Armenia's board 2 Akopian scored decisive win to secure team's win over Uzbekistan as Holland paved Armenia's way to the top surprisingly pulling off Russia. Belarus won their sixth consecutive match to lie in third.

There was a rest between fifth and sixth round and it apparently help to boost player's gallantry as there were no match draws at top boards today. Saturday was an upset day, as we say many hopes turn to dust; some teams most unexpectedly celebrate their glorious moments.

The Netherlands caused biggest upset of the day defeating leaders Russia. With two quick draws and Grischuk sneaking out Van Wely's hands the decisive point was scored by Nijboer who carried out great attack to devastate Rublevsky's defence and lead Netherlands to a win.

In table two encounter, Armenia-Uzbekistan, there wasn't much of a fight at top board as Aronian peacefully held Kasimdzhanov to a draw. Previously mentioned Akopian's win was the only decisive game of the match. Bulgaria wasted chance to go through losing to 31st seeds Sweden as Petkov strolled straight into a mate net in a drawn position. Iran performed well once again putting up tough resistance to the titleholders. They fought hard on almost every board and managed to save three draws with Eljanov scoring easy win vs Sharbaf. Belarus produced another shocker beating Spain 3-1. Shirov lost badly to Alexandrov blundering under time pressure in a won ending. Bu of China defeated Gata Kamsky but the rest of the US team managed to pick two wins and one draw to set match result at 2.5-1.5 in favour of the Americans.

Vishy Anand apparently haven't bounced back yet after MTel combat and produced another dull draw today. Team India however went on to a 3-1 win over Germany in a style suitable for the honour contenders. Harikrishna won RBNvRN ending presenting immaculate technique.

Azerbaijan continue their pathetic run as they lost to Cuba today 0.5-3.5. England cannot recover either - they only tied to Peru in round six. France beat Portugal 3-1 - not a very spectacular results but a win is a win - at last.

As far as some traditional derbies are concerned, Czech Republic proved their superiority (in the field of chess exclusively!) over their former countrymen Slovakia to win 3-1. Malta beat San Marino in a match between European minnows. The World will see another thrilling classic tomorrow as British Virgin Islands will face US Virgin Islands at table 74 (the bottom one).

In the women's section Russia narrowly ran over Hungary to maintain minimum lead over Ukraine. Surprise Slovakia are in third as they wiped out former leaders Lithuania with a clear 3-0. Chinese women recovered fully from yesterday's debacle hammering Poland 2.5-0.5.

Standings:
Men: Armenia 18; Netherlands 17.5; Russia and Belarus 17; Ukraine, USA, Sweden and India 16.5
Women: Russia 14.5; Ukraine 14; Slovakia 13.5; USA, Romania, India and Bulgaria 13

Crucial pairings for tomorrow: Netherlands-Armenia; Russia-Belarus; India-Ukraine; USA-Sweden

Recommended links:
Detailed results and statistics at Wiener Zeitung page
All Things Human (an Olympic blog by Rob Huntington)
Olympic news from TWIC (the brand speaks for itself)

HIGHLIGHTS OF THE DAY


4. Rublevsky (RUS, 2687) - Nijboer (NED, 2584)
A win is at hand but Black decided to speed things up with a risky shot 23... Rxf2!? 23... Bxe3 24. fxe3 Nd3 25. Bd4 Bxd5 was secure way to build up advantage 24. Kxf2 Ng4+ 25. Ke1 Nxe3 26. Nc3?! after 26. Rd2 Black has nothing better in scope than 26... Ng2+ with perpetual check 26... Re8 27. Kd2 Ned1 28. Rxd1 Rf8 29. Kc2 Rf2+ 30. Kb1? why not Re2? 30... Rxh2 and Black won after 40 moves. 0-1 This is how The Netherlands picked the winning point.



6. Barsov (UZB, 2525) - Akopian (ARM, 2706)
Black to move. Position is lost for White but the win doesn't seem to come at last. The game did not last long though.
TACTICS TEST: find best move for Black. Drag your mouse between the brackets to reveal the answer.
[ 30... Be2! threatens Bxf3 and pulls away protectors of Bb1 31. Qe3 Worst answer. 31. Bd4 Qxb1 let White survive a few moves more 31... Rxb1 32. Qe2 Nxf2+ 0-1 ]



12. Petkov (BUL, 2500) - Hillarp-Persson (SWE, 2524)
White to move. The position is even. White should continue with Ke1 to avoid X-Ray. Instead he chose 24. Kg2? one must admit the danger was deeply hidden... 24... Rc3!! a thunderstruck. Black sacrifices a Rook to cover e3 square necessary to clench the mating grid. 25. Nxc3 Loses at once, but there was no choice. After 25. Qxc3 Bxc3 26. Nxc3 Nxe3+ 27. Kg3 White's position is hopeless. 25... Nxe3+ 26. Kg3 Be5 27. Kh4 Rf4+ 0-1 Mate in 2 would follow after 28. Kg3 Rf5+ 29. Kh3 Rh5# A game of the day.



