Chess Olympiad 2014

The Chess Olympiad 2014 is a team tournament in chess that to 14 August 2014 in the first Tromso , Norway was discharged.

competition

It was the 41st Chess Olympiad of the World Chess Federation FIDE . The Bulgarian city of Albena had also applied to host the event . In February 2010, FIDE awarded the Olympiad to Norway with a 95-47 decision. For the opening ceremony in the Skarphalle, the producer Hasse Lindmo and the Gyro company were commissioned. The venue for the competitions was Mackhallen , a former brewery building.

11 rounds were played according to the Swiss system , the days without play were August 7th and 13th. The time to think about it was 90 minutes for 40 moves plus 30 minutes for the rest of the game, plus 30 seconds per move from the start of the game. The main judge was Panagiotis Nikolopoulos from Greece.

Problems before the Olympics

In May 2014 it was announced that the budget for the Chess Olympiad had a funding gap of NOK 15 million . In order to bring the Chess Olympiad to Tromsø, the 2013 World Chess Cup had to be held there. Its costs of 2 million euros were not taken into account when applying for funding. The Norwegian government initially refused to provide additional funds on top of the NOK 75 million that had already been spent. At the beginning of June the Norwegian Parliament approved NOK 12 million, after which the organizers confirmed that the Chess Olympiad would take place.

On July 7, 2014, FIDE President Kirsan Ilyumschinow complained in an open letter to the Norwegian Prime Minister Erna Solberg that some teams had difficulties obtaining visas to enter the country. As there is not a Norwegian embassy in every country, participants had to travel to other countries to collect the required biometric data.

On July 16, 2014, the Organizing Committee announced that several teams would be banned from participating because they had not submitted their team roster by the June 1 deadline. It was the teams from Gabon , Ivory Coast , Cambodia , Oman , Pakistan , Senegal and Central African Republic in the open section and Afghanistan and Russia in the women. The organizers argued that the regulation regarding the registration deadlines applies to all teams and that exceptions cannot be allowed. On the other hand, the teams in question cited the fact that a significantly later period was provided for line-up changes for an additional fee.

In particular, the exclusion of the Russian women's team, which was the defending champion, caused a stir. The late report was attributed in the chess press to the fact that Kateryna Lahnos had to wait for the change of federation from Ukraine to Russia. Lahno's use gained momentum after Nadezhda and Tatjana Kossinzewa announced their withdrawal from the national team. The organizers' announcement that several teams would not be allowed to participate was sharply criticized by FIDE. Vice-President Israel Gelfer believed that the final decision on team admission rests with Kirsan Ilyumschinov. Legal action against the organizers will be examined. After Ilyumschinov had issued an ultimatum, the organizers announced on July 21 that all teams would now be admitted.

Participating teams

With 172 teams in the open tournament and 134 teams in the women, new participation records were achieved. Nine countries competed in a Chess Olympiad for the first time: Bhutan, Ivory Coast, Guam, Lesotho, Oman, the Solomon Islands, Saudi Arabia, Swaziland and Tanzania. The women's team from Burundi did not start in the 6th and 7th round and was then excluded from the tournament.

With an Elo average of 2671, the German men's team was ranked 12th. The rating favorite was the Russian team with an average rating of 2773. In the women's category, Germany also took 12th place on the starting list with an average rating of 2379; the nominal favorite was China with 2549 points.

Results

The Gaprindashvili Cup for the best combined result of the men's and women's teams was won by China, ahead of Russia and Ukraine.

A total of 6704 games were played at the Chess Olympiad (2719 white wins, 1520 draws, 2368 black wins and 97 games without a fight).

