FM Stojic: USA and China Win Gold, Aussies Win Final Rounds

The 42nd Olympiad in Baku finished with USA winning gold in the Open, with Ukraine getting silver by the narrowest of margins. In the Women’s, China defeated Russia to take out gold. The Australian teams finished brilliantly, with the Open team defeating the Philippines 2.5-1.5 and the Women’s team winning 3-1 against Japan.

The Final Round of the Australian Campaign

The Aussies were in good spirits on their way to the final round, despite the tension and the early start

Round 11 was a difficult match-up for Open team, who thus far have had a successful event: the Philippines, lead by the veteran Eugenio Torre.

Anton Smirnov, who won the GM norm already, incredibly won again – this time in a rook endgame. Anton finished the Olympiad with a score of 8.5/10, and a performance rating of 2740. Anton’s score of the two Olympiad’s he played in is now an astounding 16/19, with no losses.

Torre won against our GM-elect Moulthun Ly, which also won the former an individual bronze medal on Board 3 (with 10/11). Zong-Yuan Zhao won his game in great style, and David Smerdon held an important draw. So our boys only just won: 2.5-1.5. You can replay Zong-Yuan’s game below.

The Open team finished 30th (starting seed 46), and improvement on the previous Olympiad in Tromso, where we finished 31st!

Our Women’s team (below) won 3-1 against Japan. Heather Richards crushed her opponent quickly in an unusual line of the French Winawer. Giang Nguyen blundered in a complicated position and lost. Emma Guo and Alexandra Jule (below, right) both managed to win tough games.

The girls were very relieved to win the last round. They won’t be happy about the overall result (starting seed 54, finished 64th) – but hey, we did beat the Kiwis in the Head-to-Head. (By the way, Scott Wastney, Board 2 for New Zealand, achieved a double IM Norm.)

Ukraine (silver), USA (gold) and Russia (bronze) for the Open.

In the Women’s section, all eyes in Round 11 were on the showdown between the top two seeds, China and Russia. Despite a strong challenge, China won the match 2.5-1.5 and the gold medal. Russia missed out on the medal altogether, with Poland winning silver and Ukraine bronze.One of the big individual clashes was between Anna Muzychuk, winner of individual gold on Board 1, and the former World Champion Antoaneta Stefanova:

Poland (silver), China** (gold) and Ukraine (Bronze) for the Women’s.

Closing Ceremony

The venue of the Closing Ceremony was the same as that of the Opening Ceremony: the National Gymnastics Arena. We were seated high up, and my phone camera struggled. For better pictures, see the final round Chessbase article.

After some dancing, it was time to present the prizes. And there were quite a few to present: the rating category prizes, all the individual medals, and of course, the team medals and trophies.

Full list of Open section individual medalists:

Board 1
Rk.	Name	Rtg	Team	Rp	Pts.	%	Games
1	GM	Jobava Baadur	2665	Georgia	2926	8,0	80,0	10
2	GM	Dominguez Perez Leinier	2720	Cuba	2839	7,5	75,0	10
3	GM	Caruana Fabiano	2808	United States of America	2838	7,0	70,0	10

Board 2
Rk.	Name	Rtg	Team	Rp	Games	Pts.	%	RtgAvg
1	GM	Kramnik, Vladimir	2808	Russia	2903	8	6,5	81,3	2652
2	GM	Kovalyov, Anton	2617	Canada	2852	10	8,0	80,0	2612
3	GM	Cori, Jorge	2609	Peru	2810	10	8,0	80,0	2570

Board 3
Rk.	Name	Rtg	Team	Rp	Games	Pts.	%	RtgAvg
1	GM	So, Wesley	2782	United States of America	2896	10	8,5	85,0	2600
2	GM	Almasi, Zoltan	2684	Hungary	2845	9	7,5	83,3	2572
3	GM	Torre, Eugenio	2447	Philippines	2836	11	10,0	90,9	2453

