Underhanded

Mig, do you have a suggestion as to how to best (i.e. most easily) view this game? I'm not talented enough to play it out in my head, and I can't even seem to get it to work with a standard pgn viewer (http://www.chessclub.com/chessviewer/pgnform.html) perhaps because it is missing the header tags. Any suggestions? It would be even nicer if there were a viewer built right into this page, although I can't claim to know how easy or difficult that might be to do.

Hmm, no ChessBase software to paste it into? PGN is just so bulky and I wanted to save screen space. You can download all the games from the event at TWIC or the official site though. It was in the first round. Here's the link:

http://www.chesscenter.com/twic/wtc05.pgn

Thanks. Now that I've seen the game - wow. More impressive than the promotion to knight is, to me, the trading of the black queen for two white minor pieces... was it a sound idea of black's, or was his win due to white's failure later?

Come on, Mig. It takes 10 minutes to find and use a free java applet and put it here to play through a PGN game ! Don't ask people to cut & paste, find some viewer and add missing headers if necessary !
We're in 2005 !

What a crazy game! It should be better mentioned for the queen sacrifice than the underpromotion. Seems that black got his pawns rolling real quick because of it. Its probably beyond my chess ability to determine if it was sound thought.

I like 109...Ne3+ forking the White queen and king. :)

Even more difficult to understand is why they only have 9 teams participating in the event. The odd number of teams in the filed entails that every round one of the teams has a bye. If this were an individual event, I could see some justification in it. However, as this is a team event, even the excuse that it is desireable to rest one's players falls a bit flat. After all, that is precisely why these teams have alternates.

One should note that the Chinese Women have done better than expected. Already, they have scored an "Upset Loss" by winning and drawing a game vs. Israel, for a 1.5-2.5 result. Without a doubt, a moral victory for the Chinese Women.

It is becoming clear that while the Chinese Women's team may not be composed of the Top Women players in China, that those relatively unheralded players are also quite underrated.

Israel is probably already out of contention, as a result.

Even more difficult to understand is why they only have 9 teams participating in the event. The odd number of teams in the filed entails that every round one of the teams has a bye. If this were an individual event, I could see some justification in it. However, as this is a team event, even the excuse that it is desireable to rest one's players falls a bit flat. After all, that is precisely why these teams have alternates.

One should note that the Chinese Women have done better than expected. Already, they have scored an "Upset Loss" by winning and drawing a game vs. Israel, for a 1.5-2.5 result. Without a doubt, a moral victory for the Chinese Women.

It is becoming clear that while the Chinese Women's team may not be composed of the Top Women players in China, that those relatively unheralded players are also quite underrated.

Israel is probably already out of contention, as a result.

Fightless draws. For the USA and Armenia teams, Round # 4 is already in the books. The match ended in a 2-2 tie, with all 4 games drawn.

2 of the games lasted only 12 moves each. The other 2 games were agreed drawn by move 20. So much for the US team utilizing its free rest day, from its Bye in Round # 3, to come out fighting. It's hardly worth bothering to send a team, if this is the type of performance that they will put forth. Perhaps the 4 draws suit the US players, as they were outrated on 3 of the boards, and Aronian and Akopian both sport ratings over 2700. Still, if the goal of the US team is merely not to lose, we can expect more insipid play. In previous team competitions, the US players would fight to win the matches, even if they were outrated.

Thanks Doug. I already mentioned this on another thread. Very sad.
Obviously the composition of the team,including the Captain, doesn't reflect the current situation on the US chess circuit. 4 of the players, Kaidanov, Gulko, Goldin and Novikov hardly ever play these days, while naming former Russian Team Captain Boris Postovsky our captain is a complete disgrace.
Hopefully by the spring next year Nakamura and Kamsky will accept their invitations for the Olympic Team. Then Akobian and somebody else (Finegold?) can round up a competitive lineup.

Yermo, any idea why Postovsky was named the US captain? in old chess magazines, I see that he was captain of Russia (and the Soviet Union?) in the 90s. must be unprecedented for a non-playing captain to represent two different countries.

