It is puzzling to me why Russia sat Kramnik, who clearly is still the best Russian player, in such a critical match. Many teams do this and I guess I will never understand this concept. Malakhov no doubt is a very strong player, but he is not in the same league as Kramnik. I played in 4 Olympiad in my career and I played all 56 games on board 1 (14 in each Olympiad) without ever sitting out even for one game. I played when I was sick. I played when I was not at my optimal condition. I played with any color without questions. When you represent your country, you have to give everything you have, and then some. I simply do not understand the idea of sitting out the best players.
In this round, Leko is the hero for the Hungarian team. But the other three members of the Hungarian team did their job holding against higher rated competition. This is what team play is all about.
Hungary 2.5 – 1.5 Russia A
1. Leko, Peter 1-0 Grischuk, Alexander
2. Almasi, Zoltan ½-½ Svidler, Peter
3. Polgar, Judit ½-½ Karjakin, Sergey
4. Berkes, Ferenc ½-½ Malakhov, Vladimir
i thought judit agreed to a draw a bit too soon – but thats just because i so WANT to see her play! 🙂 she did amazingly so far, probably needed the rest anyway. and a great thing that leko pulled off a victory against grischuk – no small feat! great job team hungary!
I must add that Susan has never lost a game in the Olympiad. (31 wins, 25 draws). She has won 10 Olympiad medals. In 2004 she won a medal for highest number of points and highest performance rating.
I must add that Susan played for the US woman team.
no idea why kramnik sat out either… susan can you tell us how these olympiads work? is there like a team captain, different from the players, who says who plays which board and if plays at all? or is entirely up to the individual players?
It depends. Sometimes, the captains make the decision. However, most captains will not override players of Kramnik’s caliber.
This is why it is important to have strong captains and not make a political choice / reward to give the job to unqualified persons.
Best wishes,
Susan Polgar
would you say russia underestimated hungary, thinking they dont “need” kramnik? or rather that kramnik just decided he would sit out and thats that? i dont think he would be too exhausted from his caruana encounter. well, if nothing else, i think he would be very likely to hold leko at least to a draw.
Even sitting Kramnik, Hungary would have defeated them!
talk about sitting out what about players like viswanathan anand and koneru humpy not playing at all for their country. nice.
Susan do you think Kasparov and Kramnik look alike? cuz i just seen two chocolate boys together and one of them had a t-shirt on that said ” UM with stupid >” now Im think this is your brother why would u do that , then the first one saw his mom and started runnin the second guy with the tricky t-shirt just keep walkin , then he looked at me! oh Anon 1 she moved the knight to a tricky square and he just got outta there , UM tinkin.
Grischuk can play a bit too. Perhaps they felt that he could hold Leko.
Kramnik sat out because was of his friend Leko.
Usually they use to draw in eight moves.
Don’t ask me why.
They call this chess.
Susan… you’re tough!! You play every game no matter the situation. The younger generation are just too soft 😀