The unthinkable almost happened. China 1 came into the final round with a small lead over Ukraine, Russia, Armenia, and Poland. To make things even more favorable, China played Vietnam, a team which has not won a single match. In the mean time, Armenia and Ukraine had to square off against each other while Russia had to face a dangerous China 2 team.

Things couldn’t get better than this. All China 1 had to do was to take care of their own business and nothing else would matter. But China 1 could not pull off a win against a team which they favored by around 300 rating points on every board. In fact, they almost lost and at the end could only score a 2-2 tie.

So it is all up to the others. The final match point for China 1 is 12 points and their board score is 21.5 points. That would mathematically eliminated Armenia from the Gold since the most they could score is 12 points with 21 points board score. However, if Ukraine and Russia could score a 4-0 win, both would jump pass China 1 for the Gold with 12 match points and 22 points board score.

At the end, China 1 team prevailed as Russia could only win by a 3-1 margin over China 2 while Ukraine could only squeak out a 2.5 -1.5 win against Armenia. That meant Gold for China by 1/2 tie break point, Silver for Russia, and Bronze for Ukraine, even though all three teams tie with 12 match points. The Olympiad Champion Georgia came in 4th. The US tied for 8th and 9th.

Congratulations to China, Russia, and Ukraine!

Here are the final round results:

Bo. 5 India
Rtg 10 USA Rtg 3 : 1
1.1 IM Dronavalli Harika 2474 IM Krush Irina 2458 ½ – ½
1.2 IM Sachdev Tania 2405 IM Zatonskykh Anna 2462 1 – 0
1.3 WGM Karavade Eesha 2391 IM Goletiani Rusudan 2391 1 – 0
1.4 WGM Nadig Kruttika 2273 WIM Melekhina Alisa 2220 ½ – ½
Bo. 6 Armenia
Rtg 4 Ukraine Rtg 1½:2½
2.1 IM Danielian Elina 2489 IM Ushenina Anna 2448 1 – 0
2.2 IM Mkrtchian Lilit 2468 WGM Zhukova Nataliya 2457 ½ – ½
2.3 WGM Galojan Lilit 2326 IM Gaponenko Inna 2438 0 – 1
2.4 WGM Aginian Nelli 2307 WGM Zdebska Natalia 2410 0 – 1
Bo. 7 Russia
Rtg 3 China Two Rtg 3 : 1
3.1 IM Kosintseva Tatiana 2536
Tan Zhongyi 2435 ½ – ½
3.2 IM Kosintseva Nadezhda 2493 WIM Zhang Xiaowen 2391 1 – 0
3.3 IM Kovalevskaya Ekaterina 2436 WFM Ding Yixin 2321 ½ – ½
3.4 WFM Gunina Valentina 2437
Wang Xiaohui 2223 1 – 0
Bo. 8 China One Rtg 2 Vietnam
Rtg 2 : 2
4.1 GM Hou Yifan 2585 WGM Hoang Thi Bao Tram 2265 ½ – ½
4.2 GM Zhao Xue 2542 WIM Pham Le Thao Nguyen 2301 ½ – ½
4.3
Ju Wenjun 2443 WFM Hoang Thi Nhu Y 2114 ½ – ½
4.4 WGM Huang Qian 2424 WFM Pham Bich Ngoc 2145 ½ – ½
Bo. 9 Georgia
Rtg 1 Poland
Rtg 3 : 1
5.1 GM Chiburdanidze Maia 2506 IM Rajlich Iweta 2465 1 – 0
5.2 GM Dzagnidze Nana 2535 WGM Zawadzka Jolanta 2414 1 – 0
5.3 IM Javakhishvili Lela 2472 IM Dworakowska Joanna 2345 ½ – ½
5.4 IM Lomineishvili Maia 2378 WGM Majdan Joanna 2361 ½ – ½

Here are the final standings:

Rk. SNo Team Games + = TB1 TB2
1 8 China One 9 5 2 2 12 21,5
2 7 Russia
9 4 4 1 12 21,0
3 4 Ukraine 9 4 4 1 12 20,5
4 9 Georgia
9 5 1 3 11 20,0
5 6 Armenia
9 4 2 3 10 18,5
6 1 Poland
9 4 2 3 10 17,5
7 5 India
9 4 1 4 9 17,5
8 10 USA
9 2 2 5 6 16,5
9 3 China Two 9 2 2 5 6 16,0
10 2 Vietnam
9 0 2 7 2 11,0

Official website: http://live.chinaqiyuan.com/chessen.html
Full results: http://chess-results.com/tnr25011.aspx?lan=1

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Chess Daily News from Susan Polgar
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