I really wish India was invited instead of the Chinese womens team. It would have made an excellent chance for the world to see the young Indian second tier players (after Anand, Hari and Sasikiran) in action.

In the US the players name the captain

Well, that solves the mystery. Presumably, the players wanted a manager in their 'comfort zone'.

Did anyone see Milov's 3-1 win over Anand in the Corsica finals? Incredible. I hope anand hasn't let the san luis fiasco affect his play. and this was the man who lead Amber earlier this year with an incredible 10/10.

Curious how the Chinese Women played their 4 lowest rated players in the round against the Chinese Men...

I don't see anything wrong with their board choices. As I recall Zhao Xue (the highest rated of the women's team) had a somewhat terrible record against Bu Xiangzhi, so it made perfect sense to use someone else for that round. The 5th and 6th board of the women's team were used pretty heavily in the tournament sofar. Also keep in mind that these girls are all very young and their ratings are quickly increasing, so their current ratings are below their true strength, as shown by their play in this tournament.

Just came across an old news item: the Chinese teams were selected by a qualifying tournament in January this year. The top 6 finishers in men's and women's groups get to be on the teams. Interestingly the then 10-years-old Hou Yifan was the champion of the women's group (Bu won the men's group).

Hmmm...after 5 of the 8 matches, the USA team is in clear 3rd place. Give credit where credit is due: they fought well in their match vs. the Chinese women, and they were rewarded with a 4-0 sweep. The result could well have been quite different, but the age and experience of the US squad was reflected in their superior endgame technique.

The Chinese women have performed reasonably well, notwithstanding the the collapse vs. the US.

They barely lost to Israel 1.5--2.5, and they managed to draw their match vs. the Georgia team.

They will still finish dead last, barring a complete collpase by Cuba. However, it is doubtful that the African representative would have performed as well.

The Chinese men have been the surprise of the event, and lead Russia by half a game point (16.0 to 15.5) despite having played only 5 matches to Russia's 6. However, they still have to play Russia in the final round. It looks like Russia will need to pull off a win of at least 3.0--1.0 over the Chinese men, in order to have the chance to finish in 1st place. It ought to be an exciting match.

It remains to be seen whether the players of the West can adapt to the Chinese players' style. This event certainly serves as another wake up call. If trends continue, then it won't be long before China challenges Russia for status as the dominant chess power.

One wonders whether a "Russian School" will be born out of the ashes of the "Soviet School of Chess"?

The US beat the chinese women's team because of their extensive experience in Swisses against low rated players. I personally was not so impressed.

Chinese revenge! They almost swept the US back. It was bloody nasty!

Chinese team just shows the real value of Topalov's statement about his 70 points difference with Kramnik.

The US team spoiled 2 decent positions against the Chinese, with some bad blunders and poor play in time pressure. Ni's win over Ibragimov was simply a one-sided affair after the corect piece offer. The 3.5--0.5 crush by the Chinese men just about clinches the championship for them.

The Chinese women have helped out their brethren by taking a point off of the Russians. Yang Shen (2326) pulled off a 326 point upset over Sergei Rublevsky (2652).

Now the Chinese men have a 2.5 point lead
(21--18.5) over the Russians, going into their final round Head to Head match-up. The Russians will have to score +3 against the Chinese men in order to take first. It doesn't seem likely that the Chinese men will do worse against the Russians than did the Chinese women.... It's not impossible given that the Russians such an All-Star team, but the odds are definitely against them now.

Any predictions on when the First inaugural Chinese vs. Rest of the World Match will take place?

The US team spoiled 2 decent positions against the Chinese, with some bad blunders and poor play in time pressure. Ni's win over Ibragimov was simply a one-sided affair after the corect piece offer. The 3.5--0.5 crush by the Chinese men just about clinches the championship for them.

The Chinese women have helped out their brethren by taking a point off of the Russians. Yang Shen (2326) pulled off a 326 point upset over Sergei Rublevsky (2652).

