Baku Chess Olympiad

The 42nd Chess Olympiad

Sept. 1 - 13, 2016.
Baku, Azerbaijan. 

180 National Teams and 140 Women's Teams are entered in the biennial mega-event.
UPDATE as of the end of round 4: 12 teams listed in the Open section, and 7 teams listed in the Women's section have played no matches, and apparently are not in Baku at all. 

Format:
11-rounds, four-player team Swiss.
Games start at 3pm Baku time (GMT+4), or 7am EST, 4am PST.
First round: September 2.
Rest Day: Sept. 7
Final round: Sept.13, starts 4 hours earlier.

LIVE GAMES (7am EST, 4am PST)

Many sites are carrying free live streaming games from the Olympiad. 

The Official site is rebroadcasting the Chess24 coverage, which gives viewers a choice of commentary in 5 languages: Open or Women.

I find it easiest to follow both National and Women's events by:

1. going to the Chess24 Tournaments page; 
2. scroll down to find then click "Baku Chess Olympiad | Open"; 
3. go to the top of that page and click the "Tournaments" tab;
4. scroll down to find and click the "Women's Baku Chess Olympiad" button.

This will keep both events available as "tabs" and allow you to switch between the two sections. The simplest way to switch from one Canadian board to the next is to click the triangular arrow keys on either side of the player's names above the board: this will allow you to scroll between adjacent boards without having to navigate the entire list of available games.

Chess24 Tournaments page: https://chess24.com/en/watch/live-tournaments
 

Canadian Pairings & Results

Round 1 (Sept 2)
National Team:
Honduras (#114 , elo 2171) v Canada (#25, 2597)
Canada won 4-0, Kovalyov sat out.

Women's Team:
Nepal (#109, elo 1660) v Canada (#40, elo 2182)
Canada won 4-0, Botez sat out. 

Round 2 (Sept 3)
National Team:
Canada v Tajikistan (#77, elo 2352, but 2610 on bd.1) 
Canada won 4-0, Bareev sat out. 

Women's Team: 
Canada v Latvia (#29, elo 2242)
Canada lost 1-3, Ouellet sat out. 

Round 3 (Sept 4)
National Team: vs England (#6, elo 2685)
11:40 am EST: England leads 2-0, Anton pulls off win in R ending, so it's all down to board 4, where Hansen has a clear plus over Short...
Canada lost: +1 =1 -2; Krnan sat out.

Women's Team: vs Puerto Rico (#78, elo 1866) 
Canada won +2 =2 -0, Agbabishvili sat out.

Round 4 (Sept 5)
Men vs Indonesia (#67, elo 2402): Canada won 4-0, Le Siege sat out.
Women vs Philippines (#46, elo 2148) who upset #4 seed Georgia +2 =1 -1 in rd.2. Canada drew: +1 =2 -1, Botez sat out.

Round 5 (Sept 6)
Men vs Cuba (#15, elo 2640); Canada won +3 =0 -1, Krnan sat out.
Women vs Boliva (#59, elo 2026); Canada lost -2 =1 +1, Ouellet sat out.

Sept 7: REST DAY
(see annotated games from rds. 3-5: CFC Newsfeed post 882)

Round 6 (Sept 8)
Men vs Belarus (#23, elo 2601)* Canada won +1 =3 -0, Le Siege sat out.
Women vs Portugal (#68, elo 2405) Canada won +2 =1 -1, Ouellet sat out.

*Note: this match will be on board 5, ahead of #1 seed Russia (who lost to Ukraine in rd.4) and #3 seed China (who lost to Ukraine in rd.5).

Round 7 (Sept 9) 
Men vs Ukraine (#5, elo 2704). Canada lost +1 =1 -2; Krnan sat out.
Women vs Slovenia (#38, elo 2198). Canada won +2 =1 -1; Zhou sat out.

Rd.7 Notes: With her win in round 7, Yuanling Yuan improves to +5 =2 -0, which puts her in the bronze medal position on board 2. 
Kovalyov drew -- which drops his TPR to 2858. Bareev beat Eljanov and was interviewed by Susan Polgar. In the final game to finish, Eric paid for his luck in round 6: he had a winning position, but reversed the moves in a combination to end up worse...

Round 8 (Sept 10) 
Men vs Vietnam (#32, elo 2573). Draw: +0 =4 -0. Krnan sat out.
Women vs Serbia (#27, elo 2252). Canada lost: +1 =0 -3. Botez sat out.  
Rd 8 Note: Yuanling Yuan is now at +6 =2 -0, to be in the Silver Medal position on board 2 (=gold, but behind on second tie-break).

Round 9: (Sept 11)
Men vs Denmark (#42, elo 2545).  Canada won: +3 =1 -0;  Le Siege sat out.
Women vs Belarus (#36, elo 2224). Canada lost: +0 =2 -2; Ouellet sat out.
Rd 9 Notes on Board Prizes: 

• Anton Kovalyov board 2 (TPR 2836), 
• Yuanling Yuan Board 2 (7.5/9).
• Eric Hansen in 9th place on Board 4 (TPR 2681)

Round 10: (Sept 12)
Men vs Latvia (#21, elo 2607); Canada won  (+3 =0 -1), Krnan sat out.
Women vs Japan (#96, elo 1730); Canada won 4-0, Agbabishvili sits out.
Rd 10 Note on Board Prizes: Kovalyov, Yuan and Hansen each won.

