Top teams move to 2-0 at Chess Olympiad in Germany
By ROBERT HUNTINGTON – 1 hour ago
DRESDEN, Germany (AP) — The top-ranked teams at the 38th Chess Olympiad advanced in the second round in both the open and women’s section.
But the U.S. men, ranked 10th, gave up a draw to Greece in the open division while the Israeli women upset the Americans.
Top-seed Russia boasts the strongest team ever assembled at a Chess Olympiad and survived a scare from 21st seed Poland, winning 2.5-1.5 when Alexander Grischuk was able to hold a pawn down queen-and-pawn ending that went 114 moves.
China, seeded third, defeated Belarus 3-1 and fourth seed Azerbaijan beat Slovakia by the same score.
The American men entered the tournament as 10th seed while Greece was ranked 27th. Gata Kamsky of Brooklyn and Hikaru Nakamura, who now lives in Vancouver drew on the top two boards while Alexander Onischuk of Reston, Virginia, on board three picked off a pawn and converted it to victory and Varuzhan Akobian of Los Angeles lost on bottom board.
On the women’s side, top seed Russia beat Slovenia 3-1 and third seed China defeated Slovakia by the same score while fourth seed Georgia got by Romania 2.5-1.5. Second seed Ukraine gave up a draw in round one and played Iran in round two. Due to difficulties at the site, the results of that match are not available.
The Israeli women, seeded 21st, had victories on the bottom two boards by Bella Igla and Olga Vasiliev while Rusudan Goletiani of New York won on board two for the seventh seed Americans, nicely converting a queenside bind into a passed pawn with a temporary exchange sacrifice.
Here is the full story.
Lame.