9/14/2016 – The win by the US at 2016 Baku, in the largest field ever, can only be described as historic. Ukraine held on to their pace and took silver, while Russia took bronze. Board one gold medal went to Baadur Jobava, and take note of board three bronze medal by 64-year-old Eugenio Torre! The Women's event saw China overcome Russia in an epic match, the first team gold for Hou Yifan, and denying Russia any medal. Poland took silver for their greatest result in Olympiads ever, while Ukraine took bronze. Huge report with videos and GM analysis.
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1...e5 against the English is a theoretically sound response with good chances of equality or better in all variations, and in this video series I provide a complete Black repertoire based on this move.
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2016 Baku Olympiad
All games start at 3 p.m. local time = 1 p.m. in Europe (CEST), one hour earlier in Britain, and 2 p.m. in Moscow. You can find the starting time at your location here.
The suspense was killing everyone: would the US close the deal and conclude its brilliant campaign with the oh-so-coveted gold?
The start of the round presented significant mismatches on all the top boards, whether the US, Ukraine, or Russia. In a way the tournament was going full circle: after starting with mismatches in the first rounds until only the leaders were left to fight each other, now the leaders had already done battle among themselves and weaker teams were what were left.
Board one was the United States of course, facing an astonishingly successful Canada. Canada has certainly had a few grandmasters over the years, but as a team they aren’t the ones you expect to be positioning themselves for a possible medal at the end of the Olympiad, and yet that was precisely what was going on as they entered the last round at a tentative fourth place on tiebreak. Obviously a medal meant scoring against the US, but the chance, however slim, was there.
The action started with Evgeny Bareev against Fabiano Caruana (photo by E. Kublashvili)
The team was bolstered by the arrival of former Russian GM Evgeny Bareev, who played first board, and while it was not he who had done the heavy scoring to reach this point, he took on all the biggest guns of rival teams and was a stalwart rock on board one, playing all eleven rounds. His challenge now was to find a way to hold Fabiano Caruana.
Fabiano was everything one could hope for in the US team. He did more than just neutralize the top boards of rival teams, such as Magnus Carlsen no less, he scored crucial points when needed the most. The last round was just such an instance as he defeated Bareev in the quickest game of the match.
Anton Kovalyov was one of Canada's stars, a word that fully applies (photo by Paul Truong)
Board two was 24-year-old Anton Kovalyov, who has already made waves in Baku before, when he somehow survived not one, but two elite matches in the World Cup. In fact, he had been so shocked, he had been forced to change his flight arrangements as he had booked a flight home the day of the first round, expecting to be eliminated just as soon. Now, in the Olympiad, the young talent enjoyed a rush of form that was hard to believe, and finished on 8.0/10 with a 2852 performance.
Hikaru Nakamura was a true soldier and played all eleven rounds (photo by David Llada)
Playing for the US was Hikaru Nakamura, also scoring when needed, but who had suffered a minor setback in round ten, when ill, he lost to Georgian GM Mchedlishvili. Hikaru did not back down, and played all eleven rounds, and opted to keep it simple and contain Kovalyov and drew.
Board three for Canada was 40-year-old GM Alexandre Lesiege, rated 2512, and who also did his duty and then some with a 2585 performance, but his opponent was a sizzling hot Wesley So.
