After four rounds at the World Team Championship, Armenia, India, Israel, Russia and the United States are all on six match points. Today Russia defeated Azerbaijan 2.5-1.5.The 7th World Team Championship takes place at the Merinos Congress Centre in Bursa, Turkey from January 3rd till 14th, 2010. It's a 9-round round-robin with 10 teams of 6 players: 4 players + 2 reserves, and one coach/captain. The time control is 90 minutes for 40 moves +30 minutes to end the game, with 30 seconds increment from the start. At the tournament the zero-tolerance rule is in effect, and draw offers are not allowed before move 30. Teams are Russia, Brazil,
China India, Egypt (continental champions), Armenia, Israel, USA (Olympiad qualifiers), Turkey, Azerbaijan, and Greece (organizing country and two invited federations).
Round 4
No big surprises in this 4th round; the key match was of course Azerbaijan-Russia. And what a match. The game on first board, between Gashimov and Grischuk, will probably end up in the top five of most spectacular games of whole 2010. Black's "winning wandering king" can easily be added to
Tim Krabbé's collection of curiosities.
With
29...Ka4!! Grischuk unpinned his queen and in fact the king walked all the way to b1, just before Gashimov resigned. It had all started with a 8.Qd3 Poisened Pawn in which Gashimov played an interesting novelty, and so the game is also theoretically relevant.On board 2 Jakovenko and Radjabov drew in a Sveshnikov, and on board 3 Mamedyarov continued his excellent form of the last months, and Morozevich his troubles. A piece sacrifice in a very theoretical 8.Rb1 Grünfeld yielded White two passed pawns and an attack on the king - too much to defend against.But Russia's trump on board 4 is Malakhov, who earned his place in the team thanks to his performance at the World Cup last month and is confirming his new status. Today Rauf Mamedov didn't stand a chance. Aronian decided the Armenia-Brazil match with a exchange sacrifice against Vescovi and in Greece-Israel Sutovsky's victory on board 4 against Mastrovasilis was the only decisive game. Tomorrow it's India-Armenia, Russia-Turkey, Egypt-Azerbaijan, Israel-USA and Brazil-Greece.
World Team Ch 2010 | Results round 4
World Team Ch 2010 | Round 4 standings
Games round 4
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