16. Moradiabadi (IRI, 2490) - Efimenko (UKR, 2648)
Black has substantial material advantage but he has to be careful. Here Kc7 was necessary followed by b5 to leave b6 ready to shelter the King. The win wouldn't be simple anyway. Efimenko chose 54... Kb7 which lead to a draw after 55. a4! 1/2-1/2 Black cannot avoid perpetual check since White controls key squares at b5, e8 and e7.



17. Alexandrov (BLR, 2634) - Shirov (ESP, 2699)
Time control has just passed so there is no explanation for Black's choice. He could easily win after 43... Qd1+ 44. Re1 Qg4+ but instead he blundered 43... b4?? 44. Qc7 (44. Rxd5 was even faster) 44... Qd1+ 45. Kh2 Qd6 46. Qxd6! Bxd6 47. e7 1-0 It is not common for a 2700 player to play as badly as here.



22. Onischuk (USA, 2650) - Zhang (CHN, 2623)
Time for a little warning for all those who believe that winning a pawn in the opening is an act of utter wiliness. The Chinese took the try to defend pc4 and failed, losing time necessary for piece development. 5. a4 b4 6. Ne4 Qd5 7. Nd2 Ba6 the only way to protect the pawn 8. Qc2 b3 9. Qc4 += White takes back the pawn with fair positional advantage. Black was looking for counterchances and offered a pawn himself playing 9... e5?! but he failed, and White converted his material advantage into a win. 1-0 after 36 moves.



31. Halkias (GRE, 2528) - Lima (BRA, 2489)
White's treatment of the opening was rather poor. He can no more castle and his pawn centre ceased to exist. Now he makes his position even worse with pseudo-active 15. Qd6? Black has a good reply forcing trades to leave white King unprotected in the centre. 15... Ne5! 16. Qxd8 Nxd3+ 17. Kd2 Rxd8 18. Kxd3 Bf5+ -+ White is actually a pawn up but he is hopelessly lost. Chaser around the board by pair of almighty bishops. The game did no last long. 0-1 after 28 moves. Excellent play of the Brazilian met rather poor display.



35. Lutz (GER, 2608) - Harikrishna (IND, 2680)
Black is a piece ahead but limited material makes it hard to convert advantage into a win. A number of plans may be employed. The most intuitive one is to trade the Knight for the Bishop to win RBvR ending. But the Indian designed in even smarter way: 63... Bd4 64. Ra2 trading Rook lead to a draw 64... Re3 65. Bf5 Nh5! Excellent move. Now the pressure on pg3 is impossible to refute. 66. Kh2 Nxg3 Part one has been completed but the win is still not obvious. 67. Bc8 Nh5 68. Rd2 Be5+ 69. Kg2 Bg3! Forces White King to come back to the first rank allowing black King to come on the scene 70. Rd1? Dispels all the hopes, Ba6 was the only move here protecting f1 70... Nf4 71. Kg1 Re2 and soon 0-1 Anyone thinking of writing his own endgame encyclopedia must not omit this game.



49. Nisipeanu (ROM, 2695) - Gelfand (ISR, 2727)
We have just studied piece ending, that'll be purely pawn ending for a change. White to move. I bet 99% of players would automatically take the pawn, which leads to complicated ending with blurry prospects for White: 34. Kxg5 Kc5 35. Kg6 Kxc4 36. Kxg7 e4 37. f6 e3 38. f7 e2 39. f8=Q e1=Q += Instead the Romanian found 34. Kf3! What is a secret behind this move? White can no way save his pawn on c4 and aiming at pe5 appears to be slower than paving pawn's way through g file. It is essential for him to take black pawn at e5 which is Black's last hope. 34... Kc5 35. Ke4 Kxc4 (or 35... Kd6 36. c5+ +-) 36. Kxe5 a5 37. f6 gxf6 38. Kxf6 a4 39. Kxg5 Kc3 and Gelfand resigned soon 1-0.



