International Events / 2015 World Team Championships
Tigran Petrosian. The chess traditions run deep in
Armenia. Given its population of three million people, it is simply amazing how many strong grandmasters they’ve pro - duced. Today chess is probably even more popular there than ever. Armenia was the first country that introduced chess as a mandatory subject into schools. All kids second through fourth grades study chess in schools. This program is strongly supported by the government and the president of Armenia, Serzh Sargsyan, who is also the president of the Armenian Chess Federation. After three days in Yerevan our short vacation was over and we moved to Tsakhkadzor, a ski resort town in the mountains, about one hour away from Yerevan. The organization of the World Team was at a high level. Grandmaster Smbat Lputian, a former chess Olympiad champion, was the head of the organizing committee. The five-star hotel where the tournament took place was located at the highest point of the town at an elevation of 6,500 feet. Since the ski season was already over, the chess players felt a bit isolated from the world, which was not that bad of an idea. Playing in an event like the World Team requires a full dedica - tion. An average player spends at least six to eight hours a day playing and preparing for the game, so there is not much time left for anything else but chess anyway. The first part of the tournament went
pretty rough for the U.S. team. We lost three matches—to China, Hungary and Armenia, but drew India and Russia. Another team in a similar situation may have given up, but we all were in good spirits despite the poor result. In fact, with each match our confidence was
growing, as all our players were in good form. All matches that we lost were by slim margins so with a little bit of luck we could have saved and maybe even won some of them. The following game was one of the bright moments for our team at the start of the tournament. Naroditsky had a rough road at the U.S. Championship just before this event (see June 2015 Chess Life), so this shows both his true ability and resilience.
World Team Championship, Tsakhkadzor, Armenia, April 18-29, 2015 1
2 China
Ukraine Armenia Russia
United States of America x 2 ½ 2½ 3 4 5
DESPITE A ROUGH START, OUR YOUNG TEAM’S CONFIDENCE GREW WITH EACH ROUND. Giuoco Piano (C54)
GM Daniel Naroditsky (FIDE 2640, USA) GM Dmitry Jakovenko (FIDE 2744, RUS) World Team Championship, 2015 (4), Tsakhkadzor, Armenia, 04.22.2015 Annotations by Daniel Naroditsky
Playing a super-grandmaster is quite
an amazing experience. Dmitry Jakovenko is a re nowned expert in the Berlin Defense, and a colorless draw would be rather
Match Game 6 7
1½ 2½ 1½ 2 x
2 1½ 1½ 1½ 2½ Board 1: Board 2: Board 3: Board 4:
Hungary India Israel Cuba Egypt
Alternate: 2
2
2½ 2½ 2 x
1½ 2
2 x
8 9 10
2 3½ 2 2½ 2 3 2½ 3 2½ 15 x
2½ 2½ 2½ 4 GM Samuel L. Shankland (FIDE 2661)
2½ 3 44 percent
3 12
2½ 1½ 1½ 2½ 11 3½ 2½ 2½ 1½ 3½ 10 1½ 2
GM Aleksandr Lenderman (FIDE 2617) 71 percent GM Alexander Onischuk (FIDE 2665) GM Varuzhan Akobian (FIDE 2622) GM Daniel Naroditsky (FIDE 2640) 2 ½ 2½
x
1 1½ 1½ 1½ 2 2½ x 1½ 1½ 2½ 1½ 1½ 2 1 1½ 2½ 2½ 1 1½ 0 1½ ½ 1
3½
2 1½ 1½ x 1½ 1
43 percent 58 percent 57 percent
2 1
2½ 2 3 x
4 points 5 points 3 points 31
⁄2 10
23 21 18
20½ 19½
points 4 points
1½ 2 2 2½ 9 ½ 2½ 3 x
9 8 7 1
9 games 7 games 7 games 6 points 7 games 17 16
18½ 16½ 10
www.uschess.org 31
PHOTO, OPPOSITE PAGE: COURTESY OF TOURNAMENT OGRANIZERS. THIS PAGE: MIKE KLEIN
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