China moved to the very top of the World Team Championship table as we reached the halfway point of the competition. They scored another impressive victory yesterday as they overwhelmed Georgia by 3.5-0.5 and lead now with 13.5 points still having one match in pocket. Russia are lying in second half of a point behind the Chinese as they beat USA yesterday by only 2.5-1.5 with the winner coming from Bareev who beat Goldin at board #4. Israel defeated Cuba 2.5-1.5 (another result that might not be what they were hoping for) and Ukraine recovered from last days' nightmare hammering Chinese girls by 3.5-0.5. Still they have long way to go as far as podium positions are concerned.

Sunday is the rest day and the remaining rounds will be tough run for Russia and China. Although China have already had a rest they will face considerably tougher opposition than the Russians so everything still may happen.

Standings after four rounds: China 13.5; Russia 13; Israel 10; Armenia 9.5.

Read Alon Greenfeld's extensive reports from WTCh official site: round 1; round 2; round 3; round 4; round 5.

Read ChessBase's illustrated report.

Find complete results, games and statistics of rounds 1-5 at OlimpBase's page

It seems like China and Russia are main condenders for gold. Day 3 saw another big victory by China's team who hammered Cuba by 3.5-0.5. Israel beat Chinese women but only by the smallest margin possible and GM Erenburg lost to Shen Yang. Russia trounced Georgia by 2.5-1.5 and Ukraine lost badly to Armenia with decisive victory coming from Aronian against Ivanchuk at top board. On the next day Israel lost once again vs rampart China and their chances for winning the WTCh title are probably over. Russia defeated Ukraine 2.5-1.5 in the top encounter of the day with the winner coming from Grischuk who defeated Volokytin and Ukrainian lions are another big favourites to say farewell to their winning hopes. Georgia conceded as much as 2 game points vs Chinese women.

Standings after four rounds: Russia 10.5; China 10; Armenia 9.5; Israel 7.5.
Armenia will receive a bye tomorrow while Russia will face USA. China will play Georgia hoping to overtake the Russians.

Read Alon Greenfeld's extensive reports from WTCh official site: round 1; round 2; round 3;

Read ChessBase's illustrated report: http://chessbase.com/newsdetail.asp?newsid=2718

Find complete results, games and statistics of rounds 1-4 at OlimpBase's page

Two rounds of Beer Sheva World Team Championship have been played so far and none of teams earned considerable advantage over the rest. Russia are in front with 5,5 points ahead of Armenia (5). China's men's team are lying in third but they already had a rest day after ruthless 4-0 over their female country-mates. Olympiad winners Ukraine beat USA 2,5-1,5 on day two while Israel, the hosts took off poorly losing to Russia and halving vs Armenia.

Read round 1 extensite report by Alon Greenfeld.

Find complete results, games and statistics at OlimpBase's page

The four year long World Team Championship cycle will soon reach its sixth buoy as the 2005 event scheduled in Beer Sheva, Israel will start in just a week and a half. World's top 10 teams will arrive, including Hamilton-Russel Cup holders Ukraine, multipy medal winners Russia and newly crowned European Champions Holland. As in past years the event will be the four board round robin. Sum of game points will be decisive about final standings.

The Championship official home page is now available at http://www.wccisrael.com. It provides wide variety of interesting information and is certainly worth of visiting.

Also, please find OlimpBase's WTCh complete history here (to our knowledge this is the only document on WTCh hitsory available worldwide).
Here is Beer Sheva home page maintained by OlimpBase.

The Beer Sheva Championship attracted many World's top players to make the event highly competitive. Unfortunately we are missing India, Bulgaria, Hungary and other nations that gave the world some brilliant players so we shall see neither the magic play of newly crowned World Champion Topalov nor the tusks of the Madras Tiger Anand there. Below is the full listing of WTCh qualifiers. Please note: Egypt, African Team Champions were eligible to play but did not apply.

