World Team Championship: dramatic mistake by GashimovThe Hungarian team, not having given up after yesterday’s defeat to Russia, managed to beat the fearsome Azerbaijan team in the third round by the slimmest of margins. A lot had been expected of Azerbaijan at this tournament, but Hungary reminded us that they’re also a strong team. The last game to finish was Gashimov – Almasi, and the Azerbaijan player missed a very real chance of drawing the match. World Team Championship: Polgar hands Hungary victory over Azerbaijan, Israel beat ChinaThe third round of the World Team Championship in Ningbo is over, and brought a series of unexpected and even sensational results. The “solid”, as they’re often called, Hungarian team on this occasion took all two points off Azerbaijan. Moreover, they did it using the same system they did to beat Russia at the Olympiad: three draws, and a win, this time for Judit Polgar. World Championship: Aronian – Karjakin, Leko – Radjabov and other 3rd round gamesThe third round of the World Team Championship is under way in Ningbo, China. In the headline encounter, Armenia – Russia, the games are: Aronian – Karjakin, Grischuk – Movsesian, Akopian – Nepomniachtchi, Svidler – Sargissian. It’s interesting to note that in both this match and the other key match, Hungary – Azerbaijan, the teams have put out what should be their strongest line-ups. Also meeting today are China – Israel, India – Ukraine and Egypt – USA. Bareev: Nepomniachtchi “an exceptional commander”photo: Ilya Levitov, with Russian team members Grischuk, Nepomniachtchi and Svidler The Russian head coach, Evgeny Bareev, summed up the second round match against Hungary at the World Team Championship for his column in “Soviet Sport” (from where the photos are taken): Russia take the lead with second winThe Russian team took advantage of Armenia’s failure, seizing the lead at the World Team Championship with a 3:1 victory over Hungary. That was more-than-convincing revenge for last year's Olympiad defeat, with the match heroes being Alexander Grischuk and Ian Nepomniachtchi. Levitov on Nepomniachtchi: “Ian put on a show”In his Sport-Express column, the Chairman of the Russian Chess Federation Board, Ilya Levitov, who’s in Ningbo along with the Russian team, shared his impressions of the first day’s play. In his opinion, it “ended up being what you might call an easy stroll”. The highest praise was awarded to Ian Nepomniachtchi: Hangzhou Rd 5: T. Kosintseva – Hou Yifan and other gamesThe fifth round of the women’s super-tournament in Hangzhou got under way this morning at the same time as the World Team Championship (as we noted yesterday, they’re happening very close to each other). The Kosintseva sisters are meeting face to face with their main tournament rivals at the current moment in time: Nadezhda has Black against leader Ju Wenjun, while Tatiana has White against Hou Yifan. You can follow the games on the live broadcast. World Team Championship: Karjakin-Leko and other gamesphoto: Ian Nepomniachtchi and Judit Polgar shake hands before their game, FIDE The second round of the World Team Championship got under way at 09:00 CET in Ningbo, China. The two key encounters are Russia – Hungary and Ukraine – China, where all the games without exception are of interest. In particular, the first board encounters: Karjakin – Leko and Ivanchuk – Wang Hao. The other matches today are USA – Armenia, Azerbaijan – India and Israel – Egypt. Evgeny Bareev looks for revenge against HungaryRussia’s head coach Evgeny Bareev wrote in his diary on the “Soviet Sport” website:
Vladimir Tukmakov: “The Chinese team is one of the favourites”Azerbaijan captain Vladimir Tukmakov noted the strength of their rivals after the end of the China – Azerbaijan match (2-2):
The coach admitted he’d been alarmed by his team’s lack of playing practice. |
