As Sweden took his chance and won convincingly against Scotland, Bosnian team lost against much higher rated China.
Besides that, the Olympiad is approaching culmination point as the main favourites for gold are playing against each-other.
Sweden - Scotland 3,5-0,5
That was quite high victory for Swedes.
On the first table played McNab-Grandelius, and if you are familiar about a name of player with white pieces, but are not sure how, it can be a good idea to read an article about a fortress in chess published on this blog.
The main concern for Nils was how to get playable position with black, but not to cross a line of an unnecessary risk.
It was a hard fight but Nils managed to win the game.
First game which was finished was between John Shaw and Emanuel Berg, and it was a move repetition in The French Defence.
On the fourth table played Axel Smith against Alan Tate. They know each-other quite well, and I remember them playing a game in Cappelle la Grande 2011 which finished in a draw. This time Smith took an early initiative and despite some missing chances, he eventually won the game.
On the second board Hans Tikkanen played against Arakhamia Grant. She sacrificed an exchange, but it seemed a bit to optimistic. Hans won a game in the endgame.
After some not satisfactory results, Sweden won against Andorra and Scotland to come back in the first half of table.
Tomorrow Swedes can expect harder opponent, but as some of the games in this round are not finished yet, there is no pairing for the next round.
I will publish an update on this article, later during a day.
China - Bosnia and Herzegovina 3,5-0,5
It is enough to say that Chinese fourth board is about 100 point better rated than our first board and everything would be clear about outcome of this match.
With two 2700+ players, and two 2650+ players, China is one of the candidates for a medal.
It did not looked easy, as deep in the fourth hour of play, a result was still 0-0 and according to computer evaluation all the games were far from decided.
Denis Kadric was a bit passive in The King Indian, and it cost him first a pawn, then he sacrificed a piece for an activity, but got nothing, and China took a lead.
Dalibor Stojanovic was quite solid when he suddenly got some problems in the endgame, which he could not solve, and Dizdarevic was under attack but far from losing.
Around time trouble he went wrong, and China took a big lead of 3-0.
Wang Hao and Kurajica played interesting and balanced game on the first board.
In the move 55 Kurajica blundered badly, but Wang Hao missed a win (55...Qh4+) and the game ended in a draw.
Despite this result, Bosnia and Herzegovina still has very good performance and a good chance to over-perform.
Other results:
Armenia-Russia 2-2
Kramnik won in a big style against Aronian.
He played Exchange variation of Slav, and Aronian took decision to develop his dark-squared bishop with a fianchetto.
When I played a game against GM Halkias in Politiken Cup, I got nothing with exchange on d5 in some sort of Catalan or The Queen Indian Defence, and I had my bishop on g2. Aronian had very similar position but with Black, and Kramnik used the same piece arrangement as Halkias. I managed to draw in that game.
In today´s game Kramnik just outplayed Aronian.
Movsesian won against Grischuk on the second board, in order to save a match, and two games ended in a draw.
Azerbaijan-Croatia 3-1
What a match!
Croatian experienced players with white pieces, Kozul and Palac had an initiative but both games on the second and the fourth board finished in a draw.
Croatian young stars, Ivan Saric and Ante Brkic played with black pieces.
Ivan Saric had a very hard task against Radjabov. Radjabov won in nice style, but not without difficulties.
On the third board Mamedyarov sacrificed a queen for a rook and a bishop against Ante Brkic.
According to computer, Brkic had better position when he suddenly blundered and Azerbaijan won with a very high score 3-1.
I have a feeling that Croatia will be a candidate for top 10, maybe even more.
Germany-USA 2-2
Czech Republic-Spain 1,5-2,5
Philippines-Bulgaria 2,5-1,5 This is the biggest surprise in today´s round.
Hungary-Poland 3-1
England-Italy 2-2
Montenegro-Ukraine 1-3
Djukic played a draw against Ivanchuk, and Blagojevic played a draw against Ponomariov.
India-Israel 2-2
Netherlands-Belgium 3-1
If it was a football match, it would be a derby
I will publish the pairings with an introduction later in the evening (as soon as they publish it on official website)
UPDATE:
Azerbaijan-Russia This is a real highpoint in tomorrow´s round.
China-Armenia And this is a chance for Chinese team to for first time in history play for a gold.
Philippines-Hungary This is a chance for Hungary to come back for a fight for a medal, after their lost to Russia in round 5.
Ukraine-Spain This is chess not football, so we can not expect ziga-zaga tomorrow.
Sweden-Slovenia One more Balkan team for Sweden. Slovenia is rated 28th and Sweden 34th in start ranking, so nobody are favourites tomorrow.
Slovenia lost their match against Moldova with 3,5-0,5 while Sweden has two victories in the row.
Bosnia and Herzegovina-Czech Republic This is second best team so far for Bosnia and Herzegovina (Only China was better rated than Czech Republic). A draw would be a sky-high result for our team.
Ranking list after round 6.
1-3. Russia, Azerbaijan, Armenia 11
4-8. Ukraine, China, Hungary, Spain, Philippines 10
....
39. Bosnia and Herzegovina 8
...
42.Sweden 7
No comments:
Post a Comment