Baku Olympiad: Results
Olympiad Summary
The 42nd Chess Olympiad took place September 1 - 13, 2016 in Baku, Azerbaijan.
170 national teams played in the Open section, and 134 Women's Teams competed in the biennial 11-round, four-player team Swiss. The crosstables originally had 182 National teams and 140 Women's teams, but there were many no-shows from Africa.
Best Canadian Finish Ever!
The big story was the performance of the Canadian men. They were ranked 25th, but were sitting 4th overall at the start of the final round, and finished the tournament playing the USA on board 1. Ultimately, they lost three matches -- to the USA (#2 seed), Ukraine (#5 seed) and England (#6) -- and each time by the slimmest 1.5/2.5 margin. Those close losses, combined with crushing wins over strong teams (3-1 vs Cuba and Latvia), gave Canada an excellent tie-break. Unfortunately, several matches between teams tied with Canada at the start of the final round were drawn, which resulted in both teams oozing ahead of the Canadians, and saw the Canadian men drop from 4th to 11th overall (despite having the 4th best tie-break in the Olympiad).
Every member of the Canadian team played above their rating, except Bareev, who faced a steady diet of 2700+ opponents, but still scored a very reliable +3 =3 -4. The rest of the team outdid themselves:
- GM Anton Kovalyov scored +6 =4 -0, for a TPR of 2852*
- GM Alexandre Le Siege: +4 =1 -3
- GM Eric Hansen +8 =2 -1**
- IM Tomas Krnan +4 =1 -0
*Anton Kovalyov wins silver medal on board 2! Behind only Kramnik's 2903 TPR!!
** Eric Hansen's result should push him just over 2600 for the first time in his career!
The Canadian women were not so spectacularly successful, finishing 39th. Going in ranked 40th, as a team they were playing below their rating until the last two rounds, which they won convincingly. The highlight for the Canadian women, as in Tromso 2014, was WIM Yuanling Yuan, who scored +7 =3 -0 which was the second-best percentage score on board 2. Creditable performances were turned in by both Lali Agbabishvili (+4 =3 -2), and Maili-Jade Ouellet (+5 =0 -2 on board 5) playing in her first Olympiad. Both Qiyu Zhou (+3 = 3 -4) on board 1, and Alexandra Botez (+2 =3 -4) on board 3 lost a lot of rating points.
Medal Winners
The United States men took the gold on tiebreak over Ukraine, with top-seed Russia finishing third. This is the first time the USA has won an Olympiad since Haifa in 1976, but that event was boycotted by all the strong Soviet bloc countries, among others. The last time the US won a fully-contested Olympiad was 1937, with players named Fine, Kashdan and Marshall.
Open
- Gold - USA (TB)
- Silver - Ukraine
- Bronze - Russia
- India
- Norway
Women
- Gold - China
- Silver - Poland (TB)
- Bronze - Ukraine
- Russia (TB)
- India
China defeated Russia in the last round to finish 3 points ahead of silver and bronze teams. The silver is Poland's best result ever.
Gaprindashvili Cup (Open + Women points)
- Ukraine
- USA
- China
Special Notes:
64-year-old Philippine GM Eugenio Torre played in his 23rd Olympiad -- yes, his twenty-third -- and he scored +9 =2 -0, playing every round like a fit young 20-year old, and scored a TPR of 2813 and the bronze medal on board 3!
Canada's Phil Haley -- organizer, player, International Arbiter, Olympiad official -- was made a FIDE Honorary Member, joining such long-time contributors to world chess as Max Euwe, Victor Kortchnoi, Arpad Elo, and Canada's John Prentice.
The Jordan Open team used a board-order strategy which should raise some eyebrows and change some regulations: they made their board-order the exact opposite of their players' ratings, with the result that their highest-rated player was on board 5, and "won" the silver medal by scoring 100% against opponents he outrated by an average of 395 points. Congratulations to IM Sami Khader: you have shown the world what to expect from Jordan.
Board prizes were determined by Performance Rating, and the golds were actually earned by players who scored very well against very strong opponents:
- Badur Jobava, Georgia (8/10, 2926)
- Vladimir Kramnik, Russia (6.5/8; 2903)
- Wesley So, USA (8.5/10, 2896)
- Laurent Fressinet, France (7/8, 2809)
- Andrei Volokitin, Ukraine (8.5/9, 2992)
Links
photos
Chess Canada facebook
https://www.facebook.com/ChessCanada/photos/?tab=album&album_id=1083866601698609
Google page
https://plus.google.com/photos/109802875639835440521/albums/6329649545002102065
Detailed Canadian Team results:
Open
http://chess-results.com/tnr232875.aspx?lan=1&art=20&fed=CAN&flag=30&wi=821
Women
http://chess-results.com/tnr232876.aspx?lan=1&art=20&fed=CAN&flag=30&wi=821
2016 Olympiad Homepage
http://www1.bakuchessolympiad.com/
photo: Paul Truong captures a group photo of most of the Canadian Team before round 11.