World Team Championship

(NOTE: Photos sourced from chessbase.com)

BY: BOBBY ANG

(As published in Chess Piece, Businessworld, January 22, 2010)

World Team Championship
Bursa, Turkey
Jan. 5-13, 2010

Final Standings
1. Russia (Grischuk, Jakovenko, Morozevich, Tomashevsky, Malakhov, Vitiugov), 15/18 (24 board pts)
2. USA (Nakamura, Onischuk, Shulman, Akobian, Hess, Robson), 13/18 (21.5 BP)
3. India (Sasikiran, Harikrishna, Ganguly, Gopal, Arun, Adhiban), 13/18 (21.0 BP)
4. Azerbaijan (Gashimov, Radjabov, Guseinov, Mamedyarov, Rauf Mamedov, Nidjat Mamedov), 12/18 (22 BP)
5. Armenia (Aronian, Akopian, Sargissian, Pashikian, Petrosian, Kotanian), 12/18 (20.5 BP)
6. Greece (Kotronias, Papaioannou, Banikas, Halkias, D.Mastrovasilis, A.Mastrovasilis), 8/18 (18.0 BP)
7. Israel (Gelfand, Roiz, Smirin, Sutovsky, Postny, Rodshtein), 7/18 (17.0 BP)
8. Brazil (Vescovi, Leitao, Fier, Milos, Diamant, Lima), 4/18 (12.5 BP)
9. Egypt (Adly, Amin, Ezat, Abdel Razik, Abdelnabbi, Sarwat), 3/18 (12.0 BP)
10. Turkey (Haznaderoglu, Erdoglu, Yilmaz, Can, Esen, Firat), 3/18 (11.5 BP)

Some readers wrote me a few weeks ago that they did not really understand about this match points vs board points thing, so we will take a few paragraphs to explain the difference.

Let us take the last round match between Armenia and Egypt. Aronian, Akopian and Pashikian from the first country defeated their counterparts from Egypt while their 4th board GM Tigran L. Petrosian was upset by IM Abdel Razik Khaled.

On the match point system we only look at the overall result of the match. Armenia will get 2 pts vs Turkey’s 0 pts (2 pts for a match win, 1 pt for a tie, and 0 pts for a loss). It does not matter how lopsided the score is -- a win is a win and gives you 2 match points.

On board points we look at the result of every individual game, scoring 1 pt for a win, 1/5 pt for a draw and 0 for a loss. Since Armenia had three wins vs. a solitary loss they get 3 board points vs 1 for Egypt.

There is always a discussion on which method is better for scoring a team tournament, which we won’t be getting into here. Suffice it to say that in this particular case they used the match points system, with ties resolved with whoever has the higher total board points, and if this is still equal then the winner-over-the-other rule will prevail.

The composition of the championship is:
1. top three of the Olympiad (Armenia, Israel, USA)
2. continental champions (Russia, China, Brazil and Egypt)
3. organizing federation (Turkey)
4. two invitees (Greece, Azerbaijan)

The invitation to Azerbaijan as a special invitee is easy to understand, it being the European champion, but the presence of the Greek team raised many eyebrows. There were lots of teams with better qualifications, like Ukraine (2nd highest rated country in the world), or any of the following countries who tied for 5th place in the Olympiad -- Spain, Hungary, Germany, Vietnam (!!!), or maybe even the Philippines (because I am the one writing this column and I get first dibs).

China also surprised more than a few with their sudden last-minute withdrawal, yielding their slot to the second highest team from Asia, which is India. This did not please the organizers, which had some harsh words to say about the Chinese team.
You would think that after their narrow loss in the previous World Teams that China would be eager to compete again, and I suspect the reason had more to do with politics than chess. You see there is this very huge province (1.6 million square kilometers! four times the size of California) in China called Xinjiang (literally, "New Frontier" -- others prefer to call it Uyghurstan or Eastern Turkestan) which used to be run by the Uyghurs, a people tracing their roots more to the Turkish rather than Chinese people. Anyway, recent massive migrations of the Chinese Han people have made the Uyghurs a minority in their own province, which led to ethnic tensions and erupted in violence last July 2009 in Urumqi. You will now understand that relations between Turkey and China are now at a low point.

But I digress, back to the chess.

The Russian team is always the favorite when it participates in team tournaments, but ever since Garry Kasparov retired from professional chess in 2005 the Russians seemed to miss his charismatic and dynamic leadership, with the result that despite their star-studded lineups to the events somebody else would oftentimes come out ahead. Look at the Olympiads (Ukraine won at 2004 Calvia, Armenia was no. 1 in 2006 Turin and 2008 Dresden), and the European Championship (Netherlands at 2005 Gothenburg, Russia at 2007 Heraklion and Azerbaijan at 2009 Novi Sad). In the last staging of the world Team Championships (2005 Beersheva) China looked all set for victory and Russia needed a 3.5-0.5 last round rout over their Asian rivals for them to grab the crown. I still remember the sad picture of Ni Hua crying uncontrollably when he lost the last game to be finished, against Morozevich, realizing that what could have been a highlight of his career had slipped through his fingers.

Here in Bursa Russia arrived without their top guns Kramnik and Svidler, but such is their depth that nevertheless they were top seeded with an average rating of 2729. Morozevich was in poor form, but his other teammates did what was expected of them, most notably their two bottom boards Vladimir Malakhov (5/7) and Nikita Vitiugov (5.5/6). Here is what could be the most sensational game of the event, played in the most controversial line in opening theory.

ANNOTATED GAME
Gashimov, Vugar (2759) -- Grischuk, Alexander (2736) [B97]7th World Team Championship Bursa TUR (4), 08.01.2010
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