Report by Chessdom.com
The best player of the competition was Valentina Gunina. Despite her forfeit for being 1 minute late, she scored the fantastic 6,5/8. (This was the difference between Gold and Silver as Russia lost by 1/2 tie break point.)
The medals by boards are as follows (special thanks to IM Inna Gaponenko for the information!):
Board 1
Gold Tan Zhongyi 5,5/8 Silver GM Chiburdanidze Maia 4,0/7 Bronze GM Yifan Hou 4,0/7
Board 2
Gold IM Kosintseva Nadezhda 6,5/9 Silver IM Mkrtchian Lilit 6,5/9 Bronze GM Dzagnidze Nana 6,5/9
Board 3
Gold IM Inna Gaponenko 5,5/8 Silver WGM Karavade Eesha 6,0/9 Bronze IM Dworakowska Joanna 4,5/7
Board 4
Gold WIM Melekhina Alisa 4,0/6 Silver WGM Majdan Joanna 4,5/8 Bronze Romanko Marina 3,0/6
Board 5
Gold WFM Gunina Valentina 6,5/8 Silver WGM Huang Qian 6,0/8 Bronze Zdebska Natalia 4,5/7
Here is the full comprehensive report by Chessdom.
So Russia lost because of a forfeit? Where’s Kosteniuk? Why did she abandon her Russian teammates? They could have used her.
Russian did not lose because of the forfeit. The Russian player forfeited in round #1.
Many of the teams had players missing. Vietnam sent their “C” team. China didn’t have Xu Yuhua. It’s all hindsight. Whose to say with Kosteniuk they would have improved their position? You cannot look at competitions this way.
The U.S. performance was horrendous although I’m glad Alisa Melekhina won a medal. I’ve watched her for a long time and she is a steady player.
There needs to be some new blood on the U.S. team. These same players have been on the teams for the last six years. Abby Marshall did well in China the last time, but school probably prevented her from playing.
Apart from Xu Yuhua, China also didn’t have Ruan, one of successful 2007 Team members because of university study.
Incidentally, the Board 1 Gold medallist, Tan Zhongyi, is from China Team 2.
But the biggest skip was GM Koneru Humpy. Indian line up would have been formidable with her presence. World no.2 on board 1 and world junior champion on board 2
Zero start rule is stupid. Even the organizers are ashamed to public it when it happens.
GM Koneru Humpy is in poor form recently. At the 24th Intern. Chess Tournament “Acropolis 2009” played in August, she scored 5/9 and lost 15 rating points.
There are many former world junior champions among the players present at the Team championship. Zhao Zue, Shen Yang, just to name two.