Most rating favorites have calmly defeated their opponents. The greatest upset of the day probably goes to Adams - Carlsen that started with 1.e4 g6 and ended in the Englishman's favor. Second loss for Carlsen in four games - this is the Olympiad!
The rules are simple - send us your questions and see them featured in the weekly Q&A column!
Q1: Why does Russia have 5 teams in the Open section?
A1: It is strange, actually. In Russia the first two teams are labeled as Russian, other three are known as "local". In fact, the team composition is strange: not entirely, local, junior or strong enough. In my opinion, Russia should have avoided this situation by having only 2 or 3 teams (as the organizers normally do). On the other hand, it's a chance for some more players to enjoy the Olympiad (even if they don't compete for the medals), why not?
Q2: What has been the greatest upset so far?
A2: There have been many sensations, but who could expect both Russia-1 and Russia-2 to lose in the 5th round of the Open section? That must be it.
Q3: Are you satisfied with your team's and your own performances at the Olympiad?
A3: Chess players make judgements about the results only after a tournament is over.
Q4: Is chess more of a logical or intuitive game?
A4: It depends on the player. Some rely purely on logic and principles, others just *see* the moves. Personally I am more of an intuitive player.
Q5: After reading your article about making money in chess, I'd like to know what your
thoughts are concerning scandals in chess (such as Zurich 1953) and to what extent
scandals have damaged the reputation of the "noble game" in the eyes of potential
(financial) backers.
A5: Chess is indeed a very noble and intelligent game, you don't hear about scandals there that often. That's why sometimes media produces cheap sensations like "chess player (sic!) X did Y", and at the end of the article one learns that the "chess player" is someone rated in the 1200-2000 range. Also, even if some tension between top players occurs, it is rarely visible. For example, you mention Zurich 1953. Do you think many people have at least some notion about what happened there? My guess is no.
Q6: When did you get your first rating, what was it?
A6: In 1999, it was FIDE 2159. At that time rated tournaments weren't as widespread as nowadays...
Q7: Is it hard to become a titled player?
A7: Depends on the title. While in the professional community only GM/WGM and IM/WIM are considered to be "real" titles, there are also semi-professional ones like FM/WFM and amateur ones - CM/WCM. The top two titles are rather hard to achieve and require many years of persistent work, while the lower ones can be obtained relatively quickly.
Few people managed to predict the outcome of today's matches as the upsets in the open section were huge, including the main three favorites. See for yourself:
Baadur Jobava (2710, Georgia) managed to defeat the seemingly invincible Magnus Carlsen (2825, Norway)
Source: http://ugra-chess.com
A few critical matches have been played in round 4 (including Russia-1 vs USA, Hungary vs China and Russia-2 vs India in the men's section and Russia-1 vs Georgia in the women's section). Here are the main resuts (upsets in italic):
While a few tough matches have been played on day 3, most of the favorites won convincingly. Round 4 should be more unpredictable.
Still, a few unexpected results took place.
