37th Chess Olympiad

The final round did not hold much surprises. Armenia won the Hamilton Russell Trophy by drawing all four games quickly against Hungary in the final round on June 4. They reached 36 points to win the Olympiad for the first time. Ukraine won the Vera Menchik Cup for women by making quick draws on all three boards against Armenia. Ukraine reached 29.5 points to win the Chess Olympiad for the first time. New champions help the cause of the sport.

The battle for the silver and bronze medals were hot on Sunday morning. Here, China defeated the Netherlands 2.5-1.5 to surprise Russia and others to win the silver medal. China became the second Asian team after Uzbekistan (in Manila 1992) to win a regular silver medal. China scored 34. United States of America scored a huge 3.5-0.5 sweep over Norway to win the bronze medal.

Top seed Russia lost poorly by 1-3 to Israel and missed the medals for the first time ever. Israel finished strongly but were pushed out to fourth place on tie-break by America. Both teams had scored 33 points.

Indian men only managed 2.5-1.5 against Italy-B and finished 30th. India had finished sixth in Calvia 2004. Anand and D.P.Singh were rested. Sasikiran won a long pawn ending while Harikrishna caught the black king naked with an attack from the queen on one side and the rook from the other. Ganguly lost playing the French defence with black. Chanda gave up his queen for a rook and bishop to play a 101-move draw.

All the six Indian players will be losing Elo. Anand, Sasikiran had to play major events prior to the Olympiad and the team missed their freshness at the start. Debutant D.P.Singh did not find favour of the trainer Ubilava and did not get a second chance after losing the opening round. Therefore, the line up became predictable to our opponents. Ganguly started well and Harikrishna finished well. The team won six matches, drew three and lost four. The scores: Anand 4.5/9, Sasikiran 7.5/2, Harikrishna 8/12, Ganguly 6/10, Chanda 3.5/7, D.P.Singh 0/1.

Russia won the silver medal and China took the bronze medal in the women's section. Russian women who started as the top seed finished second beating India 2-1 after N.Kosintseva sacrificed an exchange to defeat Swati Ghate in the third board. Humpy repeated the position and drew Kosteniuk while Harika held Tatiana Kosintseva in a dead drawn rook ending. Indian women started as ninth seed and finished twelfth. India had finished ninth in 2004.

All the players except Swati Ghate will be losing Elo. The scores: Humpy 8/12, Harika 6.5/12, Swati Ghate 7.5/12, Mary Ann Gomes 1/3. India won seven matches, drew two and lost four matches including the last two.

37th Chess Olympiad Live

Standings Men

Standings Women