Russian Ladies Without Mercy Olympiad Curiosities
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Daily News of Torino Olympiad May 25 /2006. Russian ladies without mercy nce more we shall start 8 points which means that they are not far with ladie’s section whe- from the leading group. re Lithuanians were bru- Top pairings for round six will be: Ukrai- tally brought to reality ne-Russia, Bulgaria-USA, Hungary-China, aft er short moments of Estonia-Romania and Lithuania-Spain. glory. Th eir match against Russia was one One more new face appeared in Russian wayO street all the time and at the end not team yesterday. It was Svidler who came di- even a single half a point was put on their rectly from Sofi a and debuted in the team account. Such a result allowed Russia to take in the same way as Kramnik did two days a sole lead with 11,5 points and a comforta- ago – «veni,vidi,vici». Another full point was ble gap of 1,5 points ahead of Ucraine who made by Grischuk and this was enough for will be their opponents in the round fi ve. It 3:1 victory against China. Surprisingly this means that yesterday we guessed well this was not enough for a sole lead because Ar- pairing but in the wrong section. Th e other menia, on the wings of their front players Olympiad curiosities derby China-Ukraine was decided in the fa- Aronian and Akopian, cashed all 4 points vour of latters thanks to the victory of Lah- against Norway and came to 13,5 points as no against Wang Yu. Th ree teams are sharing well. Tomorrow it will be another great ma- ll previous Chess Olym- won the bet but lost one of the 4 games! third place with 9,5 points: China, USA and tch on table number one. A considerable piad records are being Th e Turin Olympiad is being followed Bulgaria who defeated Romania and Israel step forward was made by Netherlands who mangled here in Turin. all over the world and some 300 journalists with the same result 2:1. Behind them 5 made three points against Greece and now Number of nations pre- are accredited: dozens and dozens of articles teams with 9,0 points: Hungary, Estonia, is on third place with 13 points. Th e most sent, number of men’s are coming out in every country and in eve- Romania, Lithuania and Spain. Th e gratest beautiful and fi ghting match in this Olym- and women’s teams and, consequently, num- ry language, on every continent, every day. jump forward was made by Estonia who sur- piad up to now was between Uzbekistan and berA of men and women players. Chess really is a universal language! prisingly won all the games against Nether- Ukraine which ended in 2:2, but without a Of the less young we might mention the But the internet is not to be taken lightly lands who should be objectively stronger single draw! On bord number one Kasi- celebrated Viktor Kortschnoj (75), here in either: we have touched a record 3,800,000 according to their elo points. Th is confi rms mdzhanov outplayed Ivanchuk in one of the the company of his inseparable wife Petra. hits but as things start to heat up, this num- that sometimes bravehearts are those who most dynamic lines of the Spanish opening, Th e arrival of some of the high-fl iers from ber is destined to increase. decide battles and not the quality of wea- but on board number two on of the young the Sofi a tournament (Kramnik, Svidler, Curiosities on the stands in the fi rst hall pons. All three points were cashed by Spain ukrainian «killers», Volokitin, equalised qui- Kamsky, Anand) stirred the interest of the include the pieces made out of taps, that of as well. Th eir victim was Peru. In this group ckly the score with a spectacular piece sa- fans who are following the games live at the Trenitalia, that of Fiat Auto (you can ask for victorious was still Hungary, 2,5:0,5 against crifi ce (see the comments). Uzbeks took the venue and on the internet site, which yester- a free run-out in one of the cars) and that of France, while other two teams, Lithuania lead again when on bord number four Iudal- day recorded a peak of 3,800,000 hits, num- the Turin Chess Club, whose idea it was to and Romania, slippered down a bit. chev defeated Moiseyenko, but not for a long bers that are really exceptional for chess. organise the Chess Olympiad here in Turin. time, since other young «killer», Karjakin, Th ree pigeons have been among the most Also worth a visit are the stands of the Re- converted better endgame into a full point. assiduous spectators. Th ey fl y peacefully in gion, Province and Municipality to help you With these 2 points Uzbeks are on the 4th and around the iron roof structure of the get to know the city, environs and the region place with 12,5 points. Half a point behind Oval and have so far escaped every attempt of Piedmont as a whole. them are 4 teams with 12 points: Ukraine, to capture them or drive them away; at least And let’s not forget the Dresden stand, Bulgaria, Spain and Sweden. up to now they have avoided coming to rest advertising the city that will be hosting the Italian fans can be satisfi ed with yester- on the boards during the games. Olympiad in 2008. day’s results of their teams. «A» team won Meanwhile, yesterday, the fi re fi ghters Th e fourth round saw the fi rst offi cial convincingly against Singapore. It was netted a baby falcon that was also loose in complaint: for reasons of privacy we cannot 3,5:0,5, but D’Amore probably somewhere the building, maybe hunting its lunch in the publish the names of the people involved missed the win. «B» team cashed all 4 poin- form of the pigeons. but here are the facts. In one of the games ts against Malta. Only the «C» team didn’t Today sees the start of the World Com- in the women’s tournament, a player alleged managed to complete a very successfull day puter Championship; about thirty programs that her opponent was not the same as the for italian chess. will fi ght it out (in the fi rst hall, next to the player shown on the identity card, but some- Top pairings for round six are: Russia-Ar- Fiat Auto stand) for the title of best chess- body else with another name. Th e game was menia, Uzbekistan-Netherlands, Spain-Swe- playing soft ware. Among the personalities paused for a time but, aft er in depth investi- den and Ukraine-Bulgaria. Aft er a disastrous present is David Levy, famous for his bet of gation, it was confi rmed that everything was begining, India is already on table number £1250 in 1968 that no program would be in order: the player whose identity was in Both Italian teams were successfull and fi ve playing against China. able to beat him in the next ten years. doubt was recognised by two arbiters from won with the same result 2:1 against Sweden Th e show goes on! Ten years later he just scraped past the a neighbouring country. and respectively IBCA team. Italy «A» has (M.Cebalo) then world champion chess program, so he (Adolivio Capece) Open tournaments he over thousand players competing in the Olympiads are not really alone in Turin. When most of their games are fi nished, and only a few endings are on the main stage, a lot of chess enthusiasts sit down in the nearby hall in the same Oval venue and start fi ghting. Aft er having looked at the champion games, spectators can play themselves in contests of all kinds in the City of Turin International Chess Festival. Maybe this is not the bestT period of the year for holding tournaments for amateur chess players, as summer holiday time has yet to come, but the Olympiads chance was worth a bet. And the bet has indeed been successful, as numbers are showing. For the lovers of serious play an array of open tournaments is available. Open A is the main event, with nine rounds and 114 players with a FIDE rating or an equivalent natio- nal Elo. Players of a wide range of strength take part, from the 1402 rating of a club player to the 2410 Elo of the only GM in the tournament, Igor Naumkin from Russia, who compe- tes for the 800 € fi rst prize with a handful of. IM such as Sergei Simonenko (Tu- rkmenistan) and Vincent Colin (France). Almost half of the players have a rating above 2100, thus ensuring that everybody has the chance, at least in the fi rst rounds, to meet master strenghs opponents. For less ambitious players Open B allows to meet opponents with a rating up to 2100 Elo and has 68 participants. Open C (up to 1800 Elo) and D (up to 1500 Elo) are dedicated to club players and if locals clearly are the majority of the 170 participants, even here players from other countries can also be found. For those who are not willing to spend hours on a single game on the chessboard, or simply cannot aff ord to take a holiday week, Active Chess (30 minutes thinking time) and Blitz (10 minutes) tournaments are the perfect choice for one or two evenings of real fun.