37^th Chess Olympiad in Turin: Look Ahead ... 

   by John Lee Shaw

This coming Saturday, to an anthem composed by famous composer Ennio Morricone, the opening ceremony of the 37th Chess Olympiad will take place in Turin.


Located in north-west Itay, Turin is situated at the foot of the Alps, and is probably best known as being the home of the FIAT motor company, the Turin Shroud, and the founding city of the company Martini. Carla Bruni the supermodel was born there in 1968, and author Umberto Eco is among the famous people who have chosen to make Turin their home. In just a few days, however, the city of Turin will be the focus of the chess world for over 2 weeks, as battle commences to decide the Olympic Chess Champions for 2006.



Chess olympiads, arguably draw even more attention than World Chess Championship matches, and this is possibly quite logical, when we take in to account that the chess federations of 140 countries are involved, bringing an expected 2300 players and trainers between them. Coupled with the individual support for the players, there is also a national interest in the event, with many personal and combined prides at stake. To whom will go the gold, silver, and bronze medals that are so greatly yearned for? At the previous Olympiad, in 2004, it was Ukraine, Russia, Armenia, in the men's event, and China, USA, and Russia, in the women's event. This year, Russia and the Ukraine are among the favourites again, but there are many top teams being fielded that could be possible spoilers. The full list of participating countries, is as follows:

One of the finest strokes of planning, is that this Olympiad takes place just months after the staging of the Winter Olympics ... in Turin! An advantage that this has for the event, is that ready-made facilities for the Olympiad are already in place. For example, the players, officials, and even the press and federation representitives, will all be accomodated in a real 'Olympic Village', the same one that the competitors of the Winter Olympics stayed in. A three-storey building, divided in to flats, and total capacity is 2500 beds! It has been dubbed a 'chess village' and rightly so, and is a mere 5 minutes away from the playing venue.


That brings us to another 'legacy' given to the chess olympiad by the Winter Olympics -- namely, the 'Oval'. Pictured to the left, the Oval was the venue for the speed skating during the winter olympics, and is where play will take place during the chess olympiad. It is officially the biggest playing venue ever seen for a Chess Olympiad: more than 21,000 square-metres, with a playing area of 210x107 metres. To put this in perspective, a football pitch, goalpost to goalpost, measures at the most 110x75! The Oval will hold the best players in the world, representing 140 chess federations, and 450 games will be played inside its walls each round.

As well as this, giant screens will relay games for spectators, it will have analysis rooms featuring GM commentary, the 14th World Computer Championships will be held there concurrently with the Olympiad, chess stalls, and an open tournament. For 14 days, Turin, and its Oval, will be a chess fans paradise!

And away from Turin, forecasts predict a worldwide audience of around 30 million fans following all the moves and happenings via the internet! Chess Gateway will be bringing you as much coverage as we possibly can, as soon as information is available to us. We are certainly extremely excited about this event, and we look forward to your company for what should be a very thrilling ride!


Schedule:

May 20 2006 -- H. 21.00 -- Opening ceremony
May 21 2006 -- H. 15.00 -- First round
May 22 2006 -- H. 15.00 -- Second round
May 23 2006 -- H. 15.00 -- Third round
May 24 2006 -- H. 15.00 -- Fourth round
May 25 2006 -- H. 15.00 -- Fifth round
May 26 2006 -- Rest day
May 27 2006 -- H. 15.00 -- Sixth round
May 28 2006 -- H. 15.00 -- Seventh round
May 29 2006 -- H. 15.00 -- Eighth round
May 30 2006 -- H. 15.00 -- Ninth round
May 31 2006 -- H. 15.00 -- Tenth round
June 1 2006 -- Rest day
June 2 2006 -- H. 15.00 -- Eleventh round
June 3 2006 -- H. 15.00 -- Twelfth round
June 4 2006 -- H. 10.00 -- Thirteenth round | H. 20,30 -- Closing ceremony

Olympiad Facts:


• The record for most queens on the board during an olympiad game, is four

• Famous painter Marcel Duchamp represented France in the Prague Olympiad in 1931.

