"Ukraine and Russia 1 Win Gold at the World Chess Olympiad 2010"

2010 World Chess Olympiad: Final Report

The national men’s team of Ukraine clinched the gold medal at the 39th World Chess Olympiad in Khanty-Mansiysk after the exciting final round in which top two pairings both played 2-2. Ukraine split the points with Israel, but Russia 1 couldn’t benefit on this result as they also played 2-2 versus Spain.

The impressive team of Ukraine (GM Ivanchuk Vassily, GM Ponomariov Ruslan, GM Eljanov Pavel, GM Efimenko Zahar, GM Moiseenko Alexander), who won eight matches and allowed only three ties, took the gold medal by lining the same four players for the last seven rounds. They allowed only three individual losses throughout the event.

Russia 1 (GM Kramnik Vladimir, GM Grischuk Alexander, GM Svidler Peter, GM Karjakin Sergey, GM Malakhov Vladimir) claimed the silver medal with 18 match points. The 5th round defeat against Hungary appears to have taken away the gold.

Israel (GM Gelfand Boris, GM Sutovsky Emil, GM Smirin Ilia, GM Rodshtein Maxim, GM Mikhalevski Victor), seeded only 11th, once again surpassed the expectations and took a bronze medal by edging Hungary on better tiebreak scores. Both teams have collected 17 match points. Israel was Silver in the 2008 Chess Olympiad in Dresden.

Fantastic Russia 1 women secured the gold medal with one round to spare. Even in the “mathematically irrelevant” last round encounter against their compatriots Russia 2, the top-seeded team did not relax, and signed yet another victory to achieve the historic perfect score at the Chess Olympiad.

The winning lineup: GM Kosintseva Tatiana, IM Kosintseva Nadezhda, GM Kosteniuk Alexandra, IM Galliamova Alisa and WGM Gunina Valentina.

Silver is China with 18 match points: GM Hou Yifan, WGM Ju Wenjun, GM Zhao Xue, WGM Huang Qian and IM Wang Yu.

Third place saw a massive tie of six teams with 16 points each. But the 2008 Olympic champions from Georgia beat everyone on additional criteria and took a bronze medal.

Medal winners open section

Board 1:

Gold medal, Vassily Ivanchuk (Ukraine), 8/10, TPR 2890
Silver medal, Levon Aronian (Armenia), 7.5/10, TPR 2888
Bronze medal, Ian Nepomniachtchi (Russia 2), 6.5/9, TPR 2821

Board 2:

Gold medal, Emil Sutovsky (Israel), 6.5/8, TPR 2895
Silver medal, Zoltan Almasi (Hungary), 7/10, 2801
Bronze medal, Wang Hao (China), 7.5/10, TPR 2783

Board 3:

Gold medal, Vitaly Teterev (Belarus), 7/8, TPR 2853
Silver medal, Pavel Eljanov (Ukraine), 7/10, TPR 2737
Bronze medal, Sergei Rublevsky (Russia 3), 8/11, TPR 2727

Board 4:

Gold medal, Sergey Karjakin (Russia 1), 8/10, TPR 2859
Silver medal, Zahar Efimenko (Ukraine), 8.5/11, TPR 2783
Bronze medal, Anish Giri (The Netherlands), 8/11, TPR 2730

Board 5:

Gold medal, Sebastien Feller (France), 6/9, TPR 2708
Silver medal, Mateusz Bartel (Poland), 7/9, TPR 2706
Bronze medal, Vlastimil Babula (Czech Republic), 7/9, TPR 2668

Medal winners women section

Board 1:

Gold medal, Tatiana Kosintseva (Russia 1), 7/10, TPR 2628
Silver medal, Zeinab Mamedjarova (Azerbaijan), 9/11, TPR 2623
Bronze medal, Hou Yifan (China), 8/11, TPR 2573

Board 2:

Gold medal, Nadezhda Kosintseva (Russia 1), 8.5/10, TPR 2662
Silver medal, Ju Wenjun (China), 9.5/11, TPR 2636
Bronze medal, Pham Le Thao Nguyen (Vietnam), 8.5/10, TPR 2481

Board 3:

Gold medal, Yaniet Marrero Lopez (Cuba), 7/8, TPR 2511
Silver medal, Salome Melia (Georgia), 7/10, TPR 2458
Bronze medal, Ilze Berzina (Latvia), 9/11, TPR 2450

Board 4:

Gold medal, Inna Gaponenko (Ukraine), 7.5/8, TPR 2691
Silver medal, Anastasia Bodnaruk (Russia 2), 7/8, TPR 2569
Bronze medal, Olga Vasiliev (Israel), 7/9, TPR 2379

Board 5:

Gold medal, Mariya Muzychuk (Ukraine), 6.5/9, TPR 2431
Silver medal, Alina Kashlinskaya (Russia 2), 5.5/9, TPR 2327
Bronze medal, Bela Khotenashvili (Georgia), 5/8, TPR 2289

Russia won the Nona Gaprindashvili Cup, which is given for the best combined score of men and women teams. The runners-up were China, and Ukraine took the third place in this nomination.

It was a great event, maybe the best Olympiad ever. “We must pray for such organizers”, said the FIDE Honorary Vice-President Israel Gelfer, and his opinion was more or less accepted by all participants and guests of the competition. Everything from accommodation to transportation and catering was absolutely perfect.

“I was a bit worried when Khanty-Mansiysk won the right to organize the Olympiad two years ago, – said Ali Yazici, President of the Turkish Chess Federation. – Now I am worried whether we manage to organize our Olympiad in 2012 at the similarly outstanding level”.

A colorful closing ceremony concluded the Olympiad. Five thousand spectators congratulated the winners and medalists of the competition, who received their trophies from Kirsan Ilyumzhinov, FIDE President; Alexander Zhukov, Chairman of the Russian Olympic Committee and Natalya Komarova, Governor of Ugra.