Traps, Tricks & Mistakes: King Stranded in the Center
The Chess Olympiad, held every two years, is the chess event with the highest participation. The 45th Chess Olympiad took place in Budapest (Hungary) where 380 national teams from almost 200 countries competed in an 11-round Swiss tournament played over four boards.
It’s worth mentioning that there is a wide range of participants both by rating and age. For instance, the oldest player in Budapest was the 80-year-old WIM Rani Hamid (ELO 1900) from Bangladesh playing her 20th Olympiad. At the other end of the scale, the youngest participants were two nine-years-olds lady players. WFM Bodhana Sivanandan (ELO 2196) from England who played her first Olympiad. And Skye Attieh (ELO 1675) from Lebanon.
The top seed in the open section was USA. Because of that, there is always unusual news when the top seed loses. That’s exactly what happened in round 4 when Ukraine defeated USA with a score 2,5-1,5 and the surprising win of 55-years-old GM Vasyl Ivanchuck over GM Wesley So.
Despite that victory, Ukraine, which is one of the oldest teams, is not among the favorites. At the question of whether Ukraine can maintain its current run, the 39-years-old Ukrainian player GM Anton Korobov confesed: “No, no, no! I promise you not later than the eighth round, we will collapse altogether, that will be a physical disaster… Nothing can be done. Sometimes I think I’m full of power, but then I’m checking my passport and then the date of birth”
And the heroes of round 4 were the victims in round 5. Hungary defeated Ukraine 2,5-1,5 and the craziest game was the one between GM Vasyl Ivanchuk and GM Richar Rapport. It involved an involuntary king march and wild complications that drove Ivanchuk into time trouble. They reached wild positions plenty of alternatives.
Ivanchuk’s plan of a direct assault over Rapport’s castle looked very threatening. But Rapport found the effective antidote against it.
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