This is a crucial round for medal contenders. I must say that I am a little surprised that Armenia decided to play Petrosian (2627) instead of Sargissian (2680), even both are good friends with Akobian.
If the U.S. wins this match, they can secure a medal while knocking out Armenia completely. Therefore, this is do or die for the Armenian team and I expect them to put up an incredible fight. On the other hand, Russia and Azerbaijan are aiming to win big this round for valuable tiebreak points.
The other key battle is India and Israel. India must win to keep the medal hope alive against an under perform Israeli team.
| 8.1 | 10 | ARMENIA | – | 9 | UNITED STATES | ||
| 1 | GM | Aronian Levon | 2781 | : | GM | Nakamura Hikaru | 2708 |
| 2 | GM | Akopian Vladimir | 2678 | : | GM | Onischuk Alexander | 2670 |
| 3 | GM | Pashikian Arman | 2647 | : | GM | Shulman Yuri | 2624 |
| 4 | GM | Petrosian Tigran L | 2627 | : | GM | Akobian Varuzhan | 2628 |
| 8.2 | 1 | AZERBAIJAN | – | 8 | GREECE | ||
| 1 | GM | Gashimov Vugar | 2759 | : | GM | Kotronias Vasilios | 2599 |
| 2 | GM | Radjabov Teimour | 2733 | : | GM | Banikas Hristos | 2608 |
| 3 | GM | Mamedyarov Shakhriyar | 2741 | : | GM | Halkias Stelios | 2566 |
| 4 | GM | Mamedov Rauf | 2640 | : | GM | Mastrovasilis Athanasios | 2510 |
| 8.3 | 2 | TURKIYE | – | 7 | BRAZIL | ||
| 1 | GM | Haznedaroglu Kivanc | 2498 | : | GM | Vescovi Giovanni | 2660 |
| 2 | IM | Yilmaz Mustafa | 2478 | : | GM | Leitao Rafael | 2620 |
| 3 | IM | Can Emre | 2442 | : | GM | Fier Alexandr | 2601 |
| 4 | IM | Esen Baris | 2513 | : | GM | Lima Darcy | 2481 |
| 8.4 | 3 | INDIA | – | 6 | ISRAEL | ||
| 1 | GM | Sasikiran Krishnan | 2653 | : | GM | Gelfand Boris | 2761 |
| 2 | GM | Harikrishna P | 2672 | : | GM | Roiz Michael | 2657 |
| 3 | GM | Ganguly Surya Shekhar | 2654 | : | GM | Postny Evgeny | 2648 |
| 4 | GM | Arun Prasad S | 2567 | : | GM | Rodshtein Maxim | 2622 |
| 8.5 | 4 | RUSSIA | – | 5 | EGYPT | ||
| 1 | GM | Grischuk Alexander | 2736 | : | GM | Amin Bassem | 2544 |
| 2 | GM | Jakovenko Dmitry | 2730 | : | IM | Ezat Mohamed | 2471 |
| 3 | GM | Malakhov Vladimir | 2716 | : | IM | Abdelnabbi Imed | 2448 |
| 4 | GM | Vitiugov Nikita | 2692 | : | IM | Sarwat Walaa | 2386 |
Official website: http://wtcc2009.tsf.org.tr
Chess Daily News from Susan Polgar
Susan is Egypt in Africa? UM not up on the lastest sciences so um getting confused,thanks for the updates. Can you analyze the Top guys games and tell us how they r doing? I know there are some high rated guys in Russia.