61. Radjabov (AZE, 2717) - Bruzon-Batista (CUB, 2652)
Radjabov is awfully underperforming, as his team-mates do (what's the point?). The diagram position is even after evident 37. Nf6+ Rxf6 38. Rxe8+ Qxe8 39. Qxf6 or 37... Qxf6 38. Rxe8+ However the Azerbaijani leader missed this most simple opportunity and chose 37. h3? to lose after 74 move of a struggle. 0-1 Time trouble might be the only explanation; still tactics like that should be fetched in no time by a 2700.



301. Lahno (UKR, 2468) - Llaneza Vega (ESP, 2276)
This game was played in women's section of course. White has some advantage but Black can well save the game. The inconspicuous 32... Nc6?? causes immediate debacle though. Black Knight was necessary to protect g8! Why this move loses at once, is not obvious at first glance, to justify the Spaniard to some extent. 33. Qf3 +- Now Black cannot avoid mate without losing material. 33... Rd7 34. Qf6+ Rg7 35. Rxe5 1-0 35... Nxe5 would meet 36. Qd8+ and after 35... Qxe5 36. Qf8+ would win.


See online games from round 6

Round five caused no harm in the top of the progress table as all of top teams went to draw each other. Only top teams to take wins are USA who beat Georgia and surprisingly Iran who defeated Vietnam 3-1 to find themselves in tied 5th.

The Russia-Armenia was a match of two teams commonly believed to struggle for gold. Vladimir Kramnik hammered rising talent Aronian at top board but the match result was levelled by Armenia's board 4 Sargissian who outplayed Morozevich in the mid-game. Kasimdzhanov of Uzbekistan scored another nice win defeating Sokolov, a Dutch player of Bosnian origin to lead Uzbekistan to a valuable draw. Sweden are another surprise as they held Spain today to a draw with two tied and two decisive games. Ukraine gave rather disappointing display once more barely halving with Bulgaria as Volokytin wasted all his chances to lose to Cheparinov. Finally India, who conceded yet another draw, are less and less likely to emerge as the first Asian team ever to win the Olympiad. Unfortunately is seems Anand is not well shaped this time.

There are a few exceptionally strong teams that seem to be at the end of their wits. Israel (6th seeded) only managed to draw all four games vs Denmark. Azerbaijan beat Moldova by the smallest possible margin. Bologan lost to Radjabov in a way which makes it hard to believe he was sensational winner in Dortmund 2004. France are lacking vigour - another four draw match today. Algeria produced biggest upset of the day holding Slovenia to a 2-all draw. Please find details on Adlane's excellent win over Beliavsky in the game highlights section. Also Haddouche beat GM Pavasovic, rated 250 points better than himself.

In the women's section Russian hegemony was finally broken by Ukraine who beat the leaders 2-1. The Russians retained the lead, although the margin diminished to half of a point. Hungary led by Vietnamese Hoang beat China 2.5-0.5 to move into third. Tomorrow they will be tested by Russia. Georgia are still struggling at 15th.

Standings:
Men: Russia and Armenia 15.5; Netherlands 15; Uzbekistan 14.5; Bulgaria, Ukraine, Spain, Belarus, USA, Iran and Sweden 14
Women: Russia 12.5; Ukraine 12; Hungary 11.5; USA, Romania et al. 11

To be played tomorrow: Netherlands-Russia, Armenia-Uzbekistan, Sweden-Bulgaria, Ukraine-Iran (!!), Germany-India

Recommended links:
Detailed results and statistics at Wiener Zeitung page
The Chess Drum reports by Daaim Shabazz
ChessVista - photos by Frits Agterdenbos

HIGHLIGHTS OF THE DAY


1. Kramnik (RUS, 2729) - Aronian (ARM, 2756)
Many believe Kramnik will never be able to come back to his top form. His claims for classical World Champion title aren't commonly recognized anymore. Today he showed really good chess squeezing World's third highest rated player move by move. The diagram position is hardly playable for Black, but what Aronian chooses causes immediate debacle: 33... b4? leaving pawn for a rout 34. c7 Ra8 35. Qb6 Bf8 forced 36. Bxb4 +- We can only regret Topalov doesn't play.