team	ELOav	how they qualified	squad
1. Russia	2715	2. Olympiad	Svidler, Grischuk, Dreev, Morozevich, Motylev, Bareev
2. Ukraine	2698	1. Olympiad	Ivanchuk, Ponomariov, Volokityn, Moiseenko, Eljanov, Karjakin
3. Israel	2674	hosts	Gelfand, Sutovsky, Smirin, Avrukh, Erenburg, Roiz
4. Armenia	2673	3. Olympiad	Aronian, Akopian, Asrian, Vaganian, Lputian, Anastasian
5. USA	2616	4. Olympiad	Goldin, Onischuk, Gulko, Kaidanov, Novikov, Ibragimov
6. China	2615	1. Asian TCh	Bu, Liang, Zhang Z., Zhang P., Ni
7. Georgia	2610	invited team	Azmaiparashvili, Jobava, Giorgadze, Pantsulaia, Mchedlishvili, Gagunashvili
8. Cuba	2603	1. Panamerican TCh	Dominguez, Bruzon, Delgado, Nogueiras,Arencibia, Quezada
9. China (w)	2458	invited team	Hou, Zhao, Wang, Gong, Huang, Shen
Netherlands	-	1. Europeaan TCh	withdrew

The European Team Championship has long, almost 50 year old history and most of European top players, including chess legends like Botvinnik, Tal, Spassky, Karpov and Kasparov, took part. With lots of memorable moments and plenty of good chess the ETC certainly deserves its place in the history. Unfortunately nothing like that has ever been done before. This is why we decided to fill the gap. Since today the online history of men's and women's Championship is available along with all-time statistics. Watch all the games, see all the results, learn all the players.

Men's European Chess Team Championship history
Women's European Chess Team Championship history

(Please note: we were working in a hurry. Apart from 1957 and 1961 events, that have already been fully documented, the tournament reviews and game highlights are missing. Also two games from 1992 are not known so far.)

Selected must-see highlights:
Vienna 1957: Yugoslavia defeats the Soviet Union >> watch here
Hamburg 1965: Szabo and Bilek lead Hungary to a win over USSR >> watch here
Skara 1980: Sweden beat Hungary at home >> watch here
Haifa 1989: Finland take 4th spot to produce biggest upset ever >> watch here
Batumi 1999: Slovak girls win the Championship >> watch here
Gothenburg 2005: Russia beat negative all-time record lying in 14th >> watch here

Trivia:
- The women's event was introduced in 1992. First women to appear at men's ETC were the Polgar sisters in 1989.
- Until 1983 the round robin system was in use preceeded by preliminaries. At most 8 teams qualified to the championship final. The Swiss system was adopted in 1989. Since 2003 the match points are major tie-break.
- The Soviet Union won 9 trophies in 9 appearences. Then, Russia and Holland won 2 times. England and Armenia complete the winner list. In women's section none of the teams won more than once!
- None of the teams from men's section took part in all of 15 editions. Serbia and Montenegro, formerly known as Yugoslavia were absent only once, in 1997. In 1992 they arrived and played round 1 match but were soon expelled.
- Viktor Kortschnoj appeared 11 times at the ETC making it absolute all-time record. Jonathan Speelman comes next with 9 appearances followed by Beliavsky, Gligoric, Petrosjan and Portisch. Only three ladies appeared in each of six women's events held so far: Anna-Maria Botsari, Mara Jelica and Marina Makropoulou.
- Petrosian was the only man to win 8 team gold medals.

Thanks to Calle Erlandsson of Sweden we are glad to present you couple of photos of top players who came to Gothenburg to take part in the 15th European Chess Team Championship. Enjoy!

GM Boris Gelfand (Israel)	GM Vasyl Ivanchuk (Ukraine)
GM Viktor Kortschnoj (Switzerland)	GM Luke McShane (England)
GM Jan Timman (Holland)	GM Loek van Wely (Holland)

Dutch men and Polish women are the newly crowned Champions! While the Netherlands fought hard to seal their win over Poland to deny Israel and take men's gold, the Polish ladies took easy draw vs abdcating European Champions Armenia to safely take the title. Poland took first ever ETC medal and the Dutchmen won the title for the second time following their lifetime success achieved in 2001 in Leon.

As usual the last round brought us all kinds of drama. Israel, who had to win to secure themselves of silver and count on Holland's slip-up vs Poland, easily ran over the Czech Republic and must have been seriously disappointed watching former Bosnian GM Sokolov beating GM Socko in a sharp King's Indian. Wojtaszek was pushing hard but finally Tiviakov found a way to extricate and save the day for the Dutchmen. Greece made another impressive step towards heaven and beat Georgia but failed to win the medal as the Frenchmen wiped out Serbia 3.5-0.5 to level on both match and game points with the Greeks and take the bronze medal by virtue of Buchholz points. Ukraine beat Croatia 3-1 and moved up to 5th - some consolation at last. The Russians halved vs Sweden which may not be very surprising result as for last round's match with no stake - but again they lost as much as two games on one day! The nightmare championship had a nightmare epilouge and no remorse for the two times winners.

