The championship takes place in the Yad Lebanim House, Reger Ave, Menahem
Begin Square, Beer Sheva City, Israel. The world's strongest teams are participating,
headed by Ukraine, Russia, Armenia and the USA. Israel, the host, is ranked
fifth worldwide.
Final Report
On board one Bu Xiangzhi played a pragmatic 21-move draw against Peter Svidler,
the second-highest seed in this tournament. Now all that was needed was for
his team mates to get one draw from the other three games. Of course they were
facing a daunting opposition: the two Alexanders, Grischuk and Morozevich,
both with 2700+ rating points, and veteran Evgeny Bareev, who has been at the
top of the world rankings for a decade.
The audience following the games with great excitement on the transmission
screen
The best chance the Chinese had was Ni Hua on board three against Morozevich.
The 22-year-old Chinese GM started off extremely well, playing six of the first
seven rounds, scoring four wins and two draws with a sensational 2863 performance.
Ni lost in round eight against Armenian GM Karen Asrian, but there he had had
the black pieces. Against Moroz Ni had white...
Ni Hua (2603) - Morozevich,A (2707) [B22]
World Team Ch Beer Sheva ISR (9), 10.11.2005
1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.c3 Nf6 4.e5 Nd5 5.d4 cxd4 6.cxd4 d6 7.Bc4 Nb6 8.Bb5 Bd7
9.exd6 e6 10.0-0 Bxd6 11.Nc3 Ne7 12.Bd3 Bc6 13.Qe2 Nbd5 14.Rd1 0-0 15.Ne5 Bxe5
16.Qxe5 Qb6 17.Qh5 Ng6 18.Bxg6 hxg6 19.Qh4 Nxc3 20.bxc3 Qb5 21.Re1 Rac8 22.Qg3
Rfd8 23.h4 Qf5 24.Bf4 f6 25.a4 Bd5 26.Bd6 Bxg2 27.Be7 Rd7 28.Bxf6 Bd5 29.Be5
Rf7 30.Re3 a5 31.Rc1
White's last move was a mistake – it was necessary for him to play 31...f4
to protect the e1 square with his queen. Now Black had 31...Rc4 32.f4.
Not 32.Ra1 Rxa4 33.Rxa4?? Qb1+ with mate on h1 to follow! 32...Rxa4.
Now Black has an extra pawn and a very nasty queenside setup.
Morozevich during the game
33.Qg5 b5 34.Qxf5 gxf5 35.Kf2 Ra2+ 36.Re2 Ra3 37.Rb2 Rb3 38.Rxb3 Bxb3
39.Ke3 Rd7 40.Ra1 a4 41.Kd2 Ra7 42.Bd6 Ra6 43.Ba3 Kf7 44.Ke3 Ra8 45.Kf2 Rh8
46.Rh1 Bd5 47.Rh3 Be4 48.Ke3 Rh6 49.h5 Ke8 50.Rg3 Rxh5 51.d5 g5 52.dxe6 g4
53.Kd4 Rh3
The game Ni Hua vs Morozevich was the last to finish. It was watched with
indescribable tension by players and spectators in the press room (that's
Bu Xiangzhi in the checkered shirt in the middle)
Ni Hua has been putting up stiff resistance, and could have possibly hung
on with 54.Re3. The next move, however, spoils it all: 54.Rg1?
This allows the black pawn to advance to g2. 54...g3 55.Ke5 g2 56.Rd1
Rh1 57.Rd7 g1Q 58.Bd6 Bc6 0-1.
Chess is such a brutal game – Ni Hua after his loss to Morozevich
Here are the individual results of the critical match in round nine.
Bu Xiangzhi |
2637 |
½-½ |
2740 |
Svidler, Peter |
Zhang Pengxiang |
2613 |
0-1 |
2720 |
Grischuk, Alexander |
Ni Hua |
2603 |
0-1 |
2707 |
Morozevich, Alexander |
Zhong, Zhang |
2608 |
0-1 |
2675 |
Bareev, Evgeny |
None of the other matches changed the order of the teams on the final table.
Israel lost 1.5-2.5 against the US, with Ibragimov taking a point off Sergey
Erenburg. Cuba and Armenia drew all their games, which secured Bronze for the
Armenians. And the Georgians lost 1.5-2.5 to Ukraine, with 15-year-old Sergey
Karjakin playing the decider against Mikheil Mchedlishvili.
