Breaking Chess News: Armenia, Russia Win Gold in Open, Women's Sections at 40th Chess Olympiad

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


Chess Queen™ Alexandra Kosteniuk Wins Individual Bronze Medal on Fourth Board! Nadezhda Kosintseva Wins Individual Gold Medal on Third Board!

Hi everyone,


GOLD FOR RUSSIA (In second consecutive Chess Olympiad): GM Tatiana Kosintseva (2530), GM Nadezhda Kosintseva (2524), IM Valentina Gunina (2507), GM Alexandra Kosteniuk (2489), WGM Natalija Pogonina (2448)
Credit to their coaches: GM Sergei Rublevsky (2693), GM Alexander Riazantsev (2712), and GM Evgeniy Najer (2664)

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!


Gold for Armenia in Open Section

Russia employed their trademark strategy and signed two 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 tie-breaks 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 climbs up and grabs the bronze medal!

In the Women's Section Russia easily crushed the young team of Kazakhstan with 4-0. At the same time China was struggling to keep the 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.


Defending champions Russia keep their gold! (More updates soon on www.chessqueen.com)

Both Russia and China finished with 19 match points, but the tie-break awarded the gold medal to Russia, while China team had to console themselves with silver. Ukraine demolished Germany 3,5-0,5 to secure the third place and the bronze medal.

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