5. Kasimdzhanov (UZB, 2673) - Sokolov (NED, 2676)
That Kasim took FIDE World Championship title in 2004 was a mockery for many journalists and fans. In Turin he is virtually unstoppable showing brave and far-sighted chess. The position is way better for White as Sokolov commited decisive mistake 19... Rb7? forces Black to free e4 square for white Knight 20. Bd5! Bxd5 21. exd5 Ne7 22. Ne4 Qf5 only move 23. Nxc5 dxc5 24. Nxe5 +- White won a pawn and his piece mobility is better. 1-0 after 52 moves of hopeless struggle.


13. Ivanchuk (UKR, 2731) - Ki.Georgiev (BUL, 2677)
People love Ivanchuk for his unique style which combines sense of tactics with simply clairvoyant strategical outlooks. This game will no doubts become one of his classics: 32. Rxf8! Kxf8 33. Qc5 Ke8 34. Nd5 That's the point! Black is forced to trade his Bishop, the most active piece. Black's Rook will stay useless as White Bishop safely guards advancing pawns. 34... Bxd5 35. axd5 Ra6 36. Qc3! f6 36... Qb8 would meet winning 37. Bf4!! 37. gxf6 Rxf6 38. Qxe5 Qe7 39. Qxe7 Kxe7 40. Bg5 1-0 Perhaps the most valuable manoeuvre of day 5 of the games.


17. Anand (IND, 2803) - Bu (CHN, 2640)
Anand's play doen's resemble that of arguably World's strongest player. Today he was close to taste bitter as his Chinese rival missed a win by a hair's breadth. Anand played badly and had to trade his Queen for a Rook and a Bishop. Here Bu could well win yet another pawn with 32... Qh4! attacking Rf2 and pg5. 33. Re2 would follow 33... Qg5+ 34. Kb1 Qf6 35. Rb2 (only way to prevent mate at a1) f4 and White's position is dead lost. Instead he chose 32... f4? 33. Bxd6 Bd4 34. Rfd2 Be3 35. Nxe3 fxe3 = The game went on for a perpetual check, thus 1/2-1/2


25. Socko (POL, 2606) - Garcia Palermo (ITA, 2462)
Time for a bit of wild tactics. Poland deprived of their top players perform rather poorly and this one seemed ominous for the Pole too. The black Knight forks white pieces but Socko managed to threaten the back rank mate. Black had two good answers here. One is 29... Rd8 preventing white Queen from occupying d4 (29... Ra8 or 29... Rb8 would be countered with 30. Qd4 Qxd4 31. Rfxd4 =) and White has nothing better to do than to trade a Rook for a Queen, so Black wins at once. 29... Rfc7 is not that strong but enough to win as well: 30. Rxc7 Qxc7 winning exchange or 30. Qa3 Nxf4. Instead the Italian chose suicidal 29... Qd8?? and lost on spot: 30. Qc3! +- Rxc4 31. Rxc4 Nc5 32. Rxc5 1-0 We can't say anything about time trouble (since it appears to be technically too hard for the organizers to provide live data on time remaining) but I would bet Black was under serious time pressure. That's modern chess.


31. Mastrovasilis (GRE, 2577) - Zarnicki (ARG, 2507)
Zarnicki, former junior World Champion never lived up to expectations of Argentinian fans. He is no more a chess prodigy, rather just a decent GM, one of hundreds. White to move. Black cunningly intended to send white Knight away from the centre but White happened to be even smarter: 19. dxc6! f4 20. Nc3 unleashing power of white Rook 20... fxg3 21. Bxg6 now Be7 is hanging 22.Bf6 c7! +- White has advanced pawn and development advantage. 1-0 after 35th move. The rest of the game is interesting too so it is recommended that you took a look on it (please see the game file below).


63. Haznedaroglu (TUR, 2455) - Markos (SVK, 2492)
As far as quality of chess managment is concerned Turkey can no doubt claim to be World Champions. Their Olympic team progresses too, but is still very far from the peak. 65. Rxf3 Now what?... White tried to win theoretically drawn RRNvRR ending. He was so diligent and overactive that he even managed to blunder a Rook on his 89th move. Of course RNvRR is drawn too (a strange case, a Rook doesn't make any difference!). 1/2-1/2


85. Beliavsky (SLO, 2622) - Adlane (ALG, 2424)
Beliavsky is some two decades after his prime but still a win with black pieces over legendary GM, former World Championship candidate must be a lifetime success for young Algerian. Black to move. White pieces are pointlessly aiming at Black's Queenside, while white King is left undefended. 34... Rxe3! 35. Kh2 Qf3 Now White has to capture to prevent Rxd3. Rc3 or Rd2 fails due to Re2+. 36. Nxe3 Rxe3 White has to protect g2 at any cost 37. Rg2 gxf4! 38. Qd1 fxg3+ 39. Kh3 Qf5+ 40. Qg4 Qxg4 41. Kxg4 Rxd3 -+ Black has huge material and positional advantage, and he easily grabbed the point after 55 moves 0-1. Excellent play by Arab Adlane. Chapeau bas!


