Friday 24 April 2015

2015 World Teams Championship

The 2015 World Teams Championship is at its halfway point, but has a somewhat upside down look to it. The event is a 10 team round robin, and while it contains a number of chess 'power houses' they don't seem to be doing well at all.
The one familiar face at the top of the table is The Ukraine, who have won 4 of their 5 matches. They are tied with China (2014 Olympiad champions) closely followed by Israel and Cuba. But at the other end of the table, Russia, Hungary, Armenia and USA have all lost more matches than they have won.
Looking at the pairings I am not sure if the bottom teams will be able to climb back, as they have a few games amongst themselves. The key match will probably be the round 7 China - Ukraine pairing, with Israel and Cuba hoping for a drawn match so they can sneak past.
Live coverage of this strong event can be found at http://tsaghkadzor2015.fide.com/ (NB If you visit this page you get a bonus history lesson as well)

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