Chess Olympiad 2016

The Chess Olympiad 2016 is a team competition in chess that was held from September 1st to 14th, 2016 in the Azerbaijani capital Baku . This is the 42nd  Chess Olympiad the World Chess Federation FIDE . Bakı Kristal Zalı served as the venue . The main judge was Faiq Həsənov from Azerbaijan.

The team of the USA (Olympic champion 2016) with the cup that Samuel Shankland holds up.

Azerbaijani postage stamp for the 2016 Chess Olympiad

The competition was held in two tournaments, one for all-women teams and an open tournament in which almost exclusively men competed, but women were also eligible to play. In both tournaments, teams of four play against each other, whereby one substitute man or woman was allowed per team. The open tournament was won by the team from the USA , the women's tournament by the Chinese team.

Tournament mode

In both tournaments - the open tournament and the women's tournament - teams of four (with possibly a substitute player) competed against each other in 11 rounds. The pairings took place according to the Swiss system . To put it simply, this means that in each round teams were drawn against each other that had previously scored the same number of points. One round was played every day. The thinking time was 90 minutes for the first 40 moves + 30 minutes for the rest of the game + 30 seconds per move. After the 5th round there was a rest day. A team received 2 points for a team win and 1 point for a draw (2: 2). In the end, the team that scored the most points after 11 rounds should win. In the event of a tie, the so-called Olympiad-Sonneborn-Berger evaluation decided . If this would also be the same, the number of board points earned should decide.

Particular emphasis was placed on preventing fraud. This primarily means the use of electronic aids. In order to prevent this, the participants were scanned before entering the tournament arena just like at the airport, were not allowed to carry any suspicious objects (cell phones, smartwatches, pens, ...) and had to log off from the referee in order to use the toilet, for example. This rule met with resistance from many players and was ultimately not enforced by the referees. In the 7th round refused Nigel Short , during his match against Li Chao to let search because it disturb this in his concentration and he had been checked before the start of the match. He was then warned.

Field of participants

All federations that belonged to the world chess federation FIDE were eligible to start, including those that did not represent an independent state. Originally 180 teams were registered in the open tournament and 142 in the women. The actual number of participants was 170 teams in the open and 134 in the women's tournament. In the women's event, the record of participation in 2014 was equalized, and in the open tournament it was missed by two teams. Azerbaijan was the host with three teams each in both tournaments. In addition, international teams of the blind (only in the open tournament), the physically handicapped and the deaf took part.

The associations of Djibouti , Eritrea , Kosovo and South Sudan were present for the first time at a chess Olympiad. They only started in the open tournament. Guam , Guyana , the Maldives and Tanzania brought a women's team to the start for the first time.

The world's best representation of Armenia was not there. The reason was assumed to be the tense relationship with the host country .

If you take the players' Elo numbers as a yardstick, the teams from Russia (2768), USA (2765) and China (2740) (Elo averages in brackets) were the clear favorites in the open tournament. Germany (2652) started on the seed list in 13th place, Austria (2549) in 40th place, Switzerland (2512) in 48th place and Liechtenstein (2012) in 136th place.

Before the tournament, the women's team from China (2560) took first place on the seed list, followed by Ukraine (2505) and Russia (2504). Here, Germany (2381) was in 10th place, Austria (2225) in 35th place and Switzerland (2187) in 39th place.

In addition to the Armenian players, Boris Gelfand , who was eligible to play for Israel , the Ukrainian Vasyl Ivanchuk and Vice World Champion Viswanathan Anand (India) were also missing . Otherwise, all top players were represented in the Chess Olympiad, including the world champion and world number leader Magnus Carlsen ( Norway ).

Tournament course

Open tournament

In the first rounds there were quite unequal pairings due to the seeding list, in which the favored team was almost always able to prevail. Only in round four there were some exciting pairings: China struggled surprisingly against Italy, but in the end they won the match 3-1. The USA did not get more than 2-2 against the Czech team after all four games had ended in a draw , although every single American player is about 100 Elo points better than his Czech opponent. Perhaps the biggest surprise, however, was Ukraine's 2½: 1½ victory over Russia, after Ruslan Ponomarjow and Andrij Wolokitin both won their games with Black against the higher-ranking Evgeni Tomaschewski and Alexander Grishchuk and Vladimir Kramnik on the first board could not go beyond a draw could come. In round five, Ukraine confirmed this success with a 2½: 1½ victory over China and thus remained without losing points before the rest day, as did the Netherlands and India.