Wesley had recently won the elite Sinquefield Cup, and brought all that confidence and form to the Olympiad and more. He soundly defeated Lesiege, scoring 8.5/10 in total with a 2896 performance as well as a gold medal for board three. (photo by David Llada)
Wesley So - Alexandre Lesiege (annotated by GM Elshan Moradiabadi)
[Event "42nd Olympiad Baku 2016 Open"] [Site "Baku"] [Date "2016.09.13"] [Round "11.3"] [White "So, Wesley"] [Black "Lesiege, Alexandre"] [Result "1-0"] [ECO "B13"] [WhiteElo "2782"] [BlackElo "2512"] [Annotator "Elshan Moradiabadi"] [PlyCount "71"] [EventDate "2016.??.??"] [EventCountry "AZE"] [SourceTitle "playchess.com"] [Source "ChessBase"] [WhiteTeam "United States"] [BlackTeam "Canada"] [WhiteTeamCountry "USA"] [BlackTeamCountry "CAN"] [TimeControl "40/5400+30:1800+30"] {The USA team arrived at the last round of the 2016 Chess Olympiad as the leader, edging Ukraine thanks to their better tie-break. In this crucial final round, we watched a North American derby between the US and the surprisingly strong Canadian team. With Kovalyov and Hansen scoring in every other game, the Canadians reached 4th place after the penultimate round. Being ahead just by a whisker in tie-break, a victory in this match was direly needed by the US squad. With the team's "big three" guns culminating victories one after other, we just had to sit and wait for one of them to score. This time, it was Caruana and So who delivered the victory. So's victory came in a topsy-turvy game.} 1. c4 { (00:00) Wesley So is not trying to get into an opening debate and he opts for an "English".} c5 {(00:56)} 2. Nf3 {(00:00)} Nc6 {(01:52)} 3. Nc3 {(00:17)} g6 $6 {(03:00) There is nothing wrong with this move. However, Black usually does not combine it with Nc6 due to White's next move.} 4. e3 $1 {(00:10) Now the game enters a form of "Panov attack", in the Caro-Kann defense!} Nf6 {(00:07)} 5. d4 {(00:04)} cxd4 {(00:04)} 6. exd4 {(00:03)} d5 {(00:20)} 7. Bg5 {(00:13)} (7. cxd5 Nxd5 8. Qb3 Nxc3 9. Bc4 Nd5 10. Bxd5 e6 11. Bxc6+ bxc6 12. O-O {is one of the most popular ways to play this opening. Wesley goes for more complications to keep the game more unbalanced and more difficult for his 'out of retirement' GM opponent.}) 7... Be6 {(00:36)} 8. Bxf6 {(00:49)} exf6 {(00:05)} 9. h3 $146 {(00:04) I could not believe my eyes but this move is a novelty according to the ChessBase Online database. White players had almost exclusively played c4-c5 in this position} (9. c5 Bg7 10. Bb5 O-O 11. O-O g5 12. Ne2 a6 13. Bxc6 bxc6 14. Ng3 a5 15. h3 Rb8 16. b3 Rb4 17. Ne1 Rb7 18. Nc2 Qc7 19. Qd2 Ra8 20. Nh5 Bf5 21. Ne3 Bg6 22. Ng3 Qf4 23. Ne2 Qe4 24. Nc3 Qh4 25. Rad1 f5 26. f4 gxf4 27. Nc2 Bh6 28. Qf2 Qg5 29. Rde1 Bh5 30. Kh1 Kh8 31. Ne2 f3 32. gxf3 f4 33. Kh2 Re7 34. Ng1 Bg6 35. h4 Qg3+ 36. Qxg3 fxg3+ {1/2-1/2 (36) Rakhmanov,A (2641)-Alekseev,E (2636) St Petersburg 2016}) 9... Bb4 {(05:40)} 10. c5 { (00:06)} O-O {(03:04)} (10... Qa5 11. Qd2 O-O 12. Be2 b6 {Looks very promising for Black.}) 11. Rc1 {( 05:05)} b6 $6 {(26:03) This is a bit risky.} (11... Qd7 12. Be2 Ba5 $5 13. O-O Bc7 {Looks interesting.}) 12. Bb5 {(08:52) White completes his development by winning a crucial tempo.} Na5 {(14:13)} 13. a3 { (03:05)} Bxc3+ {(00:17)} 14. Rxc3 {(00:02)} Nc4 {(07:42)} 15. b4 {(00:06)} a5 { (06:29)} (15... a6 16. Ba4 (16. Bxc4 dxc4 {and then Black plays b5-f5 and Bd5 and White has nothing there.}) 16... a5 {this looks more promising than the game.}) 16. O-O {( 00:08)} axb4 {(00:35)} 17. axb4 {(00:16) The position has already become too critical for Black.} Qb8 {(05:55)} (17... Ra2 18. Qc1 Qb8 { looks better because.} 19. Bxc4 dxc4 20. Nd2 Rd8 {and unlike in the game the pawn on d4 is hanging in this line.}) 18. Bxc4 {(18:30)} dxc4 {(00:10)} 19. Nd2 {(00:02)} bxc5 {(02:47)} 20. bxc5 {(00:02) White's knight is heading to d6 and Black has to do something about it.