• The quickest decisive game in an olympiad was Johansson-Nilsson, 0-1 in 13 moves. (1954)

• Quickest draw during an olympiad is held by GM Fedorova of Belarus and GM Kachieshvilli of Georgia, who played 1.e4 c6 2.d4 and shook hands.

• The longest olympiad game was Seirawan-Xu in 1988. It lasted 190 moves and was drawn! The longest decisive game was Fier-Pazos 2004, in hich White won in 135 moves.

Rounds 1-5 Summary

The 37th Chess Olympiad is currently underway in Turin, Italy. 140 federations compete, bringing 250 Grandmaster's, 55 Woman Grandmaster's, 196 International Master's, 76 Woman International Master's, 106 FIDE Master's, and 59 Woman FIDE Master's, between them. That makes a total of 742 internationally titled players all taking part in the event. The players stay in a real 'olympic village' (see my look ahead report for more on this) and play in an area bigger than a football pitch.

So far in the tournament, there has been a total of 2236 games played. 890 have been won by White, and 740 by Black. There have been 578 draws, and 28 forfeits. After 5 rounds, Russia lead in both the male and female sections, but it is still very early days, and the competition is starting to heat up. Below, is a short account of the events of the first 5 rounds.


Round 1

Russia and Netherlands began strongly, nilling their opponents, but so too did many other teams (shown below). Ukraine, unfortunately for them, were halted by blind World Champion Sergey Krylov's draw on board 1 with Vassily Ivanchuk (see below). Mongolia drew against vastly higher rated Azerbaijan, and there was a bigger shock in store as India (2nd seeds) were defeated 3-1 by Morocco!

Round 1 perfect scores (female section in italics): Russia, Netherlands, Bulgaria, Spain, Germany, Romania, Georgia, Poland, Greece, Denmark, Iceland, Croatia, Turkey, Philippines, Vietnam, Lithuania, Latvia, Bangladesh, Indonesia, Estonia, Canada, Australia, Iran, Qatar, Finland, Ireland, Albania, Chile, Colombia, Luxembourg, Paraguay, Andorra, Singapore, Italy B -- Russia, Georgia, Hungary, USA, China, Armenia, Italy A, India, Bulgaria, Romania, Lithuania, Greece, France, Slovenia, Netherlands, Czech Republic, Vietnam, Latvia, Cuba, Ecuador, Poland, Mongolia, Kazakhstan, Belarus, Switzerland, Estonia, England, Croatia, Iran, Australia, Uzbekistan, Sweden, Turkey, Norway, Turkmenistan, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Colombia, Mexico, Peru, Finland, Canada, Azerbaijan, Nigeria.


Round 2

Russia continued strongly in the male section with another perfect result, but were not helped in the female section by a great performance from WIM Dana Aketayeva (KAZ), who drew with GM Alexandra Kosteniuk (rated over 200 points higher) on board 1.  Bulgaria were held to a draw by Indonesia. WGM Zantonskih of the USA, was defeated by WIM Siganova of Estonia. Also in the female section, Netherlands were defeated 2-1 by vastly outrated Bosnia and Herzegovina, and WGM Natalia Zhukova of the Ukraine was held to a draw by un-rated Rosemary Amadasun of Nigeria.

Round 2 perfect scores (female section in italics): Russia, Serbia & Montenegro, New Zealand, India, United Arab Emirates, Puerto Rico, Jamaica, Faroe Islands, Malaysia, Yemen, Surinam -- China, Lithuania, France, Latvia, Israel, Indonesia, Philippines, Portugal, Austria, Malaysia, Brazil, Albania, Italy B, Puerto Rico, Sri Lanka.


