Armenia held, but close to title

Ian Nepomniachtchi © official site

A draw with Azerbaijan has left Armenia ahead by two points going into the last round. Ukraine play the leaders tomorrow and will have to win by an unlikely 4-0 to overtake the Armenian squad. China play Hungary tomorrow, with both sides hoping for a medal.

Russia showed no mercy towards Israel, but even a win tomorrow may not be enough to win a medal.

Here is a summary of round 8:

		Russia			Israel		4 : 0
1.1	GM	Grischuk Alexander	2746	GM	Roiz Michael	2669	1-0
1.2	GM	Nepomniachtchi Ian	2711	GM	Smirin Ilya	2676	1-0
1.3	GM	Svidler Peter	2739	GM	Postny Evgeny	2618	1-0
1.4	GM	Vitiugov Nikita	2733	GM	Nabaty Tamir	2584	1-0
		USA			Ukraine		1½:2½
2.1	GM	Kamsky Gata	2741	GM	Ivanchuk Vassily	2768	½-½
2.2	GM	Onischuk Alexander	2675	GM	Efimenko Zahar	2706	½-½
2.3	GM	Seirawan Yasser	2635	GM	Moiseenko Alexander	2715	½-½
2.4	GM	Hess Robert	2609	GM	Areshchenko Alexander	2682	0-1
		Armenia			Azerbaijan		2 : 2
3.1	GM	Aronian Levon	2805	GM	Radjabov Teimur	2744	½-½
3.2	GM	Movsesian Sergei	2700	GM	Gashimov Vugar	2760	½-½
3.3	GM	Akopian Vladimir	2667	GM	Mamedov Rauf	2679	1-0
3.4	GM	Sargissian Gabriel	2663	GM	Mamedyarov Shakhriyar	2765	0-1
		Egypt			Hungary		1 : 3
4.1	GM	Amin Bassem	2609	GM	Leko Peter	2717	½-½
4.2	GM	El Gindy Essam	2510	GM	Almasi Zoltan	2726	0-1
4.3	IM	Shoker Samy	2475	GM	Polgar Judit	2699	0-1
4.4	IM	Ezat Mohamed	2430	GM	Erdos Viktor	2613	½-½
		China			India		3 : 1
5.1	GM	Wang Hao	2718	GM	Harikrishna Pentala	2669	1-0
5.2	GM	Wang Yue	2709	GM	Sasikiran Krishnan	2681	1-0
5.3	GM	Li Chao B	2669	GM	Ganguly Surya Shekhar	2627	½-½
5.4	GM	Ding Liren	2654	GM	Negi Parimarjan	2642	½-½

The standings after the eighth round:

Rank	Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	Points	TB2
1	Armenia	*	2½		2	2½	2	2	2½	3½	3½	13	20.5
2	China	1½	*	2½	2½		3½	2	3	1½	3½	11	20.0
3	Ukraine		1½	*	2	1½	2½	2½	2½	2½	2½	11	17.5
4	Russia	2	1½	2	*	3	3	1		4	3	10	19.5
5	Hungary	1½		2½	1	*	2	2½	2	3½	3	10	18.0
6	USA	2	½	1½	1	2	*	2½	3		3½	8	16.0
7	Azerbaijan	2	2	1½	3	1½	1½	*	3	2		7	16.5
8	India	1½	1	1½		2	1	1	*	2½	2½	5	13.0
9	Israel	½	2½	1½	0	½		2	1½	*	3	5	11.5
10	Egypt	½	½	1½	1	1	½		1½	1	*	0	7.5

The final round will start 5 hours earlier (10 am local time, 4am in Paris etc).