Spectacular 4th round World Team Championship

In a very interesting 4th round Armenia regained the lead at the World Team Championship in Ningbo, China. On Wednesday they defeated Egypt 3.5-0.5 while Russia lost 1-3 to Azerbaijan. Ukraine also lost, to Hungary, as Peter Leko defeated Vassily Ivanchuk at the black side of a Marshall Gambit. Leko beats Ivanchuk in round 4

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.

Rounds 4

Russia's loss against Azerbaijan isn't that much of a surprise since the two teams don't differ much rating wise. On top board Radjabov repeated his 3...f5 Ruy Lopez and improved upon Nisipeanu's play against Karjakin last month in Romania. The Azerbaijani had repaired his pet variation and drew without problems.

On second board Vugar Gashimov played an excellent game and scored an important board point against Candidates finalist Alexander Grischuk.

Gashimov-Grischuk Ningbo, 2011



25... Bxa2? Better was 25... g6! 26. Bxg6 (26. Rd3 Rxd3 27. Bxd3 Rxe6 28. Bxg6 Bxa2) 26... Rxe6 27. Rxe6 Bxe6 28. Re1 Bf7 29. Bxf7+ Kxf7 30. Rb1 Ke6 and Black's active king and rook should provide enough compensation. 26. Ra1 Bd5 27. Rxa6 White will lose his pawn on e6 but not without a fight... 27... g5 28. e7 Kf7



29. Bg4! This refutes Black's play. 29... Rxe7 30. Bh5+ Kf8 31. Rxf6+ Kg7 32. Rg6+ Kf8 33. Rxe7 Kxe7 34. hxg5 hxg5 35. b4! and White won.



Nepomniachtchi and Mamedyarov drew in a French Advance but on board 4 Russia lost as well: Svidler went down with the black pieces against Gadir Guseinov.

So far Peter Leko's return to the chess scene has been quite successful. After three draws, on Wednesday the Hungarian beat Vassily Ivanchuk, the unpredictable genius and top board for Ukraine.

Ivanchuk-Leko Ningbo, 2011 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bb5 a6 4. Ba4 Nf6 5. O-O Be7 6. Re1 b5 7. Bb3 O-O 8. c3 d5 9. exd5 Nxd5 10. Nxe5 Nxe5 11. Rxe5 c6 12. d4 Bd6 13. Re1 Qh4 14. g3 Qh3 15. Qe2 Bg4 16. Qf1 Qh5 17. Nd2 f5 18. c4



18... f4N Quite an interesting novelty. 19. cxd5 c5 20. Re4 c4 21. Bc2 fxg3 22. hxg3 Bxg3 23. fxg3 Rxf1+ 24. Nxf1 Qh3 25. Re3 Rf8 26. Bd2 Bf3 27. Rxf3 Rxf3 28. Be4 Rxg3+ 29. Nxg3 Qxg3+



30. Bg2?! Ivanchuk decides to play for a win, but it turns out to be very risky. After 30. Kf1 followed by Ra1-e1-e3 Black should probably decide to give perpetual somewhere. 30... Qd3 31. Be1 Qxd4+ 32. Bf2 Qxb2 33. Rf1 Qd2 34. Bc5 g6 35. Rf8+ Kg7 36. Rf2 Qd1+ 37. Rf1 Qd2 38. Kh2 c3 39. Rf2 Qe1 40. Bd4+ Kh6



Here the only move to prolonge the game was 41.Kh3. Instead, 41. Bh3? c2 forced resignation as 42.Rxc2 Qe4 43.Rd2 Qf4+ picks up the rook. Those damned double attacks.

This game decided the Ukraine-Hungary match as all other games ended in draws.



The Israel-India match was also decided on top board, where Pentala Harikrishna won a Berlin Wall ending against Emil Sutovsky.

