Olympic Notes |
| Written by Administrator | ||||||||||||||||
| Tuesday, 12 October 2010 | ||||||||||||||||
 by Natalia Pogonina for her Chess.com Tuesday column The World Chess Olympiad. Intrigue, unpredictability, a holiday for all the participants. The strongest team tournament, held every two years, identifies the number one team in the world. It is a must-follow for any chess fan. This year's host of the Olympics has become the cozy city of Khanty-Mansiysk, which has organized the tournament on a brilliant level. Nothing distracted the players from the game. I would like to share with you my personal impressions of both the men's and women's tournaments. Due to the fact that Russia was the organizer, it had the right to introduce a few teams. I was asked to lead the second team, composed of our young and very promising chess players. Competing on the first board is a special responsibility and, at the same time, an opportunity to face the leading masters from all over the world. Unfortunately, I was not in a very good shape. While some of the games were played at a very decent level, in others I blundered terribly and ended up with only 5.5 points out of 11 (as opposed to 5.5 out of 7 in 2008 as a reserve player of the Russian team). Also, despite our best efforts, a loss to the invincible Russia-1 in the final round threw our team back to the 10th place. In the case of a last-round win we would have taken either bronze or 4th place (so much for conspiracy theories). The rating favorite, Russia-1, deserved the victory in this event. Other teams didnt even come close to its results. To give you a sense of how strong the team is, the current World Champion Alexandra Kosteniuk was playing on board 3 for it, and the two-times runner-up to the Champion of the World Alisa Galliamova on board 4! This level is impossible to match for other teams, of course. This Olympiad will also be remembered for an especially high rate of inexplicable blunders by the worlds leading players. The reasons for it are not clear to me, but at Dresden this wasnt the case. The Chinese team, which used to be quite formidable, seemed to struggle and won silver only due to strong will and determination. Georgia got bronze due to playing without the legendary Maia Chiburdanidze. Kudos to Cuba their 4th-place result has become the main sensation of the tournament. The Cuban team is rather solid and very friendly, as it seems. Atmosphere and good relations between players mean a lot in team events.
My opponent kept maneuvering rather shyly, missed her chances, and allowed me to initiate a dangerous attack. After trying to defend in vain, she lost a pawn and, eventually, the game. 
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