2006 chess tournament in Turin, Italy
The
37th
Chess Olympiad
(
Italian
:
Le 37° Olimpiadi degli scacchi
), organized by
FIDE
and comprising an open
[1]
and a women's tournament, as well as several other events designed to promote the game of
chess
, took place between May 20 and June 4, 2006, in
Turin
,
Italy
. There were 148 teams in the open event and 103 in the women's event. In total, 1307 players were registered.
Both tournament sections were officiated by
international arbiter
Geurt Gijssen
(
Netherlands
). Teams were paired across the 13 rounds of competition according to the
Swiss system
. The open division was played over four boards per round, while the women's was played over three. In the event of a draw, the tie-break was decided by 1. The
Buchholz system
; 2. Match points; 3. The
Sonneborn-Berger
system; and 4. The
Median Buchholz
system.
The
time control
for each game permitted each player 90 minutes for all their moves, with an additional 30 seconds increment for each player after each move, beginning with the first.
Open event
[
edit
]
The open division was contested by 148 teams representing 143 nations. Italy, as hosts, fielded three teams, while the
International Braille Chess Association
(IBCA), the
International Physically Disabled Chess Association
(IPCA), and the
International Committee of Silent Chess
(ICSC) each provided one squad.
Somalia
and
Sierra Leone
were signed up, but never arrived.
Led by first board
Levon Aronian
, the second highest-rated player at the Olympiad, and first reserve
Gabriel Sargissian
, who scored 10 points in 11 games,
Armenia
improved on their third-place performance at the
36th Olympiad
, claiming their first ever
gold medals
by a full two points over the
silver medallists
China
, whose fourth board
Wang Yue
went undefeated, winning eight games and drawing four. Armenia ended the tournament without having lost a match, winning 10 and drawing three, including in the final round against
Hungary
, when four
draws
were cursorily recorded. Aronian was the only Armenian player to lose a game during the tournament, falling in the fifth round to
Vladimir Kramnik
of
Russia
.
Reigning classical World Champion Kramnik, playing internationally for the first time in six months, scored 6½ points in his nine games, recording the best rating performance of any player. His Russian team, though, did not perform as expected; fielding six of the tournament's 17 strongest players on rating
[1]
Archived
2007-06-11 at the
Wayback Machine
, Russia held second place, just behind Armenia, through the seventh round but lost matches to
France
(1½-2½), the
United States
(1½-2½), and, in the final round,
Israel
(1-3), and ultimately finished sixth; the worst Olympic result ever for a
Soviet
or Russian side.
Although they defeated the United States (2½-1½) in the penultimate round, Israel had to settle for a tie for third place; the Americans claimed the
bronze medals
on
Buchholz
tiebreaks
. Hungary,
seeded
16th, finished fifth, thanks to strong performances from third board
Ferenc Berkes
and fourth board
Csaba Balogh
, while
India
, who entered the tournament seeded second, finished in 30th place, with first board
Viswanathan Anand
(former and future World Champion) and fourth board
Surya Shekhar Ganguly
both scoring just 50%. Even without FIDE World Champion
Veselin Topalov
,
Bulgaria
still managed to clinch a top ten result, finishing in ninth place.