Round 3

Russian defeat Germany, but not painlessly, as Sergey Rublevskiy is defeated by Alexander Graf. GM Emil Sutovsky (ISR) is defeated by FM Marco Pacheco (PER), and GM Conquest of England loses to FM Rudin of Indonesia, who earlier in the tournament drew with Bulgaria.

Round 3 perfect scores (female section in italics): India, Sweden, Czech Republic, Kyrgystan, Azerbaijan, Slovenia, Wales, Sri Lanka, Netherlands Antilles -- Lithuania, Russia, Ukraine, Uzbekistan, Sweden, Peru, Serbia & Montenegro, El Salvador, Scotland, Ireland, New Zealand, Tajikistan, Qatar.

Round 4

Russia defeats China 3-1 and Armenia nil Norway, they lead jointly with 15.5, and will play in round 5. The female Netherlands team is defeated to nil by vastly outrated Estonia.

Round 4 perfect scores (female section in italics): Armenia, Iran, Mexico, Chile, United Arab Emirates, Italy B, Palestine, Cuba, Costa Rica, Malaysia, Lebanon, Zambia -- Russia, Spain, Estonia, Vietnam, Mongolia, Turkmenistan, Austria, Iraq, South Africa, Algeria.

Round 5

The clash between leaders Russia and Armenia ends in stalemate with 2 points each. Kramnik defeats Aronian with the white pieces, while Morozevich loses out to Gabriel Sargissian. The other games were drawn. Elsewhere, GM Vallejo (SPA) was defeated by GM Hellsten (SWE), rated over 100 points below him. In round 6, Russia face 3rd place Netherlands, who are putting in a fine performance in this tournament so far.

Round 5 perfect scores (female section in italics): Indonesia, Paraguay, Latvia, Paraguay, IBCA -- Slovenia, France, Netherlands, Moldova, Kyrgyzstan, Algeria, Guatemala, Bolivia.

Rounds 6-10 Summary

The 37th Chess Olympiad is currently underway in Turin, Italy. 140 federations compete, bringing 250 Grandmaster's, 55 Woman Grandmaster's, 196 International Master's, 76 Woman International Master's, 106 FIDE Master's, and 59 Woman FIDE Master's, between them. That makes a total of 742 internationally titled players all taking part in the event. The players stay in a real 'olympic village' (see my look ahead report for more on this) and play in an area bigger than a football pitch.

So far in the tournament, there has been a total of 4481 games played. 1737 have been won by White, and 1411 by Black. There have been 1300 draws, and 33 forfeits. After 5 rounds, Russia led in both the male and female sections, how things can change! At the top in the male section is Armenia, having had a superb run, while Russia have taken their feet off the pedal; Ukraine lead the female section. Below, is a short account of how this came about.


Round 6

Russia return to play after the rest day (minus Alexander Morozevich, who is given an extra days rest) to suffer a defeat at the hands of the Netherlands. It was a close match, 3 out of the 4 games being drawn, but Friso Nijboer defeated Sergey Rublevskiy (with the Black pieces -- see game, below) to decide the match. This result moved the Netherlands up to second place, behind Armenia who defeated Uzbekistan, also by a point. In the female section, Russia defeat Hungary, Ukraine defeat Spain, and USA are victors against Mongolia. This, though, by a probably disappointing score of 2-1 -- 'a win is a win' it is true, but in the olympiad individual scores count, not just team results. For this reason, I can not understand why some teams have rested their best players. Some instance have certainly proved ill-considered, and costly.

Round 6 perfect scores (female section in italics): Colombia, Thailand, Jamaica, Barbados, Bolivia, Hong Kong, Macau, Pakistan -- Slovakia, Australia, IPCA, Czech Republic, Iran, Norway, Panama.


Round 7

The Netherlands had enjoyed a pretty good run in the olympiad, but in round 7 they hit a brick wall, dropping to Armenia, 3-1. This result seemed to be the start of something of a decline for the Netherlands, who would drop from 2nd place to 16th in just a few very costly rounds. Russia recovered from their defeat of the previous round, defeating Belarus 3-1, and Sweden put in a good performance against the USA to draw the match 2-2. In the female section, Russia nil Slovakia, the Ukraine defeated Romania, and the USA drub India 2.5-0.5.