95. Sammalvuo (FIN, 2461) - Gausel (NOR, 2509)
This bizarre game looks like a joke, but it is not. The Four Knights Opening followed 4. Bb5 Bd6?! 5. g4!?, the ending of this brisk game was no less strange: 10. d4 White is lost anyway but he continues the crazy dance. 10... Qg6! best reply 11. Bd3 preventing Qe4+ 11... e4 12. dxc5 exd3 13. dxc6 minor pieces are traded but the tempo is in Black's hands 13... Qe4+ 14. Kd2 Bg4! 15. Re1+ so?... 15... Be2!! and White cannot capture cxd3 because of Qxd3#. White pieces hermetically cut off way of escape for White King. 16. cxb7 Rd8 17. Rxe2 0-1 Really amusing and refreshing chess. We wish more, gentlemen!


See online games from round 5

Russia are on straight way to take first ever double win as both Russian men and women are in control of the action after four rounds of Turin Olympiad. As Zambia and Pakistan late-arrived to appear in the game hall on day four, there are now 148 men's teams in the pool, way more than at any time in the past.

The Russians denied China in the top clash of the day to dispel Chinese hopes for the second time in six months. The match looked much like that from World Team Championship with Svidler defeating Zhang Zhong and Zhang Pengxiang losing to Grischuk. The Russians share the lead with third seeds Armenia who ruthlessly wiped out Norway 4-0 (no Carlsen on the field). Holland is in third as they neatly beat Greece 3-1. Uzbekistan proved they are hoping for rehearsal of silver won in 1992 in Manila. Today they held Ukraine to a well-deserved draw, headed by Kasimdzhanov who outwitted Vasyl Ivanchuk in a creative Ruy Lopez line.

India are making up for a lost ground step by step. Today they beat Hungary 2.5-1.5 which may not be enough as they are still clear 2 points behind the nose. USA finally showed good shape vibrantly defeating weakened Polish side 3-1; still they are lying in modest 11th. England are likely to continue miserable performance from Calvia as today they lost to Turkey, another rising nation, despite Gurevich's terrible blunder at top board. France cannot recover as they barely halved with Slovenia in a match with four decisive results. Azerbaijan won 3.5-0.5 (at last) but are still in 42th.

In the women's section Russia easily denied Lithuania with clear 3-0 to take sole lead at 11.5 points. Ukraine beat China 2-1 and are lying in second 1.5 point behind Russian shoulders. USA and Bulgaria are also near the top. Third seeds Georgia dropped 1.5 point today and are down in 18th.

Standings:
Men: Russia and Armenia 13.5; Netherlands 13; Uzbekistan 12.5; Spain et al. 12
Women: Russia 11.5; Ukraine 10; USA, China, Bulgaria 9.5

Hit matches of day 5: Russia-Armenia (Kramnik-Aronian), Uzbekistan-Netherlands, Ukraine-Bulgaria, India-China

The coverage has finally improved, there is decent game file available at www.fide.com. There is also a daily bulletin available for downloading.

Recommended links for today:
Detailed results (no games) at Wiener Zeitung page
Mig Greengard's Olympiad blog
Daily reports for Persian readers

HIGHLIGHTS OF THE DAY

158.* Kasimdzhanov (UZB, 2673) - Ivanchuk (UKR, 2731)
Kasim took risky trial: 18. g4!? opening files for attack. Then followed 18... fxg4 (perhaps 18... fxe4 was worth considering) 19. hxg4 Ne5 20. g5! All in all, White managed to refute all the threats and win material. 1-0 after 46 moves. A good win by Uzbeg leader and the team continues with their impressive run.

*denotes game number in a game file (see below)


182. Jussupow (GER, 2608) - Jobava (GEO, 2646)
Black to move. Would you at the first glance bet a penny he can take a win? Yes he does!: 55... g4! 56. Kg2 Bb6! -+ preventing white King from approaching the pawn. Now the plan is simple: black King arrives at d3 forcing White to trade Bishop for a pawn and then promote a6 pawn (which is possible because of a "good" Bishop controlling a1). Excellent! 0-1 after 67 moves.