The women's section was did not bring a fraction of emotions delivered by men. All of games at top four tables were drawn, although some of them fought really hard. Poland retained gold while Georgia easily took silver. Russia halved vs Bulgaria and stopped the Bulgarians to defend bronze medal positions. Third seeded Ukraine won 3.5-0.5 and moved into 7th while the French girls only took 16th place after last round's 3-1 over Switzerland.

Men's standings:
1. The Netherlands - had only lost one game (!!) but only won 9, on the contrary. A very firm team with no weak points. Best result: Timman +3=4.
2. Israel - by many considered to be the strongest team of the event. They would probably made it unless unexpected loss vs Georgia on day 8. Poor Israeli took four silver medals and no single gold. Best result: Avrukh +4=3 (two individual silver medals).
3. France - although they had to do their best in the last round to get the bronze they fully deserved it. They were holding the lead for many days and only lost to Israel and Poland, whom they finally overtook. Bacrot and Lautier were perhaps a little disappointing and Fressinet showed truly superb form.
4. Greece - very lucky to be that high although they missed medal by an inch. A good show by Banikas.
5. Ukraine - this didn't work as it did in Calvia. Three match loses are way to much for a nine round match point competition. However the team has much potential for game points events - they won six matches by a margin no worse than 3-1.
6. Poland did quite badly in the beginning and then faced the toughest opposition in the end. They narrowly missed the medal again, as in 1999 and 2003. Markowski won gold medal at respective board.

Other notable performances: Armenia (seeded 4th) in 12th, Russia in 14th (!!), Hungary in 17th, Spain, after dreadful beginning had a good finishing run and moved up to 22nd, and Bulgaria, the biggest losers of Gothenburg Championship, seeded in 13th with three strong GMs in the squad in 35th (yes!).

Women's standings:
1. Poland - won in style although some may argue they were extremely lucky to save draw vs Russia - who knows what would happen if they had lost? Anyway, team's overall record is excellent, and Monika Socko won two gold medals and one silver (and narrowly missed third gold!!).
2. Georgia - another excellent performance by the Georgians once again led by Chiburdanidze. The second and last team but Poland to avoid match loss. Perhaps Khurtsidze's poor form did not let them deny the Poles.
3. Russia were seeded first, so bronze medal is just sort of consolation prize for them. Apart from many glorious days they had three dark rounds: losing 3-1 to Romania, 2-2 vs Poland when the victory slipped from their hands, and 1.5-2.5 against Georgia in round 8 that cost them second position.

Also: Ukraine, seeded third and came only 7th, Serbia who climbed up to 9th after good finish, and France, a team with four WGMs of which two hold the men's IM title as well, lying in 16th.

Sweden, the host nation, did not produce any remarkable result neither in men's nor in women's event. 15th position of men's "A" team is their best achievement.

We owe 'thank you' to the organizers who took care of execellent live broadcast, Heinz Herzog who as usual provided with fast and reliable results and statistics, and PlayChess, who not only broadcasted games live, but also offered excellent daily audio comments by IM Aagaard and other titled players, all of which available for free for anyone, of course.

Please find complete records, standings and all the games of the Championship prepared in a well known OlimpBase format!
15th men's ETCh info page.
15th women's ETCh info page.

HIGHLIGHTS OF THE DAY

Sokolov (NED, 2691) - Socko (POL, 2615)
This is how the Netherlands did the job: 19. Nxb7 Qxb7 20. Qf3! preventing from Nc3 20. ... Rab8 21. Be4 another good possibility was Bb5 21. ... Rxe4 22. Qxe4 exchange sacryfice was best choice for Black 22. ... Nc3 23. Qxb7 Rxb7 24. Rfe1 h6 25. Bd2 Rxb4 26. Re8+ Kh7 27. Re7 Kg8?! perhaps Rxa4 was no worse choice 28. Rxa7 Rxa4 29. Rxa4 Nxa4 30. Rc8+ +- Sokolov's perfect technique let him win the ending with ease. He first took d4 pawn, then traded Bishops, then zugzwanged black Knight. Vive les Champions!


