Chess Olympiad 2008 round 4: Philippines drew with Greece

A sorry draw for the Philippine team. We had our chances. Although GM Darwin Laylo's d4 pawn was a heavy liability to him for most part of the game, Laylo had a very good chance of winning. Laylo throws everything he's got but the out-numbered, out-maneuvered Greek Grandmaster who was choking to death held his ground like a possessed Spartan hero of Thermopylae managed to forced a truce. I say it's just pure Spartan spirit, and a little bit of luck too for the Greek. Other games also saw GM Wesley So drew his match against GM Ioannis Papaioanou in just 20 moves of the Slav. GM Jayson Gonzales was completely outplayed by GM Vasilios Kotronias of the English/reversed Sicilian where Gonzales looks to be more content to end the match in a draw by shying away with the more promising 9.d3. I do not know if it was part of the strategy of the team to just hold Kotronias but we paid the price. John Paul Gomez meanwhile pulled off his second straight win of the Olympiad courtesy of GM Halkias after 51st moves of another English opening.

o.	27	Greece (GRE)	Rtg	-	38	Philippines (PHI)	Rtg	2 : 2	PGN	>Replay<
18.1	GM	Papaioannou Ioannis	2597	-	GM	So Wesley	2610	½ : ½	PGN	>Replay<
18.2	GM	Kotronias Vasilios	2587	-	GM	Gonzales Jayson	2469	1 : 0	PGN	>Replay<
18.3	GM	Halkias Stelios	2584	-	IM	Gomez John Paul	2519	0 : 1	PGN	>Replay<
18.4	GM	Mastrovasilis Dimitrios	2572	-	GM	Laylo Darwin	2507	½ : ½	PGN	>Replay<

results open section

2 Ukraine (UKR) - 9 Armenia (ARM) 2 : 2

GM Ivanchuk Vassily 2786 - GM Aronian Levon 2757 ½ - ½
GM Karjakin Sergey 2730 - GM Akopian Vladimir 2679 ½ - ½
GM Efimenko Zahar 2680 - GM Sargissian Gabriel 2642 ½ - ½
GM Volokitin Andrei 2659 - GM Petrosian Tigran L 2629 ½ - ½

12 Spain (ESP) - 11 Germany 1 (GER1) 1½:2½

GM Shirov Alexei 2726 - GM Naiditsch Arkadij 2678 0 - 1
GM Vallejo Pons Francisco 2664 - GM Khenkin Igor 2647 ½ - ½
GM Illescas Cordoba Miguel 2604 - GM Fridman Daniel 2630 1 - 0
GM Khamrakulov Ibragim S 2580 - GM Baramidze David 2557 0 - 1

19 Norway (NOR) - 15 England (ENG) 2 : 2

GM Carlsen Magnus 2786 - GM Adams Michael 2734 1 - 0
GM Agdestein Simen 2588 - GM Short Nigel D 2642 ½ - ½
GM Johannessen Leif Erlend 2545 - GM Howell David W L 2593 0 - 1
IM Hammer Jon Ludvig 2522 - GM Jones Gawain C B 2548 ½ - ½

1 Russia (RUS) - 13 India (IND) 2½:1½

GM Kramnik Vladimir 2772 - GM Sasikiran Krishnan 2694 ½ - ½
GM Svidler Peter 2727 - GM Harikrishna P 2659 0 - 1
GM Grischuk Alexander 2719 - GM Ganguly Surya Shekhar 2603 1 - 0
GM Morozevich Alexander 2787 - GM Sandipan Chanda 2579 1 - 0

14 Romania (ROU) - 5 Hungary (HUN) 1 : 3

GM Nisipeanu Liviu-Dieter 2684 - GM Leko Peter 2747 ½ - ½
GM Istratescu Andrei 2633 - GM Polgar Judit 2711 ½ - ½
GM Parligras Mircea 2611 - GM Almasi Zoltan 2663 0 - 1
GM Lupulescu Constantin 2594 - GM Berkes Ferenc 2645 0 - 1

4 Azerbaijan (AZE) - 10 United States of America (USA) 3 : 1

GM Radjabov Teimour 2752 - GM Kamsky Gata 2729 1 - 0
GM Mamedyarov Shakhriyar 2731 - GM Nakamura Hikaru 2704 1 - 0
GM Gashimov Vugar 2703 - GM Onischuk Alexander 2644 ½ - ½
GM Huseynov Gadir 2650 - GM Shulman Yuri 2616 ½ - ½

72 Faroe Islands (FAI) - 20 Netherlands (NED) 1½:2½

IM Ziska Helgi Dam 2416 - GM Van Wely Loek 2618 1 - 0
FM Olsen Heini 2376 - GM Stellwagen Daniel 2605 0 - 1
IM Rodgaard John 2383 - GM L'Ami Erwin 2610 0 - 1
Andreasen Joan Hendrik 2179 - GM Werle Jan 2582 ½ - ½

