World Team Championships Start Tomorrow In Armenia & China
Many top players can be found in both the World Team Championship and the World Women's Team Championship which start on Sunday in Armenia and China respectively.
World Team Championship
The World Team Championship takes place 18-29 April at the Golden Palace Hotel Resort & Spa in Tsaghkadzor, Armenia. The following countries participate (in order of average Elo): Russia, Ukraine, Armenia, China, Hungary, Israel, India, Cuba, USA and Egypt.
Top GMs such as Levon Aronian, Ding Liren, Leinier Dominguez, Peter Leko, Pentala Harikrishna, Boris Gelfand, Alexander Grischuk, Sergey Karjakin, Vassily Ivanchuk are representing their country. Here's the full list of participants:
2015 World Teams | Participants
| Russia | Title | Name | Rating |
| 1 | GM | Grischuk Alexander | 2794 |
| 2 | GM | Karjakin Sergey | 2757 |
| 3 | GM | Tomashevsky Evgeny | 2745 |
| 4 | GM | Jakovenko Dmitry | 2744 |
| 5 | GM | Vitiugov Nikita | 2736 |
| Ukraine | Title | Name | Rating |
| 1 | GM | Ivanchuk Vassily | 2731 |
| 2 | GM | Ponomarev Ruslan | 2713 |
| 3 | GM | Eljanov Pavel | 2733 |
| 4 | GM | Moiseenko Alexander | 2697 |
| 5 | GM | Kryvoruchko Yuriy | 2686 |
| Armenia | Title | Name | Rating |
| 1 | GM | Aronian Levon | 2770 |
| 2 | GM | Sargissian Gabriel | 2674 |
| 3 | GM | Movsesian Sergei | 2665 |
| 4 | GM | Akopian Vladimir | 2656 |
| 5 | GM | Melkumyan Hrant | 2651 |
| China | Title | Name | Rating |
| 1 | GM | Bu Xiangzhi | 2681 |
| 2 | GM | Ding Liren | 2751 |
| 3 | GM | Yu Yangyi | 2724 |
| 4 | GM | Wei Yi | 2703 |
| 5 | IM | Wang Chen | 2531 |
| Hungary | Title | Name | Rating |
| 1 | GM | Leko Peter | 2713 |
| 2 | GM | Balogh Csaba | 2651 |
| 3 | GM | Erdos Viktor | 2612 |
| 4 | GM | Almasi Zoltan | 2698 |
| 5 | GM | Rapport Richard | 2710 |
| Israel | Title | Name | Rating |
| 1 | GM | Gelfand Boris | 2747 |
| 2 | GM | Rodshtein Maxim | 2667 |
| 3 | GM | Smirin Ilia | 2652 |
| 4 | GM | Sutovsky Emil | 2628 |
| 5 | GM | Postny Evgeni | 2636 |
| India | Title | Name | Rating |
| 1 | GM | Sethuraman Sethuraman Panayappan | 2634 |
| 2 | GM | Harikrishna Pentala | 2731 |
| 3 | GM | Vidit Santosh Gujarathi | 2630 |
| 4 | GM | Sasikiran Krishnan | 2654 |
| 5 | GM | Deep Sengupta | 2576 |
| Cuba | Title | Name | Rating |
| 1 | GM | Dominguez Perez Leinier | 2729 |
| 2 | GM | Bruzon Batista Lazaro | 2691 |
| 3 | GM | Quesada Perez Yuniesky | 2629 |
| 4 | GM | Ortiz Suarez Isan R. | 2612 |
| 5 | GM | Gonzalez Vidal Yuri | 2557 |
| USA | Title | Name | Rating |
| 1 | GM | Shankland Samuel | 2661 |
| 2 | GM | Onischuk Alexander | 2665 |
| 3 | GM | Naroditsky Daniel | 2640 |
| 4 | GM | Akobian Varuzhan | 2622 |
| 5 | GM | Lenderman Aleksandr | 2617 |
| Egypt | Title | Name | Rating |
| 1 | GM | Amin Bassem | 2634 |
| 2 | GM | Adly Ahmed | 2595 |
| 3 | GM | Shoker Samy | 2482 |
| 4 | IM | Elsherief Mohamed | 2479 |
| 5 | IM | Farahat Ali | 2389 |
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The championship will be played with teams of four players. Each team was allowed to bring one reserve player and a captain. It is a round robin tournament with nine rounds; the playing days are 19-28 April with a rest day on the 24th.
The time control is 90 minutes for 40 moves followed by 30 minutes to end the game, with 30 seconds increment per move, starting from move 1. The first tiebreaks are board points, mutual score and SB score.