In the further course of the tournament, all teams in the top group had to give up points. In round 8 there was the much-noticed match between the USA and Russia - incidentally, at the same time with the same pairing for women. The two top boards drew. Ray Robson lost to Alexander Grishchuk , but Wesley So Jan Nepomnjaschtschi was able to bring his first defeat after seven wins in a row, so that the top match ended in a 2-2 draw. After the USA won their match against Norway in round 9 (with the top game Fabiano Caruana (2808) - Magnus Carlsen (2857): draw), they were tied ahead of Ukraine and one point ahead of Russia in first place Ukraine had already played (2½: 1½ in round 6) there was no direct showdown between these opponents. Instead, the USA won against Canada (2½: 1½) and Ukraine against Slovenia (3½: 0½). Since there was still a tie, the Olympiad-Sonneborn-Berger rating had to be used. At 413½: 404½ this was just under for the USA. Russia had to be satisfied with the bronze medal (despite first place on the seed list). For the USA, the victory meant the first gold medal since the 1976 Chess Olympiad in Haifa , which, however, had taken place in the absence of the Warsaw Pact states.

Curiously, the otherwise insignificant encounter between Germany and Estonia in the last round decided the Olympic victory. When the USA and Ukraine had won the last round, Germany and Estonia were 1½: 1½. If Matthias Blübaum had played a draw against Tarvo Seeman , Germany would have done worse than Jordan with 12 team points (also 12 points) and, as Ukraine's worst opponent, would not have been considered for the final evaluation of Ukraine ( deleted result ). Ukraine would then have received 4 × 12 = 48 points for their 4-0 victory against Jordan. Blübaum won his game and Germany pushed their way through the 2½: 1½ win against Estonia with 13 team points before Jordan. Therefore, Ukraine only received 2½ × 13 = 32½ points in the fine evaluation for their 2½: 1½ victory against Germany, while the result against Jordan was not counted.

The individual performances of the following players, among others, were remarkable: On the third board of the Philippines, the 64-year-old Eugenio Torre played all 11 games, did not lose a single one and was able to win nine games. The Georgian Baadur Jobava did hardly worse on the first board (with 8 points from 10 games) . This is all the more astonishing when you look at his list of opponents: He defeated, among others, the former FIDE world champions Wesselin Topalow (Bulgaria) and Ruslan Ponomarjow (Ukraine). The extraordinary Elo performance of Jobava but was topped by Andrei Volokitin , the nine times came as a substitute for Ukraine used against Wei Yi remisierte (China) and won all the other matches.

The German team landed on a sobering 37th place. The best German player was Matthias Blübaum with 7½ points from 10 games on board 3.

Women's tournament

The Chinese women were considered favorites. Already in round 3 Vietnam was able to achieve a respectable win against the supposedly highly superior players from the Middle Kingdom with a draw. In round four China was able to win against Latvia, but what was remarkable was the victory of Latvian Dana Reizniece-Ozola against the women's world champion Hou Yifan , despite an Elo disadvantage of over 400 points. Another surprise was the draw against the Romanians. However, China benefited from the fact that its strongest competitors took points away from each other. Russia lost to the United States, while the United States, in turn, was defeated by Ukraine. In the end, China won gold; Silver went - somewhat surprisingly - to Poland, bronze to Ukraine.

With a 31st place, the German women hardly did better than the German men.

Results

Results of the teams

Open tournament space team Team points 1  United States 20th 2  Ukraine 20th 3  Russia 18th 4th  India 16 5  Norway 16 37  Germany 13 40  Switzerland 13 43  Austria 13 53  Belgium 13 155  Liechtenstein 7th ... ... ...

Women tournament space team Team points 1  People's Republic of China 20th 2  Poland 17th 3  Ukraine 17th 4th  Russia 16 5  India 16 29  Austria 14th 31  Germany 13 41  Switzerland 13 43  Belgium 13 ... ... ...

See also : Complete Open Tournament Progress Chart

See also : Complete Women's Tournament Progress Chart

The Gaprindashvili Cup for the best combined result in the open tournament and women's tournament was won by Ukraine, ahead of the USA and China.

