Bursa is Turkey's fourth largest city and is just south of the Sea of Marmara in north-west Anatolia, so is in Asia but only a few kilometres from Europe!
Order of Size | City name | Population (millions) |
1 | Istanbul | 10.5m |
2 | Ankara | 3.9m |
3 | Izmir | 2.7m |
4 | Bursa | 1.6m |
5 | Adana | 1.5m |
6 | Gaziantep | 1.3m |
7 | Koya | 1.0m |
8 | Antalya | 0.9m |
The ten teams have the following reasons to be present:
The three continental champions (of 2008) are Russia, Brazil, Egypt.
China could have been a fourth, but withdrew quite late and were replaced by India.
Three qualifiers from the Olympiad i.e. Armenia, Israel, USA.
The organizing country Turkey.
The two invited federations Greece and Azerbaijan.
There are four players plus two reserves in each team.
One particularity is that draw offers cannot be made before move 30 and as usual 'zero tolerance' for late arrivals!
Here are the results of the first two rounds:
Round 1
Azerbaijan 2.5-1.5 Armenia (Mamedyarov beat Pashikian)
Turkey 1-3 USA
India 2.5-1.5 Greece (Arun Prasad beat Halkias)
Russia 2.5-1.5 Brazil (Grischuk beat Vescovi)
Egypt 1-3 Israel
Round 2
USA 3-1 India (Nakamura beat Sasikiran and Onischuk beat Harikrishna)
Azerbaijan 3-1 Turkey
Armenia 2.5-1.5 Israel (Aronian beat Gelfand)
Brazil 2.5-1.5 Egypt
Greece 2.5-1.5 Russia
(average ratings: GRE 2586 v RUS 2715!) Kotronias 0-1 Jakovenko
Papaioannou 1-0 Morozevich
Banikas 1-0 Tomashevsky
Mastrovasilas ½-½ Vitiugov
Standings:
United States and Azerbaiajan have won their first two matches.
Six teams have one match victory apiece.
Egypt and Turkey have lost both of their matches.
For further information: official site
In the first round, Azerbaijan (European champions) overcame the Olympiad Champions Armenia.
In the second round, few would have expected Greece 2.5-1.5 Russia (Papaioannou with the black pieces beat Morozevich and Banikas beat Tomashevsky).
More tomorrow with the third round including the match Russia-USA!