World Team Ch (Tsaghkadzor) 18-29 April 2015

[Chris Rice]

How are relations between Armenia and Azerbaijan generally?

I thought politically, they didnt get on due to a longstanding historical issue over territory....if so, its isnt that much of a surprise if they dont take part in such tournaments is it?

No surprise at all Mark. There are no diplomatic relations between the two countries and they are still technically at war because of the ongoing Nagorno-Karabakh conflict and dispute. Decent summary at Wiki if interested http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Armenia%E2 ... _relations

[Brian Towers]

Nick I'm not knocking FIDE this time. It's a reality that chess tournaments are played in places like this. I just thought that the World Team Championship featuring Russia, USA and China might have escaped that and be played somewhere it only takes one flight to get to. I'm talking Paris, Prague, New York, Beijing, Moscow.

Surely holding tournaments in places like that is part of FIDE's Heineken-like remit to spread chess at that level to places other beers don't reach?

[Chris Rice]

Round 1 results - clearly USA could have done with Nakamura and So and Russia with Kramnik.

Cuba 2-2 Hungary

Dominguez Perez – Leko ½-½
Almasi - Bruzon Batista ½-½
Quesada Perez – Rapport 1-0
Balogh - Ortiz Suarez 1-0

China 2½ – 1½ USA

Ding - Shankland 1-0
Lenderman – Yu ½-½
Bu – Onischuk ½-½
Akobian - Wei Yi ½-½

Ukraine 2½ – 1½ Russia

Ponomarev – Grischuk ½-½
Karjakin - Ivanchuk ½-½
Eljanov – Tomashevsky 1-0
Jakovenko - Kryvoruchko ½-½

Israel 2½ – Armenia 1½

Gelfand - Aronian ½-½
Sargissian - Sutovsky ½-½
Smirin - Movsesian ½-½
Akopian vs Rodshtein 0-1

Egypt 1-3 India

Shoker – Harikrishna 0-1
Sethuraman – Elsherief 0-1
Adly - Vidit 0-1
Deep – Farahat 1-0

[Chris Rice]

Round 2 and another defeat for mother Russia...

India 2 - 2 USA
1 GM Harikrishna P. 2731 ½ - ½ GM Shankland Samuel L 2661
2 GM Sethuraman S.P. 2634 ½-½ GM Onischuk Alexander 2665
3 GM Sasikiran Krishnan 2654 ½-½ GM Akobian Varuzhan 2622
4 GM Vidit Santosh Gujrathi 2630 ½-½ GM Naroditsky Daniel 2640

Hungary 2 - 2 China
1 GM Leko Peter 2713 ½-½ GM Ding Liren 2751
2 GM Erdos Viktor 2612 ½-½ GM Yu Yangyi 2724
3 GM Rapport Richard 2710 ½-½ GM Bu Xiangzhi 2681
4 GM Balogh Csaba 2651 ½-½ GM Wei Yi 2703

Russia 1½ - 2½ Cuba
1 GM Grischuk Alexander 2794 0-1 GM Dominguez Perez Leinier 2729
2 GM Karjakin Sergey 2757 ½-½ GM Bruzon Batista Lazaro 2691
3 GM Tomashevsky Evgeny 2745 ½-½ GM Quesada Perez Yuniesky 2629
4 GM Vitiugov Nikita 2736 ½-½ GM Gonzalez Vidal Yuri 2557

Armenia 2½ - 1½ Ukraine
1 GM Aronian Levon 2770 1-0 GM Ponomariov Ruslan 2713
2 GM Sargissian Gabriel 2674 ½-½ GM Ivanchuk Vassily 2731
3 GM Movsesian Sergei 2665 ½-½ GM Eljanov Pavel 2733
4 GM Melkumyan Hrant 2651 ½-½ GM Moiseenko Alexander 2697

Egypt 2 - 2 Israel
1 GM Amin Bassem 2634 ½-½ GM Gelfand Boris 2747
2 GM Shoker Samy 2482 1-0 GM Sutovsky Emil 2628
3 IM Ezat Mohamed 2479 ½-½ GM Smirin Ilia 2652
4 GM Adly Ahmed 2595 0-1 GM Rodshtein Maxim 2667

Standings after Round 2:
1= India, China, Israel, Cuba 3
5= Hungary, Armenia, Ukraine 2
8= USA, Egypt 1
10 Russia 0

http://tsaghkadzor2015.fide.com/?lang=en

[Mick Norris]

Israel have beaten India
Ukraine 4-0 Egypt
Cuba 2.5 - 1.5 Armenia
Hungary 2.5 - 1.5 USA
Russia - China 3 draws, Vitiugov trying to win R+B v R at move 126 v Wei Yi

[Matt Mackenzie]

Neither the US or Russia having a tournament to remember here thus far.

[Chris Rice]

Neither the US or Russia having a tournament to remember here thus far.

Standings do look weird after round 3!

1= Israel, Cuba 5
3= Ukraine, Hungary, China 4
6 India 3
7 Armenia 2
8= Russia, USA, Egypt 1

http://en.chessbase.com/post/world-team ... ts-armenia

[Mick Norris]

Russia 2-2 USA
Cuba 3-1 Egypt
Ukraine 2.5 - 1.5 Israel
China 3.5 - 0.5 Armenia
India 2.5 - 1.5 Hungary

from what I can see in round 4

[Chris Rice]

So Russia couldn't even beat the USA who were missing their best two players? Getting a bit embarrassing....

Standings after Rd 4 (2pts for a match win, 1 for a tie) :
1 Cuba 7
2= China, Ukraine 6
4= Israel, India 5
6 Hungary 4
7= Armenia, USA, Russia 2
10 Egypt 1

http://chess-news.ru/en/node/18775

[Mick Norris]

Cuba - Israel today (Dominguez - Gelfand)
Ukraine - India
China - Egypt
USA - Armenia
Hungary - Russia (Leko - Grischuk)

[MartinCarpenter]

Well really, Russian team chess has been a bit of an ongoing embarrassment for several years now. Not obviously for want of trying either.

[Mick Norris]

Cuba 1.5 - 2.5 Israel
Ukraine 2.5 - 1.5 India
China 2.5 - 1.5 Egypt
USA 1.5 - 2.5 Armenia
Hungary 0.5 - 3.5 Russia

[Mick Norris]

Ukraine, China 8
Cuba, Israel 7
India 5
Russia, Armenia, Hungary 4
USA 2
Egypt 1

[Mick Norris]

Round 6 on 2015/04/25

India Russia
Armenia Hungary
Egypt USA
Israel China
Ukraine Cuba

[Chris Rice]

Increasingly this is looking like a two horse race between China and Ukraine and they now face each other in round seven.

Round 6 results:

Egypt 1 - 3 USA
India 1½ - 2½ Russia
Ukraine 2½ - 1½ Cuba
Israel 1½ - 2½ China
Armenia 2 - 2 Hungary

Standings:
1= Ukraine, China 10
3= Israel, Cuba 7
5 Russia 6
6= India, Armenia, Hungary 5
9 USA 4
10 Egypt 1

Round 7:

China - Ukraine

1 Ding Liren (2751) - Ponomariov Ruslan (2713)
2 Yu Yangyi (2724) - Ivanchuk Vassily (2731)
3 Bu Xiangzhi (2681) - Eljanov Pavel (2733)
4 Wei Yi (2703) - Moiseenko Alexander (2697)

Cuba - India
USA - Israel
Hungary - Egypt
Russia - Armenia