Round 7 perfect scores (female section in italics): Germany, Azerbaijan, Belgium, Singapore, Faroe Islands, Puerto Rico, Uganda -- Russia, Georgia, Vietnam, Germany, Switzerland, Wales, Jamaica, Nigeria.


Round 8

A pattern had been building, to the effect that as soon as a team threatened to get close to Armenia, they would be dealt with at the boards quite sharply. There was no change in the pattern in round 8. This time it was Cuba's turn to experience the might of the tournament leaders, as they are defeated 3-1. The Czech Republic put in a fine showing against Russia, David Navara defeating Peter Svidler on board 1. The day was saved by Alexander Morozevich, drawing the match with his defeat of Vlastimil Babula. In the female section, the USA hold Russia to a draw, and the Ukraine defeat Hungary.

Round 8 perfect scores (female section in italics): Turkey, Faroe Islands, Syria, Sudan -- China, Lithuania, Croatia, Kyrgyzstan, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Austria, Yemen.

Round 9

Russia suffer another defeat to a European team, this time it is France who are spoilers. Sergey Rublevskiy is once again the one blushing, as he is defeated by Laurent Fressinet. Armenia take advantage by defeating the Ukraine, Gabriel Sargissian carrying the day on board 4. In the female section, China and Russia draw with each other, leaving the Ukraine to take advantage, thrashing the USA 2.5-0.5.

Round 9 perfect scores (female section in italics): China, Portugal, Lebanon, New Zealand, Guatemala, Botswana -- Colombia, Mexico, Italy B, Bolivia, Angola.

Round 10

China become Armenia's latest victims, losing by a point, and Armenia go two points clear with 3 rounds remaining, and a rest day to freshen up. They have this olympiad to lose now, the gold medal ribbon at their fingertips. Elsewhere in round 10, Russia defeated Ukraine, and France and USA draw with each other. In the female section, Ukraine and Russia prove too strong for their opponents, Georgia and Bulgaria respectively. USA and France draw with each other here, too.

Round 10 perfect scores (female section in italics): Romania, Morocco, Chile, Kenya, Fiji -- India, Poland, Ecuador, Philippines, Peru, Denmark, Puerto Rico, Chinese Taipei, Costa Rica.

Medal positions, then, with 3 rounds remaining, are as follows:

Men: Armenia -- 29 points, China -- 27 points, Russia -- 26 points.
Women:  Ukraine -- 23 points, Russia -- 22.5 points, China -- 20.5 points.

See you after round 13!!

Final Report

The 2006 chess Olympiad in Turin, was one of the most competitive in chess olympiad history. 147 federations took part in the event. There were 250 GM's/55 WGM's, 196 IM's/76 WIM's, 106 FM's/59 WFM's attending. 5828 games were played in total, with 2241 White wins, 1810 Black wins, 1735 draws, and 42 forfeits. At the opening of the event, the top 3 seeds in each event were as follows: Men/main -- Russia, India, Armenia; Women -- Russia, Ukraine, Georgia.

The format of the event can be said to have been in thirds, with rounds 1-5 making up the first, 6-10 making up the second, and the final 3 rounds making up the thirds. Each of these segments were seperated by a rest day.

A the end of the first segment, everything was going true to form, really, apart from India suffering a bad early loss, and one or two shock individual results. Russia led after 5 rounds, with Armenia second, and the Netherlands had an awesome start to the tournament and found themselves in 3rd place. In the female tournament, Russia also led, with the Ukraine following them closely, and Hungary bringing up 3rd place. Georgia, (thanks to a couple of draws that arguably should have been wins) at that stage, did not show in the top 10.