} Qb4 {(06:13)} 21. Qf3 {(03:05)} Bd5 { (08:22) A strong blockade but....} 22. Qxd5 $1 {(00:11) Wesley So has other things in mind.} Qxc3 {( 00:04)} 23. Ne4 {(00:01)} Qd3 {(00:22)} 24. Nxf6+ { (00:06)} Kh8 {(00:38)} 25. Nd7 {(00:07)} Rfe8 {(01:20)} 26. Ne5 {(01:01)} Qf5 $2 {(00:59) Up to this point Lesiege has been resilient and resourceful, but this move throws away everything. A series of miraculous moves would have saved him.} (26... Qe2 27. Nxf7+ Kg7 28. Ne5 Kh8 $3 {Only a machine would play like this!} 29. Rc1 (29. Qxc4 $4 Rxe5 $19) 29... Qd2 $1 30. Qxc4 Ra4 $1 31. Qf1 Qxd4 32. Nf3 Qf6 33. c6 Ra7 {And White has a good grip but he really cannot improve even though Black's weakened king offers potential 'time pressure' blunders in a game like this with such a high outcome at stake.}) 27. Qxc4 {(00:03) White's two passers are just way too strong .} Kg7 {(00:31)} 28. Qc3 {(03:55)} Ra2 { (02:05)} 29. Nd3 $4 {(00:07) Did he just let the other rook to the second rank?!} Qf6 $4 {(00:51) Lesiege returns the favor in time pressure.} (29... Ree2 30. d5+ f6 $1 {a move that is hard to see but forced.} 31. c6 Red2 $1 32. c7 Rac2 $1 {and Black is winning!!}) 30. Nb4 {(00:46)} Rae2 {(00:55)} 31. Nd5 {(00:22)} Qg5 {(00:21)} 32. Nc7 {(00:33)} R8e3 $6 {(00:31) Lesiege gets emotional} (32... Rb8 {would have maintained equality.}) 33. Qc1 {(00:49)} h6 {(01:30)} 34. d5 {(00:57)} Qe5 $4 {(01:25) Lesiege blunders a rook after a long game. He probably missed the check on a1.} 35. fxe3 {(00:52)} Qg3 {(00:55) } 36. Qa1+ {(00:10) And it is Black who gets mated not white! And US team wins the Olympiad after four decades!} (36. Qa1+ Kg8 37. Qa8+ Kg7 38. Ne6+ $1 fxe6 39. Qf8+ Kh7 40. Rf7#) 1-0
Board four had Sam Shankland once more taking the post, and as yet undefeated in the Olympiads, but he came against someone who had seen one step ahead. Facing him was Canada’s best scoring player (in points): 24-year-old Eric Hansen.
Both players had correctly guessed the opening of the game, but Eric’s preparation was the better and he emerged up a pawn, and inflicted Shankland’s first defeat. Although this was not enough to change the tale of the match, he can be proud of the result of Canada, and his magnificent 9.0/11 contribution with a 2738 performance. (photo by M. Emelianova)
Alejandro Ramirez has a quick chat with Eric Hansen
Former elite player, Alexander Beliavsky (left), was board one for Slovenia. He fell to Pavel Eljanov, whose victory contributed to a 3-1 win for Ukraine. (photo by M. Emelianova)
The main rival of the US, Ukraine, had come tied with the Americans in match points, behind on tiebreaks alone. The Ukrainians continued their fantastic onslaught, crushing the Slovenian team by 3.5-0.5. Much like the Americans, they had their share of miracle workers, such as Andrei Volokitin, who won yet again, taking gold medal on board four with 8.5/9 and a 2992 performance, the greatest of any player on any board.
The final medal match was played by Russia, who needed to win to guarantee none of the teams might threaten its bronze medal. They had no trouble beating Italy, scoring 3-1. (photo by E. Kublashvili)
Of special note, was Vladimir Kramnik’s win on board one. Not only did this net him the gold medal for board two, the board he had played on throughout the event, but his win catapulted him to a 2817 rating, which will appear in the next ratings list, his highest ever. (photo by E. Kublashvili)
Eteri Kublashvili and Anastasiya Karlovich, fixtures for the RCF and FIDE (photo by Paul Truong)
Still, the question on everyone’s mind was now that both teams had won their matches, who had taken gold? Incredibly, no one knew. While the first criterion was match points, where both US and Ukraine were tied, the next criterion was not game points, but Olympiad Sonneborn-Berger without the lowest result.
