Chess Olympiad: Round 4 LIVE |
| Written by Administrator | ||||
| Friday, 31 August 2012 | ||||
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Video broadcast with commentary 21:26 Thank you for following the broadcast! Have a nice evening! 21:25 Kudos to Wang Hao for the valiant defense. Vladimir Kramnik couldn't penetrate his defense. Russia-China 3-1. 21:16 The Chinese ladies beat Germany 3-1. 21:08 Georgia-Cuba 4-0 (Women). 21:06 Germany holds Azerbaijan to a draw. 21:01 The hard-fought match between the Czech Republic and Russian (women) ended 3-1 in the favorites' favor. 21:00 Ukraine is doing quite impressively. They scored 3 points against Poland. 20:56 Natalia Pogonina wins the 4th game in a row in great style!  20:41 Most of the games are over already. However, some critical matches are still going on.  20:36 Czech Republic crushes Norway 4-0. Carlsen, Hammer, where are you?! 20:29 As far as I can tell, Natalia made a spectacular move. Chess engines don't see it unless you make it on the board! Bf2!!  20:19 Kramnik is still trying to convert his advantage, but Wang Hao is not an easy nut to crack.  20:13 USA-India 2-2. Armenia-Philippines 2.5-1.5. Hungary-Slovakia 3-1. 20:05 Natalia's game is likely to transpose into rook+bishop+h-pawn vs. rook+g6 and f5. Technical difficulties ahead. 19:59 Palau earned half a board point today - congrats! 19:56 Nadezhda Kosintseva outplayed her opponent in time trouble and won!  19:53 Short-Edouard ended in a stalemate.  19:46 Radjabov-Naiditsch 1-0. 19:43 Harikrishna outplayed Kamsky. USA-India will probably be a draw.  19:34 Gupta-Akobian: draw. Nakamura defeated Sasikiran. 19:32 Ponomariov scored with Black against Bartel. 19:25 Grischuk won. Vachier-Lagrave vs. Adams - draw. 19:19 Wang Yue blundered. Grischuk should win his game soon. 19:13 Gunina (2507) drew her game against Nemcova (2276) with White. Actually, a good result if you look at the position. Who would have thought? I hope Valya will score better in the following rounds: she made two draws already and won only one game. 19:07 Time is becoming a major factor on many boards. Some players have like 5-8 minutes left already. 19:01 Was I too optimistic about the chances of Russia against China? Wang Hao seems to have good chances to create a fortress, while Jakovenko made some inaccurate moves, and the position now is rather complicated. 18:49 I like Natalia's decision in the practical sense. Instead of playing with two extra pawns against two bishops, she decides to trade one of the bishops. Then she will have three pawns vs. one on the queenside; the color of the bishops will be the same. 18:46 Garry Kasparov is back. He is usually very swift in evaluating the positions. Takes a glance and says who's winning. 18:39 Russia - Czech Republic. Tania is doing better. Nadia's position is more or less equal. Valya has a somewhat worse ending. Natalia's opponent sacrificed another pawn for activity, very interesting turn of events. 18:32 A few brief evaluations: USA vs. India looks like 2-2; Russia-China 3-1; Azerbaijan-Germany 2-2; France-England 2-2. 18:25 Natalia Pogonina has an extra pawn, but her opponent's pieces are more active. Black also has two bishops. 18:22 Looks like Wang Hao blundered. Kramnik should be able to convert this. 18:19 Sargissian scores for Armenia on board 4 vs. Dimakiling. 18:16 Perpetual check in Paehtz-Yifan, draw. 18:14 Jones-Fressinet, draw. 18:11 Russia vs. China: Jakovenko and Kramnik seem to have very nice positions. Rather balanced on the other boards. 18:05 Kramnik is being interviewed. Says he is always happy to meet his old friends at the Olympiad. Recalls how his international career started at the 1992 Olympiad in Manila. Overall he played 6 Olympiads, earned 3 team gold medals. Says he prefers board points to match points and regrets that the scoring system has been changed. Luck is critical, says Vladimir. Simply being a strong and united team is not enough. 18:00 Exotic hairstyles: 17:48 In the Open section most of the positions are equal or slightly in favor of one of the sides. 17:42 China has a nice advantage vs. Germany on board 4. 