List of medal winners

Open tournament

1st place - China

number	player	Points	Lots
1	Wang Yue	4th	9
2	Ding Liren	7½	10
3	Yu Yangyi	9½	11
4th	Ni Hua	6½	9
5	Wei Yi	4th	5

2nd place - Hungary

number	player	Points	Lots
1	Péter Lékó	5	10
2	Csaba Balogh	7th	9
3	Zoltán Almási	7th	10
4th	Richárd Rapport	5½	9
5	Judit Polgár	4½	6th

3rd place - India

number	player	Points	Lots
1	Parimarjan Negi	6½	10
2	SP Sethuraman	7½	10
3	K. Sasikiran	7½	10
4th	B. Adhiban	7th	11
5	Babu MR Lalith	2	3

Women tournament

1st place - Russia

number	player	Points	Lots
1	Kateryna Lagno	6th	10
2	Valentina Gunina	8th	10
3	Alexandra Kostenjuk	7½	9
4th	Olga Girya	5	8th
5	Natalia Pogonina	5½	7th

2nd place - China

number	player	Points	Lots
1	Hou Yifan	7th	9
2	Ju Wenjun	8th	11
3	Zhao Xue	5	7th
4th	Tan Zhongyi	6th	9
5	Guo Qi	6½	8th

3rd place - Ukraine

number	player	Points	Lots
1	Anna Musychuk	6th	10
2	Maria Musychuk	6th	10
3	Anna Uschenina	5½	9
4th	Natalia Schukova	7½	10
5	Inna Janovskaya	3½	5

German teams

The teams of the German Chess Federation entered the race with the aim of reaching the top ten.

Open tournament

The men remained undefeated until the penultimate round. They each reached a draw against several of the extended favorites (England, USA, Cuba, Uzbekistan). The victory of Arkadij Naiditsch against the current world champion Magnus Carlsen from Norway caused a particular sensation . Due to the defeat against third-placed India and the final draw against outsider Australia, the DSB selection only came in 30th.

number	player	Points	Lots
1	Arkadij Naiditsch	5½	9
2	Georg Meier	6½	9
3	Daniel Fridman	4½	8th
4th	Liviu-Dieter Nisipeanu	5½	10
5	David Baramidze	4½	8th

Women tournament

After 10 rounds, the German women still had a chance to win a medal with eight wins and two defeats. They had only lost against the outstanding tournament winner from Russia and against France. In the final round they lost 4-0 to Georgia and ended up in 9th place.

number	player	Points	Lots
1	Elisabeth Pähtz	6½	10
2	Zoya Schleining	2½	6th
3	Tatiana Melamed	4th	9
4th	Melanie Ohme	6½	9
5	Sarah Hoolt	7th	10

Board winner

At the Chess Olympiads, the best players on each board and the best "reserve" player are honored individually. The winners are determined according to Elo performance with a minimum of eight games.

Open tournament

board	player	team	Points	Lots	Elo performance
1	Wesselin Topalow	Bulgaria Bulgaria	6½	9	2872
2	Nguyễn Ngọc Trường Sơn	Vietnam Vietnam	8½	10	2843
3	Yu Yangyi	China People's Republic People's Republic of China	9½	11	2912
4th	Nikola Sedlak	Serbia Serbia	6½	8th	2773
5	Samuel Shankland	United States United States	9	10	2831

Women tournament

board	player	team	Points	Lots	Elo performance
1	Nana Dzagnidze	Georgia Georgia	8th	9	2719
2	Valentina Gunina	Russia Russia	8th	10	2651
3	Alexandra Kostenjuk	Russia Russia	7½	9	2639
4th	Natalia Schukova	Ukraine Ukraine	7½	10	2512
5	Rout Padmini	India India	7½	8th	2584

FIDE Congress

During the Chess Olympiad, the 85th FIDE Congress took place and the President was elected. Each of the 181 chess federations that are members of FIDE has one vote. The challenger to the incumbent Kirsan Ilyumschinow was the former world chess champion Garry Kasparov . In the run-up to the congress, Kasparov accused the FIDE administration of manipulating the list of eligible delegates to his disadvantage. Ilyumschinov was re-elected with 110-61 votes. The German Herbert Bastian was elected as one of its vice-presidents . New President of the European Chess Union was Zurab Azmaiparashvili of Georgia.

Incidents

The tournament was overshadowed by the death of the 45-year-old Uzbek Alisher Anarkulov , who played for the World Chess Federation of the Deaf (ICCD) , who died after the last round in the hotel. In addition, the 67-year-old Swiss Kurt Meier-Boudane, who played for the Seychelles , died during the game of the 11th round against Alain Niyibizi from Rwanda.