Things heating up at World Team ’13!!

Two more rounds remain at the the 2013 World Team Championships and it will be a race to gold. Ukraine is currently atop the field by one point over Russia with 12 points, while China (10 pts.) and the USA (8 pts.) are also fighting for medal contention.

Yesterday, things got a bit tighter as Ukraine took their first lost at the hands of the Netherlands. As a result, Russia closed the gap to within one point. China and the USA also won to stay within medal contention. Defending Olympiad and World Team champion Armenia is in bad form and will have to wait for the Olympiad in Tromso to successfully defend their other title.

Azerbaijan is the defending European Team champions, but did not field either Teimour Radjabov nor Shahkriyar Mamadyarov for this tournament. Egypt and Turkey are poised to take a point or two off of the medal contenders to make things interesting.

Here is Bassem Amin’s scintillating win over Alexander Areschchenko in a Najdorf.

As it stands now, the Ukraine has a slim lead over Russia, but have difficult pairings including a showdown with Russia in round eight. They then end the tournament with rival Armenia. Not an easy road. After its date with the Ukraine, Russia will look to score big against a beleaguered Egyptian squad missing some of their top players as well. Meanwhile China stands to capitalize if the Ukraine and Russia fight to a draw and China is able to beat Germany. China will then go for a rout of Turkey in the last round.

China is always a threat, but may be playing for silver.
Photo by Anastasiya Karlovich (https://wctc2013.tsf.org.tr/)

The USA has an outside chance at a medal playing getting host Turkey and the Netherlands as their last two opponents. However they will need help from Armenia to beat the Ukraine.

The marquee matchup tomorrow is Ukraine-Russia. Follow the live action here! Drum Coverage here!