Natalya Komarova, Governor of Ugra
Open Olympiad
Rk.SNo TeamTeamGames + = – TB1 TB2 TB3 TB4
1 2 Ukraine UKR 11 8 3 0 19 / 380.5 31 143 Gold
2 1 Russia 1 RUS1 11 8 2 1 18 / 379.5 28 157 Silver
3 11 Israel ISR 11 7 3 1 17 / 367.5 29 148 Bronze on tiebreaks
4 5 Hungary HUN 11 8 1 2 17 / 355.5 26.5 157
5 3 China CHN 11 7 2 2 16 / 362 29 147
6 4 Russia 2 RUS2 11 8 0 3 16 / 355 29.5 144
7 6 Armenia ARM 11 7 2 2 16 / 345 27 147
8 16 Spain ESP 11 7 2 2 16 / 332 28.5 137
9 9 United States USA 11 7 2 2 16 / 315.5 27 141
10 10 France FRA 11 6 4 1 16 / 311.5 25 149
Women’s Olympiad
Rk.SNo TeamTeamGames + = – TB1 TB2 TB3 TB4
1 1 Russia 1 RUS1 11 11 0 0 22 / 439.5 34 147 Gold
2 2 China CHN 11 9 0 2 18 / 386.5 31.5 146 Silver
3 4 Georgia GEO 11 7 2 2 16 / 384 29 155 Bronze
4 18 Cuba CUB 11 8 0 3 16 / 348.5 30 136
5 6 United States USA 11 7 2 2 16 / 336.5 28.5 140
6 10 Poland POL 11 7 2 2 16 / 336 29.5 132
7 26 Azerbaijan AZE 11 8 0 3 16 / 320 28 136
8 12 Bulgaria BUL 11 7 2 2 16 / 296.5 24.5 147
Full standings here: http://www.ugra-chess.com/standings.php
Ukraine won olympiad
Ivanchuk won Melody Amber and Capablanca Memorial
Ponomariov won Dortmund
Eljanov won Astrakhan GP
Kateryna Lahno is World Blitz Champion
2010 is Ukraine year!
Congratulations to the winner! This was a great competition.
Personally, also, it had me playing a few online games (and greatly increase my rating on Yahoo,) so I guess I played well too 🙂
My last game was a vexing one, though more for online reasons. Playing an opponent with 100 point more of rating, there was a tight struggle until at probably a key point the opponent fled. (Theoretically this could happen due to computer reasons, though generally those happen when the opponent is worse). Of course it counts as a win, but it is terrible that a game just suddenly ends.
However, it was most vexing because I was not even sure of the evaluation of the end position. Because the opponent was higher rated, I played carefully, good if it leads to extra concentration and bad if to passivity. Still (I played white) on moves like 11, (well 19 was probably outright bad,) 21, 23 I went for what I think were conservative choices.
As I think it, the final position, with or without the queen trade, is completely unclear, though at least there should be no clear advantage to black. Without the trade I thought I saw a way to keep the queenside pawns and have a decisive kingside attack. With the trade I have more space and more active pieces, or I have a bunch of loose pawns. As I see it, the b4 pawn is far superior to his a7 pawn, and the kingside pawns can attack even without queens to some effect.
1.e4 c5 2.Nc3 Nc6 3.g3 Nf6 4.Bg2 g6 5.d3 d6 6.f4 Bd7 7.Nf3 Bg7 8.0-0 0-0 9.h3 Nh5 10.Kh2 Nd4 11.Nxd4 cxd4 12.Ne2 Qb6 13.Rb1 Qa5 14.a3 Qc5 15.g4 Nf6 16.c3 dxc3 17.Nxc3 Be6 18.f5 gxf5 19. exf5 Bd5 20.Nxd5 Nxd5 21.b4 Qd4 22.Bb2 Nc3 23.Bxc3 Qxc3 24.Bxb7 Rab8 25.Qf3 Be5+ 26.Kh1 Qxa3 27. g5 Qa2 28.Qg2 no result=> win for white.
So I must wonder, did the opponent flee because he was going to lose a long struggle against a weaker opponent, or did he just not fancy playing an endgame?