2010 World Chess Olympiad: Russian women take home gold with round to spare

Alexandra Kosteniuk's Chess News & Trivia (c) 2010

How about a souvenir from the Olympiad?

Hello Everyone,

The 2010 39th Olympiad in Khanty Mansiysk is down to the penultimate round. While Russia 1 has wrapped off the Women's Section with Gold with one round to go, there is an interesting scenario up for the last round in the Open section.

Ukraine is at the top and needs to win the last round to take home the gold. But if they draw and Russia 1 wins then the tiebreaks will decide the gold winner. If Russia wins but Israel also wins then the silver will go to Israel and Ukraine will have to settle for the bronze. All this is because of the interesting results in the last few rounds. Tiebreaks will also be used to decide winners in case of wins by France, Armenia, Spain, Hungary and Poland.

Standings before the last round: 1. Ukraine – 17 points, 2. Russia-1 and Isreal – 16, 4–8. Hungary, Armenia, Spain, and France – 15.

In the women's section, Russia 1 is already home with the gold. China will win the silver only if they win tomorrow. They did a convincing job of beating India today in the penultimate round. Also, tiebreaks will decide the winners if Russia B, Ukraine, Poland and Georgia win.

Standings after 10 rounds: Russia-1 – 20 points, 2. China – 16, 3–6. Ukraine, Georgia, Russia-2, and Poland – all with 15 points.

The last round will be played on Sunday, October 3, 2010. Here are the pairings:

Pairings of the open section: Israel-Ukraine, Russia-1-Spain, Poland-Hungary, France-Armenia, etc.

Pairings of the women section: Russia-2-Russia-1, China-Ukraine, Poland-Georgia, Croatia-Cuba, USA-India, Vietnam-Azerbaijan, etc.

You can find all the detailed pairings at the official website.

Meanwhile, here are some interesting games from Round 10. You can run them in our pgnplayer or watch in flash below.

From Alexandra Kosteniuk's

www.chessblog.com

Also see her personal blog at

www.chessqueen.com