Now the Chinese men have a 2.5 point lead
(21--18.5) over the Russians, going into their final round Head to Head match-up. The Russians will have to score +3 against the Chinese men in order to take first. It doesn't seem likely that the Chinese men will do worse against the Russians than did the Chinese women.... It's not impossible given that the Russians such an All-Star team, but the odds are definitely against them now.

Any predictions on when the First inaugural Chinese vs. Rest of the World Match will take place?

All-star teams do not mean as much in team events Doug. China (men) doesn't have an "all-star" team and they crushed Georgia, the U.S. and also beat Ukraine (the Olympiad champ). If all-star teams were the measure by which we assess team events, then Russia would have won the 2004 Olympiad, the 2005 European Team Championship and THIS tournament.

Team events are very different because there has to be strategy in terms of matchups and overall strategy. Chemistry is also very important. China (as Ukraine did in 2004 Olympiad) had a better match strategy and team chemistry. No team can merely show up to an event and expect to win. Who would have thought Poland would win the European Team Championship (where Russia also fielded an "all-star" team)?

It should be noted that by Olympiad rules the Russians would be leading this event.

DP,

We can find all types of examples like that to make a certain team the winner. We could go back in history and make China the winner from another tournament's criteria. A lot of people (not you necessarily) seem to expect Russia to win these things, but Russian team results have not been impressive lately.

If they were using the Olympiad system (for a 100-team Swiss event) at the outset, each team would undoubtedly have used a different match strategy and maybe China would still be on top. However, unless Russia beats China at least +3 tomorrow, they will not be the better team.

One look at the chess world and we see a lot of variety in terms of strong results by other federations. If Russia cannot win these teams tournaments touting teams with an average 2700 rating, it won't get any better. Other teams like China, India and Cuba are developing new players. In Europe, the Ukraine, Azerbaijan and Poland have bright futures. Russia has the history and depth, but they seem to have stagnated.

Chinese women have dominated and Chinese men have a contingent of about 4-5 strong young players coming up. One has been getting a lot of press lately... Wang Hao. Ni Hua emerged in similar fashion bursting on the scene as a 2568-rated FIDE Master. India will soon produce a barrage of players. Cuba is also developing some good talent... Vietnam too.

Scoring based on total game points in a round robin with two teams from one country just doesn't seem right to me. If the Chinese men sneak by the Russians by 1 point, it will go back to the results of each team against the Chinese women.

Doesn't seem right in any case. It's supposed to be a team event, right? Counting game points primarily just means adding the individual performances. This runs counter to the spirit of a TEAM competition.

Well, the Russians did it! Winning the last round 3.5-0.5, they managed to inch past the Chinese into the first place by 1/2-point.

In the end, the scoring system ended up not mattering - the order of the top 3 is the same if we go by team results instead of individual results.

And a great time was had by all ...

First, congratulations to the Russians on confounding the odds. Grischuk, Morozevich, and Bareev really pulled it together in that final match. The Chinese Men are still the moral victors of the event. For that matter, the Chinese women may have put in the 3rd best performance relative to pre-competition expectations.

DP, I believe that the current Chess Olympiad system also count Game Points, rather than Match Points, to determine who the top finishers are. This has had the unfortunate effect of creating a magnified "Swiss Gambit" scenario, where a team that has not played all that well gets a relatively easy Final round pairing, and scores 4-0--enabling them to leapfrog past teams that are cutting each other up with 2-2 ties.

I also agree with acirce: Counting Game points has never made much sense to me. The match results should be paramount, with the Game Points used as a tiebreaker. Probably, it would be appropriate to use a system where a Team gets 3 points for a match victory, 1 point for a Match Draw (2-2), and nothing for a loss. This would reward agressive play, and definitely punish those teams who agree to quick, fightless draws on all 4 boards.

It is supposed to be a World Team Ch. but with 6 Soviet teams, 2 Chinese, and Cuba it is about as representative of the world as US-style World Series.