Epress.am News from Armenia
The 39th World Chess Olympics kicked off in the Russian city of Khanty-Mansiysk in Siberia today. The favorites traditionally are the same: Russia, Ukraine, Armenia and Azerbaijan. Also preparing to win medals are teams from the US, Israel and China.
Traditionally having a strong team, Russia hasn’t tasted the sweetness of victory in 8 years. The last time Russia won was in the Slovenian municipality of Bled, eight years ago. Russia didn’t win any medals in the last two chess olympics, that’s why Russia believes that it can’t afford a failure this year, particularly considering that the championship is taking place on home turf.
Russia’s team includes the world’s 14th champion Vladimir Kramnik, Alexander Grishuk, Piotr Svidler, Sergey Karyakin, who last year transfered to the Russian team from the Ukrainian team, and Vladimir Malakhov. Russia’s combined team rating is 2749, which is the best among all the teams.
For comparison, it should be noted that Armenia’s last rating is less than 2700. Five teams in this olympiad have higher ratings; however, having a low rating didn’t interfere with the Armenian team’s victory at the last two important chess reviews.
Recall that the team representing Armenia in Khanty-Mansiysk includes Levon Aronian, Vladimir Akopian, Gabriel Sarkissian, Arman Pashinyan and Avetik Grigorian (coach: Arshak Petrosyan).
The Ukrainian team has also round up some pretty strong players. Despite the loss of Karyakin, the team includes Vasili Ivanchuk, Pavel Elyanov and Ruslan Ponomaryov, who are in the list of the world’s top 15 chess players and are excellent team players.