Even after both top matches were over the US team still had no idea if they had won gold or silver (photo by Paul Truong)
The basis of all Sonneborn-Berger tiebreak variants is to weight scores against high ranked opponents higher, which means winning against a team that finishes 5th is worth more than a victory over a team that finished 23rd even if their ratings were the same. Unfortunately that meant that victory for one or the other might lie not in the hands of the American or Ukrainian players, but some other team they had met earlier. The permutations are manifold as one can imagine, but to overcome the significant tiebreak score between the two teams, some experts wielding laptops and Excel spreadsheets concluded that if Ukraine won their final match by 3-1 and Germany failed to beat Estonia, then Ukraine would take gold.
Captain of the US Team, John Donaldson, begins doing calculations to try to figure out if the US won, and if not (yet) what they need to win
It seemed incredible, but even with both top table matches over, gold was going to be determined by table 28’s result, and it was not obvious. Germany had won their game on board one, but lost on board four, and tied board two. It all hinged on Matthias Bluebaum’s ability to win an endgame that until move 59 engines were declaring a resolute 0.00.
Both teams and many others were following this one game with unwavering focus, and one wonders whether Bluebaum knew that the winner’s fate lay entirely in his one game. Move 60 was the decider as the Estonian IM finally went astray, in a decisive blunder the German never forgave. (photo by Paul Truong)
The entire US team owes him a round of drinks, that is certain
It is fair to say that the US victory is their greatest ever result in a Chess Olympiad. Although it has been noted that although the Americans took gold in 1976 in Haifa, Israel, an event boycotted by the Soviet Union and many eastern bloc countries, weakening it considerably, their earlier victories in the 1930s were also without the Soviet participation. The Soviets only began participating in 1952, promptly winning it, it should be noted. The 2016 Open field not only has Russia in its lineup (though is missing Armenia sadly), but is also the largest field ever, with 170 teams present.
Garry Kasparov also commented that the United States had gone through the event without a single loss, a remarkable feat. Indeed they won nine matches and drew two. However, it should be pointed out that one other team went through the eleven rounds without suffering a defeat. Can you guess which? The answer is not one of the other top performers, but 18th place finisher Greece! They won four matches, lost none, and drew seven! Note that this included matches such as a draw with Slovenia, which ended in two wins each.
The Indian team that had started so strong, lost their chance to medal after losing both their matches to the US and Ukraine, and finished in fourth place. (photo by Paul Truong)
Alejandro Ramirez enjoys a quick chat with GM Vidit Gujrathi, one of India's best scoring players
The surprise fifth place was Norway led by Magnus Carlsen. They were in a group of teams that ended with 16 match points thanks to their last round draw with India. However, what really gave them a boost in their tiebreaks was their huge win over Iran in round 10. (photo by M. Emelianova)
Being such overperformers, the Iranians, ranked 46th at the start, ended in 16th place, including a crushing win over Chile in the last round. It is clear they are very much on the rise, and can expect even more promising results in the future. As it stands, two of the players scored double grandmaster norms and can expect the title very soon.
First was untitled Parham Maghsoodloo, 16 years old, who more than justified his 2566 rating. He played all eleven rounds with 8.0/11 and a superb 2684 performance, facing nine grandmasters. (photo by Paul Truong)
17-year-old IM Shahin Lorparizangeneh (2478) also scored a double GM norm, adding 17 Elo to his rating as well. (photo by Paul Truong)
They were hardly the only ones, needless to say, such as Italy’s FM Luca Moroni, 16 years old, who finished with a double GM norm as well. (photo by M. Emelianova)
Finally, a special salute to IM Helgi Dam Ziska from the Faroe Islands, who is by far the highest rated player ever from the micronation (population under 50 thousand), and is now its first grandmaster thanks to his norms. Note that with a rating of 2546 FIDE, he has already fulfilled the ratings requirements by a healthy margin. In round four, Helgi (right) drew against Veselin Topalov. (photo by Paul Truong)
Daniel King has a quick chat with Yannick Pelletier (Switzerland) asking him his impressions of the team and more
GM Maurice Ashley explains how he became the coach of the Ivory Coast
Women’s Event
The Women’s competition really came down to the epic match on table one. It isn’t that other matches were utterly denuded of interest, but with China facing Russia in a showdown for the gold, it was easily the center of attention. China only needed to win or draw the match to secure gold, but if Russia were to pull off an upset, not nearly as farfetched as the top matches in the Open section, they could conceivably snatch gold, though tiebreaks would still decide their fate.
