There 2006 Olympiad has just concluded. There were some major story lines that came out of this event.
Some of the biggest positive stories were:
* Armenia made history by capturing the team Gold medal (overall)
* Ukraine made history by capturing the team Gold medal (women)
* China made history by capturing first ever overall Olympiad Silver medal
* China showed the world that they can continue to crank out talented young female players
* Kramnik, Carlsen, Wang Yue and Bacrot performed over 2800!! Karjakin and Bu near 2800!
Some of the biggest negative stories were:
* Even with Kramnik, Svidler, Grischuk, Morozevich and Bareev, the Russian men’s team walked away with nothing. They ended up tying for 6th-10th, probably one of their worst finish ever
* Even with a huge advantage in average rating (around 50 points), the Russian women’s team could not live up to the promise and failed to win the Gold again. They finished a distant second, 1.5 points behind Ukraine
* With Anand, India finished in a tie for 30th even though the team was ranked second in the overall Olympiad
Top US stories:
* Gata Kamsky showed the world that he is still an elite player
* Alex Onischuk showed that his US Championship win was not a fluke
* After a horrible start, Hikaru Nakamura made a strong finish to help the team
* The US women’s team fought well to finish a distant fourth, 3 full points behind 3rd place China
Can you name more top stories in the Olympiad?
Sure: Pascal Charbonneau (Canada) defeating Anand (India) on board 1.
Way to go Pascal!!
Way to go Canada!!
Hey,
Anyone heard about the blossoming romance between Alexander Morozevich and Austalia’s women player Arianne Caoili?
Heard that Morozevich punched Aronian Levon ‘coz Aronian was dancing with Caoli during the Olympiad in Torino.
News from the Australian blog page:
“I notice that Arianne Caoili, who was not playing yesterday, is on board 2 today. She’s created quite a stir outside the Olympiad Hall by encouraging a competition of another kind amongst some top male players by playing one against the other. I don’t listen to rumours much but it seems that no less than Aronian was punched by a rival while dancing with Arianne.
Amiel I’m afraid that Alexander Morozevich has given up wearing his wind cheater jacket, as it’s now too hot for it. I have it on good authority that yes the emblem on the blazer is Australian. Apparently he visited Australia. No, I don’t know but probably yes, Arianne may have something to do with that too. She’s half Filipino I heard, so it’s all your fault. Hot blood.”
Source: http://closetgrandmaster.blogspot.com/
Sunday, June 04, 2006 3:48:13 PM
anonymous, I heard it was an English grandmaster and Aronian who got into a fight over the Arianne Caoili. But anyways, if you go here:
http://www.chessbase.com/
the round 12 report has a picture of Arianne, and if you click on the report, you’ll find a picture of her and it says (more on her later). Now Chessbase would not put a picture of Arianne if there were incident, since Arianne’s chess at Turin is not worth having her picture as the snapshot to be placed near the link for the round 12 report. So stay tuned.
“Now Chessbase would not put a picture of Arianne if there were NO incident”
Nor would chessbase put “(more on her later)” if there no incident, since her play at Turin is nothing to talk about.
The GM in question is Danny Gormally from the UK, who was sent home immediately by his captain.
15 year old Magnus Carlsen’s 2820 performance.
Kramnik’s comeback is also newsworthy.
Russia wants everything!
Russia is looking for gold in the women’s event too.
At the Turin Olympiad Russia wants everything that ‘s going, namely gold in the men ‘s and gold in the women ‘s events.
As a nation Russia has never won a women’s Olympiad: after the last success of the then Soviet Union in 1986 two wins came for Hungary followed by one for Georgia, in an edition when Russia did not even place third.
Russia finally took the runners -up spot in 1996 (behind Georgia ) with a repeat in 1998 when the Chinese scored their first win. China went on to win the next three editions. Russia came third in 2000, second again in 2002, and third two years ago, this time beaten by the USA for second place. In Turin Russia will be fielding the team that went to Calvià in 2004 (Kosteniuk, the Kosintseva sisters and Kovalevskaya ).
“But this time we are more up for it “, says Alexandra Kosteniuk, among other things “godmother” of the Turin Olympiad. “We have been training together, we’ve built up a fine team spirit. We want to win and we know we can do it”.
The Godmother of the Olympiad couldn’t carry the #1 ranked team for the Gold. She choked!
“Can you name more top stories in the Olympiad?”
You said them all, Susan. Nothing special to add.
“The GM in question is Danny Gormally from the UK, who was sent home immediately by his captain.”
Really? Captains have the power and courage to do that? Congrats!
“The Godmother of the Olympiad couldn’t carry the #1 ranked team for the Gold. She choked!”
Kosteniuk choked big time! Susan would never choke!!
I am amazed if our Filipino GM Eugene Torre – Asia’s 1st GM from the Nice Olympiad in ’74 has broken the records for most matches played in the Chess Olympiad?!
Can somebody “chess” this out? Paging Bobby Ang from BusinessWorldOnline, Manila.
Thanks from GarayPinoy, Vancouver, BC, Canada
Karjakin’s and Carlsen’s performance.
“I am amazed if our Filipino GM Eugene Torre – Asia’s 1st GM from the Nice Olympiad in ’74 has broken the records for most matches played in the Chess Olympiad?!”
Records are nice. Taking place of young players for decades is not.
“Kosteniuk choked big time!”
Jelaous and envious again, ah?
“We have been training together, we’ve built up a fine team spirit. We want to win and we know we can do it”.
Big talk for such young ladies. Must be their husbands/parents talking instead.
Reffering to an earlier unanswered blog…
The greatest endgame player of them all:
In the first part of the 20th century the great names were Lasker, Capablanca, and Alekhine. But there was one player who overshadowed them all – in one phase of the game. Akiba Rubinstein, who was dazzlingly skilled in the endgame.
Why didn’t the geniuses from MYANMAR play this year? They would have been top 20 by elo.
why does the story on china always have a guy doing karate on the picture?
“Bermuda Party”
Now you understand why Russia and Australia are not chess powers any more.
“The US women’s team fought well to finish a distant fourth”
I like the “distant fourth” part very much.
http://www.uschess.org has no updates or comments yet. Why don’t you pay someone to actually work there?
“Really? Captains have the power and courage to do that? Congrats!”
meh if people truly had team spirit at Turin then the Armenian team and the English team would have jumped in to support their team member. that the captain sent the English player home sends a message that your team does not have your back.
#50 seed Australia finished above #2 seed India.
here is what I found on the blog.
Danny Gormally
Enough teasing. Danny Gormally was our naughty English grandmaster who punched Levon Aronian’s face at the Bermuda party. Actually, I buried this info in the comment’s section of this post.
From the BCM site:
From what the BCM has been able to gather from various sources present in Turin, the facts appear to be as follows: annoyed that a young lady player (Arianne Caioli of Australia) preferred to dance with Levon Aronian of Armenia, Gormally landed a punch on the world number three. Thankfully the blow did not do any real damage but the Armenian delegation was understandably incensed that their top board should be treated in this way. To keep the peace, the English delegation decided that Gormally would have to be sent back home immediately.
http://closetgrandmaster.blogspot.com/
You know, if Susan Polgar had played for us, I bet we would’ve had a very strong chance to get the gold.
aaawhwa, you play chess like a chess master, but you punch like one too!!!!!!!
In one of the weakest women’s olympiad ever, the USCF and KCF destroyed the us women’s team. We would have won Gold with Susan.
‘Sending Gormally home’ – seems more likely he was advised to leave in case there was a police follow-up.