The 37th Chess Olympiad is over. Armenia and Ukraine were to celebrate their first wins in men's and women's events. It was by far the biggest Olympiad ever seen: over 100 women's and almost 150 men's teams arrived which is more than 10% more than in Bled, 2002, the largest Olympiad held so far. Also, the Turin tournament was the strongest of all Olympiads. The only World's top players missing in Turin were Topalov, Leko and Polgar. Also, rejuvenated Chinese women's squad was fairly weaker and China failed to wintheir fifth consecutive title.


INDIVIDUAL TRIVIA

Most points scored: 10 - Wang Yue (CHN) and Sargissian (ARM)

Most games won: 8 - by eight players

Most draws: 10 - Odeev (TKM)

Most losses: 11 - Skehan (PNG) <-- He has played at four Olympiads completing 42 games. He is still to discover the sweet taste of a game win!

Players to play all 13 games without a loss: Sargissian (ARM) and Popovic (SCG)

Best percentage result: 7 wins in 7 games - Al-Qudaimi (YEM)

Biggest game upsets:
round 1, Austria-Fiji: IM Danner (2402) - Gautam (1955) 0-1
round 6, Venezuela-Norway: IM Iturrizaga (2232) - GM Agdestein (2594) 1-0
round 7, Mongolia-Latvia: Gundavaa (2124) - GM Meijers (2482) 1-0
round 9, Singapore-Turkmenistan: Tay Li Jin (2011) - IM Grigorian (2411) 1-0 Tay Li Jin is a girl!
round 12, Mongolia-Brazil: Batchuluun (2303) - GM Vescovi (2622) 1-0

Consecutive Olympiads: 19 - Torre (PHI), continuously since 1970;
also: Westerinen played in his 19th Olympiad after 10 year long break.

Oldest player: 81 - Bill Hook (IVB)



TEAM TRIVIA

Most matches won: 10 - Armenia

Most matches drawn: 5 - by a few teams

Least matches lost: 0 - Armenia

Most games won: 23 - Italy "B" and China

Most games drawn: 33 - Hungary

Least games lost: 2 - Armenia

Top ten according to Elo performed:
1. Armenia 2703
2. Russia 2691
3. China 2686
4. USA 2655
5. Ukraine 2653
6. Netherlands 2638
7. Israel 2635
8. Hungary 2632
9. France 2631
10. Uzbekistan 2625

Biggest match upsets following Elo predictions:
Malaysia-Canada 3.5-0.5 (prediction: 1.24-2.76, difference 2.26)
Morocco-India 3-1 (prediction 0.92-3.08, difference 2.08)
Georgia-China 0-4 (prediction 1.84-2.16, difference 1.84)
Peru-Switzerland 3-1 (prediction 1.28-2.72, difference 1.72)
Latvia-Mongolia 1-3 (prediction 2.72-1.28, difference 1.72)
Azerbaijan-Cuba 0.5-3.5 (prediction 2.20-1.80, difference 1.70)

by Apple @ 01 Jul 2006 05:35 pm

Zhao Xue has the Best Rating Performance not Zhukova.