USA Upsets China At World Team Chess Championship
A fine combination by Aleksandr Lenderman was part of the USA's upset victory against China in round two of the World Team Championship in Astana, Kazakhstan. In the women's section, China won an important match vs Georgia.
With Fabiano Caruana, Hikaru Nakamura, Wesley So and Sam Shankland on the team in the Batumi Olympiad, the U.S. drew China on all boards in the final round and had to be content with silver.
With four 2600 grandmasters, the U.S. this time managed to beat China in Astana. And that Chinese team wasn't much weaker than its gold-winning-squad last year.
With draws on the top three boards it was Lenderman, who served as coach in Batumi, who decided the match with a win against Ni Hua. It involved a nice combination based on trapping the opponent's queen in the middle of the board.
| Bo. | Fed | 8 | United States of America | Rtg | - | Fed | 4 | China | Rtg | 2½:1½ |
| 3/1 | GM | Swiercz, Dariusz (w) | 2655 | - | GM | Ding, Liren (b) | 2812 | ½ - ½ | ||
| 3/2 | GM | Sevian, Samuel (b) | 2642 | - | GM | Yu, Yangyi (w) | 2761 | ½ - ½ | ||
| 3/3 | GM | Onischuk, Alexander (w) | 2647 | - | GM | Wei, Yi (b) | 2733 | ½ - ½ | ||
| 3/4 | GM | Lenderman, Aleksandr (b) | 2637 | - | GM | Ni, Hua (w) | 2683 | 1 - 0 |
The comparison with Batumi goes further if we take into account the opening in Ni vs Lenderman. This line in the Open Catalan came on the board in two of the four games last September.
Ni got a tiny advantage, but started to play inaccurately in the middlegame. Lenderman's trick, and his subsequent technique, was just wonderful.
Lenderman interviewed after the game.
Team USA now leads with two other teams that have four match points: England and Russia. The English squad again scored a 2.5-1.5 victory despite another loss for its top board Michael Adams.
| Bo. | Fed | 7 | Azerbaijan | Rtg | - | Fed | 5 | England | Rtg | 1½:2½ |
| 2/1 | GM | Naiditsch, Arkadij (w) | 2710 | - | GM | Adams, Michael (b) | 2708 | 1 - 0 | ||
| 2/2 | GM | Mamedov, Rauf (b) | 2701 | - | GM | Mcshane, Luke J (w) | 2661 | 0 - 1 | ||
| 2/3 | GM | Guseinov, Gadir (w) | 2664 | - | GM | Howell, David W L (b) | 2693 | ½ - ½ | ||
| 2/4 | GM | Safarli, Eltaj (b) | 2662 | - | GM | Jones, Gawain C B (w) | 2681 | 0 - 1 |
Gawain Jones ground down Eltaj Safarli in an endgame, and Luke McShane won a good game against Rauf Mamedov on board two in a Sveshnikov. Usually two rooks are better than a queen, but not this time.
Russia scored an expected victory over Egypt, although the latter managed to draw on two boards. Sweden suffered its second loss, this time to Kazakhstan. One match ended in 2-2 as Iran once again proved to be a force to reckon with, vs India.
| Bo. | Fed | 1 | India | Rtg | - | Fed | 2 | Iran | Rtg | 2 : 2 |
| 5/1 | GM | Adhiban, B. (w) | 2683 | - | GM | Maghsoodloo, Parham (b) | 2673 | 1 - 0 | ||
| 5/2 | GM | Sasikiran, Krishnan (b) | 2678 | - | GM | Idani, Pouya (w) | 2604 | 0 - 1 | ||
| 5/3 | GM | Ganguly, Surya Shekhar (w) | 2633 | - | GM | Tabatabaei, M.Amin (b) | 2600 | ½ - ½ | ||
| 5/4 | GM | Sethuraman, S.P. (b) | 2637 | - | GM | Firouzja, Alireza (w) | 2657 | ½ - ½ |
The 23-year-old GM Pouya Idani isn't a name that's been mentioned a lot when there's talk about rising stars in the country. He does have a youth title though; he was the under-18 champion in 2013. Last year he won the Goa Open, and in today's match he beat the seasoned GM Krishnan Sasikiran:
The round three pairings include the big match China–Russia, as well as Iran–Sweden, Egypt–India, England–USA and Kazakhstan–Azerbaijan.
Women's section
The pre-tournament favorites China and Russia are the only two teams on four match points. It was the former world champion Tan Zhongyi that won the match for China vs Georgia today.
| Bo. | Fed | 8 | Georgia | Rtg | - | Fed | 4 | China | Rtg | 1½:2½ |
| 3/1 | GM | Khotenashvili, Bela (w) | 2474 | - | GM | Tan, Zhongyi (b) | 2513 | 0 - 1 | ||
| 3/2 | IM | Arabidze, Meri (b) | 2392 | - | IM | Shen, Yang (w) | 2453 | ½ - ½ | ||
| 3/3 | IM | Javakhishvili, Lela (w) | 2455 | - | WGM | Huang, Qian (b) | 2441 | ½ - ½ | ||
| 3/4 | GM | Batsiashvili, Nino (b) | 2454 | - | GM | Lei, Tingjie (w) | 2477 | ½ - ½ |
Russia is looking strong after its convincing victory over Armenia, which only managed one draw in today's match.
| Bo. | Fed | 1 | Armenia | Rtg | - | Fed | 2 | Russia | Rtg | ½ :3½ |
| 5/1 | GM | Danielian, Elina (w) | 2402 | - | GM | Lagno, Kateryna (b) | 2559 | 0 - 1 | ||
| 5/2 | IM | Mkrtchian, Lilit (b) | 2390 | - | GM | Gunina, Valentina (w) | 2515 | ½ - ½ | ||
| 5/3 | WFM | Sargsyan, Anna M. (w) | 2340 | - | GM | Goryachkina, Aleksandra (b) | 2504 | 0 - 1 | ||
| 5/4 | WIM | Ghukasyan, Siranush (b) | 2221 | - | WGM | Girya, Olga (w) | 2456 | 0 - 1 |
Round three pairings: Russia–Egypt, India–Armenia, China–Kazakhstan, USA–Georgia, Ukraine–Hungary.
You can follow the games of the tournament live at Chess.com/events.
Previous report:
Peter Doggers joined a chess club a month before turning 15 and still plays for it. He used to be an active tournament player and holds two IM norms. Peter has a Master of Arts degree in Dutch Language & Literature. He briefly worked at New in Chess, then as a Dutch teacher and then in a project for improving safety and security in Amsterdam schools. Between 2007 and 2013 Peter was running ChessVibes, a major source for chess news and videos acquired by Chess.com in October 2013. As our Director News & Events, Peter writes many of our news reports. In the summer of 2022, The Guardian’s Leonard Barden described him as “widely regarded as the world’s best chess journalist.”
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