Ukraine Keeps Winning at World Teams

Winning its fifth match 2.5-1.5 to Turkey at the World Team Championship in Kemer, Antalya, Ukraine kept its perfect score and maintained its three-point lead. Russia is in clear second place, while the Netherlands moved up to shared third place with China and Armenia.

All photos courtesy of the Turkish Chess Federation

Just about every round there's a big clash at the World Teams, and on Saturday it was China vs USA. It started well for the American team as Hikaru Nakamura won a good game against Li Chao on top board, in an Anti-Grünfeld.

However, on board 2 China kicked back as Ding Liren found an excellent set-up against Gata Kamsky pet variation as Black.

On board 3 Alexander Onischuk and Wang Yue drew a Semi-Tarrasch but it went wrong for the USA on board 4. The game was more or less balanced all the time until Robson lost the thread just before the time control.

Armenia should always be considered one of the favorites, but it's not going to be easy for them this time as they dropped another match point against Azerbaijan. Sergey Movsesian and Eltaj Safarli drew their game on board 2. Vladimir Akopian scored a point for the Armenians:

Azerbaijan's hero was Vasif Durarbayli, who beat Gabriel Sargissan convincingly.

And so with a 1.5-1.5 score, Levon Aronian obviously tried everything he could to beat Rauf Mamedov. However, the Azerbaijani refused to surrender and at some point the infamous BR vs R ending came on the board. Mamedov defended it perfectly, until he finally made a mistake and Aronian got a winning position, but the 50-move rule saved Azerbaijan!

Ukraine won its fifth match in a row, against the host country. The Turks managed to hold a draw on three boards, but it was Baris Esen who went down, against Yuriy Kryvoruchko. Sometimes one passed pawn and a more active king is enough to win an opposite-colored bishop ending. 

Ukraine should win their next match as well, against Egypt, but then two tough teams await them: Russia and Armenia. The former team played without Vladimir Kramnik on Saturday but still crushed Germany 3.5-0.5. Naiditsch' self-destruction against Vitiugov was exemplary for the whole match.

The Netherlands defeated Egypt 3-1 score. Here's Ivan Sokolov's win:

Sunday is the first and only rest day. The last four rounds will be played Monday-Thursday.

World Team Championship 2013 | Round 5 standings