Translated material
The Great Extras
The World Olympiad has picked up speed in Dresden
On the starting day of the 38th World Chess Olympiad, held in Dresden, by force of circumstances, the most discussed topic was the news of a car accident in Moscow, in which FIDE President Kirsan Ilyumzhinov was involved. But when it turned out that everything had turned out relatively well, attention switched to the chess tables. It should be noted that all the strongest in the world agreed to lead the teams of their countries, with the exception of champion Viswanathan Anand.In the crowd of the hall you can also see participants in the upcoming candidate match Veselin Topalov (Bulgaria) and Gata Kamsky (USA), as well as Vasily Ivanchuk (Ukraine), Levon Aronian (Armenia), Magnus Carlsen (Norway), both “pillars” of Hungary Peter Leko and Judit Polgar and other celebrities. But, as always, the main attention is focused on the rating favorite - the Russian team. If the application for the first two boards of ex-world champion Vladimir Kramnik and Russian champion Peter Svidler was not commented on, then the movement of Alexander Morozevich, who had the highest rating in our team, to the fourth board behind Alexander Grischuk, caused surprise. Therefore, it is worth recalling that it was in this order that our team competed at the previous Olympiad in Turin, and the reason for Morozevich’s application on the fourth board was his assigned role as a slaughterer, which is extremely important with the new system for calculating team points. For the first time in the history of Chess Olympiads, the results of matches will be assessed according to the “old” football system, where victory in a match is assessed by two points, and not by their total on the boards. This means that the team’s efforts may be limited to a winning score of 2.5:1.5.
Nevertheless, the victories of the Russian team with exactly this score in the first two matches over, to put it mildly, not the strongest opponents were greeted with caution. Especially when, in the first match with Switzerland, Peter Svidler, who played on the first board with 77-year-old Viktor Korchnoi, and Dmitry Jakovenko in a game with the most experienced Joseph Gallagher, had to seek salvation in difficult endgames. Alexander Morozevich, who defeated Florian Jenny, managed to save the face of the team, as planned.
The match with the Polish team was not easy either. After Kramnik and Morozevich, who played black, were unable to squeeze anything out of their games with Kamil Miton and Grzegorz Gajewski, and Alexander Grischuk had the chance to save the queen endgame with an extreme passed pawn from Radoslaw Wojtaszek, all hopes were pinned on Jakovenko. For Dmitry, it was important, in turn, to realize the pawn he won from Mateusz Barthel, which he confidently demonstrated. However, some of our other potential competitors did not shine in the opening round. The holders of the second and third ratings of the Olympiad snatched victory with a minimal score. Ukraine defeated Vietnam only by winning on the fourth board. China beat the Philippines only due to the use of the white color, and Hungary, which at one time competed with the USSR national team, was not at all able to defeat the “non-chess” Iran (2:2).
I am glad that in the third round our team finally demonstrated its strength and defeated the Cuban team 3.5:0.5. Only Kramnik was unable to overcome the tenacity of world blitz champion Lenier Dominguez, while Svidler, Morozevich and Jakovenko confidently beat Bruzon, Quesada and Hernandez, respectively. Things were not easy for some of our potential competitors. The Chinese team lost with a score of 1.5:2.5 to the Norwegian team, and Ukraine, after Ivanchuk lost to Jobav on the first board, barely defeated Georgia - 2.5:1.5. And only the winner of the previous Olympiad, the Armenian team continued its confident victory march: Italy - 4:0, Moldova - 3:1, Faroe Islands - 4:0.
Despite the negative aspects of the game, the team managed without punctures in the first three rounds, and the team's winning streak made it possible to plan rest for the players according to a kind of schedule in the order of the boards. But the players' powers are not limitless. Therefore, in the fourth round in the match with India, Yakovenko, who received a fair amount of workload, was given a rest out of turn. The match was not easy. After the first boards unexpectedly stalled: Kramnik gained nothing with White against Sashikiryan, and Svidler missed an unexpected blow from Harikrishna in a promising position and lost, everything depended on the team’s “rear”. He rose to the occasion: Grischuk sacrificed a pawn in the endgame and outplayed Ganguly, and Morozevich demolished Sandipan. As a result, the victory was with a score of 2.5:1.5. The main match of the fourth round was the match between Ukraine and Armenia, in which all games ended in a draw after a fierce struggle.
Against the background of the struggle of the favorites, somehow unexpectedly the first team of Germany ended up in the leading group. Confirming the belief that houses and walls help, the German grandmasters have won all their matches so far. The latest victim was the "tight" Spanish team, which lost with a score of 1.5:2.5 after its leader Alexey Shirov lost to Arkady Naiditsch.
As for our women's team, it started with a 4:0 victory over the Azerbaijani team, while one of its main competitors - the Ukrainian team - was unable to defeat the Argentine team, which was noticeably inferior to them in class. In the second round, our girls confidently won against Slovenia with a score of 3:1, but then stumbled against the Indian team - 2:2.
They are in the lead. Men . 1--2. Germany, Russia - 8 points; 3--9. Armenia, Hungary, Norway, Azerbaijan, England, Ukraine, Holland - 7. Women. China, Poland - 8; 3--6. Russia, Hungary, Georgia, India - 7.