World Team Cities Chess: Hoogeveen versus Baku in Final Today

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

Hi everyone,

Top seeds Hoogeveen and Baku face each other in today’s finals of the World Cities Chess Team Championship while Novi Sad and Tashkent battle for third place in the exciting climax of the week long tournament in Al Ain, United Arab Emirates, according to the latest chess updates via Fide.

Hoogeveen drubbed Tashkent 3:1 to advance to the final match while Baku outclassed Novi Sad 3.5-0.5 to climb to the last rung of the knockout. 

Ivan Sokolov made short work of IM Andrey Kvon’s Nimzo Indian defense. Sokolov posted his Queen deep in Black’s territory and added pressure with doubled Rooks. Kvon lost a pawn and resigned on the 33rd moves under the mounting attack. On board 3, previous round hero Sergei Tiviakov also used the Nimzo Indian defense but could only draw with Alexei Barsov in 41 moves of a Rook and Pawn endgame.

Super GM Anish Giri, playing black on top board, used the Sicilian Scheveningen to seal the win for Hoogeveen as he defeated Tashkent’s Marat Dzhumaev. Giri forced Dzhumaev to exchange Queens on the 30th move to transpose to a favorable minor piece endgame for black. Giri created a passed pawn and limited movement of the White Bishop. He then advanced his pawn menacingly to the seventh rank to force resignation in 51 moves. With the match already decided, the fourth board game still continued between Jan Smeets of Hoogeveen and Saidali Iuldachev of Tashkent up to 77 moves close to midnight.

Read more »