U.S. beats Russia; Nakamura defeats Kramnik

[Kerry Liles]

Nice result for the U.S. and especially sweet for H.N.

[Ken MacDonald]

Re: U.S. beats Russia; Nakamura defeats Kramnik

Nice result for the U.S. and especially sweet for H.N.

What a nice, fun HN game!

An under-promotion late in the game!

[Tom O'Donnell]

Re: U.S. beats Russia; Nakamura defeats Kramnik

And Kamsky has played all nine rounds, with seven(!) Blacks. A great performance.

[Hans Jung]

Re: U.S. beats Russia; Nakamura defeats Kramnik

Kamsky is awesome as is the Nak. Gata getta Kamsky! But seriously the man is a real chess artist (as is the Nak). However I feel for Russia - they were supposed to bring home the gold. Conclusion: these are not the days of the empire anymore.

[Egidijus Zeromskis]

Re: U.S. beats Russia; Nakamura defeats Kramnik

However I feel for Russia - they were supposed to bring home the gold.

They still have a lot of chances. They will not meet China or Armenia like USA in the next two rounds :p

[Jack Maguire]

Re : U.S. beats Russia; Nakamura defeats Kramnik

Nakamura has now passed Kramnik on the live ratings list and is just 0.6 points behind Radjabov for #3 in the world.

1. Carlsen 2843.0
2. Aronian 2818.3
3. Radjabov 2792.7
4. Nakamura 2792.1
5. Kramnik 2791.0

[Jack Maguire]

Re : Re: U.S. beats Russia; Nakamura defeats Kramnik

They still have a lot of chances. They will not meet China or Armenia like USA in the next two rounds :p

You've got that right! Argentina tomorrow is an easy 2 points for Russia while the U.S. and China go head-to-head. A 2-2 tie likely eliminates both teams. However, the winner, should there be one, would certainly be the gold favourite heading into the final round.

Armenia, I'm sure, is also hoping for a 2-2 score on the top board since they're also well behind on the boards point tie-break. The Netherlands has been coming on like gang busters since Giri arrived in town so Armenia will have to work hard for their two points tomorrow.

[Jack Maguire]

Re : U.S. beats Russia; Nakamura defeats Kramnik

Small sample but Wang Hao is +3 -0 =2 vs Nakamura, including 2 wins in this year's Biel tournament. One thing for sure, it's definitely a match between 2 of the hottest players on the planet.

[Jack Maguire]

Re : U.S. beats Russia; Nakamura defeats Kramnik

Small sample but Wang Hao is +3 -0 =2 vs Nakamura, including 2 wins in this year's Biel tournament. One thing for sure, it's definitely a match between 2 of the hottest players on the planet.

Nakamura at least has turned the game into a blitz match out of the opening, a semi-Slav. They've each rattled off the first 15 moves in a negative 4 minutes.

[Jack Maguire]

Re : U.S. beats Russia; Nakamura defeats Kramnik

First game to finish today on any of the top 47 boards is Topalov getting crushed in just 23 moves. Although I was never a fan of the man, I did rather enjoy his uncompromising chess. Sad how badly that has deteriorated in recent years.

[Jack Maguire]

Re : U.S. beats Russia; Nakamura defeats Kramnik

Then there were three! The U.S. is now out of the hunt for gold after going down to China 2.5 - 1.5. No surprise there really since they didn't match up well against China. Nakamura had never beaten Wang Hao and still hasn't. And Kamsky and Wang Yue have never beaten each other, playing their 9th consecutive draw today. And China was better on the bottom two boards, especially board 3, where China has their teenager phenom and 3-time Champion of China, Ding Liren. He improved to 7/9 today and is the primary reason why the gold is now China's to lose.
Could happen though (I'd probably even bet on it!) since they'll almost surely play the Ukraine tomorrow while both Armenia and Russia should win against much easier opposition. Beating the Ukraine has be viewed as less than a 50% probability so the gold could well go to whoever has the better tiebreak number between Armenia and Russia. Armenia has 1 extra board point but that's only the 2nd tiebreak. Russia, at least prior to today's action, had the better TB1 #.

[Jack Maguire]

Re : U.S. beats Russia; Nakamura defeats Kramnik

China does have to play the #2 seed, Ukraine, on Sunday and almost assuredly must win to garner their first ever Olympiad gold. If they don't win, then Armenia can secure their 3rd gold medal in the past 4 Olympiads but beating the #4 seed, Hungary, since Armenia now has both the better TB1 and TB2 (board points) numbers to Russia. If neither China nor Armenia manage to chalk up a win, then Russia wins their 1st gold in 10 years by beating Germany. Could happen but my money would likely be on Armenia, the little (3.1 million, less than 1/10th the population of Canada) country that always somehow manages to overachieve.