The Wolrld Team Chess Championship-2011 in Ningbo, China will be remembered by most chess fans as the first event in which the rating favorite - Russia - didn't make it to the top-3. The competition in chess is becoming more challenging: Russia has eleven 2700+ players to choose from. Ukraine 4-5, while others have less. Nonetheless, many countries can allocate 5 decent players (4 main and 1 reserve). Also, team events are special in the sense of the importance of team spirit. It can often compensate for a 50-100 points difference in average rating.
Armenia has proved this statement by winning the championship undefeated. Just four draws - against USA, Russia, Azerbaijan and Ukraine, and the Olympic Champions of 2006 and 2008 get another prestigeous title.
The tournament organizer, China, performed very well, proving that they know what patriotism and playing for one's country means. Even an unexpected loss against Israel in round 3 didn't stop them. Btw, Armenia also won its match against China, so silver was a well-deserved award for the former.
The mighty team of Ukraine started off by losing 1.5 points against the outsider Egypt, then lost to China, won against India and lost to Hungary. Many teams would have let it go, but the Ukrainians took their chance and won bronze. It was granted by an inexplicable play by the Russian team.
A nice start (3-1 vs USA, 3 vs 1 Hungary) was followed by a draw against Armenia and a shocking loss (1-3) to Azerbaijan, from which the Russian team couldn't recover. Top grandmasters started playing superficially. At some point hope was born that the Russians would be able to win the last four matches. Alas, in round 6 Ukraine got away with a draw, and in round 7 it seemed like Russia was winning 3-1 vs China, but it lost 1.5-2.5. A whitewash (4-0) against Israel in round 8 was a swan's song. Chess fans have noticed that in the case of a last round's non-loss by Armenia against Ukraine and China's loss to Hungary Russia would still have a chance for one of the medals. However, to start taking that into account, Russia had to defeat the Indian team. Given Anand's absence and a nearly 100-points average rating difference, this didn't seem like a heroic deed, but the strongest chess nation in the world lost 1.5-2.5 and finished at a relatively miserable 4th place.
In more detail about the results of Russian players:
Sergey Karjakin (2788) was clearly not ready to lead the team. The second highest-rated player of the championship scored -2 =4 and was sacked. Performance 2624. Chess fans would notice that meanwhile Vladimir Kramnik gave a beating to his opponents in Dortmund. 4.5/5 is a result of chess engine (3000+), not human! It's a pity that the ex-World Chess Champion decided not to play for Russia, and the winner of the Russian Top League Alexander Morozevich wasn't even invited to participate.
Alexander Grischuk (2747) kept shocking his teammates by leaving himself just a few minutes for 15-20 moves. Nonetheless, in time trouble he played brilliantly and scored better than others: +4 -1 =3 and an impressive performance - 2836!
Ian Nepomniatchi (2711) became the informal leader of the team in this event in the first few rounds. Then his game started cracking up, and some totally winning positions weren't converted. This may have to do with fatigue, as he was the only player who didn't have any rest days. +4 -1 =4 and a neat 2808 performance by the young Russian champion.
Experienced Peter Svidler (2739) disappointed his fans by scoring just 50%. +2 -2 =3 and the worst performance in the team 2614.
While being somewhat psychologically constrained, Nikita Vitiugov (2733) proved his fighting spirit and put up a solid peformance - +2 =4, 2729.
Hungary finished 5th mainly thanks to a successful comeback by its leader Peter Leko (2717), who performed at 2803.
With the absence of Nakamura the USA team was not in contention for the medals and finished 6th. 50-year old chess veteran Yasser Seirawan (2635) was dubbed as "easy target" by many commentators before the event, but he scored +3 -1 =3 and performed at 2773, thus defending the honor of old-school chess.
Vugar Gashimov chose to decline an invitation to Biel to strengthen his team. Azerbaijan also employed the experienced ex-coach of the Ukraine team Vladimir Toukmakov. Nonetheless, Azerbaijan, a team that was considered one of the favorites, finished at 7th place.
India, lacking Anand, got the 8th place (just 7 team points), eliminating Russia's hopes for a medal in the final round.
Israel without Gelfand was also weakened by Emil Sutovsky's pathetic play (+1 -4 =2, performance of 2567). Ninth place.
The team from Egypt must have had a great experience at the event. They lost all their matches and scored only 9 individual points (the winning team got 22.5). Kudos to IM Sam Shoker who earned 4 points for his team (including a last-round win with Black against Mamedyarov himself!) and obtained a GM-norm.
The bitter taste of the results is too fresh to comment on it further and analyze the reasons. This can be done later, while for now any Russian chess fan would prefer to forget about this nightmare...
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