189. Ganguly (IND, 2578) - Ruck (HUN, 2537)
Time for reflex control. White to move. You have 5 seconds to find the fuse and fire. Simple, but one must not overlook such occasions. Drag your mouse between brackets to find out the answer.
[29. Rxd5! Rxd5 30. Qxd8+ 1-0]


193. Wojtaszek (POL, 2597) - Kaidanov (USA, 2603)
The talented Pole took control of the game but the win doesn't seem to be obvious at all. That is no more a problem, since Kaidanov generously offers help on the issue: 46... Rxf3?? +- (46... Rb5 47. Rb7 Rc5 48. c7 Kd7 48. c8=Q+ Kxc8 49. Rxf7 Rxe5 and Black is still alive) 47. Rc8+ Ke7 48. Rh8! and Black cannot prevent promotion since black King is blocked at d7 and the Rook cannot slur over to protect c file. 1-0 The Americans were not worried about today though, as they won 3-1 overall.


210. Adams (ENG, 2720) - Gurevich (TUR, 2643)
We were astonished to see this game at 15th table. Gurevich, who left Belgium to settle in Turkey (?!), was apparently self-confident as his position can no longer cause any significant danger. This is why the game finished at once. Reckless 27... b6?? met 28. Nxd5! 1-0 Well...
--- Blunders are all over the board just waiting to be made --- one of quotes that OlimpBase randomly displays in the upper-right corner tells everything about this case.


222. Charbonneau (CAN, 2510) - Kortschnoj (SUI, 2611)
A battle of generations (age difference is 52 years!) was not error free but still kept in tension: 31... d4?! 31... Qa5 or 31... Re8 was more safe, but both players are in time trouble. 32. Qf2? here 32. h6! would do the job threatening the King. Now White overlooked good response which helps Black to consolidate. 32... Re3! 33. Bf5 forced 33... Rae8 34. Bc2 Qe6 35. Rf1 Ba6! -+ this excellent move chases white Rook away from e file allowing d4-d3 (Re3 is no more hanging). White exchanged sacrifice in despair but it was too late: 0-1 At 75 Kortschnoj is still able to outwit guys of age of his grandchildren. Only Bill Hook (83), who scored his first win in Turin yesterday, may compare to Viktor.


449. Song Jinwoo (KOR, 1962) - Ahmad Nadim (PAK, unr)
Nothing particularly interesting, but this game makes history - a first win every scored by the Korean in an international championship event! Surprisingly it is only in Turin when Korea appeared for the first time. This one is not very challenging but still opportunity has to be taken: 17... e5? 18. Nd5! Qb8 19. Nb6+ Kc7 20. Nxd7 Rxd7 21. Ne6+ +- and soon advantage was converted to a win 1-0. Fanfares please for the winner.



See online games from round 4

Three teams share the lead at 10.5 points after third round of the XXXVIIth Chess Olympiad in Turin. Top seeds Russia are in front by virtue of Buchholz tie-break ahead of two Asian sides: China - blazing up with revanchism after memorable Beer Sheva tragedy - and surprise Uzbekistan. The Uzbeks, seeded 30th, led by former FIDE World Champion Kasimdzhanov, enjoy lucky drawing as today they swept out Australia by 3.5-0.5 which was relatively very easy run given they could well be paired with, say, Holland or Serbia. Ukraine, only missing Ponomariov from 2004 squad, are just a fraction behind the leaders. Second seeds India, suffering shocking 3-1 debacle on day one, recovered a bit with a perfect 8/8 scored subsequently but they are still lying down in 17th. France are doing no better as they lie in poor 35th at 8/12. Azerbaijan are perhaps biggest losers so far. A team famous from being by far the youngest in the pool were commonly expected to become one of big wigs in near future. Today, following their disastrous performance in the first two rounds (0.5-3.5 vs Portugal!!), they are in miserable 76th with poor prospects for future.

Juicy pairings for tomorrow include China-Russia (!!), Armenia-Norway (possibly Aronian will face Carlsen) and Hungary-India.

In the women's section unstoppable Russia wiped out Poland 3-0 to take second position at 8.5/9. Sensational Lithuania are in the nose scoring incredible 9/9, including 3-0's vs Sweden and Latvia. Tomorrow will be the test day for 13th seeds as they play Russia in the hit clash of the event.

