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China Beats Russia At Women's World Team Chess Championship
Russia lost to China despite Goryachkina scoring her fifth win, vs Ding Yixing on board four. | Photo: Maria Emelianova/Chess.com.

China Beats Russia At Women's World Team Chess Championship

PeterDoggers
| 23 | Chess Event Coverage

Russia beat Kazakhstan 3-1 to maintain its lead at the World Team Championship despite a loss for Sergey Karjakin vs Rinat Jumabayev on board one. China grabbed sole lead in the women's section after beating Russia.

Open section

Kazakhstan's top player Jumabayev is having an excellent tournament so far. He is on plus two against five opponents who were all higher rated.

Rinat Jumabayev World Team Chess Championship 2019
Local star Rinat Jumabayev is doing great so far. | Photo: Maria Emelianova/Chess.com.

After beating Michael Adams and drawing with Nils Grandelius, Arkadij Naiditsch and Dariusz Swiercz, on Saturday he won his game against Sergey Karjakin. Russia avoided further damage as they won all other games.

Bo. Fed 6 Kazakhstan Rtg - Fed 9 Russia Rtg 1 : 3
4/1 GM Jumabayev, Rinat (w) 2609 - GM Karjakin, Sergey (b) 2753 1 - 0
4/2 GM Ismagambetov, Anuar (b) 2545 - GM Grischuk, Alexander (w) 2771 0 - 1
4/3 IM Makhnev, Denis (w) 2476 - GM Andreikin, Dmitry (b) 2725 0 - 1
4/4 GM Kostenko, Petr (b) 2466 - GM Artemiev, Vladislav (w) 2736 0 - 1

It was Karjakin's first classical loss since his game with Fabiano Caruana on August 24, 2018 at the Sinquefield Cup. Normally known as the Minister of Defense, the Russian GM this time blundered in the endgame:

Jumabayev explained his game for the press.

Sergey Karjakin World Team Chess Championship 2019
Sergey Karjakin suffered his first loss in a classical game since August. | Photo: Maria Emelianova/Chess.com.

England once again maintained its unbeaten status with their second 2-2 in a row, this time against India. The two teams are now trailing Russia by two match points.

Bo. Fed 5 England Rtg - Fed 1 India Rtg 2 : 2
3/1 GM Adams, Michael (w) 2708 - GM Adhiban, B. (b) 2683 ½ - ½
3/2 GM Mcshane, Luke J (b) 2661 - GM Sasikiran, Krishnan (w) 2678 1 - 0
3/3 GM Howell, David W L (w) 2693 - GM Ganguly, Surya Shekhar (b) 2633 ½ - ½
3/4 GM Jones, Gawain C B (b) 2681 - GM Sethuraman, S.P. (w) 2637 0 - 1

Whereas Gawain Jones suffered his first loss to S.P. Sethuraman, Luke McShane outplayed Krishnan Saskiran and suddenly won a piece:

Luke McShane World Team Chess Championship 2019
Luke McShane scored an undefeated +2 so far for England. | Photo: Maria Emelianova/Chess.com.

Team USA is in fourth place after losing its first match of the tournament in round five against a team that won its first match: Azerbaijan. 

Fed 7 Azerbaijan Rtg - Fed 8 United States of America Rtg 3 : 1
GM Naiditsch, Arkadij (w) 2710 - GM Swiercz, Dariusz (b) 2655 1 - 0
GM Mamedov, Rauf (b) 2701 - GM Sevian, Samuel (w) 2642 ½ - ½
GM Guseinov, Gadir (w) 2664 - GM Onischuk, Alexander (b) 2647 ½ - ½
GM Abasov, Nijat (b) 2627 - GM Lenderman, Aleksandr (w) 2637 1 - 0

On board one, Arkadij Naiditsch defeated Dariusz Swiercz in a topical Anti-Berlin. The game was further proof of the theory that queen and knight make an excellent combination (which is basically because the knight move is the only missing dance step that the queen can make).

Naiditsch Swiercz World Team Chess Championship 2019
The start of the Naiditsch-Swiercz game. | Photo: Maria Emelianova/Chess.com.

China beat Iran 2.5-1.5, but once again some of the rising stars showed that they are making steady progress. Whereas Parham Maghsoodloo held Ding Liren to a draw, Alireza Firouzja defeated Ni Hua in a Petroff.

Bo. Fed 4 China Rtg - Fed 2 Iran Rtg 2½:1½
2/1 GM Ding, Liren (w) 2812 - GM Maghsoodloo, Parham (b) 2673 ½ - ½
2/2 GM Wei, Yi (b) 2733 - GM Idani, Pouya (w) 2604 1 - 0
2/3 GM Bu, Xiangzhi (w) 2731 - GM Tabatabaei, M.Amin (b) 2600 1 - 0
2/4 GM Ni, Hua (b) 2683 - GM Firouzja, Alireza (w) 2657 0 - 1

Maghsoodloo Ding World Team Chess Championship 2019
Maghsoodloo drew with Ding, board one of the match. | Photo: Maria Emelianova/Chess.com.

