THE CRUCIAL VICTORY
Sergei Movsesian, left, scored the crucial final round victory over Zoltan Almasi of Hungary to clinch the title of 2012 World Chess Olympiad champion. Levon Aronian secured a draw against Peter Leko at Board 1 and another draw at Board 4 between Gabriel Sargissian and Ferenc Berkes. The longest game between Judit Polgar and Vladimir Akopian also ended in a draw. (Photo by Roberto Hernandez)
ARMENIA, RUSSIA WIN GOLD MEDALS
IN THE 40TH CHESS OLYMPIAD
IN THE last round of the 40th World Chess Olympiad, Armenia was matched against Hungary. Levon Aronian secured a perpetual against Peter Leko, and the other games continued.
After the time control, Gabriel Sargissian drew the rook endgame against Ferenc Berkes, and Sergei Movsesian scored a crucial victory against Zoltan Almasi. Eventually, Vladimir Akopian held Judit Polgar to a draw to mark the start of huge celebration for Armenian gold medal. Congratulations!
Russia employed their trademark strategy and signed 2 quick draws with Germany -- both with black pieces. This worked perfectly as Vladimir Kramnik and Sergey Karjakin won with white to secure the overall 3-1 victory for Russia. Russia finished equal first on match points but with weaker tiebreaks and thus is awarded with the silver medal.
China was in good position to fight for the gold medal but a defeat in the match with Ukraine pushed them down in the standings to the 4th place. Vassily Ivanchuk won a nice attacking game against Wang Hao, while Pavel Eljanov outplayed Bu Xiangzhi. The other two games were drawn. With this victory Ukraine clims up and grabs the bronze medal!
In the Women's Section, Russia unexpectedly easily crushed the young team of Kazakhstan with 4-0. At the same time China was struggling to keep pace as Bulgaria proved to be a respectable opponent.
Hou Yifan and Antoaneta Stefanova drew, while Margarita Voiska beat Ju Wenjun. However, Zhao Xue and Huang Qian defeated their opponents to turn the tables and win the match.
Both Russia and China finished with 19 match points, but the tiebreak awarded the gold medal to Russia, while China team had to console themselves with silver.
The Palau team, rated 145th, finished 154 out of 161 countries. The consolation to the team was the acquiring of Candidate Master title to Bernard Garcia who scored 3.5 points in his first 7 games.
Source: 2012 World Chess Olympiad
Bulletin XI
September 09, 2012
Istanbul, Turkey
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