	2475	-	GM	Areshchenko Alexander	2682	1 - 0
Bo.	4	China	Rtg	-	7	Azerbaijan	Rtg	2 : 2
4.1	GM	Wang Hao	2718	-	GM	Radjabov Teimur	2744	½ - ½
4.2	GM	Wang Yue	2709	-	GM	Gashimov Vugar	2760	1 - 0
4.3	GM	Li Chao B	2669	-	GM	Mamedov Rauf	2679	½ - ½
4.4	GM	Yu Yangyi	2672	-	GM	Mamedyarov Shakhriyar	2765	0 - 1
Bo.	5	India	Rtg	-	6	Hungary	Rtg	2 : 2
5.1	GM	Harikrishna Pentala	2669	-	GM	Leko Peter	2717	½ - ½
5.2	GM	Sasikiran Krishnan	2681	-	GM	Almasi Zoltan	2726	1 - 0
5.3	GM	Ganguly Surya Shekhar	2627	-	GM	Polgar Judit	2699	0 - 1
5.4	GM	Gopal G.N.	2576	-	GM	Balogh Csaba	2643	½ - ½

World Team Championship 2011 | Round 1 Standings

Rk.	Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	TB1	TB2	TB3
1	Armenia	*									3½	2	3.5	0
2	Russia		*							3		2	3.0	0
3	Ukraine			*					2½			2	2.5	0
4	China				*			2				1	2.0	1
5	India					*	2					1	2.0	1
6	Hungary					2	*					1	2.0	1
7	Azerbaijan				2			*				1	2.0	1
8	Egypt			1½					*			0	1.5	0
9	USA		1							*		0	1.0	0
10	Israel	½									*	0	0.5	0

Photos © Fan Lulu, more here

Links

• Official website
• Details at Chess Results
• Sergey Shipov live analysis
• Games in PGN via TWIC