Thursday, 20 September 2012

Final round blues

First place in the 2012 Chess Olympiad was probably decided by three matches, although none of them involved the actual winner. Just as Russia were looking like they would run away with the tournament, they lost in round 9 to the USA. Then the Americans lost their round 10 match to the Chinese team, who suddenly assumed favoritism. Then in the final round China lost 3-1 to The Ukraine, to fall out of the medals and allow the Armenian team to take gold.
The key game from the Ukraine China match was the board 1 clash between Ivanchuk and Hao. And befitting the status of the game (Board 1 of Match 1) Ivanchuk played a brilliancy, sacrificing a rook and a piece to mate the Black king in the middle of the board.


Ivanchuk,Vassily (2769) - Wang,Hao (2726)
Olympiad 0:03.57-0:04.57 (11), 09.09.2012


Start positionPrevious MoveNext MoveEnd positionPlay movesStop playing
1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 e6 3. Nc3 Bb4 4. e3 O-O 5. Bd3 d5 6. Nf3 b6 7. a3 Bxc3+ 8. bxc3 c6 9. cxd5 cxd5 10. Qe2 Nc6 11. O-O Na5 12. a4 Re8 13. Ne5 Ne4 14. f3 Nd6 15. Ba3 Bb7 16. Bxd6 Qxd6 17. f4 g6 18. Qg4 Nc4 19. Qg3 Qc7 20. Bxc4 dxc4 21. f5 f6 22. fxg6 fxe5 23. Rf7 Qc6 24. gxh7+ Kxf7 25. Rf1+ Ke7 26. h8Q Rxh8 27. Qg7+ Kd6 28. dxe5+ 1-0

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