The match was certainly all the fans had hoped for with hard-fought games on all boards. Russia’s attempt to torpedo China’s gold was thwarted though, and it was a team gold for the first time in 14 years, and the first with Hou Yifan. (photo by M. Emelianova)
Although Hou Yifan never quite scored as heavily as her fans might have hoped, the overall team was made up for it, such as WGM Tan Zhongyi on board three, rated 2475, but finished with 9.0/11 and a 2565 performance. (photo by David Llada)
99 seconds with Yuanling Yuan (Canada)
While Ukraine certainly did well, finishing in third, the true surprise of the event was without question Poland. Although they were consistently in the top three in the standings from round eight onward, the expectation each time was that another team would take their place the next round or after. If this seems unjust, consider that they had never achieved better than bronze, and ranked seventh this time, 100 Elo behind Ukraine and Russia, and more than that behind China, there was no reason to expect a miracle. Yet, they pulled it off in the end, with a magnificent 3.5-0.5 defeat over Hungary, ranked 8th, edging out Ukraine on tiebreak and taking a historic silver.
Team Poland pulled off a small miracle in not only penetrating the podium ahead of the numerous much higher rated rivals, but taking silver (photo by Paul Truong)
Janelle Mae Frayna from the Philippinnes scored a double WGM norm (photo by David Llada)
Closing Ceremony
All photos by Maria Emelianova
Open event
Team USA with their historic gold: Hikaru Nakamura, John Donaldson (captain), Sam Shankland, Ray Robson, Wesley So, and Fabiano Caruana
The Russian team: Ian Nepomniachtchi, Andrei Filatov (captain), Alexander Motylev, Vladimir Potkin, Evgeny Tomashevsky, Sergey Karjakin, Vladimir Kramnik, Alexander Grischuk
Ukraine won the Gaprindashvili Cup, an award to the country with the best combined score of both Open and Women's teams
Gold Medal for Board one: Leinier Dominguez (silver), Baadur Jobava (gold), Fabiano Caruana (bronze)
Gold Medal for Board two: Vladimir Kramnik (gold), Jorge Cori (bronze), missing is Anton Kovalyov (silver)
Gold Medal for board three: Zoltan Almasi (silver), Wesley So (gold), Eugenio Torre (bronze)
The podium with Ukraine (silver), USA, (gold), and Russia (bronze) (click on photo for large version)
Women's event
China wins gold after a 14-year wait: Ju Wenjun, Tan Zhongyi, Guo Qi, Hou Yifan, Zhao Xue, Yu Shaoteng (captain)
Poland wins silver for their best result ever: Matlak Marak (captain), Mariola Wozniak, Klaudia Kulon, Karina Szczepkowska-Horowska, Jolanta Zawadzka, Monika Socko
Ukraine took bronze: Anna Ushenina, Natalia Zhukova, Mariya Muzychuk, Anna Muzychuk
Gold Medal for Board one: Hou Yifan (silver), Anna Muzychuk (gold), and Pia Cramling (bronze)
Gold Medal for Board two: Ju Wenjun (silver), Valentina Gunina (gold), Deimante Daulyte (bronze)
The games are being broadcast live on the official web site and on the server Playchess.com. If you are not a member you can download a free Playchess client there and get immediate access. You can also use ChessBase or any of our Fritz compatible chess programs.
Albert SilverBorn in the US, he grew up in Paris, France, where he completed his Baccalaureat, and after college moved to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. He had a peak rating of 2240 FIDE, and was a key designer of Chess Assistant 6. In 2010 he joined the ChessBase family as an editor and writer at ChessBase News. He is also a passionate photographer with work appearing in numerous publications, and the content creator of the YouTube channel, Chess & Tech.
Nakamura is Japanese, Fabiano is Italian, So is Philippine, Xiong is Chinese, Sevian is Armenian, and etc. Shakland and Robson are what you call American, and played accordingly. Just because you are a citizen of a country, does not make you of that nationality. It's about the ethnic background. Just saying...
imdvb_8793 9/16/2016 04:49
"Can't help but notice Ukraine women team is by far the best looking team of all."
