After a huge win versus Russia yesterday, the US team unfortunately eliminated themselves from gold medal contention by losing a match they must win or tie to stay in the hunt. Alex Onischuk, a strong endgame player and a long time clutch Olympiad player for the US, lost a technically drawn R and P endgame. This was the margin which the US lost by. This was a heartbreaking loss and a sad reality of the Olympiad. One blunder at the wrong time can cost a contending team a medal. Alex is a good friend and I feel very bad for him and team USA.
In the mean time, Armenia defeated Holland and Russia defeated Argentina to remain the gold medal race. As of the rest of the contenders, Ukraine defeated Azerbaijan, Germany defeated Belarus, and Hungary wiped out Denmark 4-0 to still have mathematical chances for the bronze.
Round 10 top match results
| Bo. | 6 | China (CHN) | Rtg | – | 5 | United States Of America (USA) | Rtg | 2½:1½ |
| 1.1 | GM | Wang, Hao | 2726 | – | GM | Nakamura, Hikaru | 2778 | ½ – ½ |
| 1.2 | GM | Wang, Yue | 2685 | – | GM | Kamsky, Gata | 2746 | ½ – ½ |
| 1.3 | GM | Ding, Liren | 2695 | – | GM | Onishuk, Alexander | 2666 | 1 – 0 |
| 1.4 | GM | Bu, Xiangzhi | 2670 | – | GM | Akobian, Varuzhan | 2617 | ½ – ½ |
| Bo. | 29 | Argentina (ARG) | Rtg | – | 1 | Russia (RUS) | Rtg | 1½:2½ |
| 2.1 | GM | Peralta, Fernando | 2606 | – | GM | Grischuk, Alexander | 2763 | ½ – ½ |
| 2.2 | GM | Flores, Diego | 2589 | – | GM | Karjakin, Sergey | 2785 | 0 – 1 |
| 2.3 | GM | Felgaer, Ruben | 2570 | – | GM | Tomashevsky, Evgeny | 2730 | ½ – ½ |
| 2.4 | GM | Mareco, Sandro | 2589 | – | GM | Jakovenko, Dmitry | 2722 | ½ – ½ |
| Bo. | 9 | Netherlands (NED) | Rtg | – | 3 | Armenia (ARM) | Rtg | 1 : 3 |
| 3.1 | GM | Giri, Anish | 2711 | – | GM | Aronian, Levon | 2816 | 0 – 1 |
| 3.2 | GM | Van Wely, Loek | 2691 | – | GM | Movsesian, Sergei | 2698 | ½ – ½ |
| 3.3 | GM | Sokolov, Ivan | 2696 | – | GM | Akopian, Vladimir | 2687 | 0 – 1 |
| 3.4 | GM | Smeets, Jan | 2608 | – | GM | Sargissian, Gabriel | 2693 | ½ – ½ |
| Bo. | 7 | Azerbaijan (AZE) | Rtg | – | 2 | Ukraine (UKR) | Rtg | 1½:2½ |
| 4.1 | GM | Radjabov, Teimour | 2788 | – | GM | Ivanchuk, Vassily | 2769 | ½ – ½ |
| 4.2 | GM | Safarli, Eltaj | 2620 | – | GM | Ponomariov, Ruslan | 2734 | 0 – 1 |
| 4.3 | GM | Mamedyarov, Shakhriyar | 2729 | – | GM | Volokitin, Andrei | 2709 | ½ – ½ |
| 4.4 | GM | Mamedov, Rauf | 2634 | – | GM | Moiseyenko, Aleksandr | 2706 | ½ – ½ |
| Bo. | 17 | Czech Republic (CZE) | Rtg | – | 16 | Poland (POL) | Rtg | 1 : 3 |
