-by WGM Anna Rudolf and GM Mihail Marin

None of the three teams having ensured a medal the night before maintained its position after the dramatic tenth round. Top-seed India defeated the ambitious team of Turkey with 3-1 in a match without draws while a reborn Russian squad crushed Ukraine by 3,5-0,5.


The winning handshake

India's main scorer, Aravindh Chithambaram, was the first one to win today


The reborn and highly motivated Russian team managed to finish just one step away from their maximal goal

From the pre-round favourites only Iran stumbled by losing 2,5-1,5 to Hungary 1. This result allowed India and Russia to overtake the former leaders and occupy the first and second place in the final classification, respectively.

Iran "only" needed to win in order to conquer the gold medals, but things did not go their way. The last game to finish in this match was Lorparizangenesh - Antal, in which White was a pawn up in the endgame. Had the Iranian player won, his team would still have saved the match and clinched to the second place. But the Hungarian player defended well and his draw doomed Iran to a disappointing third place and raised Hungary 1 on the unshared fourth place.

A bitter moment for the Iranis. When agreeing to a draw, Amin Tabatabaei knew perfectly well the situation of the match.


As usual, the round started with a moment of celebration: the last brilliancy award winners were Uurtsaikh Uuriintuya of Mongolia and Max Chew Lee of Australia

FIDE Executive Director Nigel Freeman was present at the closing ceremony

The team of India

Final Ranking

Round 7

The formidable Russian team had been advancing through the tournament at full steam and it seemed as if nothing could take them away from the winning path. The fate of round seven wanted it a bit differently, though. Somewhere around move 40, Goryachkina and Vavulin resigned their second and third board games against Amin and Parham due to inevitable mating threats. In the remaining games the Iranian players had an extra pawn each, but the captain, IM Harandi demanded the top board player Asgarizadeh to offer a draw in order to seal the result. Russia eventually won the last board game but this did not change anything already. Iran won by 2,5 - 1,5!

An interview with Team of Iran, in a moment when the last game was still going on, can be found here.

The fight at the top has tightened as there are three teams in shared lead with 12 points, namely Iran, Russia and India, with Ukraine trailing by just a point. Four other teams have ten points. With three rounds to go, and Caissa seemingly willing to exert her whims, anything can happen... 

Ranking crosstable after Round 7

The football tournament medallists were rewarded with the volumes of the "Judit Polgar teaches chess" trilogy


The football kings in Gyor - the team of Israel

The start of a historic match


The Iranian top board player Ahmad Asgarizadeh sealed the result with a draw in a better position

The intensity of fight is the same all over the playing hall

Official website

Round 3

by WGM Anna Rudolf and GM Mihail Marin

As the tournament advances, matches become more leveled, increasing the probability of upsets. Since this is the second round of what we have baptized the "girl's day" we will take as a reference a match in which the girl's result had a big impact. Favorite 4 Ukraine had to conceal a 2-2 result to the modestly rated Uzbek team. The only win for Uzbekistan was scored on board three by the girl player Bakhora Abdusattorova.


"Rustam Kasimdzhanov is not the only Uzbek World Champion; my young brother Nodirbek won the under 8 World Championship two years ago"



An emotional video review of this match can be found at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lsw358UOSGs.

As it becomes customary, the brilliancy prize was awarded shortly before the start of the round. This time, the winner was Murali Khartekeyan of India. For the annotated game click here.


GM Mihail Marin mediating the transfer of the brilliancy prize from WGM Anna Rudolf to IM Murali Khartikeyan of India

WIM Jackie Peng of Canada 2 has been travelling a long way to take part in this Olympiad. From the interview concealed today to WGM Anna Rudolf you will find out that her Olympic carrier is longer than one may suspect. Please check at http://www.youtube.com/watch?list=UUW82rZEMr-c2lc6GuvN6XTw&v=aGhe01xKHKY.

Ranking crosstable after Round 3

Source http://wyco2014.chess.hu/news/