Board 4
Rk.	Name	Rtg	Team	Rp	Games	Pts.	%	RtgAvg
1	GM	Fressinet, Laurent	2664	France	2809	8	7,0	87,5	2425
2	GM	Nepomniachtchi, Ian	2740	Russia	2804	10	8,0	80,0	2564
3	GM	Indjic, Aleksandar	2548	Serbia	2786	10	8,5	85,0	2490

Board 5
Rk.	Name	Rtg	Team	Rp	Games	Pts.	%	RtgAvg
1	GM	Volokitin, Andrei	2647	Ukraine	2992	9	8,5	94,4	2548
2	IM	Khader, Sami	2373	Jordan	2932	8	8,0	100,0	1978
3	GM	Aleksandrov, Aleksej	2547	Belarus	2760	8	6,5	81,3	2509

    

Aleksandar Indjic of Serbia scored Bronze on board 4, whilst Vladimir Kramnik of Russia scored Gold on board 2.

Full individual medalists for Women’s section:

Board 1
Rk.	Name	Rtg	Team	Rp	Games	Pts.	%	RtgAvg
1	GM	Muzychuk, Anna	2550	Ukraine	2629	10	7,5	75,0	2436
2	GM	Hou, Yifan	2658	China	2547	8	5,5	68,8	2404
3	GM	Cramling, Pia	2444	Sweden	2537	11	8,5	77,3	2326

Board 2
Rk.	Name	Rtg	Team	Rp	Games	Pts.	%	RtgAvg
1	GM	Gunina, Valentina	2520	Russia	2643	10	8,0	80,0	2403
2	GM	Ju, Wenjun	2583	China	2501	11	7,5	68,2	2366
3	IM	Daulyte, Deimante	2421	Lithuania	2481	10	8,0	80,0	2230

Board 3
Rk.	Name	Rtg	Team	Rp	Games	Pts.	%	RtgAvg
1	WGM	Mammadova, Gulnar	2304	Azerbaijan 1	2559	9	7,0	77,8	2331
2	WGM	Szczepkowska-Horowska,Karina	2409	Poland	2547	8	6,5	81,3	2279
3	WGM	Nguyen, Thi Mai Hung	2316	Vietnam	2442	11	8,0	72,7	2256

Board 4
Rk.	Name	Rtg	Team	Rp	Games	Pts.	%	RtgAvg
1	WGM	Tan, Zhongyi	2475	China	2565	11	9,0	81,8	2287
2	IM	Batsiashvili, Nino	2474	Georgia	2533	10	9,0	90,0	2130
3	WGM	Kulon, Klaudia	2346	Poland	2506	11	9,0	81,8	2241

Board 5
Rk.	Name	Rtg	Team	Rp	Games	Pts.	%	RtgAvg
1	IM	Guo, Qi	2417	China	2394	8	5,5	68,8	2232
2	WIM	Navrotescu, Andreea-Cristiana	2235	France	2285	10	7,0	70,0	2115
3	IM	Gara, Anita	2355	Hungary	2277	8	5,0	62,5	2164

Ukraine won the Nona Gaprindashvili Cup, for the best combined performance in Open and Women’s.

Saying Goodbye to Baku

My first Olympiad has certainly been an amazing experience. The city of Baku has exceeded my expectations, in terms of things to do, and especially the Azeri hospitality. I would recommend anyone to visit who has a chance, and I would try to come back at least once more.

As a chess event, the Olympiad itself has been a wonderful thing to be at (and in a small way, a part of). Witnessing the inner workings of the Aussie Olympic team have made me more optimistic about the future of Australian chess as a whole. I believe the future is bright (see star Anton Smirnov below), though there are many things that need to change.

I hope you have enjoyed my musings, dear reader. I do intend to keep blogging, perhaps weekly. My “wanderings” will turn more into “ponderings” about the Aussie chess scene in general.

Need to catch a flight (final leg from Singapore). 🙂

* Which is a weighting of the opponents’ scores by the corresponding points scored against each team, discounting the highest and lowest scoring opponents. (What’s wrong with just having the board points as the first tie-break?)
** Notice China’s flag was held the wrong way, but they did turn it around in time for more photos.