17:38 I am concerned about the Russian ladies' positions. Pogonina has an equal endgame. Gunina is even worse. Kosintsevas? 17:37  17:21 Michalchishin: "At the European Championship Armenia was playing against Germany, not a strong team which has no team spirit at all, yet they lost" - what was that?! 17:18 Michalchishin: women are very predictable, you know what the other girl will play. With men it is completely different. Says that in the men's section it is very important to choose the right opening and the optimal team composition (taking into account the previous scores of the players). Women's chess is more dependent on psychology, he thinks. 17:14 Petrosian says that Armenia is very strong both chesswise and in terms of team spirit. Also thanks Movsesian for having joined the team and having helped win the last World Championship. 17:12 Michalchishin is talking about how important it is for a chess coach to be well-educated in pedagogics and psychology, not only chess. Says that special seminars are held to compensate for the lack of qualified professionals. 17:06 Press conference of two well-known chess coaches and grandmasters, Adrian Michalchishin and Arshak Petrosian:  17:00 The Russian boards so far:  16:46 Russia vs. China, the central match of the day:  16:42 China-Germany:  16:33 Amenia vs. Philippines. Very interesting match-up: So - Aronian. Wesley is known for being able to upset super grandmasters.  16:29 Germany vs. Azerbaijan:  16:22 India (alas, without Anand) vs. USA:  16:16 I believe that it is very important for everyone to support their own players. The predictions that some experts make, and the constant repetition by GM Sergey Shipov that China is the strongest team in the women's section are irritating. First of all, Russia is the reigning Olympic champion. Secondly, this looks like an inferiority complex to me. Let's just see how the tournament goes without labeling certain teams as champions in advance. 16:13 Russia vs. Czech Republic:  16:07  16:02 With just one reserve player the team captains don't have much space for maneuvering. If one of the team members is ill, exhausted or in a bad chess form, everyone else has to play. 15:49 Yesterday a "Chess in Education" press conference took place at the Olympiad. FIDE is actively trying to introduce chess into the school curriculum all over the world.  11:22 The board pairings are up. You can check them out here. 10:40 Natalia Pogonina and Alexandra Kosteniuk are by far the most popular female chess players on Twitter. You can follow either Natalia, or Alexandra, or both.  10:00 Three bogatyrs: Kramnik, Grischuk, Karjakin. In the history of chess only 6 players managed to reach the empyreal mark of 2800+ FIDE. Kramnik is one of them. The record belongs to Garry Kasparov (2851, Jan. 2000), but everyone is expecting that the amazing Norwegean Magnus Carlsen will break it soon.  9:45 In the modern world one can easily order books or software online. However, choosing it in real life is a much more pleasant experience:  9:35 Jokes aside! Only 13 teams in the Open section have 6/6 match points. Even less - 8 teams - in the women's event. Today we can expect a number of exciting match-ups. The central confrontation is Russia (#1) vs. China (#6). In July the reserve team of Russia defeated the main team of China, but that doesn't mean much. China is a very powerful team. Pair #2 is France (#8) - England (#11). Don't let me get into the history of the relationships between these two great European countries, and I don't mean chess. Of course, USA (#5) - India (#13) will also be followed very closely. Pairings of the leaders in the Open section: The ladies from Germany (#9) were very close to beating Georgia (#3) yesterday. Will they be able to repeat their achievement vs. China (#1) today? This is the match of the day in the Women's section. Russia (#2) is facing the Czech Republic (#23) - a solid team, but definitely not on par with the reigning Olympic champions. Interestingly enough, the Czech team also features sisters - Olsarovas. They are just like Kosintsevas, but rated about 300 rating points lower. Leaders in the women's section:
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