Jobava (GEO, 2621) - Papaioannou (GRE, 2578)
Georgia needed a win in order to take the medal. The tension was huge, but the diagram position is clearly won for White, who has an extra Knight and no positional problems. But... 41. Nc7? Rd2 or Rc2 was necessary in order to cover the second line from black Rooks' attack 41. ... Nf4 42. Rc4 Raxc5 43. Re7+ Kh6 44. Rxf4 the piece is saved, but suddenly black Rooks explode 44. ... Rc2 45. Nd5 Re2= 46. Kf1 Red2 47. Re7 Rd1+ 48. Re1 Rxd5 now Black is a pawn up! However the game went on to a draw. Georgia failed to win the medal, and Greece narrowly missed it.


Lautier (FRA, 2672) - Markus (YUG, 2591)
A year ago in Calvia Georgia faced Armenia in the last round. The Armenians needed a grand win and they surprisingly beat strong Georgian side 3.5-0.5. Because of extremely weak play of some members of Georgian team some rumours appeared that there was a deal about the match result. Nothing has been proved though. Here comes another strange story, and again no proofs are available (and will never be, I'm afraid). See the diagram position. Black is absolutely OK here. Simple refutation of the X-ray threat is 21. ... Bxd4 22. exd5 Kxc5 23. dxe6 Rae8! and wins the 'e' pawn which is pinned because of King at e1. This is NOT a problem to play something like this for a 2600 player. Instead Markus played what every 1400 must be ashamed of 21. ... Nc7?? 22. e5 Be7? 23. Rb2+ resigns.... But this is not over, see below.


Ivanisevic (YUG, 2577) - Fressinet (FRA, 2627)
The position even, if no better for White. He simply has to take care of pawn e5 or, in another line, try to kill a7 and make best use of pair of passed pawns. Instead White finds simple way to get into trouble 23. Nxa7? Qc7 24. Nb5 Qxe5 25. Qxe5 forced 25. ... Nxe5 26. Nd4 Rxb2 =+ was that so hard to see for a grandmaster? Moreover, both Serbian player went into trouble on more or less same moment. No comments on that, judge yourself.


Graf (GER, 2605) - Pavasovic (SLO, 2566)
Now back to real chess. Alexander Graf of Germany played well throughout the entire Championship. Now he seals his excellent show with a win that gave him two individual gold medals! Watch the ending: 45. Ne3+ Ke4 46. Ke2 g6 47. Nc4 Na8? Kd5 was better 48.Nd6+ Kd5 49. Nf7 h5 50. Nh8 g5 51. hxg5 ke6 52. Kd3 Nb6 53. Ke4 resigns. Simply stunning!


Berg (SWE, 2539) - Bareev (RUS, 2688)
Finally the biggest sensation of round 9. World's top GM loses to a mediocre Swedish player. The diagram position is even. Black's best choice is 27. ... Bxg5+ 28. Kb1 Bxc6 29. Qxe6+ Kf8 30. Qxc6 Re8=. Instead Bareev played 27. ... Bxc6? 28. Qxe6 Bb7? here Kf8 leads to a previous line in case of Qxc6 but White has stronger move at his disposal: 29. f4! Now White wins quickly 29. g6 Rg7 30. Rh1 Nf6 31. Rh8+ Rg8 32. g7 resignes. The Russians barely drew the match since Timofeev lost to Hillarp Person as well!

Today was a murrain day for the favourites. It seemed like only Israel and the Netherlands are still in the battle for gold, but suddenly nothing can be said for sure yet. Israel, the leaders, ended the round with harsh humours as they sensationally lost to rampart Georgia. More than 100 ELO point advantage at each board did not help the Israelis who drew three games and lost one. Israel's slip-up did not help the Dutchmen much since they only halved vs speeding Georgia. Poland created another sensation of the day as their no. 1 GM Robert Kempinski beat Etienne Bacrot with black pieces to lead his team to a prescious 2,5-1,5 win over France. Now Poland face Holland on the last day to defend their bronze medal position or, in case of a win, take a paralell duel with Israel in the race for gold. Ukraine and Russia won 3-1 both, but this is not enough to go back to the nose of the group of course.

