The World Cities Chess Team Championship got off to an exciting start as teams started jockeying for position in their Round Robin preliminary groups to aim for the top two and advance to the knockout phase. FIDE President Kirsan Ilyumzhinov and Sheikh Sultan bin Khalifah Al Nahyan led colorful opening ceremonies where captains drew lots for grouping.
In group A, Dhaka, Bangladesh beat host Al Ain, UAE 3:1 while Lund, Sweden upset London, England 2.5-1.5.
In group B, Tashkent, Uzbekistan crushed Chennai, India 3.5-0.5 to take a commanding lead as Saratov, Russia could only edge Ptuj, Slovenia 2.5-1.5.
In group C, Lviv, Ukraine blanked Canberra, Australia 4:0 while Riga, Latvia shaded Athens, Greece 2.5-1.5.
In group D, Baku, Azerbaijan smashed Istanbul, Turkey 3:1 while Astana, Kazakhstan beat Timisoara, Romania 2.5-1.5.
In group E, Chicago, USA took hours to subdue Kampala, Uganda 3.5-0.5 while top seed Paris, France smashed Tehran, Iran 3:1.
In group F, Hoogeveen, Netherlands whitewashed Cairo, Egypt 4:0 while Novi Sad, Serbia creamed Wu Xi, China 2.5-1.5. Aside from the top two of each group, the best third place complete the teams advancing to the Round-of-16 knock out match.
At the opening ceremonies, the 24 teams were ranked into four categories by average rating. Team captains per category took turns to draw for groups and pairing numbers. Chief Arbiter Casto Abundo and Mehrdad Pahlevanzadeh conducted the draw. The upset of the opening round was the victory of Lund, Sweden over higher ranked London, England on wins by Swedish GM Carlsson Pontus and IM Axel Smith. Pontus crushed the French defense of British GM Simon Williams in 54 moves. Swedish IM Axel Smith used the Sicilian defense to beat Zhou Yang Fan in 53 moves. Lund top board GM Nils Grandelius sealed the win by holding English GM Nigel Short to a draw in 34 moves of a Ruy Lopez. GM David Howell struck back for England, beating GM Hans Tikkanen in an opposite colored Bishop endgame.
Dhaka beat host Al Ain 3:1 on a win by GM Ziaur Rahman over IM Hassan Abdullah, and a walkover by 8 IM Abu Sufian Shakil as the other two games were drawn between the host’s GM Salem Saleh and GM Niaz Murshed, and between UAE IM Omar Noaman and IM Minhazuddin Ahmed.
Tashkent crushed Chennai 3.5-0.5 on wins by GM Marat Dzhumaev, IM Andrey Kvon and GM Alexei Barsov over IM Nikil Shyam, FM Rajesh VAV and Niranjan Navalgund. Uzbek GM Saidali Iuldachev drew with Murali Karthikeyan.
Saratov stayed close behind, edging Ptuj 2.5-1.5 won a sole win by GM Evgeny Shaposhnkov over GM Jure Skoberne as the other three games were drawn between Russian Evgeny Tomashevsky and GM Luka Lenic, between Russian GM Igor Lysyj and GM Alexander Beliavsky, and between Russian evgeny Romanov and GM Jure Borisek.
The Lviv blanked Canberra 4:0 on wins by the all GM contingent of Alexander Moiseenko, Yuriy Kryvorucko, Sergey Fedorchuk and Martyn Kravtsiv over FM Christopheer Wallis, IM Vladimir Feldman, Eugene Schon and Karl Zelesco, respectively. Riga’s GM Arturs Neiksans and Evgeny Svehnikov delivered full points over GM Hristos Banikas and Stelios Halkias, respectively. GM Ilmars Starostits clinched the win, drawing with IM Andreas Tzermiadianos. GM Ioannis Papaioannou struck back beating GM Normunds Miezis.
Chicago’s GM Varuzhan Akobian, IM Andrew Hungaski and GM Benjamin Finegold taught Kampala a lesson, beating CM Patrick Kawuma, CM Bob Bibasa and FM Stephen Kisuze, respectively. FM Harold Wanyama prevented a shutout, holding GM Jaan Ehlvest to a draw.
Paris slapped Tehran on wins by GM Laurent Fressinet and GM Romain Edouard over IM Pouria Darini and GM Asghar Golizadeh, respectively. Games between French GM Maxime Vachier-Lagrave and GM Ehsan Ghaem Maghami and between French GM Hicham Hamdouchi and GM Morteza Mahjoob.
Overall second seed Hoogeveen got full points with wins by GMs Anish Giri, Ivan Sokolov, Sergei Tiviakov and Jan Smeets over GM Essam El Gindy and IMs Samy Shoker, Mlhamed Ezat and Ibrahim Hasan Labib.
Novi Sad scored on the lower boards as GM Mmilos Perunovic and GM Nikola Sedlak beat IM Li Wenliang and Fang Yuxiang, respectively. Ji Dan struck back for Wu Xi against GM Robert Markus while GM Ivan Ivanisevic drew with GM Wang Yue. At stake in the first knock out team competition in FIDE is the Sheikh Zayed Cup and a total of $150,000 in cash prizes. Visit the official site at http://worldcitieschess.com/ to watch games live and download pgn files of all games. Follow results and pairings at chess-results.com.
Concurrent with the World Cities is the $30,000 Al Ain Classic. Players whose teams are eliminated in the World Classic can carry over their points to the individual Swiss System. Players from 52 federations are competing in the open with 6 Grandmasters, 3 WGM, 14 IMs and 3 WIMs. This unique Al Ain system has been approved by FIDE as an international title tournament under normal rules for players who play nine games. The total number of players will increase after the elimination of teams from the World Cities preliminaries, Round of 16 and quarterfinals. A youth championship is also being held concurrently in the chess festival.
Chess Daily News from Susan Polgar
Go Chicago!