Olympiad R3: Norway beats China, Netherlands hold Azerbaijan

Veselin Topalov made his debut in the third round of the Olympiad in Dresden, scoring an easy win. There are still nine countries with a 100% score; Azerbaijan is not one of them because The Netherlands held them to 2-2. Round 3 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 third round.

The third round started in time, and for the players it was very important to arrive in time, because the organizers and the chief arbiter had agreed to only give warnings in the first two rounds, if players arrive late, and they would start forfeiting the players starting in round 3.

And yes, there was a team arriving too late: the players from Uganda were disqualified. Chessbase reports: "The Uganden team was forfieted (sic) when only one player appeared for the round. According to FIDE rules a team has to be represented by at least 50% of the players. Apparently only two of the four players had managed to make it to Dresden, and before the fourth round one of them had gone to the embassy to see if he could get an entry permit for the other two players."

Veselin Topalov made his debut in Dresden and won easily with Black against IM Danilo Canda. Bulgaria actually defeated Nicaragua 4-0. Vladimir Kramnik drew his second game, against world blitz champion Dominguez, after giving away a nice opening advantage, or so it seemed. But this time it was three wins and one draw for Russia versus Cuba, instead of the other way around.

Germany's top team had no trouble against Malaysia (3?Ǭ?-?Ǭ?) but Ukraine only won 2?Ǭ?-1?Ǭ? against Georgia because Ivanchuk eventually lost a very interesting ending of two bishops against a queen (plus pawns). It looked very much like a fortress, but it wasn't, and Jobava demonstrated why.

Surprises at boards 3 and 4: Norway beat China and The Netherlands held Azerbaijan to 2-2. In a fascinating struggle, Carlsen drew against Wang Yue, and so did two more boards, but Kjetil Lie was the man of the match, beating Bu Xiangzhi with White. A fantastic game was Van Wely-Radjabov: two principled players who never avoid a theoretical battle. The Dutchman proved that against the King's Indian, he's still KingLoek, who can beat the best players in the world.

Good games were Leko-Navara (1-0; a fine positional show by the Hungarian), Kotronias-Vachier-Lagrave (always interesting to see Kotronias handle the Najdorf) and De la Riva-Caruana - more can be found in the games selection below. Armenia, Germany 1, England, India, Romania, Russia, Norway, Spain and Ukraine are the teams with six board points.

In the women's section, Russia dropped their first match point after a 2-2 against India: Kosteniuk-Dronavalli, 1-0, T.Kosintseva-Sachdev 0-1, N. Kosintseva-Mohota 1-0, Korbut-Swathi 0-1. The Netherlands almost upset China: draws on the first three boards (including Hou Yifan-Zhaoqin Peng), but a loss for Van Weersel vs Tan. Only Hungary, Armenia, Poland, Serbia, China and Georgia won all three matches.

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

[TABLE=461] [TABLE=463] [TABLE=462] [TABLE=464]

Here's a selection of round 3 games for replay:













































Photos: EZ = by Evi Zickelbein PT = 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, Men rd 3 & Women rd3