World Team wrap-up

 
U.S. captain John Donaldson on Chess Life Online:

The many great players who struggled (Gelfand, Gashimov and Morozevich were all below 50 percent) is testimony to how difficult the event was. Russia was a deserving winner with their depth the deciding difference. This was my eleventh time as US captain, and although the teams have been pretty successful (1 gold, 3 silver and 4 bronze team medals) I cannot ever recall anything resembling the performances of Hikaru and Alex on boards one and two. They played exceptionally well with Hikaru showing yet again that he is among the best in the world and Alex that he plays like a 2700 player.

USA takes silver in World Team Championships!

Russia blew out Israel 3-1, and the US and Azeri teams made four draws.  

Congratulations to John Donaldson and the US team, and congratualtions to our own Yury Shulman!

Armenia 2.5 - USA 1.5 :-(

You've got to see the Aronian-Nakamura game. 

Update: link to US Chess Online.  There's a series of amazing & amusing moves after Aronian's 35.Rc6!

USA 2.5, Greece 1.5!

And I think Armenia is beating Russia!  (All games in progress in that match, so who knows....)

Here are Nakamura's own notes to his game against Gelfand, again from Chess Life Online.

2nd UPDATE: Armenia  2 - Russia 2.  Chess Life Online coverage is here.

Malcolm Pein annotates Nakamura-Gelfand

Hikaru Nakamura

© John Saunders

At The Week in Chess.

World Team: Standings after Round 6

Rank after round 6
Rank	Team	Gam.	+	=	-	MP	Pts.	Res.	SB.
1	RUSSIA	6	5	0	1	10	15½	2	56,50
2	UNITED STATES	6	5	0	1	10	15½	0	49,50
3	AZERBAIJAN	6	3	1	2	7	13½	0	34,50
4	ARMENIA	6	3	1	2	7	13	2	34,25
5	ISRAEL	6	3	1	2	7	13	0	37,75
6	INDIA	6	3	1	2	7	12½	0	39,00
7	GREECE	6	3	0	3	6	13	0	37,50
8	EGYPT	6	1	1	4	3	9	0	16,00
9	BRAZIL	6	1	0	5	2	9	0	9,00
10	TURKIYE	6	0	1	5	1	6	0	4,50

As you can see, the US and Russia are tied for first in match points. The first tiebreak is game points: USA and Russia are tied in that, too. The second tiebreak is face-to-face: Russia would win that.

Russia's remaining pairings:

• Armenia (super-tough) 
• Egypt (easy) 
• Israel (super-tough) 

 USA's remaining pairings

• Greece (on a hot streak) 
• Armenia (super-tough) 
• Azerbaijan (super-tough) 

Even if Armenia (which will face Russia, USA, & Egypt) wins out, it would be not guaranteed a tie for first based on match points, even if tiebreaks were favorable. Azerbaijan (facing Brazil, Greece, USA) has the easiest schedule, but may already need a miracle to catch up.

So USA is in strong position to grab the silver, with every chance to contend for gold.

USA on a roll!

Big win against Israel 2.5-1.5!

Big win against Brazil 3-1!

And kudos to Jennifer Shadade and Chess Life Online for the excellent coverage....

World Team after 4 rounds

Rank after round 4
Rank	Team			+	=	-	Match Points	Pts.
1	ARMENIA			3	0	1	6	10
2	UNITED STATES			3	0	1	6	10
3	RUSSIA			3	0	1	6	9½
4	ISRAEL			3	0	1	6	9½
5	INDIA			3	0	1	6	9
6	AZERBAIJAN			2	0	2	4	8½
7	GREECE			1	0	3	2	7
8	BRAZIL			1	0	3	2	7
9	EGYPT			1	0	3	2	6
10	TURKIYE			0	0	4	0	3½

Games from USA - Egypt

On Chess Life Online.

Games from today's Russia - USA match

Here they are.

Ouch

Russia 3, USA 1

U.S vs. Russia going on right now...

Russia got upset by Greece yesterday; I wouldn't want to play them today.

Live games are here.  Boards 1 through 3 look OK to me, but maybe Akobian is in a little trouble against Vitiugov.  What do I know?

Ray Robson annotates the U.S. - India match

At Chess Life Online.

USA 3, India 1!

Nakamura & Onischuk both win: 2-0 after two rounds is a very nice start for the USA!

Games are here for the time being.

Here's the Chess Life Online report.

USA beats Turkey 3-1 in round 1

Nakamura, Onischuk, and Akobian win; Shulman loses.  No PGN is available as of yet, but the games are here.

Here's coverage at Chess Life Online and nice annotations of the Nakamura game by St. Louis's GM-in-residence Ben Finegold.

Yury Shulman at World Team Championships

Yury is representing the USA (and Chicagoland) on Board 3.  Play begins tommorow!

Hat tip to Mig.