Open event
#
|
Country
|
Players
|
Average
rating
|
Points
|
Buchholz
|
1
|
Armenia
|
Aronian
,
Akopian
,
Asrian
,
Lputian
,
Sargissian
,
Minasian
|
2682
|
36
|
|
2
|
China
|
Bu Xiangzhi
,
Zhang Zhong
,
Zhang Pengxiang
,
Wang Yue
,
Ni Hua
,
Zhao Jun
|
2628
|
34
|
|
3
|
United States
|
Kamsky
,
Onischuk
,
Nakamura
,
Ibragimov
,
Kaidanov
,
Akobian
|
2656
|
33
|
392.5
|
4
|
Israel
|
Gelfand
,
Smirin
,
Sutovsky
,
Avrukh
,
Huzman
,
Mikhalevski
|
2663
|
33
|
380.5
|
5
|
Hungary
|
Almasi
,
Gyimesi
,
Berkes
,
Balogh
,
Ruck
,
Horvath
|
2610
|
32½
|
|
6
|
Russia
|
Kramnik
,
Svidler
,
Grischuk
,
Morozevich
,
Bareev
,
Rublevsky
|
2730
|
32
|
410.5
|
7
|
France
|
Bacrot
,
Lautier
,
Sokolov
,
Fressinet
,
Vachier-Lagrave
,
Bauer
|
2665
|
32
|
396.0
|
8
|
Ukraine
|
Ivanchuk
,
Volokitin
,
Karjakin
,
Eljanov
,
Moiseenko
,
Efimenko
|
2680
|
32
|
390.5
|
9
|
Bulgaria
|
Georgiev
,
Cheparinov
,
Delchev
,
Spasov
,
Petkov
,
Iotov
|
2633
|
32
|
385.0
|
10
|
Spain
|
Shirov
,
Vallejo Pons
,
Illescas Cordoba
,
Arizmendi Martinez
,
San Segundo Carrillo
,
Narciso Dublan
|
2628
|
32
|
377.5
|
Group prizes
[
edit
]
In addition to the overall medals, prizes were given out to the best teams in five different seeding groups?in other words, the teams who exceeded their seeding the most. Overall medal winners were not eligible for group prizes.
Group Prizes
Group
|
Seeding
range
|
Team
|
Seed
|
Overall
finish
|
A
|
1?30
|
Israel
|
6
|
4
|
B
|
31?60
|
Sweden
|
31
|
17
|
C
|
61?89
|
Italy
"B"
|
70
|
48
|
D
|
90?120
|
Tajikistan
|
106
|
54
|
E
|
121?147
|
Japan
|
121
|
87
|
Individual medals
[
edit
]
Women's event
[
edit
]
The women's division was contested by 103 teams representing 99 nations. Italy, as hosts, fielded two teams, whilst the
International Braille Chess Association
(IBCA) and the
International Physically Disabled Chess Association
(IPCA) each provided one squad.
Somalia
and
Sudan
had registered but never showed up.
Afghanistan
,
Uganda
, and
Rwanda
all withdrew after forfeiting their first round matches.
Ukraine
had finished in 18th place at the
previous Olympiad
but entered the tournament
seeded
second. They trailed top-seeds
Russia
half a point through the seventh round, despite having taken defeated the Russians in the fifth round (2-1), but took the lead in round eight, defeating
Hungary
while Russia managed only to draw their match with the
United States
. Ukraine never gave up their lead for the remainder of the tournament and all but secured the
gold medals
and the
Vera Menchik
Trophy with a twelfth round win over India (2½-½), eventually finishing 1½ points ahead of
silver medallists
Russia. The Ukrainian team was led by
Natalia Zhukova
, who scored 7½ points in her nine games, defeating the top- and second-
rated
players,
Humpy Koneru
of
India
and
Alexandra Kosteniuk
of Russia. Third board
Inna Gaponenko
won six games,
drew
two, and lost only one.
Defending champions
China
were missing newly crowned World Champion
Xu Yuhua
, but still claimed the
bronze medals
by three points over the United States with whom they drew in the penultimate round Their third-place finish was in no small part due to top board
Zhao Xue
, who entered the tournament seeded 22nd yet, having played in every round, went through the Olympiad undefeated, conceding only six draws in her 13 games.
The American team took fourth place on
tiebreaks
, just ahead of Hungary,
Georgia
, and the
Netherlands
- the Dutch team being seeded only 18th.