Sergey Karjakin in round nine, playing 1.e4 to win
Final Standings
|
Team |
wins |
losses |
draws |
points |
1 |
Russia |
8
|
0
|
0 |
22
|
2 |
China Men |
6
|
2
|
0
|
21.5
|
3 |
Armenia |
4
|
1
|
3
|
18.5
|
4 |
Ukraine |
4
|
3
|
1
|
17.5
|
5 |
USA |
3
|
3
|
2
|
16.5
|
6 |
Israel |
2
|
5
|
1 |
14.5
|
7 |
Georgia |
2
|
5
|
1
|
13.5
|
8 |
Cuba |
1
|
4
|
3
|
13
|
9 |
China Women |
0 |
7
|
1
|
7
|
All games so far in zipped
PGN
The official
web site had live transmission of the games, which were also broadcast
on Playchess.com. There are a lot of pictures, mostly uncaptionen. In the Reports
section you will find excellent comments and annotated game fragments by Alon Greenfeld.
Alon's diagrams are great (he makes excellent use of arrows and highlighted
squares) and his notes are very enlightening. The commentary is not replayable.
Picture Gallery
The top board in the decisive round. Bu pragmatically made a draw against
Peter Svidler, who is over one hundred points higher on the rating list.
Evgeny Bareev, one of the most experienced players in this team championship,
outplayed his opponent to help secure the narrowest of victories for his team.
The triumphant Russians get their trophy and medals
Team captain Sergey Dolmatov with Svidler, Dreev and Rublevsky
Ni Hua, still shattered by his final game, gets his silver medal
The Chinese Team celebrating – more or less
Grischuk, Dolmatov, Bareev and Svidler at dinner. In the background FIDE
and Israeli brass, with Florencio Campomanes second from right.
The Ukrainians: Alexander Moiseenko and Sergey Karjakin, with organiser Moshe Slav (middle)
The Teams
Armenia |
Levon Aronian |
2724 |
Vladimir Akopian |
2707 |
Asrian Karen |
2645 |
Rafael Vaganian |
2614 |
Smbat Lputian |
2614 |
Ashot Anastasian |
2596 |
Captain: – Tigran Nalbandyan |
|
|
China Men |
Xiangzhi Bu |
2637 |
Pengxiang Zhang |
2613 |
Hua Ni |
2603 |
Zhang Zhong |
2608 |
Jianchao Zhou |
2516 |
Chong Liang |
2515 |
Captain: Ye Jiang Chuan |
|
|
China Women |
Xue Zhao |
2478 |
Huang Qian |
2398 |
Wang Yu |
2396 |
Qianyun Gong |
2374 |
Shen Yang |
2326 |
Yifan Hou |
2220 |
Captain: Zhang Wei Da |
|
Cuba |
Lazaro Bruzon |
2677 |
Lenier Dominguez |
2635 |
Neuris Delgado |
2551 |
Jesus Nogueiras |
2547 |
Walter Arencibia |
2510 |
Yuniesky Quezada |
2505 |
Captain: Jose Luis Altuna |
|
|
Georgia |
|
Zurab Azmaiparashvili |
2658 |
Baadur Jobava |
2601 |
Giorgi Giorgadze |
2601 |
Levan Pantsulaia |
2578 |
Mchedlishvili Mikheil |
2564 |
Merab Gagunashvili |
2542 |
|
|
|
Israel |
Boris Gelfand |
2717 |
Ilia Smirin |
2673 |
Emil Sutovsky |
2654 |
Boris Avrukh |
2653 |
Michael Roiz |
2600 |
Sergey Erenburg |
2582 |
Captain Alex Kaspi |
|
Russia |
Peter Svidler |
2740 |
Alexey Dreev |
2694 |
Alexander Grischuk |
2720 |
Alexander Morozevich |
2707 |
Evgeny Bareev |
2675 |
Sergei Rublevsky |
2652 |
Captain: Sergey Dolmatov |
|
|
Ukraine |
Vassily Ivanchuk |
2748 |
Ruslan Ponomariov |
2704 |
Andrei Volotkin |
2666 |
Pavel Eljanov |
2663 |
Moiseenko Alexander |
2663 |
Sergey Karjakin |
2658 |
Captain: Leonid Tymoshenko |
|
|
USA |
Alexander Onischuk |
2628 |
Boris Gulko |
2589 |
Gregory Kaidanov |
2614 |
Alexander Goldin |
2615 |
Ildar Ibragimov |
2605 |
Igor Novikov |
2589 |
Captain: Postovsky Boris |
|