109 Malta (MLT) - 21 Poland (POL) ½ :3½

Sorensen Torben 2383 - GM Socko Bartosz 2631 ½ - ½
CM Pace Colin 2148 - GM Wojtaszek Radoslaw 2599 0 - 1
Borg Andrew 2112 - GM Gajewski Grzegorz 2577 0 - 1
Zerafa Robert 1991 - GM Bartel Mateusz 2602 0 - 1

57 Ireland (IRL) - 29 Bosnia & Herzegovina (BIH) ½ :3½

GM Baburin Alexander 2544 - GM Nikolic Predrag 2669 ½ - ½
IM Kelly Brian 2488 - GM Predojevic Borki 2615 0 - 1
IM Collins Sam E 2412 - GM Saric Ibro 2559 0 - 1
IM Heidenfeld Mark 2364 - IM Stojanovic Dalibor 2455 0 - 1

39 Former Yug Rep of Macedonia (MKD) - 3 China (CHN) 0 : 4

GM Georgiev Vladimir 2517 - GM Wang Yue 2736 0 - 1
GM Stanojoski Zvonko 2502 - GM Bu Xiangzhi 2714 0 - 1
GM Mitkov Nikola 2556 - GM Ni Hua 2710 0 - 1
IM Colovic Aleksandar 2458 - GM Wang Hao 2696 0 - 1

91 El Salvador (ESA) - 35 Lithuania (LTU) 0 : 4

IM Leyva Hector 2399 - GM Kveinys Aloyzas 2533 0 - 1
IM Arias Lemmys A 2372 - GM Rozentalis Eduardas 2577 0 - 1
FM Chavez Ricardo Ernesto 2226 - IM Zagorskis Darius 2509 0 - 1
FM Martinez Nelson 2149 - IM Sarakauskas Gediminas 2429 0 - 1

44 Italy (ITA) - 36 Switzerland (SUI) 2½:1½

GM Caruana Fabiano 2640 - GM Korchnoi Viktor 2584 1 - 0
GM Godena Michele 2517 - GM Pelletier Yannick 2557 ½ - ½
IM Shytaj Luca 2472 - GM Jenni Florian 2543 ½ - ½
IM Brunello Sabino 2455 - GM Gallagher Joseph G 2480 ½ - ½

65 Ecuador (ECU) - 22 Serbia (SRB) ½ :3½

GM Matamoros Franco Carlos S 2525 - GM Solak Dragan 2595 ½ - ½
IM Pazos Gambarrotti Plinio 2327 - GM Kovacevic Aleksandar 2581 0 - 1
Aucay Pelaez Mauro 2335 - GM Perunovic Milos 2580 0 - 1
Macias Murillo Bryan 2333 - GM Vuckovic Bojan 2561 0 - 1

61 Portugal (POR) - 17 Georgia (GEO) ½ :3½

GM Galego Luis 2484 - GM Jobava Baadur 2664 0 - 1
IM Damaso Rui 2425 - GM Mchedlishvili Mikheil 2615 0 - 1
IM Rocha Sergio 2417 - GM Pantsulaia Levan 2580 ½ - ½
FM Pereira Ruben 2437 - GM Arutinian David 2584 0 - 1

73 Malaysia (MAS) - 25 Slovakia (SVK) ½ :3½

IM Mas Hafizulhelmi 2439 - GM Ftacnik Lubomir 2571 0 - 1
FM Lim Yee-Weng 2396 - GM Markos Jan 2557 ½ - ½
FM Mok Tze-Meng 2308 - GM Petrik Tomas 2487 0 - 1
Edward Lee Kim Han 0 - IM Vavrak Peter 2478 0 - 1

8 Israel (ISR) - 49 Egypt (EGY) 2½:1½

GM Gelfand Boris 2719 - GM Adly Ahmed 2586 1 - 0
GM Roiz Michael 2677 - GM Amin Bassem 2560 ½ - ½
GM Avrukh Boris 2657 - IM Ezat Mohamed 2425 1 - 0
GM Postny Evgeny 2674 - FM Abdel Razik Khaled 2406 0 - 1

32 Denmark (DEN) - 55 Bangladesh (BAN) 2½:1½

GM Hansen Lars Bo 2570 - GM Rahman Ziaur 2510 1 - 0
GM Nielsen Peter Heine 2662 - GM Hossain Enamul 2494 1 - 0
GM Schandorff Lars 2520 - GM Abdulla Al-Rakib 2522 ½ - ½
IM Glud Jakob Vang 2444 - FM Minhazuddin Ahmed 2377 0 - 1