Standings:
Men: Russia, China, Uzbekistan 10.5; Greece, Ukraine, Netherlands 10
Women: Lithuania 9; Russia, China 8.5; Romania, Ukraine 8

The internet coverage of the event and the live transmission are poor and in no way meet the standards of 21st century. There is a game file but a lot of games are missing and truncated, and those available are too bugged to be of use for more in-depth analysis. We are sorry but the everyday game preview will not be launched until the problem is fixed.

See reports from fide.com
See ChessBase reports.

It took long months of arduous work and there is still a lot to do but today we are proud to announce that OlimpBase v2 is finally available! There is a brand new, much more user-friendly layout which should make browsing through 2GB of our archives intuitive and self-explanatory. There are plenty of new materials and a lot of new data, never seen on the Web before.

As our field of interest has grown the name of the site was altered. We are now database of all international team chess events and not only the Olympiads - still the latter remain one of our major fields of interest.

Most important additions include (see also What's new section):
- Men's Olympiad data were thoroughly revised and corrected,
- added brief coverage of some Women's Olympiad (there will be more soon),
- added much more complete coverage of the Asian Team Championship (including complete set of games from 1991 never published before),
- result summaries was added for European Club Cup and cities events (also coverage for recent ECC events was added),
- detailed history of world youth championship was added, including Student Olympiads (recommended!), World U26 Teams and Junior Teams,
- a lot of interesting youth events were described in details,
- short summaries of most important friendly tournaments were added, including Clare Benedicts, Balkaniads and Mitropa cup,
- much of old, forgotten stuff was brought back to the daylight, like Triennial Cup, Telechess Olympiads, NATO Championship and Allied Armies Championship on the contrary, EU team championship and more,
- a lot of attention was bestowed to handicapped chess, especially Blind Olympiads,
- there is also huge file with hundreds of results of friendly matches as well as national team championship list (under construction),
- and much more...

There are tons of interesting materials over here, most of them are not available anywhere else. This should secure long hours of enjoyment to every chess history lover. We hope you will appreciate and enjoy our efforts. It is expected that it will take 2 to 3 years to process the missing data. More can be achieved with help of old volumes of chess magazines - most of them are not available to us those days.

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Teodor Regedzinski was born on April 28th, 1894 near Lodz. His biography is the field of calamitous conflict of allegiance and choices unfeasible to face in a way that would satisfy everyone. Born Polish, he was of German origin as his father, who was a blacksmith by profession, was a German named Reger. As a young boy stemming from a poor family he had to earn for a living very soon. He had lived in Lodz since 1908 enrolling in the Lodz Association of Devotees of the Game of Chess (Lodzkie Towarzystwo Zwolennikow Gry Szachowej), city's strongest chess club. In 1912 he came second (behind Salwe; Rubinstein did not play) in an unofficial city championship. During WWI he was temporarily detained by the Austrians but was released in 1916. In 1917 he came third in the club championship, behind Rubinstein and Salwe. However already in 1918 and 1919 he won, in the absence of Rubinstein though. He participated in all four pre-1939 editions of exceptionally tough Polish Championship. In its premier edition in Warsaw in 1926 he won third prize shared with four other players. On the next year in Lodz he was fourth, but the competition was much harder; Rubinstein won ahead of Tartakower and Makarczyk. Later on that year he won master tournament in Kecskemet, which happened to underlie the IM title that he was awarded a few decades later.

In 1928 he was member of Polish team at the 2nd Chess Olympiad in The Hague, where he scored 10/13 receiving third prize for best individual result (no board order was known those days), he also won a bronze medal with the team. In 1930 he came 8th in an international tournament in Stubnianske Teplice (today's Turčianske Teplice, Slovakia) defeating a.o. Lilienthal and H.Steiner. In 1933 he went to Folkestone but fitness had always been his Achilles' heel and dry, matitime climate crippled him. He was not in the national team at the Warsaw Olympiad in 1935 because he did badly in the 3rd Polish Championship earlier on that year finishing 11th. In 1937 he came 8th in the 4th national championship which was a behemoth open tournament; Tartakower won ahead of Staahlberg of Sweden and Najdorf. At the Stockholm Olympiad he reached his all-time peak scoring marvellous 11/13 (+10=2-1) to win second prize for best result at his board and third best overall result. He also contributed greatly to Poland's bronze medal. In August 1939 he left for Chess Olympiad in Argentina where outbreak of WWII found him and his team-mates. Unlike other players of Polish team (Najdorf, Frydman, Tartakower) who profited hospitality of Jewish Diaspora in Buenos Aires and settled there for some years (or even forever), he decided to go aboard and come back to Europe, where his wife and his son were waiting.

