Olympiad R2: Russia, Armenia, Azerbaijan win again (and so do 16 more countries)

It was great to see Peter Leko and Judit Polgar next to each other, playing for Hungary; they beat Latvians Miezis and Sveshnikov in round 2 of the Olympiad in Dresden. Countries like Russia, Armenia and Azerbaijan won again, but so did El Salvador, Faroe Islands and Japan! Round 2 report with games, results and photos.

The Chess Olympiad takes place 12-25 november in Dresden, Germany. ChessVibes provides daily coverage and will be reporting from the venue in Dresden during the last six rounds. This is the report of the second round.

"Due to a series of unforeseen errors regarding the team rosters", the chief arbiter after consultation with the organizing committee decided to postpone the second round from 15:00 to 16:00. Something which was quite annoying for the players, but luckily everybody was in the same situation. It wasn't clear which, but it was clear that there were some human errors involved.

The consequence was that it wasn't easy to arrive late this time, but the organizers and the chief arbiter actually agreed to only give warnings in the first two rounds, if players do arrive late. They will start forfeiting the players starting in round 3.

Despite their marginal win in the first round, the Russians played on board one again. As from this year the Olympiad is like a Swiss tournament, where game points are more important than board points, and pairings follow average ratings of teams.

Vladimir Kramnik played his first game after his lost world championship match against Anand - he drew with Black against Poland's Kamil Miton, who had Anand's second Wojtaszek beside him, who drew with Grischuk. One more draw and Jakovenko beating Bartel means that Russia collected another two game points. And so did Armenia, Azerbaijan, Tajikistan, Germany 1, The Netherlands, Romania, Malaysia, Norway, China, India, England, Faroe Islands, Spain, Ukraine, Georgia, Japan, El Salvador and Malta.

After beating Bulgaria in round 1, Germany's second team lost to Norway. Their board one, Georg Meier, drew with Magnus Carlsen after he had beaten Cheparinov in the first round. Yesterday he said the Bulgarians had underestimated them by leaving Topalov out.

The Americans dropped a match point, tieing 2-2 with Greece. Onischuk beat Halkias but Akobian lost to Mastrovasilis. India, playing without the world champ unfortunately, is on 4 points after beating Sweden. England, with both Adams and Short, defeated Denmark.

An upset on board one of Italy-United Arab Emirats, where Caruana lost to IM Saleh Salem, but Italy still winning 2?Ǭ?-1?Ǭ?. Vietnam crushed their almost-neighbour Singapore 4-0.

In the women's section, 14 countries are on 4 match points and it's safe to say that the tournament really starts today. With just 11 rounds, we're having a shorter but certainly very exciting Olympiad ahead of us. Round 3 pairings include Russia-Cuba, China-Norway, Netherlands-Azerbaijan and Hungary-Czech Republic, and Russia-India on board one of the women's section.

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

[TABLE=457] [TABLE=459] [TABLE=458] [TABLE=460]

Here's a selection of round 2 games for replay:



The following photos are by Paul Truong; it's a selection of much more available:











































Links:

• Official website
• All results and standings
• (Live) games for replay
• Olimpbase
• Games of the first 20 matches (men) in PGN
• TWIC's games in PGN: Men rd 1, Women rd1, Men rd 2 & Women rd2