Exactly! :) (Well, of the top teams - given what I saw on the broadcast, I'm sure there are other teams that might be even better looking, overall.) Although I'm still very much anti-Zhukova, given her involvement in the Mihaela Sandu case, I definitely can't say she's not pretty... And I'm sure she's not a terrible person either, overall... She just messed up very badly on that one, and there should be consequences - unsurprisingly, there are not.
TheChosenFew 9/15/2016 09:47
Haha, so people are going to be haters. People will use every opportunity to bash the U.S. Like many members here have stated the facts, only So and Kamsky are imports. Everyone else was either born in the states, or has one American parent, which makes you a U.S. citizen. Get over it, People will live where they want to, play for who they want to.
For instance look at one of Canada's best players, Eric Hansen, he was born in Irvine, California...which is the city next to where I was brought up, Costa Mesa. Why don't you go cry a river about that, Chessbrahbro?
Amon Khan 9/15/2016 09:42
If we are serious about globalization, why do we still have these nationalistic competitions? These Western teams especially are rather artificial, and are easily corrupted by finance. At least with China, Russia, India, etc. you still have some meaningful concept of a nation. Personally, I find this whole age of globalization distasteful and destructive of much of our world culture and history, and a reduction of all values to money. Call it the Rothschilds Bankster Age. How vile!
thlai80 9/15/2016 07:37
Can't help but notice Ukraine women team is by far the best looking team of all. Beauty across all four boards, perhaps they could have beaten the US men team with some stares and smiles.
Aighearach 9/15/2016 04:52
What amazes me is how many people still think Florida is in Italy. Where did that myth even start?!
Next they'll try to tell me that New York is in Japan. Oh, wait, they already did.
chessdrummer 9/14/2016 10:16
lajosarpad...
You're quite wrong. So was a university student at Webster University in St. Louis before changing federations. He was not brought over on the pretense that he would play for the national team.
HappyGrandPatzer 9/14/2016 07:58
The final song of the Olympiad reminds me of a Beatles song, is it? Which one?
gmwdim 9/14/2016 07:46
Caruana was certainly not "imported" - he got his training in the clubs and small tournaments of New York City.
awfulhangover 9/14/2016 07:31
@Jon Targaryen Ok, you are right, I should read better.
Ryan49 9/14/2016 07:12
Wow 40 years is a long time but glad to hear the US won this time ! Lots of nice games to watch also .
donwaffel 9/14/2016 07:05
oh the picures, most looks like dorks, maroni and yifan beeing the exception.
chessdrummer 9/14/2016 04:53
What people fail to see is have a strong team does not guarantee that one will win gold. Russia has been favored in each Olympiad since 2002. They have not won since. Karjakin, a Ukrainian, has been in the team. They haven't won. For the U.S. they used to have their entire Olympiad team of Russian emigres and no one complained because they didn't win. Now that you have one import (So), there is suddenly something wrong. Anyone who fails to note when and where a player learned chess isn't to be taken seriously.
RajaK 9/14/2016 04:07
A big congrats to Team USA. Well done. Well done to Team India in finishing inside Top 5.
Abraxas79 9/14/2016 03:58
11 Rounds is too short. Format should revert back to 15 rounds. Like everything in Chess these days, everything is being shortened.
johnmk 9/14/2016 01:40
Chess is an individual sport, in a sense it doesn't matter whether you play on a team or not. Maybe some of the players played better because they were patriotic, maybe they all "got along" very well, etc etc. But in the end a chess team does not benefit from team work in the same way that a soccer team or basketball team benefits from teamwork.
lajosarpad 9/14/2016 11:17
Sorry, I meant Nisipeanu is not a good example, since he is half German, so I can understand his decision to switch federations.
lajosarpad 9/14/2016 11:14
U.S. is being criticized because they are successful with imported players. Canada is not being criticized because of Bareev's import, because Canada was not as successful as the U.S., so I do not quite see the double standards. When it comes to immigration, we need to differentiate two kinds of immigration: the first kind is the immigration occurring with people having no history with a specific country (like So immigrating into the U.S., where So had no history with the U.S.) and the second type is the immigration occurring when people have a history with their target country. For example, Karjakin is ethnic Russian, so he both culturally and genetically is linked to Russia.