Round 11: (Sept 13) Final round starts 4 hours earlier (3am EST, midnight PST)
Women vs South Africa (#88, elo 1810); Canada won 4-0; Yuan sits out.
Men vs USA (#2, elo 2765) on board 1; Krnan sat out; Canada lost (+1 =1 -2)
but with excellent tie-breaks will finish in highest position ever...

... Canada finishes 11th.
Several teams that were tied with Canada in the last round drew their matches against weaker opponents and so both teams oozed past Canada on match points. Canada had the 4th best tie-break in the Open section.

GM Anton Kovalyov wins silver medal on board 2 with 2852 TPR (+6 =4-0), behind Kramnik's 2903 TPR. 

USA wins gold: Ukraine tied USA in match points, but US had much better tie-break. Russia gets Bronze.
China wins women's gold after defeating Russia +2 =1 -1 in final round. Poland silver, Ukraine Bronze.

Notes:
Players are listed below by FIDE rating.
Final fixed team board orders were submitted at the Captains Meeting, Sept 1. 
All rankings and ratings are from chess-results, which ranks the teams based on the average rating of the four highest players on that team.
Updated: Ratings used are from the September 2016 FIDE list; board order now finalized. 

Canada National Team (avg 2597, ranked #25 out of 180) 

1. GM Bareev, Evgeny  2675
2. GM Kovalyov, Anton  2617
3. GM Lesiege, Alexandre 2512
4. GM Hansen, Eric  2582
5. IM Krnan, Tomas  2430
• Captain: FM Victor Plotkin
   

Canadian Women's Team (avg 2182, ranked #40 out of 142)

1. FM  Zhou, Qiyu  2367
2. WIM Yuan, Yuanling  2205
3. WFM Botez, Alexandra   2092
4. Agbabishvili, Lali  2064
5. Ouellet, Maili-Jade  1992
• Captain [update, Sept 2]: the late IM Aman Hambleton has arrived and will be Captain as of Rd.2.
  CFC President Vlad Drkulec steps aside as the most successful Captain in Canadian Olympiad history: 1-0 match record with a perfect 4-0 score!

Top National Teams

1 Russia 2768
2 USA 2765
3 China 2740 (defending champions)
4 Azerbaijan 1 2717
5 Ukraine 2704 

Others:
10 Hungary 2673
20 Georgia 2613
25 Canada 2597
30 Romania 2585
40 Austrai 2549
50 Montenegro 2498 
60 Portuagal 2457
75 International Physically Disabled Chess 2367
100 Thailand 2243
150 Bahamas 1891 

 
Top Womens Teams

1 China 2560
2 Russia 2505 (defending champions)
3 Ukraine 2504
4 Georgia 2486
5 India 2433

Others:
10 Germany 2381
20 Italy 2304
30 Greece 2239
40 Canada 2182
50 Venezuela 2118
60 Bangladesh 2022
75 Jamaica 1882
100 Honduras 1713
125 Mozambique 1393 

Other Notes

• Armenia will not play, citing player security due to a political disupte with Azerbaijan.
• Anand will not play, once again leaving India without its strongest player.
• The #2-ranked USA has two first-time team members on boards 1 and 3: Fabiano Caruana and Wesley So.
• Notable Captains:  Andrey Filiatov (Russia); Ivan Sokolov (Iran); Peter Heine Nielsen (Lithuania); Maurice Ashley (Ivory Coast); Nick De Firmian (Bermuda, which guarantees a seat at The Party); Mikhail Gurevich (Djibouti, last on the ranking list); Juan Bellon Lopez (Sweden, where his wife Pia is board 1 and daugherter Anna is board 5); and finally, showing how far Hungary has progressed, they have the woman they didn't want to allow even play in "men's events" as Captain: Judit Polgar (Hungarian National Team Captain).
• Finally, for the "chess is dead" file: Ivanchuk will not play: the #33-ranked player in the world has opted for a checkers tournament instead.

Links

2016 Olympiad Homepage 
http://www1.bakuchessolympiad.com/

facebook
https://www.facebook.com/bakuchessolympiad2016/?fref=ts

Canadian National Team
http://chess-results.com/tnr232875.aspx?lan=1&art=8&flag=30&wi=821&snr=25

Canadian Women's Team
http://chess-results.com/tnr232876.aspx?lan=1&art=8&flag=30&wi=821&snr=40

All National Teams
http://chess-results.com/tnr232875.aspx?lan=1

All Women's Teams
http://chess-results.com/tnr232876.aspx?lan=1

For more photos, see the CFC facebook album: 2016 Baku Olympiad

 or for higher resolution, this Google Album