As he came back to occupied Poland he decided to sign a volkslist, thus deeding over to his German roots and swearing off loyalty to Poland, which was considered to be a capital crime among Polish people. As Theodore Reger he had played in a number of chess tournament under Nazi patronage, including 7th German Championship in Bad Oeynhausen in 1940, where he finished 10th. In 1941 he played in the Generalgouvernement Championship in Cracow, won by Alekhine. Generalgouvernement was allocated part of pre-war Poland's territory to receive a smitch of autonomy, still under strict Nazi control anyway. Because of his linguistic skills (he spoke Polish, German, Russian, English and French) he was appointed by the German Army as an interpreter.

After the end of the War he came back to Lodz (it is a big mystery to me why he decided to leave Germany and confront new Polish reality) and was arrested by the newly appointed communist authorities and sentenced for collaboration with the facist regime to serve four years in a labour camp. Years spent in prison broke his health and his life. In late 1940's he came back to become active chess player once again, notwithstanding with the fact the he devoted most of his time spent on chess for work as a chess activist. In 1952 he even managed to win the championship of Lodz once again and came 5th in the national championship. His deteriorating health, however, made this his swansong. He passed away in 1954.

His chess career hasn't been dazzling, his Olympic record looks flash though. He played 46 games overall, of which he won 26 and lost 6 (71.7%). He won three individual and three team medals. He was also a member of Polish team which took silver medals in Munich, at the unofficial Olympiad.

His contemporaries recalled him as a humble and passionate person and chess addict. He did a lot for development of youth chess in his home town. His playing style was described as positional and incisive in defence. He was well-known from his wide theoretical knowledge.

See Teodor Regedzinski's all-time Olympic record.

See one of his games from 1937 Olympiad
Jiři Pelikan (CSR) - Teodor Regedzinski (POL) 0 - 1

The chess world mourns as legendary German GM Wolfgang Unzicker died of heart failure during a holiday in Portugal on April 20, 2006.

Anatoly Karpov called Wolfgang Unzicker the “world champion of amateurs”. He was born in Pirmasens, Germany, on June 26, 1925, and started to play chess at the age of ten.

Unzicker's career as an international tournament player began after the Second World War. He won the German championship seven times, from 1948 to 1965, and played in twelve Chess Olympiads, from 1950 to 1978 (on board one in ten of them). In 1954 he was awarded the grandmaster title. He represented his country on the national team nearly 400 times.

Unzicker's tournament victories include first place tie (+6 =9) with Boris Spassky at the Chigorin Memorial in Sochi 1965, first at Maribor 1967 ahead of Samuel Reshevsky, first at Krems, and first at Amsterdam 1980, tied with Hans Ree. In 1950, Unzicker shared the prize for best top-board score (+9 =4 -1) with Miguel Najdorf for his performance on first board for the West German team at the Dubrovnik Chess Olympiad. At the Tel Aviv 1964 Chess Olympiad Unzicker scored 13.5 points playing first board for the West German team that won the bronze medal on the strength of a 3-1 team victory over the Soviet Union. Unzicker also shared fourth place (+2 =14 -1) with Lajos Portisch in the 1966 Piatigorsky Cup in Santa Monica, California. Only Boris Spassky, Bobby Fischer, and Bent Larsen finished ahead of Unzicker. Unzicker placed ahead of world champion Tigran Petrosian, Samuel Reshevsky, Miguel Najdorf, Borislav Ivkov, and Hein Donner. At Hastings 1969-1970, Unzicker finished second (+4 =5) after Lajos Portisch and before Svetozar Gligoric and world champion Vasily Smyslov. Unzicker finished second (+3 =7 -2) to Viktor Korchnoi at South Africa 1979.

May he rest in peace.

/from chessbase.com/


See his all-time Olympic record: http://www.olimpbase.org/players/cmkmci2i.html

Watch his best games from the Olympiads:

Unzicker-Reshevsky 1-0, Munich 1958 Olympiad
Smyslov-Unzicker 0-1, Tel Aviv 1964 Olympiad