2014 Olympiad Day 3 - Tough going

Round 3 of the 2014 Chess Olympiad saw some tough matches, and some surprising results. The win by France over Armenia was probably the biggest news, coming as it did on the top board. Movsesian lost to Fressinet and with the rest of the games drawn it was 2.5-1.5 to the French. The Dutch team also had a good result, beating the US team 2.5-1.5 with 3 decisive games. After the match Anish Giri commented that his draw by repetition was only correct if his team won the match.
Further down the Australian team slipped in a banana peel in the shape of El Salvador. Wins to Smerdon and Smirnov were cancelled out by losses to Illingworth and Ikeda, leaving the match 2-2. The Australian Women's team suffered a similar fate, drawing 2-2 with Monaco. Both results keep Australia further down the table than they would like, and it may be a couple of rounds before they reach the heavy-hitters again.
In good news for the host country, World Champion Magnus Carlsen scored his first win for the event, leading the team to a 3-1 win over Montenegro.


Carlsen Magnus (2877) - Djukic Nikola (2521) [B01]
WCO2014 Tromso (3.29), 04.08.2014

1. e4 d5 2. exd5 Qxd5 3. Nc3 Qd8 4. d4 Nf6 5. Nf3 Bg4 6. h3 Bxf3 7. Qxf3 c6 8. Qd3 e6 9. g3 Nbd7 10. Bg2 Bd6 11. O-O O-O 12. a3 Qc7 13. Rd1 Rad8 14. b3 Rfe8 15. Bb2 a6 16. Ne2 e5 17. c4 exd4 18. Nxd4 Be5 19. Qc2 c5 20. Nf3 Bxb2 21. Qxb2 Nf8 22. Nh4 Ng6 23. Nf5 Ne7 24. Ne3 b6 25. b4 Nc6 26. Rxd8 Rxd8 27. Rb1 cxb4 28. axb4 Ne5 29. Qc3 Rd3 30. Qa1 h5 31. Qxa6 h4 32. g4 Rd2 33. c5 bxc5 34. b5 Ned7 35. b6 Qf4 36. Qa8+ Kh7 37. Qf3 Qxf3 38. Bxf3 Rd4 39. b7 Rb4 40. Rd1 Ne5 41. Bg2 Nfd7 42. Nc2 Rf4 43. Rd5 f6 44. Rxc5 Nb8 45. Rc8 1-0