The 2010 Chess Olympiad is only a few weeks away. Russia has 5 teams (1st, 4th, and 19th seeds in the Open Olympiad, and 1st and 4th seeds in the Women’s Olympiad) competing for Gold, Silver, and Bronze.
In my opinion, it would be a huge upset if the Russian teams do not at least win the Gold in both Olympiads (Open and Women), given that they are the top seeds and they have major home field advantage playing in Russia. In fact, they have a good chance of winning both Gold and Silver and both Olympiads.
Chess Olympiad 2010 teams
Full information about participants in the Khanty Mansiysk 2010 Chess Olympiad
159 men and 119 women teams have registered for the Chess Olympiad 2010 that starts this month in Khanty Mansiysk, Russia. A total of 1380 player will compete in the two sections for the medals of the top team event in chess. The statistics are impressive – 772 titled players will be present, out of them 247 GMs, 63 WGMs, 160 IMs, 87 WIMs, 81 FMs, and 80 WFMs.
Chess Olympiad men teams
35 out of 37 players over 2700 ELO will participate at the Chess Olympiad 2010. This number will probably grow as Georgia has not announced yet their players, and GM Baadur Jobava is in the 2700 club.
The number of players above 2600 is 117, while there are a total of 220 players above 2500 ELO points. There will be 460 titled players out of which 233 GMs.
Arranging the teams by the September rating list, top seeded in the men section will be the first team of Russia (more about it here). Second seeded is the team of Ukraine with Ivanchuk as top board, Eljanov as highest rated, Ponomariov, Efimenko, and Moiseenko. Third in the country list is the team of Azerbaijan – Mamedyarov, Radjabov, Gashimov, Mamedov, and Guseinov, and fourth is the team of Russia 2. There are 22 teams with rating average of 2600+, and all are posible medal chasers.
Chess Olympiad 2010 women
In the women section of the Chess Olympiad 2010 top seeded is again the team of Russia. They are the only team so far with average ELO of 2500+. China is second seeded with 2494, while Ukraine are third with 2493. Russia 2, USA, Armenia, and India complete the teams with average ELO of 2400+
In total 312 titled players are in the women section, of which 14 GMs, 63 WGMs, and 37 IMs. Top seeded players are Yifan Hou, Nadezhda Kosintseva, Tatiana Kosintseva, Antoaneta Stefanova, and Kateryna Lahno. In total 10 players are above 2500 and 37 are above 2400 ELO.
Scroll down for the full compositions of the men and women teams, their average rating, starting position, and team details.
Note: minor changes are possible in the lists below
More information about the Chess Olympiad
Chess Olympiad men teams
1. Russia (RUS / RtgAvg: 2749)
1 GM Kramnik Vladimir 2780
2 GM Grischuk Alexander 2760
3 GM Karjakin Sergey 2747
4 GM Svidler Peter 2731
5 GM Malakhov Vladimir 2725
2. Ukraine (UKR / RtgAvg: 2737)
1 GM Ivanchuk Vassily 2754
2 GM Eljanov Pavel 2761
3 GM Ponomariov Ruslan 2749
4 GM Efimenko Zahar 2683
5 GM Moiseenko Alexander 2658
3. Azerbaijan (AZE / RtgAvg: 2721)
1 GM Mamedyarov Shakhriyar 2756
2 GM Radjabov Teimour 2748
3 GM Gashimov Vugar 2719
4 GM Mamedov Rauf 2660
5 GM Guseinov Gadir 2611
4. Russia 2 (RUS2 / RtgAvg: 2704)
1 GM Alekseev Evgeny 2691
2 GM Nepomniachtchi Ian 2706
3 GM Vitiugov Nikita 2709
4 GM Tomashevsky Evgeny 2701
5 GM Timofeev Artem 2700
5. China (CHN / RtgAvg: 2703)
1 GM Wang Hao 2724
2 GM Wang Yue 2732
3 GM Bu Xiangzhi 2695
4 GM Zhou Jianchao 2660
5 GM Li Chao 2633
6. Hungary (HUN / RtgAvg: 2698)
1 GM Leko Peter 2724
2 GM Almasi Zoltan 2707
3 GM Polgar Judit 2682
4 GM Berkes Ferenc 2678
5 GM Balogh Csaba 2608
7. Armenia (ARM / RtgAvg:2698)
1 GM Aronian Levon 2783
2 GM Akopian Vladimir 2691
3 GM Sargissian Gabriel 2677
4 GM Pashikian Arman 2639
5 GM Grigoryan Avetik 2579
8. Bulgaria (BUL / RtgAvg:2693)