In the women's section Poland are holding firm. Today they ran over Ukraine despite Socko's loss vs Lahno. Joanna Zawadzka took decisive point after 5 hours of play in the minor piece ending vs Inna Gaponenko. Alexandra Kosteniuk lost to former World Champion Maia Chiburdanidze of Georgia and Russia lost 1,5-2,5. The hopes of Russian ladies dashed today definitely. With last round to go Poland are a single step from heaven holding one match point advantage over Georgia who are safe in second too.

Standings
Men: Holland - 13; Israel, Poland and Georgia - 12; Greece, Czech Republic, Serbia & Montenegro and France - 11
Women: Poland - 14; Georgia - 13; Russia and Bulgaria - 11

Now you can watch games of both men's and women's section round 1-8 online via well known OlimpBase format!
15th men's ETCh info page.
15th women's ETCh info page.
(Please note: history statistics are not available yet. Olympic statistics are used instead)

HIGHLIGHTS OF THE DAY

Van Wely (NED, 2655) - Kotronias (GRE, 2587)
Black has an extra piece but his position seems squeezed and pair of white free pawns seems to be mortal threat. 31. ... Ng4! perhaps one should say that it is black Queen that is under the pin but it is quite opposite in fact. If fxg4 then Qxg2# 32. Kg1 Qxf3 followed by Rxh2# was threatening 32. ... Nc6! preparing d4 for black Bishop 33. Qc4 Bd4+ 34. Rxd4 Nxd4 35. c6 if Qxd4 then Rxg2+ and Qa2+ will follow 35. ...Rc2 36. Qxd4? loses at once 36. ... Rxg2+! 37. Kxg2 Qa2+ 38. Kg1 Qh2+ 39. Kf1 Qh1+ 40. Ke2 Rxe6+ -+. Holland's only loss in the entire Championship!


Tiviakov (NED, 2678) - Banikas (GRE, 2548)
Pawn d6 makes Black's position a bit cramped. This is why Banikas decided to get rid of white Knight moving f7-f5? 23. Qf4! h6 24. Rae1 what a nasty Knight it is, still stays under attack and doesn't seem to take care 24. ... g5 25. Qf3 Rf8 26. h3 Ne5 27. Qh5 Nxd3? Rh7 was a must, though the position was hardly tolerable for Black 28. Qg6+ resigns. He first takes Be6 and then Bd3. Ne4 is untouchable because of a pin on Rf8.


Berkes (HUN, 2619) - Navara (CZE, 2663)
Berkes' extravagant treatment of the opening soon made White's position critical. Watch how strongly Black squeezed the White. 9. ... Qf6! 10. h3 Be2 fails because of e4! 10. ... Bh5 11. g4 e4! still 12. d4? 12. Nd2 was the only choice followed by 12. ... Nxc3 13. gxh5! Nxd1 14. Bxg6 Nxe3 15. Bxg7 Nxf1 16. Rxf1 Rg8 and White is still alive 12. ... exf3 13. gxh5 0-0-0 14. h4 Rhe8 15. Bh3+ the Bishop goes to nowhere 15. ... Kb8 16. 0-0 Bxc3 17. Bxc3 Re4! -+ Black won in 21 moves since the Bishop is lost and mate in inevitable.


Stocek (CZE, 2592) - Balogh (HUN, 2537)
The position is extremely sharp. Black is a pawn up but the Knight is hopelessly pinned. On the other hand Black has serious mate threats on the Kingside 33. ... Bf2+! 34. Kf3 Rg8?? a blunder. There was a great winning move here 34. ... Bb6! and if Rxa4 then Rf2+ follows the trade of Rooks, and the Rf2+ and Rg8+ sequence is another threat for White. Now Black wins unless... 35. Bd6! the only move to refute Black's threats and protect crucial g3 square 35. ... Bg3 36. Bxg3 Rh3 37. Rg1 resigns. Czech won 3-1, a result that let them play Israel on the next day...


Solak (YUG, 2557) - Lupulescu (ROM, 2542)
Is there any way for White to break Black's defensive shield? 26. f5! Bf8 taking the pawn was not a bad choice for Black, e.g. 26. ... gxf6 27. Ng5 Bxg5 28. Bxg5 Qf8 and there is no clear way to win for White 27. Qh3 exf5?! paradoxically gxf5 was better 28. Ng5 Bg7 29. e6! fxe6 30. Qh7+ Kf8 31. Nxe6+ Rxe6 32. Rxe6 Qd7? 33. Rf6+ resigns. Qg8+ will follow Ke8. Well done but Black could have defended way better than this.