#
|
Country
|
Players
|
Average
rating
|
Points
|
Buchholz
|
1
|
Ukraine
|
Zhukova
,
Lahno
,
Yanovska-Gaponenko
,
Ushenina
|
2441
|
29½
|
|
2
|
Russia
|
Kosteniuk
,
T. Kosintseva
,
N. Kosintseva
,
Kovalevskaya
|
2499
|
28
|
|
3
|
China
|
Zhao Xue
,
Wang Yu
,
Shen Yang
,
Hou Yifan
|
2408
|
27½
|
|
4
|
United States
|
Zatonskih
,
Krush
,
Goletiani
,
Baginskaite
|
2414
|
24½
|
307.0
|
5
|
Hungary
|
Hoang Thanh Trang
,
Madl
,
Vajda
,
Gara
|
2426
|
24½
|
306.0
|
6
|
Georgia
|
Khurtsidze
,
Dzagnidze
,
Javakhishvili
,
Lomineishvili
|
2430
|
24½
|
305.5
|
7
|
Netherlands
|
Peng Zhaoqin
,
Bosboom-Lanchava
,
Schuurman
,
Muhren
|
2344
|
24½
|
276.5
|
8
|
Armenia
|
Mkrtchian
,
Danielian
,
Aginian
,
Andriasian
|
2402
|
24
|
299.0
|
9
|
Slovenia
|
A. Muzychuk
,
Srebrni?
,
Krivec
,
Novak
|
2348
|
24
|
286.0
|
10
|
Czech Republic
|
Jackova
,
?edikova
,
Sikorova
,
Bla?kova
|
2302
|
24
|
270.5
|
Group prizes
[
edit
]
In addition to the overall medals, prizes were given out to the best teams in five different seeding groups?in other words, the teams who exceeded their seeding the most. Overall medal winners were not eligible for group prizes.
Individual medals
[
edit
]
Overall title
[
edit
]
The
Nona Gaprindashvili
Trophy is awarded to the nation that has the highest toal number of game points in the open and women's divisions combined. Where two or more teams are tied, they are ordered by best single finish in either division and then by total number of points scored.
The trophy, named after the former women's World Champion (1961?78), was created by FIDE in 1997.
#
|
Team
|
Open
division
|
Women's
division
|
Total
|
1
|
China
|
34
|
27½
|
61½
|
2
|
Ukraine
|
32
|
29½
|
61½
|
3
|
Armenia
|
36
|
24
|
60
|
Participating teams
[
edit
]
Squads representing 133 nations, three international organizations, three constituent countries, two
autonomous entities
, two
crown dependencies
, two
special administrative regions
, two
insular areas
, and one
associated state
were entered into the Olympiad, comprising a total of 1307 registered players (some of which did not play).
FIDE Congress
[
edit
]
Concurrent with the chess competition, the 77th
FIDE
Congress was held in Turin, where delegates from all the national chess federations met to transact business. Incumbent FIDE president
Kirsan Ilyumzhinov
faced criticisms for alleged mismanagement and
corruption
, primarily from
Western
federations, including those of the
United States
,
England
,
France
, and
Canada
, but, with the support of most Asian and African delegates, notably those representing
Russia
and
Singapore
, he staved off a challenge from Dutch businessman
Bessel Kok
to retain his position through 2010, winning by 96 votes to Kok's 54.
The general assembly also awarded the 38th Chess Olympiad, to be held in 2010, to
Khanty-Mansiysk
,
Russia
, the site of the
Chess World Cup 2005
and one of five candidates that had submitted bids. The city led after every round of the
runoff voting
, eventually beating
Budva
,
Montenegro
by 71?64.
Associated events
[
edit
]
Held in conjunction with the Olympiad, though not officially sponsored by FIDE, were two
computer chess
events: the 14th
World Computer Chess Championship
, played at
classical time controls
, and the 14th
World Computer Speed Chess Championship
. The computer
Junior
won its fifth championship and third in five years in the slower event, while newcomer
Ikarus
defeated quadruple defending champion
Shredder
to win the
blitz
event.
Notes
[
edit
]
- ^
Although commonly referred to as the
men's division
, this section is open to both male and female players.
External links
[
edit
]
|
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|
Official
| |
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Unofficial
| |
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Women's only
| |
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Paralympiad
| |
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Online
| |
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|