Thu, Nov 27, 2008 page19

• Armenia claims Chess Olympiad

  • AP
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  Armenia won its second straight gold medal at the Chess Olympiad on Tuesday by defeating China 2.5-1.5 in the 11th and final round.

  Armenia’s only win came on board four where Tigran Petrosian beat Li Chao. Armenia finished the tournament alone in first place with 19 points. Two points are awarded for each match win and one for a tie.

  Israel took silver with 18 points after beating the Netherlands 2.5-1.5.

  

  Chess players take part in the finals of the 38th Chess Olympiad at the International Congress Center in Dresden, Germany, on Tuesday. Some 1,270 chess players from 141 countries took part in the contest.

  PHOTO: AFP

  The US took bronze on a tiebreaker after upsetting second-seed Ukraine with a 3.5-0.5 drubbing, getting wins from Gata Kamsky against Vassily Ivanchuk on board one, Alexander Onischuk against Pavel Eljanov on board three, and Yuri Shulman against Zahar Efimenko on board four. Hikaru Nakamura of the US drew Sergey Karjakin on board two.

  The rout left the teams tied at 17 points but gave the medal to the US.

  “This result was without parallel, out of the blue, especially since Ukraine had not lost a match yet in the tournament,” US team captain John Donaldson said.

  The results mirrored those at the 2006 Olympiad in Turin, Italy — there, Armenia took the gold and the US went home with the bronze on a tiebreaker.

  “Winning the gold already feels like something we’re getting used to,” Levon Aronian, first board for Armenia, said with a smile.

  Aronian also paid tribute to Karen Asrian, a member of this year’s team who died suddenly in June at age 28.

  “He was our good friend and we were trying to play well for his memory,” Aronian said.

  For the second consecutive Olympiad, top-seed Russia failed to take a medal. From 1952 to 2004, it (and its predecessor the Soviet Union) never finished below second place.

  In the women’s tournament, Ukraine defeated Poland 2.5-1.5 and Georgia beat Serbia 3-1. The US beat France 2.5-1.5. Russia defeated the Netherlands by the same score.

  Those results leave Georgia and Ukraine tied for first and Poland, Russia and the US tied for third. According to the Olympiad Web site, in case of a tie Georgia would take the gold over Ukraine, the silver medal winner, and the US would take bronze.

  Americans Anna Zatonskih took the individual gold medal for second board and Rusudan Goletiani the silver medal for third board.

  During the tournament, the World Chess Federation (FIDE) announced that Kamsky and Bulgarian Veselin Topalov would play a match in February in Sofia, Bulgaria for the right to challenge world champion Viswanathan Anand of India. They will share US$200,000 in prize money.

  The Kamsky-Topalov match was previously scheduled to take place almost immediately after the Olympiad in Lvov, Ukraine, for a purse of US$600,000.

  In June, World Chess Federation president Kirsan Ilymzhinov personally guaranteed the prize money for the Ukraine match. But the arrangements fell through after Ukrainian sponsors failed to produce the funds.

  During a press conference on Tuesday, Ilymzhinov defended himself and blamed local organizers.

  “It’s not FIDE’s fault,” he said.

  But when pressed by reporters, he acknowledged that he was wrong to guarantee the prize money without insuring that Ukrainian sponsors could deliver.
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