1 GM Topalov Veselin 2803
2 GM Cheparinov Ivan 2661
3 GM Georgiev Kiril 2685
4 GM Delchev Aleksandar 2623
5 Berbatov Kiprian 2461
9. United States of Americ (USA / RtgAvg: 2691)
1 GM Hikaru Nakamura 2733
2 GM Kamsky Gata 2705
3 GM Onischuk Alex 2688
4 GM Shulman Yuri 2636
5 GM Hess II Robert Lee 2588
10. France (FRA / RtgAvg:2681)
1 GM Tkachiev Vladislav 2632
2 GM Vachier-Lagrave Maxime 2721
3 GM Fressinet Laurent 2718
4 GM Feller Sebastien 2649
5 GM Edouard Romain 2636
More here: http://www.chessdom.com/news-2010/chess-olympiad-2010-participants
Why is Kosteniuk on board 1 for Russia when T. and N. Kosintseva are both about 40-50 points higher rated than Kosteniuk? Is it because her ego is so big that she has to play board 1?
How come Bacrot isn’t playing for France? That’s ridiculous!
I know anon,lil tricky Kostarook, Susan me and WIM Navarra trainin on WCL, she tryin to crush me but i keep running. i just seen them over there tryin to get Ultramodern in their Russian league event, copying my bullet games, people something else,they come to the earth, learn a few chess moves, draw a line in the sand and claim to be a supagenius, now they over in india givin anand a sheet of paper for math, unbelievable.
Don’t you know that world champion is always seeded on 1st board?
This “rule” has been in place (and not only in Russia) since 1952 when Botvinnik boycotted the Olympiad because they put Keres on board 1 and him on board 2.
Since then EVERY world champion has been put on board 1, regardless of his rating.
Yes, Khalifman was on board 1 in the 2000 Olympiad, ahead of Morozevich and Svidler who were both higher rated than him (Morozevich outrated him by almost 80 points!)
Also in 2002 Ponomariov was on board 1 and Ivanchuk on board 2 (the only time Ivanchuk has been on board 2 for Ukraine)
Kasparov too would have to bow down to this rule in 1984 (despite being higher rated than Karpov), but eventually neither Kasparov nor Karpov participated in the Olympiad, because their World championship match draged on for months.
Your amazement why Kosteniuk is seeded on board 1 shows your lack of knowledge about chess in general.
So Kosteniuk is a prima donna and she puts her own personal ego before the best interest of her team. Russia needs the strongest players to hold the top boards. She should voluntarily choose to play board 3. Unfortunately, Kosteniuk has always been about Kosteniuk and no one else. She’s Russian but pretends to be American and Swiss for a few bucks. She sells herself to the highest bidder.
With close to 100% participation by top players, the question naturally arises as to why a few notable names are absent.
Anand?
Koneru?
Bacrot?
Morozevic?
The entire top German team!?
Korchnoi?
I’m getting really tired of you fellows taking cheap shots at Alexandra Kosteniuk. When you can play chess as well as she does, then maybe I’ll respect you guys some. Until then, grow up.
Lucy
Anon, it is customary for World Champions to play board 1. However, it is somewhat unusual for a world champion / women’s world champion to be the 3rd highest rated in his/her own country. But it is still an honor normally given to the reigning title holder.
Best wishes,
Susan Polgar
If you average the ratings given, in the majority of the teams the listed average is incorrect.
Am I the only one to notice this?
What happened to Anand and Humpy?
What are the initiatives taken by AICF-Sunder & team took for making the best line up for India? Adhipan cannot be put ahead of Sandeepan Chanda, Negi, Humpy and Abhijeet Gupta
Ravanan, Adhiban is playing due to his performance in the National A. AICF created some rule that said that players rated under 2650 have to play the National A to be eligible to play the Olympiad. Hence some top names missing.
Anand and Humpy opted out, which is very sad.