My own subjective opinion is supportive of countries using immigrants of the second kind, as ethnic and political borders do not perfectly match. Easy proof: Russians were living in Chrimea before the annexation, otherwise it would not have been possible. But since Chrimea was part of Ukraine before the annexation, it is natural that Ukrainians lived there as well. Since the Ukrainians did not leave that territory after the annexation, the situation has reversed and now Ukrainians are living in Russia. As we can see, ethnical and political borders are impossible to match in the Chrimea unless something very bad happens, regardless of whether the territory is part of Ukraine or Russia.
On the other hand, I do not really support teams where players are immigrants. Nisipeanu is an example, since he is half German and half Romanian as far as I know, but yes, I did not root for the U.S.A. with imported players like So and Caruana. I can be chriticized for this comment, but the fact is that So had absolutely no history in the U.S., while Caruana had been playing for the U.S.A. before, then switched to Italy then back to the U.S.A. However, let us differentiate the objectively measurable performance from the subjective preference. The U.S. team had a marvelous performance despite the fact that they were not my preference, So congratulations for them.
weerogue 9/14/2016 11:03
...I do have one point to make about the tiebreaks, though, which I think is quite alarming: We know that the lowest scoring team on Match Points is supposed to be removed from a country's SB tiebreak calculation, but I can't see anywhere in the FIDE Olympiad rules (D.II.02) anything about how to choose which team to include/exclude in the event of a tie for this.
In the article, Albert Silver and Twitter user Megaloivic suggest that if Germany didn't win, then they would have been excluded from Ukraines's SB Tiebreak calcs and Jordan would have been included, which would have caused Ukraine to win on tiebreaks.
However: I don't see why Germany, and not Jordan, should have been excluded from Ukraine's SB calcs in the event of a Germany DRAW with Estonia (when Germany and Jordan would have the same number of Match Points).
In fact, if they followed the traditional tiebreak conventions to rank these two teams, Germany would have been far better on SB, meaning Jordan would still be removed from Ukraine's tiebreak and USA would still have won.
I have two points to make:
1/ It seems to me that FIDE dodged a bullet here; the tie-break wording is far from air-tight and in the event of Germany and Jordan tying, which very nearly happened, I think both the USA and Ukraine could have had very legitimate grounds to consider themselves champions (Ukraine would argue Germany should be eliminated from their SB Tiebreak, USA would argue Jordan should be elimnated from Ukraine's SB Tiebreak).
That would have been an absolute calamity and it very nearly happened!
What would they have done?! You can't just move on to the next tiebreak criteria as the conditions for moving on weren't satisfied. Drama!!
2/ It seems natural to me that in order to determine who should be excluded out of Germany and Jordan in the event of a tie, they would revert to the tournament's own ranking criteria: SB points! In which case Germany would have beaten out Jordan and they would still have featured in Ukraine's SB tiebreak calcs and hence the US would still have won.
My point here is that the drama that Bluebaum absolutely HAD to win in order for the US to win actually seems a little bit engineered, which is a shame as it really wasn't required!
* I wholeheartedly acknowledge that this is not going to make sense to a lot of people, that I could probably have worded it better and that I am going to get absolutely flamed by most users, but I do hope that it resonates in the intended way with a few readers as this could quite easily have been a calamitous end to a wonderful (though not perfect!) tournament * - Peace
weerogue 9/14/2016 10:41
Brilliant event - absolutely love the Olympiad and can't wait for the next one!
vdpoop 9/14/2016 10:36
'Poland took silver for their greatest result in Olympiads ever'
Poland won 3rd Chess Olympiad Hamburg 1930
jackie 9/14/2016 08:23
Well done to the US team. Huge respect to Ukraine too and the monster Volokitin.
Players from various countries singing 'Imagine' was beautiful, I must say. Lovely idea, and rather touching actually.
jhoravi 9/14/2016 07:15
64 years old Eugenio Torre scoring 10 out of 11 is the most impresive of all.
KevinC 9/14/2016 04:13
LOL, ARK_ANGEL doubles down on his stupidity. Keep trying.
tsttst70 9/14/2016 03:26
"winning in the largest and toughest field ever". It really seems Chessbase didn't notice Armenia's missing.
thlai80 9/14/2016 03:15
I think the point with the group of people who would see issues with US is because US won it. Any other country that won it with some imported/naturalized players would probably subject to same scrutiny. Now before anyone jump on me, take note I have no problem with US winning. Unlike So, Karjakin switching federation is a weak quote however because Ukraine was part of Russia, and there are two factions of people who like and dislike Russia.
