Ukraine and Russia!

The Ukraine comfortably disposed of the French to consolidate their lead whereas the Russia 1 team edged out the Chinese and are second alone. The title looks increasingly as if it will go to one of these two teams.
Russia 1 have clinched the gold in the Women's event with China best placed to take the silver.

The Olympiads are for many the most important event in the chess calendar and most leading players are happy to come along and represent their country. For the men, 24 of the World's top 25, and all but four of the 38 'elite' 2700+ players are here: Anand, Gashimov, Bacrot and Morozevich being the absentees.

It can at times be a great leveller with Carlsen (for the third time!) and Topalov both losing today!

For the women, the big name missing is World No.2 Humpy Koneru (also from India like Anand!) but veterans Pia Cramling and Maia Chiburdanidze didn't make the trip either. Otherwise 22 out of the top 25 are here.

Notably, three are playing in the open event: Judit Polgar, Viktorija Cmilyte and Zhu Chen.

Here are the rankings after ten rounds with Israel due to play Ukraine tomorrow.

RankCountryMatch pts.Tie-BreakGame pts.Board 1Other notable scores
1Ukraine18322.529Ivanchuk 7.5/9Efimenko 8/10
2Russia 117321.526KramnikKarjakin 7.5/9
3Israel1629527GelfandSutovsky 7/8
4Poland15288.527.5WojtaszekMiton 7/9
5Hungary15286.524Leko
6Armenia1528625Aronian
7Spain15285.526.5Shirov
8France15267.523Vachier-Lagrave
9Russia 214296.527Nepomniachtchi
10China1429226Wang YueWang Hao 7.5/10
11Azerbaijan14290.526Mamedyarov
12Italy14274.524.5Caruana
13Russia 314271.524JakovenkoRublevsky 7.5/10
14USA14259.524.5Nakamura
15Cuba1425825Dominguez Perez
16Greece14246.525PapaioannouD.Mastrovasilis 7/9

The best percentage score of all is that of Bah Brema of Mali with 7/7!

Some strong performances have been achieved by Teterev (Belarus) 7/8, Grandelius (Sweden) Ivanisevic (Serbia) 7/9 and Movsesian (Slovakia) 7.5/10. Other players with impressive percentages from non-European teams are Bassem Amin (Egypt) 8/9, Sergio Barrientos (Colombia) 8/10, Munkhbat Chogdov (Korea) 8/10 and Algis Shukuraliev (Kyrgyzstan) 8/10.

Here are a selection of Olympiad-centred videos to watch, courtesy of Europe Echecs. Enjoy them!

Russia 1 demolished Bulgaria 4-0 and have won all their matches. The individual scores demonstrate their dominance as apart from the top two (who are mentioned in the table) Kosteniuk has 6/9, Galliamova 5/6 and Gunina 5.5/6.

In the final round Russia 2 take on Russia 1 whereas China meet the Ukraine. China will probably need to win to ensure that they obtain the silver medal because Georgia have a better tie-break.

RankCountryMatch pts.Tie-breakGame points.Board 1Other notable scores
1Russia 12037031.5Tatiana Kosintseva 6.5/9Nadezhda Kosintseva 8.5/10
2China1631528.5Hou Yifan 7.5/10Ju Wenjun 8.5/10
3Ukraine15326.527.5LahnoGaponenko 7.5/8
4Georgia1532127Dzagnidze 7/9
5Russia 21528725PogoninaBodnaruk 6.5/7
6Poland1527327.5SockoDworakowska 7.5/9
7Cuba1429127.5Ordaz ValdesMarrero Lopez 7/8
8USA1427926Krush
9India14272.523.5Harika
10Azerbaijan14259.525.5Z.Mamedjarova 8/10
11Bulgaria1424021.5Stefanova
12Vietnam1422124.5Hoang Thi Bao TramPham Le Thao Nguyen 7.5/9
13Croatia1421622Golubenko

As for board prizes, the Kosintseva sisters (after both winning in round 10) are naturally still leading on both boards one and two!

Other ladies who are doing well individually include Kubra Ozturk (Turkey) 8/10 Ilze Berzina (Latvia) 8/10 and Julia Novkovic (Austria) 7.5/9.

Starting times for round 11 (after tomorrow's rest day) on Sunday is as follows:

Khanty Mansiysk 11am

Moscow 9am

Paris, Madrid 7am

London 6am

New York 2am

Los Angeles 11pm (Saturday night)

For more information, and the possibility of downloading the games, go to the Official site

To follow the results Official site

Here are a selection of our recent photos:

Pick the odd one out! © chessanytime.com
Tatiana Kosintseva (board 1, Russia 1) © chessanytime.com
Sergey Karjakin (board 4, Russia 1) © chessanytime.com
Tatev Abrahamyan (board 3, USA) © chessanytime.com
Ahmed Adly (board 1 Egypt). Former World Junior Champion and current African No.1. © chessanytime.com
Zahar Efimenko (board 5, Ukraine) © chessanytime.com
Baadur Jobava (board one, Georgia)© chessanytime.com
Laura Rogule (board 2, Latvia)© chessanytime.com
Karolina Ortiz (board 1, Colombia) © chessanytime.com
Huang Qian (board 4, China)© chessanytime.com
Surya Shekhar Ganguly (board 3, India) © chessanytime.com
Natalia Zhukova (board 2, Ukraine) © chessanytime.com
Yaniet Marrero Lopez (board 3, Cuba)© chessanytime.com
Kiril Georgiev (board 3, Bulgaria)© chessanytime.com

Published on , Updated on