Egypt also lost its fifth match. Its top player Bassem Amin had started badly with three losses and a draw, but he finally won a game that couldn't prevent team loss though:

Bo. Fed 3 Egypt Rtg - Fed 10 Sweden Rtg 1½:2½
1/1 GM Amin, Bassem (w) 2709 - GM Grandelius, Nils (b) 2694 1 - 0
1/2 GM Adly, Ahmed (b) 2611 - GM Blomqvist, Erik (w) 2488 ½ - ½
1/3 IM Fawzy, Adham (w) 2461 - GM Smith, Axel (b) 2487 0 - 1
1/4 GM Hesham, Abdelrahman (b) 2450 - IM Johansson, Linus (w) 2479 0 - 1

Bassem Amin World Team Chess Championship 2019
Bassem Amin defeated Nils Grandelius. | Photo: Maria Emelianova/Chess.com.

World Teams (Open) | Round 5 standings

Rk. Fed Team 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 TB1 TB2 TB3
1 Russia 2 3 3 9 13,0 0
2 India 2 2 2 7 13,0 0
3 England 2 2 2 7 11,0 0
4 United States of America 2 2 1 3 6 10,5 0
5 Iran 2 3 5 11,5 0
6 China 2 5 11,0 0
7 Kazakhstan 1 2 3 2 4 9,5 0
8 Sweden ½ ½ 1 3 4 7,5 0
9 Azerbaijan 3 ½ 2 1 3 8,0 0
10 Egypt 1 ½ 1 1 0 5,0 0

Pairings for round six (Monday): Russia – Azerbaijan, Iran – England, India – Kazakhstan, Egypt – China, Sweden – USA.

Women's section:

Also in the women's section the most important match-up of the tournament was the one between China and Russia. It was a tough battle, as expected, and without its top players Hou Yifan and Ju Wenjun China still managed to win it.

Tan Zhongyi and Lei Tingjie won their White games against Kateryna Lagno and Valentina Gunina respectively, and as Huang Qian held the draw against Alexandra Kosteniuk, the match was decided.

Bo. Fed 4 China Rtg - Fed 2 Russia Rtg 2½:1½
2/1 GM Tan, Zhongyi (w) 2513 - GM Lagno, Kateryna (b) 2559 1 - 0
2/2 WGM Huang, Qian (b) 2441 - GM Kosteniuk, Alexandra (w) 2545 ½ - ½
2/3 GM Lei, Tingjie (w) 2477 - GM Gunina, Valentina (b) 2515 1 - 0
2/4 WGM Ding, Yixin (b) 2432 - GM Goryachkina, Aleksandra (w) 2504 0 - 1

Tan played a theoretical pawn sacrifice in the opening that worked out perfectly. She got a strong attack on the queenside and didn't give her opponent a chance to get into the game.

Tan Lagno World Team Chess Championship 2019
The top clash of the Women's World Team Championship underway. | Photo: Maria Emelianova/Chess.com.

Lei played a powerful game as well. Her 30th move was easy to miss (if Black takes, White takes on d8 with check) and after that it was almost impossible to defend Black's position.

Lei Gunina World Team Chess Championship 2019
Lei-Gunina. | Photo: Maria Emelianova/Chess.com.

Aleksandra Goryachkina's win vs Ding Yixing didn't matter anymore, but it should be noted that it was Goryachkina's fifth win in the tournament!

Goryachkina World Team Chess Championship 2019
Goryachkina is on fire in Astana. | Photo: Maria Emelianova/Chess.com.

Russia is still in second place, two points behind China. Ukraine is now third with one match point less after they were held to 2-2 by the young local team. All games ended in draws there.

World Teams (Women) | Round 5 standings

Rk. Fed Team 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 TB1 TB2 TB3
1 China 10 13,5 0
2 Russia 3 4 8 15,5 0
3 Ukraine 2 2 2 3 4 7 13,0 0
4 Georgia 2 2 3 6 12,0 0
5 India ½ 2 2 4 6 11,0 0
6 United States of America 2 ½ 3 3 5 10,0 0
7 Kazakhstan 1 2 2 4 9,0 0
8 Armenia ½ 1 4 2 8,5 0
9 Hungary ½ 1 1 1 2 6,0 0
10 Egypt 0 0 0 0 0 1,5 0

Pairings for round six (Monday): India – China, Russia – USA, Armenia – Ukraine, Kazakhstan – Hungary, Egypt – Georgia.

You can follow the games of the tournament live at Chess.com/events.

Goryachkina cheating doping test World Team Chess Championship 2019
At the start of round five there was a bit of controversy regarding the anti-cheating and anti-doping measures. It was announced that players would be picked by a random draw for these measures, but coincidentally (?) Vladislav Artemiev (not on the photo) and Aleksandra Goryachkina (right) had to pass the control for both cheating and doping. | Photo: Maria Emelianova/Chess.com.
Rublevsky cheating doping test World Team Chess Championship 2019
Russia's women's team captain Sergei Rublevsky (middle) was not amused, saying he was not informed during the round and finding the checks rather unpleasant for Goryachkina, who was one of the last players to finish her game. | Photo: Maria Emelianova/Chess.com.


Previous reports:

PeterDoggers
Peter Doggers

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.”

In October, Peter's first book The Chess Revolution will be published!


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