Armenia are knocking on heaven's door as they earned safe edge over the rest with just two rounds of the 37th Chess Olympiad to go. China lost to France and both teams share second position ahead of USA and Russia.

There wasn't much of a fight in the today's top encounter between Armenia and the Czech Republic. Aronian scored another thumping victory with devastating 11. Nf7!! to get full support from Asrian who beat Babula to seal Armenia's 3-1 win. The leaders edge runners-up China by clear 3.5 points and it is hardly possible to imagine they could miss the tournament win. France defeated China thanks to Lautier's win over Zhang to level with the Chines at 28.5 points.

Russia conceded yet another match loss. A team of four 2700s lost in a prestiguous match to USA, a team of 2600s with three men of Soviet and one of Japanese origin. The decisive win was scored by Nakamura - the only player in the field whose mother tongue isn't Russian. Cuba ran over Uzbekistan to advance to eigth place while Ukraine trounced Azerbaijan to be back in top ten. India lost to Israel to fell further back - it is all over for them. Spanish board 4 player blundered mate in 3 vs Poland to jam the team in 22nd.

There were quite a lot of interesting results at lower boards today. FM Batchuluun of Mongolia (Elo 2303) beta Vescovi (2622) in a highly entertaining game. 88th seeds Dominicana defeated Australia (probably their most valuable result ever scored). Hassan Syed, an unrated player from Pakistan managed to beat legendary GM Bouaziz, who is decades after his prime, but still...

There is a very tight competition behind Armenia's shoulders and one cannot rule out the possibility of Russia and Ukraine grabbing the lower podium positions which means the same trio as in Calvia would share top honours. Anyway, China and France seem to be tough and determined too, and will not give up strifless. It will be crucial for France to hold Armenia today, which is possible given their domination is unendangered. Time will tell.

In the women's section Ukraine beat Bulgaria 2.5-0.5 to extend gap over Russia up to a full point. China hammered Greece 3-0 to stand secure in third. USA and India share fourth position.

Today was an election day. As expected, the incumbent Ilyumzhinov beat Kok by a wide margin (96:57).

Standings:
Men: Armenia 32; China and France 28.5; Russia and USA 28; Czech Rep., Ukraine, Cuba and Israel 27.5
Women: Ukraine 25.5; Russia 24.5; China 23.5; India and USA 21.5; Georgia 21

Key pairings for tomorrow: France-Armenia (!); Czech Rep.-China; Russia-Cuba; Israel-USA; Ukraine-Netherlands

Recommended links:
Detailed results and statistics at Wiener Zeitung page
Armenian chess federation - they deserve more interest those days
Team Chess inc. - should be subject of interest for every chess official

HIGHLIGHTS OF THE DAY

1. Aronian (ARM, 2756) - Navara (CZE, 2658)
There are no doubts that Aronian is revelation of the year. In Turin he shatters his opposition with home preparation. Today he beat Navara with a blustering opening sac: 11. Nf7!! a thunderstruck. Black canont capture on f7 because of dxe6. 11... Qd7? there were two urgent needs here: one was to get the Queen out of Knight's reach, another one was to protect the Bishop. Only 11.. Qc8 was up to the mark. White would have an advantage, but the game would go on. Now it is all over. 12. Bxc3 Bxd5 13. Bxd5 Qxd5 14. e4! +- White is a Rook ahead and he went on for a win quickly. 1-0 after 25 moves. Hats off Armenia!


3. Asrian (ARM, 2646) - Babula (CZE, 2583)
This one is pure strategy. White has two little yet tangible pressures. The first one is pinned Knight. The other one is weakened pawn structure. However, the win seems to be utterly problematic. What plan would you employ? Asrian's choice explains everything: 29. f5!! Yes, two exclamation marks are fully justified here. They prove he understood the nature of the position in details. Black is helpless. He cannot prevent the winning plan: King strolls to h5 guarded by pair of pawns. Once the King reaches h5 White conducts decisive attack initiated with g4-g5. And so it was. 1-0 after 43 moves. Please refer to the game file to trace the game.


10. Svidler (RUS, 2743) - Onischuk (USA, 2650)
Black has substantial material advantage but pair of white major pieces threatens perpetual check. A win is still lurking around but Black has to be careful. 51... Kg7 was the only choice. Instead the Ukrainian born Onischuk chose awry 51... Kf6? and there happened a funny case of a "triangular perpetual check": 52. Re4! Qf5 Do not forget Bf2 that has to be protected 53. Qc3+ Kg6 54. Re5 Qf4 55. Qd3 Kf6 = the full cycle has just been completed 56. Re4 Qf5 57. Qc3+ Kg6 1/2-1/2. There is no oscillatory motion like in 99.9% of cases, but the three-step repetition.