ARK_ANGEL 9/14/2016 02:07
Congratulations on US immigration council for winning GOLD. Congratulations China for their hard earned gold.
MJFitch 9/14/2016 02:02
USA, USA, USA, USA, USA, USA, USA,USA, USA, USA, USA, USA, USA, USA!!!
elmerdsangalang 9/14/2016 01:37
We should realize that professional chessplayers are free to choose the federations they wish to represent in the Olympiad for various reasons and we should not pass judgment on them for deciding the way they want to use their chess talent. FIDE supports them in this decision. For most of them love of country is the guiding principle and highest value, for others financial and economic security are the driving force. In the end, they play against one another and produce games the aesthetic beauty of which is personally attributed to them and not to the country they represented. And we are the fortunate beneficiaries of their artistic creation. We owe them our gratitude and not animosity.
angel ross 9/14/2016 01:10
it's not only USA with former foreign players, other countries have former russian players and other nationalities, so stop whining about that issue, sour graping is for bitter loser
Jon Targaryen 9/14/2016 12:59
@awfulhangover-You'd do well to read all the comments before making up your mind.Some of us are responding to comments like those of yesenadam and sivakumar.
elmerdsangalang 9/14/2016 12:34
algorithmy, GM Jobava won the gold on Board One. Board medal awards are based on performance rating.
scoobeedo 9/14/2016 12:32
I tipped the USA in round 4 as the winner. The team was extremely stable. Everybody played at a very high level. And the team is very homogen. Bad news for the other countries, the USA is still not at the peak.
This Italian- Japanese-Philippino-USA Team was the strongest. The Globalization was the winner of this chess Olmypiad. And the US Immigration Office.
To call this the Team of the USA let me smile ...
amarpan 9/14/2016 12:11
Well, Karjakin was originally playing for Ukraine, but nobody has a problem with that. Why this double standard against USA? India never had their number one men's player (Anand) and number one women's player (Humpy) play for them. Otherwise, perhaps they would have stood on podium in both the categories.
awfulhangover 9/13/2016 11:56
Haha!! It is funny to read the attacks on koko48! He is accused for something opposite of what he is blamed for! I am not from an english speaking country, but there is no doubt that Bertham and Raymond are almost the only proof of intelligent life here :-)
jsaldea12 9/13/2016 11:47
Back dropping: About that suggestion of mine for Bill Gates and Warren Buffets to sponsor a major chess tournament, that is not a joke. Unless the International Chess Federation or USA chess federation, pick up the line and act, do not expect the billionaires, not only the mentioned, will act first. They are just waiting to be tapped.
Let this be their meaningful song."Young at heart".
jsaldea12 9/13/2016 11:35
Many congratulations to super grandmaster Wesley So and legendary grand of grandmaster, Eugene Torre for living up beyond the level. Both performance were impressive. For GM So, he pulled up USA team, not to mention that he is candidate for individual gold, For the legendary GM Torre, he pullewd himself UP, proving he is ageless. He is candidate for gold too. See next time in next Chess Olympic ageless GM Torre.
BUT AS A WHOLE; CONGRATULATION TO THE USA TEAM FOR WINNING THE GOLD
algorithmy 9/13/2016 11:24
How it comes, Jobava is not among the top ten?!
alpine 9/13/2016 09:44
Very pleased that the USA fought so hard and it paid off this year. We have no "immigration council"...no government or systemic support of these athletes aside from some paltry sums raised by the US Chess Federation and a few concerned individual benefactors. So was a talent but not yet "elite" when he came to the USA, but I think he could have made the same progress in any of the handful of other "chess countries" had he chosen them. All that said I do not envy the challenges or circumstances of his life and immigration. The USA is a melting pot of personal histories...and proud that every single USA player is a US Citizen or soon to be one. It's very nice to see the Ukraine outpace Russia, India rapidly approaching the podium, and its amazing to think about the Chess Talent per Capita of Norway. I can be in awe of the efforts of all these countries and personally delighted that my own country won something in spite of our obstacles. Haters can suck eggs. Now back to reading how all you people bash individual personalities with your right hands while buying their books and videos with your left hands ;)
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