Thursday’s fourth round of the 184-nation Batumi Olympiad produced a major shock when the No 2 seeds, Russia, desperate to capture their first gold since 2002, lost 1.5-2.5 to Poland. Former world champion Vlad Kramnik was actually checkmated.
Earlier, Russia’s top-seeded women lost in round two to Uzbekistan. There are six rounds left after Saturday’s rest day, so both could yet recover, but these were embarrassing setbacks. The Russian squad had prepared for several days at a training camp in Sochi, which Vladimir Putin himself visited to encourage his players.
United States and China, seeded first and third, both dropped points in Friday’s fifth round, after which the unlikely quartet of Azerbaijan, Czech Republic, Poland and Ukraine were the only teams on a maximum 10 match points.
Fabiano Caruana, who challenges Magnus Carlsen for the individual world title in London in November, began with two draws but then defeated India’s ex-world champion Vishy Anand in only 26 moves. After another win in round five, Caruana is now only nine points behind Carlsen in the live ratings, and will surely try in next week’s closing Olympiad rounds for the psychological boost of claiming the No 1 ranking which the 28-year-old Norwegian has held without a break since July 2011.
England, seeded ninth, rode their luck in the early rounds. They made heavy weather of the opening match, 3-1 against Angola, then produced a more assured 3.5-0.5 against Belgium before escaping from the verge of defeat for 2.5-1.5 against Brazil thanks to the endgame skills of David Howell and Gawain Jones. Azerbaijan proved too strong in round four, winning 3.5-0.5 as the world No 3, Shak Mamedyarov, outplayed Michael Adams, but England then kept within two match points of the leaders by beating Italy 3-1.
The best way to view all the games live and free, including the England open and women’s teams, is at the official website batumi2018.fide.com.
Short marginalised in Fide presidential election battle
The bitter war of words between Greece’s Georgios Makropoulos, the current deputy Fide president, and Arkady Dvorkovich, Russia’s former deputy prime minister and chief Fifa World Cup organiser, has spilled over to the Fide Ethics Committee before the Fide presidential election on 3 October.
Nigel Short, standing as an anti-corruption candidate, has been marginalised by two serious snubs. First, an English Chess Federation board meeting announced that its vote would go to Makropoulos, whose No 2 is the ECF’s international director, Malcolm Pein, already a candidate for Fide president in 2022.
Secondly, both Makropoulos, who is probably the narrow favourite, and Dvorkovich, but not Short, have been allocated booths at the Olympiad Expo.
3586 1 Nf1! exf1Q 2 Qf8+! Kxf8 3 Nd7 mate. Instead 1 Nd1? fails to exd1Q and the new queen guards the key d7 square against the knight mate.
Quick guide
Chess: play-by-plays and picture answer
Caruana provided an original touch to a routine Catalan opening by developing his c1 bishop at e3 and his g1 knight at h3. It started to go wrong for Anand with the Indian’s over-ambitious g7-g5 push, but the real disaster was 20…gxf4? when Bxd4+ 21 Rxd4 gxf4 22 gxf4 Rad8 kept Black in the game. As played, Black’s light-squared bishop was effectively trapped and Anand resigned in view of 26…Kh7 27 f5 Bh5 28 Rh3.
1 d4 Nf6 2 c4 e6 3 g3 d5 4 Bg2 dxc4 5 Qa4+ Nbd7 6 Qxc4 a6 7 Be3 Bd6 8 Qc2 O-O 9 Nh3 e5 10 O-O h6 11 dxe5 Nxe5 12 Nc3 Qe7 13 Rad1 Re8 14 Nf4 c6 15 Bd4 g5?! 16 Nd3 Nxd3 17 Rxd3 Be5 18 Qd2 Bf5 19 e4 Bg6 20 f4 gxf4? 21 Bxe5 Qxe5 22 gxf4 Qc5+ 23 Kh1 Nxe4 24 Nxe4 Rxe4 25 Rg3 Rd4 26 Qe3 1-0
Wesley So’s first round win in the USA v Panama match was a routine day at the office for the top 10 GM, with some instructive moments. Black’s 9…h5 in the Sicilian Najdorf stops g2-g4 but gives White more time as he can delay castling. So’s reply with 10 Nd5 and 12 Na5 takes control of the Q-side ready for his push of the a and b pawns, and shows the value of consulting a database since the plan scores significantly higher in practice than White’s alternatives.
White engineered a central breakthrough, Black countered by a queen-rook invasion, but White’s passed d pawn was a winning trump. Right at the end Black could have tried a last trick by 34…Qg4 since if 35 Rxe4?? Rg1+! 36 Rxg1 Qf3+ when Black, two rooks and a knight down, draws by perpetual check.
1 e4 c5 2 Nf3 d6 3 d4 cxd4 4 Nxd4 Nf6 5 Nc3 a6 6 f3 e5 7 Nb3 Be6 8 Be3 Be7 9 Qd2 h5 10 Nd5 Bxd5 11 exd5 Nbd7 12 Na5 Qb8 13 c4 Bd8 14 Rc1 O-O 15 Be2 Bb6 16 Bxb6 Nxb6 17 O-O Re8 18 b4 Qa7 19 Kh1 Nbd7 20 Bd3 Rac8 21 a4 e4 22 fxe4 Nxe4 23 Qf4 Ndf6 24 Bxe4 Rxe4 25 Qxd6 Qd4 26 Rcd1 Qb2 27 Qb6 Re2 28 Qxb7 Rce8 29 d6 R8e4 30 d7 Rxg2 31 d8=Q+ Kh7 32 Qxe4+ Nxe4 33 Qh4 Qe2 34 Rde1 1-0
3586 1 Nf1! exf1Q 2 Qf8+! Kxf8 3 Nd7 mate. Instead 1 Nd1? fails to exd1Q and the new queen guards the key d7 square against the knight mate.