If the USA-China match is saying anything about the economic situation in the coming years, Mr Obama needs to start worrying. The grandmasters from the far east crushed the Americans 0.5-3.5. Though we shouldn't forget that the USA is missing their top player, Hikaru Nakamura, who starts in Dortmund tomorrow.



Armenia defeated cellar-dwellers Egypt with the same score and understandably gave their top name Levon Aronian a rest day for this match.

Games rounds 4

Game viewer by ChessTempo


World Team Championship 2011 | Round 4 Results

Bo.	10	Russia	Rtg	-	7	Azerbaijan	Rtg	1 : 3
1.1	GM	Karjakin Sergey	2788	-	GM	Radjabov Teimur	2744	½ - ½
1.2	GM	Grischuk Alexander	2746	-	GM	Gashimov Vugar	2760	0 - 1
1.3	GM	Nepomniachtchi Ian	2711	-	GM	Mamedyarov Shakhriyar	2765	½ - ½
1.4	GM	Svidler Peter	2739	-	GM	Guseinov Gadir	2625	0 - 1
Bo.	8	Ukraine	Rtg	-	6	Hungary	Rtg	1½:2½
2.1	GM	Ivanchuk Vassily	2768	-	GM	Leko Peter	2717	0 - 1
2.2	GM	Eljanov Pavel	2697	-	GM	Almasi Zoltan	2726	½ - ½
2.3	GM	Efimenko Zahar	2706	-	GM	Polgar Judit	2699	½ - ½
2.4	GM	Moiseenko Alexander	2715	-	GM	Balogh Csaba	2643	½ - ½
Bo.	9	Israel	Rtg	-	5	India	Rtg	1½:2½
3.1	GM	Sutovsky Emil	2700	-	GM	Harikrishna Pentala	2669	0 - 1
3.2	GM	Roiz Michael	2669	-	GM	Sasikiran Krishnan	2681	½ - ½
3.3	GM	Smirin Ilya	2676	-	GM	Ganguly Surya Shekhar	2627	½ - ½
3.4	GM	Nabaty Tamir	2584	-	GM	Gopal G.N.	2576	½ - ½
Bo.	1	USA	Rtg	-	4	China	Rtg	½ :3½
4.1	GM	Kamsky Gata	2741	-	GM	Wang Hao	2718	½ - ½
4.2	GM	Onischuk Alexander	2675	-	GM	Wang Yue	2709	0 - 1
4.3	GM	Shulman Yuri	2617	-	GM	Li Chao B	2669	0 - 1
4.4	GM	Seirawan Yasser	2635	-	GM	Yu Yangyi	2672	0 - 1
Bo.	2	Armenia	Rtg	-	3	Egypt	Rtg	3½: ½
5.1	GM	Movsesian Sergei	2700	-	GM	Adly Ahmed	2631	1 - 0
5.2	GM	Akopian Vladimir	2667	-	GM	Amin Bassem	2609	1 - 0
5.3	GM	Sargissian Gabriel	2663	-	IM	Shoker Samy	2475	½ - ½
5.4	GM	Hovhannisyan Robert	2556	-	IM	Ezat Mohamed	2430	1 - 0

World Team Championship 2011 | Round 4 Standings

Rk.	SNo	Team	Matches	+	=	-	TB1	TB2	TB3
1	2	Armenia	4	2	2	0	6	11.0	0
2	7	Azerbaijan	4	2	1	1	5	9.5	1
3	4	China	4	2	1	1	5	9.5	1
4	10	Russia	4	2	1	1	5	9.0	0
5	6	Hungary	4	2	1	1	5	8.0	0
6	8	Ukraine	4	2	0	2	4	8.0	0
7	9	Israel	4	2	0	2	4	7.5	0
8	5	India	4	1	1	2	3	7.0	0
9	1	USA	4	1	1	2	3	7.0	0
10	3	Egypt	4	0	0	4	0	3.5	0

Photos © WGM Gu Xiaobing, more here

Links

• Official website
• Details at Chess Results
• Games in PGN via TWIC