11. Nakamura (USA, 2664) - Grischuk (RUS, 2719)
The outcome of the game was not only prestiguous, but also essential from the point of view of the final ranking. White is dead lost. Fritz9 shows -19.4 (!) at 13 ply depth. The way to a win is childlishy easy, e.g. 43.. Bxg3 44. Kxg3 Rg4+ 45. Kh3 e4 and White gets mated. Or just 43... Rd3 44. Rf3 Qd1 trading the pieces and leaving Black with won pawn endgame. Anything. Anything, but not 43... fxg6? Now White takes a draw: 44. Bxf4 exf4?? another blunder! 44... Rxf6 45. Qc8+ or 44... Rxf4 45. R1xf4 exf4 led to a perpetual check. Now Black is lost. 45. Rxf8+ Kxf8 46. Qb8+ Ke7? speeding things up, but there was no help for Black 47. Qe5+ Kf7 48. Qxd4 Qf5+ 49. Kh2 1-0. I would say time trouble does not justify what happened over here.


24. Moiseenko (UKR, 2662) - Mamedov (AZE, 2538)
TACTICS TEST (quite hard). White to move and win. Point out no less that first three halfmoves. Drag your mouse between the brackets to reveal the answer.
[ 27. Bxd6!! of course capturing black Queen leads to disaster: 27. Rxf1 Rxf1+ 28. Nd1 Re8! wins not one but two pieces. 27... Qf3 28. Ka1!! another stunning move. Its idea is to get out of black Bishop's way. 28... Nd7? 28... Nxd5 was far better 29. Bxb8 and White won. 1-0 ]


48. San Segundo Carillo (ESP, 2525) - Wojtaszek (POL, 2597)
This is something that will distress the Spaniard for a long time. White has won, he just has to complete his defending tasks, most simply with 40. f3 or 40. f4. Instead he greedily decided to promote the pawn with n preparation 40. e8=Q?? Now Black can just resign, or give a pre-mortal check: 40... Rh1+! 0-1 The only choice that was left is between 41. Kxh1 Qf1+ 42. Kh2 Qxg2+# or 41. Kg3 Qg4+# There's a good Latin sentence for that: nihil novi sub sol!


90. Short (ENG, 2677) - McNab (SCO, 2437)
TACTICS TEST (very easy). England are doing bad all along but this one was Short's short. White to move and win.
[ 23. Nxd5 Nxd5 24. Rxd5 Qe6 25. Ng5 1-0. Neat and quick. ]


97. Batchuluun (MGL, 2303) - Vescovi (BRA, 2622)
Everything was in Vescovi's favour on a paper. The life often scoffs at expectations. 36. f6! Only move. Black has considerable advantage after 36. Re1 Bf3 37. Nf2 g4 36... Bf8 37. Re1 Bd3 38. Nxg5 1-0 It is not common to beat a player rated 300 points higher than yourself. It is even more uncommon to win such game without a blunder on one side.


179. Hassan Syed (PAK, unr) - Bouaziz (TUN, 2338)
First Tunesian GM Slim Bouaziz is barely 2338 player those times but still he is a living legend. You will learn why if you do an in-depth study of OlimpBase Olympic archives. A win must have been a surprise for the Pakistani newbie. He is clear piece down here, but Bouaziz commits simple mistake 35... Rd7?? 36. Qxe5 Nxe5 37. Rxg6+ now Black cannot recapture because of Ne6+, which was apparently missed by Black. The position is now even, but it was White who went on for a win (!). 1-0 after 62 moves. The ending was played very well by Hassan Syed after all, and one would never guess a GM faces an unrated player. Please see the entire game in a game file.


196. Molina (ITA"C", 2290) - Phiri (ZAM, unr)
The Italian FM was in command of White pieces facing unrated Zambian player, who won second position at African Junior Championship last year. White is winning of course but he cannot take it too eay: 27. Ng1?? hogging the King 27... Qf4+ 28. Kh1 Bd6 29. Nf3 Rg5 30. Ne5 Bxe5 0-1 Phiri has scored 5.5/6 so far, one more game win and he can apply for a board medal. Best of luck to Richmond.


See online games from round 11

by Paul Serrano @ 03 Jun 2006 03:43 pm

Who does the analysis here? They ought to get credit.

by Niezadowolony @ 03 Jun 2006 08:35 pm

Ju¿ nawet Austriacy i Niemcy maj¹ polsk¹ wersj� strony, a dlaczego tak ciekawa POLSKA strona nie chce by� przyst�pn¹ dla.... Polak�w????