International Events / 2015 World Team Championships
World Women’s Team Championship, Chengdu, China, April 18-29, 2015 1
2
Georgia Russia China India
Ukraine
Kazakhstan Armenia Poland
United States of America x 2 1½ 1
2 2
3 4
1½ 1½ 2 1½ 1½ 2 1 1
2 x
5 2
1½ ½ 1 ½ 1 ½ ½ 1 Board 1: Board 2: Board 3: Board 4:
Egypt
Alternate: 0
0
win, which enabled Team USA to tie the match. It was also my first victory over a super-grandmaster; hopefully, it is not my last (fingers crossed).
Sam Shankland has faced a lot of elite
players as well. He was the only one on our team who played all nine games— including five with the black pieces. Sam had an excellent performance, and he played many interesting games. I person - ally enjoyed his endgame with Lev Aronian.
Precision
GM Samuel L. Shankland (FIDE 2661, USA) GM Levon Aronian (FIDE 2770, ARM) World Team Championship, 2015 (5), Tsakhkadzor, Armenia, 04.23.2015
An amazing position! Despite an extra
knight and a pawn black cannot win the endgame.
54. Nxa7 Kd5 55. Ke3 Kc5 56. Kd3 f5 57. Ke3 Kb6 58. Kf4 Kxa7 59. Ke5 fxg4 60. fxg4 Ne8 61. Kf5
Black cannot avoid pawn trades, so the draw is inevitable.
61. ... Kb6 62. g5 Nd6+ 63. Kg6 hxg5 64. Kxg5 Kc7 65. Kg6 Ne8 66. h6 gxh6 67. Kxh6, Draw agreed.
On one of our free days, the country
WHITE TO PLAY 52. Rxa7! The most precise way to draw the game. 52. ... Rxa7 53. Nc6+ Ke6!?
The move 53. ... Kd7 was another winning attempt 54. Nxa7 Kc7 55. Ke3 Kb7 56. Kd4 Kxa7 57. Kd5 Nf7 58. Ke6 (58. f4!?) 58. ... Ng5+ 59. Ke7 Nxf3 60. Kf7 Ne5+ 61. Kxg7 Nxg4 62. Kg6.
34 July 2015 | Chess Life
was remembering the victims of the Armenian genocide. Despite a very strong rain, thousands of people came to the genocide memorial in Yerevan. Many chess players also attended the ceremony. In round six, we beat Egypt and this
victory became a turning point in our tournament. We also won all remaining matches—against Israel, Ukraine and Cuba, all teams that had higher ratings than did we. In the last four rounds, we only lost one individual game. Winning a match is always a team effort, but it was Alex Lenderman who became a true hero at the finish. He won his last four games,
King’s Indian Defense, Classical Variation (E94)
GM Aleksandr Lenderman (FIDE 2617, USA) GM Vassily Ivanchuk (FIDE 2731, UKR) World Team Championship, 2015 (8), Tsakhkadzor, Armenia, 04.27.2015 Notes by Lenderman.
I consider Ivanchuk to be a brilliant,
border-line genius. I also know that he is unpredictable in the opening. Therefore I decided to keep the opening simple and just play what I know best. Both Gregory Kaidanov (the team coach), and Giorgi Kacheishvili (my personal coach) thought I should keep it simple in the beginning and that Ivanchuk would give me chances. They were both right and I’ll use the space here to thank them, as well as captain John Donaldson, all the rest of the team - mates, my family, and all my fans for helping me out before and during the tournament as well as for their moral support.
1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 g6 3. Nc3 Bg7 4. e4 0-0 5. Nf3 d6 6. Be2 e5 7. 0-0 c6!? 8. Qc2!? Nbd7
Another possible line is 8. ... exd4!? 9.
Nxd4 Ng4!? 10. Nf3 Nd7 11. Bf4 (11. Bg5 But I think White should be slightly better due to a slight space advantage.)
9. Rd1 Qc7 10. d5?! cxd5 11. Nb5 The move I was counting on, but creat -
ing too much dynamics/tension when I already had a solid space advantage.
0
2 2 x
6
3 2½ 2½ 2 x
2 2½ ½ 1
2 7
2 3
8
2 2½ 2½ 2½ 3 2½ 3 x
9 10 3
4
3½ 3½ 4 3
1½ 3 3½ 3 1 1½ 2 2
2 x
2
3½ 2 1½ 1
2
WGM Tatev Abrahamyan (FIDE 2301) WGM Katerina Nemcova (FIDE 2279)
2½ x
2
3½ 4 4
3½ 2½ ½ 3 3½ x
2 3½ 2 2 x
3 3 3
33.3 percent 43.8 percent
WGM Sabina-Francesca Foisor (FIDE 2235) 25 percent WIM Victorija Ni (FIDE 2188) FM Alisa Melekhina (FIDE 2235) 0 ½ ½ 1
1
20 percent 50 percent 1
3 points 31 11
⁄2 ⁄2
points points
1 point 4 points
x 0 Match Game
17 15 11 10 10 9 7 6 5
25 25 22 22 20
17½ 16
15½ 13
9 games 8 games 6 games 5 games 8 games 4
earning him the gold medal on board two. Alex is a player who plays concrete chess and has the rare quality of not being afraid of anyone. Here is his win over Vassily Ivanchuk.
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