| 5.1 | GM | Laznicka, Viktor | 2683 | – | GM | Wojtaszek, Radoslaw | 2717 | 0 – 1 |
| 5.2 | GM | Navara, David | 2691 | – | GM | Socko, Bartosz | 2635 | 1 – 0 |
| 5.3 | GM | Hracek, Zbynek | 2619 | – | GM | Swiercz, Dariusz | 2594 | 0 – 1 |
| 5.4 | GM | Babula, Vlastimil | 2595 | – | GM | Macieja, Bartlomiej | 2594 | 0 – 1 |
| Bo. | 39 | Denmark (DEN) | Rtg | – | 4 | Hungary (HUN) | Rtg | 0 : 4 |
| 6.1 | GM | Hansen, Sune Berg | 2577 | – | GM | Leko, Peter | 2737 | 0 – 1 |
| 6.2 | GM | Aagaard, Jacob | 2517 | – | GM | Almasi, Zoltan | 2713 | 0 – 1 |
| 6.3 | GM | Rasmussen, Allan Stig | 2496 | – | GM | Polgar, Judit | 2698 | 0 – 1 |
| 6.4 | IM | Glud, Jakob Vang | 2498 | – | GM | Berkes, Ferenc | 2685 | 0 – 1 |
| Bo. | 32 | Belarus (BLR) | Rtg | – | 14 | Germany (GER) | Rtg | 1½:2½ |
| 7.1 | GM | Zhigalko, Sergei | 2667 | – | GM | Naiditsch, Arkadij | 2712 | ½ – ½ |
| 7.2 | GM | Zhigalko, Andrey | 2582 | – | GM | Meier, Georg | 2648 | ½ – ½ |
| 7.3 | GM | Teterev, Vitaly | 2528 | – | GM | Fridman, Daniel | 2653 | ½ – ½ |
| 7.4 | GM | Stupak, Kirill | 2523 | – | GM | Gustafsson, Jan | 2610 | 0 – 1 |
| Bo. | 35 | Philippines (PHI) | Rtg | – | 27 | Vietnam (VIE) | Rtg | 2 : 2 |
| 8.1 | GM | So, Wesley | 2652 | – | GM | Le, Quang Liem | 2693 | ½ – ½ |
| 8.2 | GM | Barbosa, Oliver | 2554 | – | GM | Nguyen, Ngoc Truong Son | 2639 | ½ – ½ |
| 8.3 | GM | Torre, Eugene | 2469 | – | IM | Nguyen, Van Huy | 2506 | ½ – ½ |
| 8.4 | GM | Paragua, Mark | 2508 | – | IM | Nguyen, Doc Hoa | 2505 | ½ – ½ |
| Bo. | 13 | India (IND) | Rtg | – | 15 | Cuba (CUB) | Rtg | 2 : 2 |
| 9.1 | GM | Sasikiran, Krishnan | 2707 | – | GM | Dominguez Perez, Leinier | 2725 | 0 – 1 |
| 9.2 | GM | Harikrishna, Pentala | 2685 | – | GM | Bruzon Batista, Lazaro | 2711 | 0 – 1 |
| 9.3 | GM | Negi, Parimarjan | 2664 | – | GM | Quesada Perez, Yuniesky | 2626 | 1 – 0 |
| 9.4 | GM | Gupta, Abhijeet | 2637 | – | IM | Bacallao Alonso, Yusnel | 2583 | 1 – 0 |
| Bo. | 12 | Israel (ISR) | Rtg | – | 26 | Georgia (GEO) | Rtg | 2 : 2 |
| 10.1 | GM | Gelfand, Boris | 2738 | – | GM | Mchedlishvili, Mikheil | 2659 | ½ – ½ |
| 10.2 | GM | Rodshtein, Maxim | 2642 | – | GM | Gagunashvili, Merab | 2578 | ½ – ½ |
| 10.3 | GM | Postny, Evgeny | 2638 | – | GM | Pantsulaia, Levan | 2575 | 1 – 0 |
| 10.4 | GM | Avrukh, Boris | 2605 | – | GM | Shanava, Konstantine | 2569 | 0 – 1 |
Full results here.
Seems a little harsh to make it appear that it was all Onischuk’s fault. I am certain he isn’t happy with the result or how it came about, but the other 3 players played a lot of moves too – surely they also had opportunities to play better?