Armenia Champions

A 'Shoker' for Mamedyarov!

In the last round, draws across the board against the Ukraine was sufficient for the Armenian team to get their hands on the gold medal in Ningbo China. They were the only team to have remained unbeaten. China won the big clash with Hungary 2½-1½ and thus obtained silver. The Ukrainians manged bronze, due in part to the Russian's surprising defeat at the hands of the Indians.

In the final rounds there were some surprises. India beat Russia, which can't have happened very often!

One individual performance that stuck out was that of Samy Shoker who beat Shakhriyar Mamedyarov, which was the cream on an amazing championships for him. He is well known in Paris circles, as he has been in France for several years, but despite a certain prowess at Blitz chess, Ningbo was certainly the tournament of his life (so far)!

		India		-		Russia		2½:1½
1.1	GM	Harikrishna Pentala	2669	-	GM	Grischuk Alexander	2746	0-1
1.2	GM	Sasikiran Krishnan	2681	-	GM	Nepomniachtchi Ian	2711	1-0
1.3	GM	Ganguly Surya Shekhar	2627	-	GM	Svidler Peter	2739	1-0
1.4	GM	Negi Parimarjan	2642	-	GM	Vitiugov Nikita	2733	½-½
		Hungary		-		China		1½:2½
2.1	GM	Leko Peter	2717	-	GM	Wang Hao	2718	½-½
2.2	GM	Almasi Zoltan	2726	-	GM	Wang Yue	2709	0-1
2.3	GM	Polgar Judit	2699	-	GM	Li Chao B	2669	0-1
2.4	GM	Balogh Csaba	2643	-	GM	Yu Yangyi	2672	1-0
		Azerbaijan		-		Egypt		2½:1½
3.1	GM	Radjabov Teimur	2744	-	GM	Adly Ahmed	2631	1-0
3.2	GM	Gashimov Vugar	2760	-	GM	Amin Bassem	2609	1-0
3.3	GM	Mamedyarov Shakhriyar	2765	-	IM	Shoker Samy	2475	0-1
3.4	GM	Guseinov Gadir	2625	-	IM	Ezat Mohamed	2430	½-½
		Ukraine		-		Armenia		2 : 2
4.1	GM	Ivanchuk Vassily	2768	-	GM	Aronian Levon	2805	½-½
4.2	GM	Eljanov Pavel	2697	-	GM	Movsesian Sergei	2700	½-½
4.3	GM	Efimenko Zahar	2706	-	GM	Akopian Vladimir	2667	½-½
4.4	GM	Moiseenko Alexander	2715	-	GM	Sargissian Gabriel	2663	½-½
		Israel		-		USA		1½:2½
5.1	GM	Sutovsky Emil	2700	-	GM	Kamsky Gata	2741	½-½
5.2	GM	Roiz Michael	2669	-	GM	Onischuk Alexander	2675	½-½
5.3	GM	Smirin Ilya	2676	-	GM	Seirawan Yasser	2635	½-½
5.4	GM	Postny Evgeny	2618	-	GM	Hess Robert	2609	0-1

The final standings:

Rank	Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	Points	TB2
1	Armenia	*	2½	2	2	2½	2	2	2½	3½	3½	14	22.5
2	China	1½	*	2½	2½	2½	3½	2	3	1½	3½	13	22.5
3	Ukraine	2	1½	*	2	1½	2½	2½	2½	2½	2½	12	19.5
4	Russia	2	1½	2	*	3	3	1	1½	4	3	10	21.0
5	Hungary	1½	1½	2½	1	*	2	2½	2	3½	3	10	19.5
6	USA	2	½	1½	1	2	*	2½	3	2½	3½	10	18.5
7	Azerbaijan	2	2	1½	3	1½	1½	*	3	2	2½	9	19.0
8	India	1½	1	1½	2½	2	1	1	*	2½	2½	7	15.5
9	Israel	½	2½	1½	0	½	1½	2	1½	*	3	5	13.0
10	Egypt	½	½	1½	1	1	½	1½	1½	1	*	0	9.0

Armenia win the gold medal after winning five matches and drawing four.

More information from the official site:

http://chess.sport.org.cn