World Women's Team Championship
In exactly the same period the World Women's Team Championship will held as well. This takes place 18-28 April in Chengdu, China. The following countries participate (in order of average Elo): Russia, Ukraine, China, Georgia, India, Poland, Armenia, Kazakhstan, USA and Egypt.
The big names in this tournament are GM Alexandra Kosteniuk, GM Valentina Gunina, GM Anna Muzychuk, IM Mariya Muzychuk (the reigning world champ!), GM Ju Wenjun, GM Bela Khotenashvili and GM Humpy Koneru. Here's the full list of participants:
2015 World Teams | Participants
| Russia | Name | Title | Rating |
| 1 | Kosteniuk, Alexandra | GM, WGM | 2529 |
| 2 | Gunina, Valentina | GM, WGM | 2532 |
| 3 | Girya, Olga | WGM | 2464 |
| 4 | Pogonina, Natalija | WGM | 2456 |
| 5 | Goryachkina, Aleksandra | WGM | 2473 |
| Ukraine | Name | Title | Rating |
| 1 | Muzychuk, Anna | GM, WGM | 2552 |
| 2 | Muzychuk, Mariya | IM, WGM | 2526 |
| 3 | Ushenina, Anna | GM, WGM | 2486 |
| 4 | Zhukova, Natalia | GM, WGM | 2471 |
| 5 | Gaponenko, Inna | IM, WGM | 2384 |
| China | Name | Title | Rating |
| 1 | Ju, Wenjun | GM, WGM | 2557 |
| 2 | Tan, Zhongyi | WGM | 2487 |
| 3 | Shen, Yang | IM, WGM | 2459 |
| 4 | Lei, Tingjie | WGM | 2444 |
| 5 | Ding, Yixin | WGM | 2434 |
| Georgia | Name | Title | Rating |
| 1 | Khotenashvili, Bela | GM, WGM | 2513 |
| 2 | Javakhishvili, Lela | IM, WGM | 2481 |
| 3 | Melia, Salome | IM, WGM | 2459 |
| 4 | Batsiashvili, Nino | IM, WGM | 2473 |
| 5 | Arabidze, Meri | IM, WGM | 2374 |
| India | Name | Title | Rating |
| 1 | Padmini, Rout | WGM | 2446 |
| 2 | Koneru, Humpy | GM, WGM | 2581 |
| 3 | Harika, Dronavalli | GM, WGM | 2492 |
| 4 | Gomes, Mary Ann | WGM | 2354 |
| 5 | Soumya, Swaminathan | WGM | 2347 |
| Poland | Name | Title | Rating |
| 1 | Socko, Monika | GM, WGM | 2463 |
| 2 | Zawadzka, Jolanta | WGM | 2422 |
| 3 | Szczepkowska-Horowska, Karina | WGM | 2414 |
| 4 | Bartel, Marta | WGM | 2350 |
| 5 | Kulon, Klaudia | WGM | 2310 |
| Armenia | Name | Title | Rating |
| 1 | Danielian, Elina | GM, WGM | 2488 |
| 2 | Mkrtchian, Lilit | IM, WGM | 2442 |
| 3 | Kursova, Maria | WGM | 2290 |
| 4 | Galojan, Lilit | IM, WGM | 2277 |
| 5 | Gaboyan, Susanna | 2175 | |
| Kazakhstan | Name | Title | Rating |
| 1 | Saduakassova, Dinara | WGM | 2393 |
| 2 | Abdumalik, Zhansaya | WGM | 2411 |
| 3 | Nakhbayeva, Guliskhan | WGM | 2329 |
| 4 | Dauletova, Gulmira | WIM | 2201 |
| 5 | Davletbayeva, Madina | WIM | 2231 |
| United States of America | Name | Title | Rating |
| 1 | Abrahamyan, Tatev | WGM | 2301 |
| 2 | Foisor, Sabina-Francesca | WGM | 2235 |
| 3 | Nemcova, Katerina | WGM | 2279 |
| 4 | Melekhina, Alisa | FM, WIM | 2235 |
| 5 | Ni, Viktorija | WIM | 2188 |
| Egypt | Name | Title | Rating |
| 1 | Mona, Khaled | WGM | 2125 |
| 2 | Wafa, Shrook | WGM | 2058 |
| 3 | Moaataz, Ayah | WIM | 2022 |
| 4 | Wafa, Shahenda | WIM | 2118 |
| 5 | Sherif, Amina | WIM | 1971 |
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The regulations are more or less the same in China: a round robin of nine rounds played with teams of four, and under the same time control.
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.
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