Best single player

The best players were in the open tournament:

• Board 1: Baadur Jobava (8 points from 10 games)
• Board 2: Wladimir Kramnik (6.5 points from 8 games)
• Board 3: Wesley So (8.5 points from 10 games)
• Board 4: Laurent Fressinet (7 points from 8 games)
• Substitute player: Andrei Volokitin (8.5 points from 9 games)

For women, the board prizes went to:

• Board 1: Anna Muzychuk (7.5 points from 10 games)
• Board 2: Valentina Gunina (8 points from 10 games)
• Board 3: Gulnar Mammadova (7 points from 9 games)
• Board 4: Tan Zhongyi (9 points from 11 games)
• Substitute player: Guo Qi (5.5 points from 8 games)

List of medal winners

Open tournament

1st place - USA

number	player	Elo	Points	Lots
1	Fabiano Caruana	2808	7th	10
2	Hikaru Nakamura	2789	7½	11
3	Wesley So	2782	8½	10
4th	Samuel Shankland	2679	5½	8th
5	Ray Robson	2674	3	5

2nd place - Ukraine

number	player	Elo	Points	Lots
1	Pavel Elyanov	2739	5	9
2	Ruslan Ponomarev	2709	4½	8th
3	Yuri Kryvoruchko	2693	6th	9
4th	Anton Korobov	2675	7th	9
5	Andrei Volokitin	2674	8½	9

3rd place - Russia

number	player	Elo	Points	Lots
1	Sergei Karjakin	2769	6th	9
2	Vladimir Kramnik	2808	6½	8th
3	Yevgeny Tomaschewski	2731	4th	7th
4th	Jan Nepomnyashchi	2740	8th	10
5	Alexander Grishchuk	2754	7½	10

Women's tournament

1st place - China

number	Player	Elo	Points	Lots
1	Hou Yifan	2658	5½	8th
2	Ju Wenjun	2583	7½	11
3	Zhao Xue	2522	3½	6th
4th	Tan Zhongyi	2475	9	11
5	Guo Qi	2417	5½	8th

2nd place - Poland

number	Player	Elo	Points	Lots
1	Monika Soćko	2437	5½	10
2	Jolanta Zawadzka	2429	6th	9
3	Karina Szczepkowska-Horowska	2409	6½	8th
4th	Klaudia Kulon	2346	9	11
5	Mariola Woźniak	2246	6th	6th

3rd place - Ukraine

number	Player	Elo	Points	Lots
1	Anna Musychuk	2550	7½	10
2	Maria Musychuk	2539	6½	10
3	Natalia Schukova	2475	5	9
4th	Anna Uschenina	2457	6½	9
5	Inna Gaponenko	2416	5	6th

German teams

The performance of the teams of the German Chess Federation was generally assessed as a failure, especially since both teams remained well below the expectations according to the Elo seed list. Only the result of 19-year-old debutant Matthias Blübaum received unanimous recognition.

Open tournament

number	player	Points	Lots
1	Liviu-Dieter Nisipeanu	5½	10
2	Georg Meier	5	9
3	Matthias Bluebaum	7½	10
4th	Rainer Buhmann	4th	7th
5	Daniel Fridman	3	8th

Women tournament

number	player	Points	Lots
1	Elisabeth Pähtz	5½	10
2	Marta Michna	5½	9
3	Elena Levuschkina	6th	9
4th	Melanie Lubbe	3	7th
5	Judith Fuchs	5½	9

Team lineups

→ Main article : 2016 Chess Olympiad team line-ups

→ Main article : 2016 Women's Chess Olympiad team line-ups

Web links

Commons : Chess Olympiad 2016  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

• Official homepage of the Olympics

Individual evidence

1. ↑ FIDE regulations for the Chess Olympiad , accessed on September 5, 2016.
2. ↑ Anti-Fraud Regulations , accessed September 5, 2016
3. ↑ Chessbase.com , September 10, 2016
4. ↑ Armenian chess team not to participate in World Chess Olympiad in Baku . Report from July 25, 2016 to the Armenian news agency AMENPRESS (English)
5. ↑ Starting ranking in the open tournament , accessed on September 5, 2016
6. ↑ Starting ranking in the women's tournament , accessed on September 5, 2016
7. ↑ André Schulz: Blübaum wins gold ... for the USA. ChessBase.com, September 16, 2016, accessed April 25, 2017 . 
8. ↑ Dana Reizniece-Ozola vs Yifan Hou , on chessgames.com, accessed December 22, 2017.