Round #2

Russia continues onslaught… blank Latvian GMs

Top Boards

Russia 4-0 Latvia
Netherlands 3-1 Bangladesh
Bulgaria 2-2 Indonesia
Spain 2˝-1˝  Estonia
Germany 3˝-˝ Canada

The Oval Lingotto
(Photo by Daaim Shabazz)

Russia ran roughshod over their second opponent… this time it was a strong Latvian team with four Grandmasters. In Russia-Latvia, Alexander Grischuk  sacrificed a knight to get his steamrolling pawns going. Amazingly, Daniel Fridman returned the knight and then sacrificed the other in an attempt to  create passed pawns on opposite sides of the board. The plan was faulty and Grischuk's remaining knight would pin down one pawn while his king watched the other. Sergey Rublevsky beautifully checkmated Viesturs Meijers out of a French Tarrasch.

Meanwhile, second-ranked India blanked Cyrus 4-0, but may have a hard time picking up ground on the top teams. Netherlands fielded a powerful team and took Bangladesh 3-1 while Bulgaria was held by Indonesia. Much has been said by Topalov's refusal to play for Bulgaria which would have an excellent chance of a medal if he were on the top table. In this round, there are already very strong teams meeting.

A couple of upsets were seen as #50
Australia shocked #15 Romania with  veteran Ian Rogers scoring a big win over Andrei Istratescu. All the other Nordic teams (Finland, Denmark and Iceland) played on successive boards won their matches, but Egypt upset Sweden 2˝-1˝ when both Tiger Hillarp-Person and Pontus Carlsson slipped in complicated positions. One thing is for sure… the playing field is leveling and the big guns from each of the top teams are playing their strongest teams in earlier rounds to avoid dropping crucial points.

African-Caribbean scores

Algeria 2-2 El Salvador; Angola 3˝-˝  Netherlands Antilles; Uruguay 3-1 Aruba; Barbados 3˝-˝ Hong Kong; Brunei Darussalam 3-1 Bermuda; Botswana 3˝-˝  Haiti; British Virgin Islands ˝-3˝ Puerto Rico; Cuba 2-2 Czech Republic; Dominican Republic 3˝-˝ Sudan; Egypt 3˝-˝ Sweden; New Zealand 4-0 Ethiopia; Haiti; ˝-3˝ Botswana; Jamaica 4-0 South Korea;  Yemen 4-0 Kenya; Thailand 3˝-˝ Libya; Kazakhstan 3˝-˝ Malawi; Philippines 4-0 Mauritius; USA 3˝-˝ Morocco; Mozambique 3˝-˝ Mauritius; Kyrgystan  4-0 Namibia; Mexico 4-0 Netherlands Antilles; Armenia 3˝-˝ Nigeria; Puerto Rico 3˝-˝ British Virgin Islands; Suriname 4-0 Rwanda; Panama 3-1 Seychelles; South Africa 3˝-˝ Japan; Trinidad & Tobago 2-2 Iraq;  Mongolia 3˝-˝ Tunisia;  Uganda 3˝-˝ Chinese Taipei; Palestine 3-1 U.S. Virgin Islands

African Diaspora Spotlight
IM Pontus Carlsson of Sweden (Europe)
(Photo by Daaim Shabazz)

Reporting from Turin, Italy -  Dr. Daaim Shabazz, The Chess Drum



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Posted by The Chess Drum: 23 May 2006