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Wednesday, August 29, 2012

Istanbul Chess Olympiad 2012 R1 - Top Seeds Win, No Team Upsets

Chess blog for latest chess news and chess trivia (c) Alexandra Kosteniuk, 2012

Hi everyone,

The 40th World Chess Olympiad began in Istanbul and the first round saw top seeded teams sail along. A total of 158 teams are competing in the Open Section, while the Women Section has 124 teams. Most of the top players in each team sat out for the first round as the Swiss pairing puts higher rated teams against lower-rated ones. Nevertheless, world #4 Teimour Radjabov played on the first board for Azerbaijan, scoring an important victory against IM Michael Wiedenkeller of Luxembourg. Azerbaijan won convincingly 4-0.

Russia against Dominican Republic in Round 1

In the Open Section Ukraine began by defeating Iraq 4-0, in a reprise match of the opening of the 2010 Khanty-Mansiysk Olympiad, where Ukraine won the gold medal. Is the history repeating itself for Ukraine?


USA secured a perfect 4-0 score against Jordan, while Armenia scored 3-1 against Bolivia. Bolivia's first and only Grandmaster, Oswaldo Zambrana, stunned the much higher rated GM Sergei Movsesian. Russia gained a quick 3-0 against Dominican Republic, but in one of the longest games of the day FM William Puntier held GM Evgeny Tomashevsky to a draw.
In the Women's Section, the top seeded teams gained convincing victories. China, Russia, Georgia, USA, India and Poland scored 4-0 against Bandgladesh, Bolivia, Guatemala, New Zealand, FYROM and Dominican Republic, respectively.

However, WIM Lougain Dahdal of Jordan defeated IM Lilit Galojan of Armenia to reduce the losing margin to 1-3. 
WFM Gabriela Maria Avelar Bonilla from El Salvador snatched a draw from the much higher rated IM Anna Ushenina from Ukraine, however Ukraine still was victorious with 3,5-0,5 match score. You can also track all the live action at the official website.

From Alexandra Kosteniuk's
www.chessblog.com
Also see her personal blog at
www.chessqueen.com



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