The second segment began well for the Netherlands, who faced Russia, and defeated them by a full point, Nijboer victorious over Rublevskiy. This improved the Netherlands position to second, and dropped Russia to third, Armenia took clear first. Armenia and the Netherlands would meet in round 7, and the Netherlands would meet a brick wall, being soundly defeated 3-1, and dropping several places. From this point, Armenia would begin to shine, and Russia would begin to decline. At the end of round 10, Russia were still in third place (a full 2.5 points behind Armenia), China were in second, and Armenia had taken a firm hold of the top of the table, leading by 2 points with 29.

In the female section, things were also not going quite as anticipated. Ukraine led by a half point from Russia, who were a good 2.5 points clear of third-place China. I should say at this point, that perhaps the Russian captaincy should look a little at their strategy for this olympiad, as some of their decisions not to field their best players for certain rounds (in both events) could be said to be quite questionable. I am not for one moment saying that the results would have been different, but with such a fiercely contested tournament, one can not afford to give in any area.

So, going in to the final segment, then, the situation was that Armenia led the main group, with China in second, and Russia in third. It was also that barring any major surprises, the fight was for the silver and bronze medals. The women's section was quite wide open, with not just 3 teams in with a chance of medals.


Round 11

Armenia continued their trend of soundly defeating any team that looked like proving a threat to them, the Czech Republic being the victims. Joel Lautier was the hero of the French team, defeating Zhang Zhong of China to decide the match. For the USA, it was Hikaru Nakamura who was the point scorer, taking the scalp of Alexander Grischuk of Russia. USA 2.5 - Russia 1.5. In the women's event, the Ukraine put in a superb performance against Bulgaria to take the match 2.5-0.5. Alexandra Kosteniuk carried Russia through against Georgia, and China put in a 3-0 drubbing of Greece. At this point, those teams pretty much looked like the medal winners, (at least to me anyway), it was just a question of which combination.

Round 11 perfect scores (female section in italics): Bulgaria, Norway, Slovakia, Portugal, IPCA -- China, Austria, Turkmenistan, England, Albania, Iraq, Sri Lanka, United Arab Emirates, Namibia.


Round 12

France put in a great showing against Armenia to draw the match 2-2 (draws on all boards). China and Russia both had good 3-1 results, against Czech Republic and Cuba respectively. Upset of the round was elsewhere in the tournament, when Viswanathan Anand was defeated by Canada's Pascal Charbonneau. In the Women's section, Ukraine soundly defeated India, while Russia were held to a draw by France. China were held by the USA.

Round 12 perfect scores (female section in italics): Hungary, United Arab Emirates, Lebanon -- Brazil, Vietnam, Czech Republic, Cuba, Mongolia, Serbia & Montenegro, Spain, IPCA, Canada, Azerbaijan, Kyrgyzstan, Ireland, Costa Rica, Panama.


Round 13

Leaders Armenia drew quickly with Hungary, which assured them of the Gold medal. China were defeated the Netherlands to take the Silver medal, and the USA drubbed Norway 3.5-0.5 and took the Bronze medal. Russia were defeated 3-1 by Israel, (Bareev and Morozevich both losing), and were left out of the medals and in 6th place. It was up to the Russian ladies to hold the Russian end up, but unfortunately for them not quite with a Gold medal. That went to Ukraine, who out-scored them by a point and a half, drawing their final round against Armenia. Russia took the Silver medal, defeating India in round 13. China had a nice 2 points win over Belarus, and took the Bronze medal.

Round 13 perfect scores (female section in italics): Italy A, Australia, Indonesia, Costa Rica, Netherlands Antilles -- Netherlands, Latvia, Uzbekistan, Malaysia, Italy B, Algeria, Malta.

As I said at the top of this article, it was a very hotly contested Olympiad, with very exciting chess. Top performers were Wang Yue of China (10/12), and Gabriel Sargissian of Armenia (10/13). For the female section Hou Yifan of China had a great score of 11 from 13.

That about wraps things up then. I have certainly enjoyed covering Turin 2006 for you, and I hope that you have enjoyed following along!