Armenia is looking more and more like a championship team in its crush of a strong Dutch side. Lev Aronian's miniature crush on Ivan Sokolov was beautiful and demonstrates the importance of home preparation. (see game; analysis by Mikhail Golubev) Gabriel Sargissian also won in impressive style and has scored an undefeated 6-1 score as a reserve player.

Russia matched Armenia with a 3-1 jaunt over the upstart Belarus team. Vladimir Kramnik has silenced all naysayers about his form and beat Alexeij Aleksandrov in 18 moves after a "touch blunder." Peter Svidler won a nice encounter as well and Morozevich squeezed the full point. Evgeny Bareev dropped his result and the Russians missed a chance to gain ground on surging Armenia.

In this position the Armenian reels off 16…Rxc5 and wins in fine style.

India dropped its match against the Ukraine and things are becoming a bit more desperate for the Asian power. Viswanathan Anand has played the past six matches, but India has not been able to gain any ground on Armenia and Russia. Anand has given up far too many draws in his six games and Sasikiran has also been bitten by the "draw bug." This puts a lot of pressure on the lower boards to win. In the match with the defending Olympiad champs, Pentala Harikrishna apparently tossed a piece in time pressure and had to resign.  If India is to medal, they will have to get more points from the top to take pressure off of the mid-to-lower boards.

In USA-Sweden, many questioned, the captain's choice of lineup. Hikaru Nakamura played on board #1 against Evgeny Agrest. Some felt Gata Kamsky would have been a better matchup on top board, but perhaps John Donaldson wants to save Kamsky for the inevitable encounters against Russia and Armenia. Nakamura played the 6.g3 line against the Najdorf, clearly not the type of setup conducive to his provocative style. This slow plodding game did have a bit of fireworks as Nakamura tried sacrificing a couple of pawns to run his passed a-pawn… to no avail. The two teams traded wins on the middle boards with Tiger Hillarp-Person having lost his fangs against Gregory Kaidanov. In Carlsson-Akobian, white seemed to have gotten a positional advantage against the French Defense, but agreed to a draw after only 21 moves.

Allegory of the Cave

Christo Cave has been the Trinidadian champion for a record 13 times and has represented the island in a number of Olympiad tournaments yet the medal eludes him. In Turin, he is on 5/5 and will continue his march toward a medal against Thailand's Teerapabpaisit Wisuwat. Cave upset Sweden's Tiger Hillarp-Person in round one and has been the bright light for Trindad, a team that has struggled.

Other African and Caribbean teams have been able to find their own victories and many upsets have been registered. Both Egypt and Morocco have scored good results, both beating Sweden and India respectively. What is apparent is that there are no easy points and the 4-0 gaps that existed in previous years are now 3½-½  or 3-1… 2½-1½ in some cases! The Jamaica-Finland dispute could have easily gone 3-1 in Jamaica's favor if the arbiter was doing her job. When an inexperienced team like Haiti can beat Honduras, then things are certainly brightening up.

Trinidad's Christo Cave (second from left) upsetting Sweden's Tiger Hillarp-Person in round #1.  Photo by Daaim Shabazz.

African-Caribbean scores

Qatar 2½-1½ Algeria; Nicaragua 3-1 Angola;  Aruba ½-3½ Netherlands Antilles; Bermuda 2½-1½  Papua New Guinea; Barbados 2-2 Bolivia; Singapore 4-0 Botswana; British Virgin Islands 3-1 US Virgin Islands; Cuba 3½-½  Indonesia; Kazakhstan 3½-½  Dominican Republic; Egypt 2-2 Turkmenistan; Libya 1-3 Ethiopia; Haiti 2½-1½ Honduras; Jamaica 2-2 Tajikistan; Kenya ½-3½ Mauritius; Libya 3-1 Ethiopia; Malawi 0-4 Uganda; Mauritius 3½-½ Kenya; Chile 2½-1½ Morocco; Namibia 1½-2½  Zambia; Netherlands Antilles 3½-½  Aruba; Nigeria 2-2 IPCA; Puerto Rico 4-0 Brunei Darussalam; Chinese Taipei 3½-½  Rwanda; South Korea 3-1 Seychelles; UAE 2½-1½ South Africa; Sri Lanka 3-1 Sudan; Trinidad & Tobago 3-1 Uruguay; Mozambique 2½-1½  Jersey; Tunisia  3-1 IBCA; Uganda 4-0 Malawi; US Virgin Islands 1-3 British Virgin Islands; Zambia  2½-1½ Namibia

Reporting from Chicago, USA  -  Dr. Daaim Shabazz, The Chess Drum

Posted by The Chess Drum: 29 May 2006