27 Greece (GRE) - 38 Philippines (PHI) 2 : 2

GM Papaioannou Ioannis 2597 - GM So Wesley 2610 ½ - ½
GM Kotronias Vasilios 2587 - GM Gonzales Jayson 2469 1 - 0
GM Halkias Stelios 2584 - IM Gomez John Paul 2519 0 - 1
GM Mastrovasilis Dimitrios 2572 - GM Laylo Darwin 2507 ½ - ½

6 Bulgaria (BUL) - 70 Mongolia (MGL) 3½: ½

GM Topalov Veselin 2791 - Gundavaa Bayarsaihan 2458 1 - 0
GM Cheparinov Ivan 2696 - GM Hatanbaatar Bazar 2375 ½ - ½
GM Delchev Aleksander 2632 - Oyunbaatar Tumendemberel 2306 1 - 0
GM Iotov Valentin 2532 - Bayarmandah Balgan 2339 1 - 0

68 Belgium (BEL) - 24 Croatia (CRO) 1½:2½

IM Polaczek Richard 2419 - GM Palac Mladen 2583 ½ - ½
IM Cekro Ekrem 2419 - GM Kozul Zdenko 2593 0 - 1
FM Gulbas Cemil 2371 - GM Stevic Hrvoje 2588 0 - 1
IM Saiboulatov Daniyal 2360 - GM Jovanovic Zoran 2564 1 - 0

37 Vietnam (VIE) - 106 Japan (JPN) 3½: ½

GM Nguyen Ngoc Truong Son 2567 - Kojima Shinya 2272 ½ - ½
GM Le Quang Liem 2583 - Uesugi Shinsaku 2222 1 - 0
CM Nguyen Van Huy 2422 - Sano Tomu 2111 1 - 0
GM Tu Hoang Thong 2496 - Noguchi Koji 2018 1 - 0

48 Canada (CAN) - 46 Scotland (SCO) 1½:2½

GM Bluvshtein Mark 2557 - GM Rowson Jonathan 2596 0 - 1
GM Charbonneau Pascal 2499 - GM Aagaard Jacob 2528 1 - 0
IM Zugic Igor 2457 - GM Shaw John 2469 ½ - ½
IM Roussel-Roozmon Thomas 2486 - IM Arakhamia-Grant Ketevan 2448 0 - 1

75 Dominican Republic (DOM) - 7 France (FRA) 0 : 4

GM Mateo Ramon 2487 - GM Bacrot Etienne 2705 0 - 1
IM Dominguez Jose M 2345 - GM Vachier-Lagrave Maxime 2716 0 - 1
Jaquez Juan 2223 - GM Fressinet Laurent 2676 0 - 1
Subervi Jonathan 2238 - GM Maze Sebastien 2577 0 - 1

59 Colombia (COL) - 41 Germany 2 (GER2) 2 : 2

IM Cuartas Jaime Alexander 2489 - IM Braun Arik 2567 ½ - ½
IM Escobar Forero Alder 2482 - GM Bindrich Falko 2517 ½ - ½
IM Barrientos Sergio 2450 - IM Bogner Sebastian 2448 1 - 0
IM Clavijo Jorge Mario 2358 - IM Huschenbeth Niclas 2417 0 - 1

30 Sweden (SWE) - 76 IPCA (IPCA) 4 : 0

GM Agrest Evgenij 2574 - IM Obodchuk Andrei 2434 1 - 0
GM Hillarp Persson Tiger 2543 - IM Mikheev Stanislav 2329 1 - 0
GM Cicak Slavko 2564 - IM Yarmonov Igor 2322 1 - 0
GM Carlsson Pontus 2515 - IM Bondarets Vadim 2345 1 - 0

58 Brazil (BRA) - 33 Uzbekistan (UZB) 2 : 2

GM Sunye Neto Jaime 2488 - GM Kasimdzhanov Rustam 2672 0 - 1
FM El Debs Felipe De Cresce 2447 - GM Iuldachev Saidali 2511 1 - 0
IM Braga Cicero Nogueira 2415 - IM Khamrakulov Dzhurabek 2533 0 - 1
IM Diamant Andre 2412 - GM Barsov Alexei 2513 1 - 0

34 Kazakhstan (KAZ) - 50 Turkey (TUR) 2 : 2

GM Kazhgaleyev Murtas 2640 - GM Gurevich Mikhail 2634 1 - 0
GM Kotsur Pavel 2563 - IM Can Emre 2464 ½ - ½
GM Ibrayev Nurlan 2448 - IM Erdogdu Mert 2449 ½ - ½
IM Zhumabayev Rinat 2490 - IM Haznedaroglu Kivanc 2436 0 - 1

23 Belarus (BLR) - 74 Tajikistan (TJK) 3 : 1

GM Azarov Sergei 2613 - Khuseinov Rashid 2348 1 - 0
GM Zhigalko Sergei 2592 - IM Isaev Jamshed 2400 ½ - ½
GM Aleksandrov Aleksej 2617 - FM Djuraev Sokhib 2339 ½ - ½
GM Fedorov Alexei 2584 - IM Khamdamov Suhrob 2219 1 - 0

26 Moldova (MDA) - 45 Iceland (ISL) 2 : 2

GM Bologan Viktor 2682 - GM Stefansson Hannes 2575 0 - 1
GM Iordachescu Viorel 2572 - GM Steingrimsson Hedinn 2540 ½ - ½
GM Svetushkin Dmitry 2588 - IM Kristjansson Stefan 2474 1 - 0
GM Sanduleac Vasile 2443 - GM Thorhallsson Throstur 2455 ½ - ½

16 Cuba (CUB) - 60 Venezuela (VEN) 4 : 0

GM Dominguez Perez Leinier 2719 - GM Iturrizaga Eduardo 2538 1 - 0
GM Bruzon Batista Lazaro 2623 - IM Alvarez Marquez Johann 2430 1 - 0
GM Quezada Perez Yuniesky 2580 - IM Prasca Sosa Rafael 2410 1 - 0
GM Nogueiras Santiago Jesus 2574 - FM Soto Paez Oliver 2396 1 - 0

71 New Zealand (NZL) - 28 Slovenia (SLO) 0 : 4

GM Chandler Murray G 2515 - GM Pavasovic Dusko 2597 0 - 1
IM Dive Russell John 2357 - GM Lenic Luka 2569 0 - 1
FM Smith Robert W 2316 - IM Borisek Jure 2548 - - +
FM Lukey Stephen G 2271 - IM Skoberne Jure 2501 0 - 1

66 Costa Rica (CRC) - 69 Indonesia (INA) 3 : 1

GM Ramirez Alejandro 2533 - GM Megaranto Susanto 2536 1 - 0
IM Gonzalez Bernal 2432 - IM Irwanto Sadikin 2441 ½ - ½
IM Valdes Leonardo 2401 - Yohannes Simbolon 0 1 - 0
IM Hernandez Basante Francisco 2247 - Farid Firmansyah 2154 ½ - ½

54 Austria (AUT) - 77 Turkmenistan (TKM) 3 : 1

GM Ragger Markus 2518 - IM Kakageldyev Amanmurad 2449 1 - 0
GM Kindermann Stefan 2517 - FM Esenov Annaberdi 2319 1 - 0
IM Atlas Valery 2465 - Atabaev Yusyup 2219 1 - 0
IM Neubauer Martin 2422 - IM Amanov Mesgen 2357 0 - 1

52 Finland (FIN) - 31 Argentina (ARG) 2 : 2

GM Nyback Tomi 2639 - GM Felgaer Ruben 2591 ½ - ½
IM Agopov Mikael 2449 - IM Kovalyov Anton 2571 ½ - ½
IM Lehtinen Heikki 2385 - IM Flores Diego 2568 ½ - ½
IM Karttunen Mika 2411 - GM Campora Daniel H 2537 ½ - ½

40 Iran (IRI) - 101 Nicaragua (NCA) 4 : 0

GM Ghaem Maghami Ehsan 2599 - IM Canda Danilo 2289 1 - 0
GM Moradiabadi Elshan 2499 - Picado Jorge 2219 1 - 0
GM Mahjoob Morteza 2507 - FM Bravo William 2157 1 - 0
GM Ghane Shojaat 2408 - Alfaro William 2200 1 - 0

130 Pakistan (PAK) - 84 South Africa (RSA) 2 : 2

Amir Karim 2265 - IM Solomon Kenny 2337 0 - 1
Waqar Mohamed 2207 - CM Steel Henry Robert 2280 ½ - ½
Butt Khalil Ur Rehman 0 - CM Cawdery Daniel 2265 1 - 0
Ahmed Haseeb 2253 - IM Mabusela Johanne Mayedi 2273 ½ - ½

18 Czech Republic (CZE) - 47 Germany 3 (GER3) 2½:1½

GM Hracek Zbynek 2613 - GM Buhmann Rainer 2541 ½ - ½
GM Laznicka Viktor 2591 - GM Prusikin Michael 2538 ½ - ½
GM Babula Vlastimil 2608 - GM Naumann Alexander 2518 ½ - ½
GM Stocek Jiri 2578 - FM Jorczik Julian 2382 1 - 0

51 Estonia (EST) - 42 Montenegro (MNE) 1½:2½

GM Kulaots Kaido 2556 - GM Drasko Milan 2537 ½ - ½
GM Kanep Meelis 2524 - GM Kosic Dragan 2511 ½ - ½