FINAL RESULTS OF THE 40TH CHESS OLYMPIAD

The 40th Chess Olympiad that took place in Istanbul Expo Center, Turkey from August 27 to September 10th, 2012 and was participated by a record of 158 national chess federations had come to a close with great success and whose final results both in the Open & Women sections were determined by tie-break points in the final round.

OPEN Section Results

Nr 3 seed Armenia lead by World’s #2 rated GM Levon Aronian defeated Hungary 2½-1½  in the final round (R11) to snatch the Gold Medal from the Nr 1 seed Russia who also defeated Germany 3-1.  Armenia and Russia tied with a total of 19-match-points each but Armenia won the Gold with a higher tie-break points.  Russia took the Silver medal.

This is the 3rd World Chess Olympiad title of Armenia after winning the Gold in 2006 and 2008.

2010 Champion and Nr 2 seed Ukraine took the Bronze medal by defeating China 3-1.  It was a heartbreaking loss for China who previously lead the race for Gold on tiebreak points just before the final round.  China settled for 4th place.

Top Board results – Open

Women Section Results:

Nr 4 seed Ukraine with 18 match points secured 3rd place and the Bronze medal by   crushing Germany 3½-½.

Team Philippines:

Team Philippines(Open), starting the final round at 11th place with 14 match points due to its incredible run specially the first 8 rounds where it had 13 match points tying 2^nd-6^th places and 6^th overall, was on the border of making history either surpassing or equalling the  7th place record of the 1988 Philippines Olympiad Men’s Team  but was denied entry in the Top 10 by the fast resurging Romanian (#25 seed) border guards and was dealt a 3-1 decision and relegated to 21st place overall.

The 21st overall place (6Wins-2Draws-3Losses) is Philippines Olympiad Men’s Team 11th best finish out of its 28th Olympiad participation.  The previous 10 best as recorded by  Olimpbase are as follows:

It also equalled the 21st finish by 1990 & 1994 Olympiad Philippines Men’s Team.

Rating Performance

Bo. 1:  GM Wesley So

Has the best Rating Performance (Rp) in the Philippine contingent with an Rp of 2710.  This was derived from his 6.5/11 points of 2Wins-9Draws-NoLoss where six of that draws were against Hyper GMs (one @ 2800+ and 5@ 2700+).  Overall, among Bo. 1 players he was ranked #16 in Rating Performance and #36 in the Open (All Boards).  Additionally, he gained a +10.3 in FIDE rating points.

Bo. 2:  GM Oliver Barbosa

Has the 2^nd best Rp of 2668 from his top points contribution to the team of 7.0/11 (5Wins-4Draws-2Losses).  His most notable 2-wins were against Super GMs Kiril Georgiev BUL(2682) in R6 & Gawain Jones ENG(2653) in R8. Overall he was #11 among the Bo. 2 players with the highest Rp and #54 in the Open (All Boards).  He also gained a big +20.4 FIDE rating points.

Bo. 3:  GM Eugene Torre

Has an Rp of 2611, way above his current FIDE rating of 2469, from his 3.5/7 points 2Wins-3draws-2losses.  His two big wins were against Super GMs Ferenc Berkes HUN(2625) in R7 and Nigel Short ENG(2698) in R8. His Rp of 2611 could have earned him #17 among the Top Bo. 3 players with the highest Rp had he played a minimum requirement of 8 games.   He also had earned a +12.8 in FIDE rating points (plus an additional +18.0 points gained in the previous 2012 Philippines National Championship) and is expected to be back @ 2500 level come October 2012 FIDE rating publication.  Additionally, he also had registered & set a new record of  21^st Olympiad appearances.

Bo. 4:  GM Mark Paragua

His Rp of 2561 from his 6.0/11 points 3Wins-6Draws-2Losses ranked him #18 in Bo. 4 Rating Performance and #121 in the Open (All Boards).  His two most remarkable performances were his drawn games against Super GMs Vladimir Akopian ARM(2687)  in R4 and Csaba Balogh HUN(2668) in R7.  He also had gained  a +7.9 in his FIDE rating.

Bo. 5:  IM Oliver Dimakiling

His Rp of 2631 from his 3.0/4 (3Wins & 1Loss) was quite outstanding but short of 4 games to qualify & ranked in the Top Bo. 5 Rating Performance.  He also gained a  +10.5 in FIDE rating points.

Team Philippines(Open) as a consolation WON the BRONZE in Group ‘B’ of the Categorie-prizes.   GM Eugene Torre was the lone Team Philippines player present to arrive on time at the closing ceremony to receive the prize and the crowd roared for him according to Coach GM Susan Polgar in her kibitz at chessgames.com.

Team Philippines(Women)

The Philippines Women’s Team, composed of young chess talents with an average age of 22 and seeded #57 in the initial standing, windup with a draw (2-2) in R11 against #22 seed Bosnia and Herzegovina and finished with 12 match points and in 43rd position with a 5Wins-2Draws-4Losses record, one rung improvement from its previous 2010 Olympiad 44th position.

Rating Performance:

Bo 1:  WIM Catherine Perena PHI(2091)  

Had the highest Rp of 2253 among PHI Women’s Team from her 6Wins-2Draws-3Losses scoring 7.0/11 points. Her most remarkable wins were against WGM Melissa Greeff RSA in R5, IM Almira Skripchenko FRA(2442) in R6 and WIM Elena Boric BIH(2319) in R11.  She gained a high +42.0 in FIDE rating  points.

Bo. 2:  WFM Rulp Ylem Jose PHI(2061)

Played only 5 games scoring 2.0/5  (2Wins-3Losses) with an Rp of 2041.  She lost -2.7 FIDE rating points.

Bo. 3:  Janelle Mae Frayna PHI(1991)

Team Phillippines youngest @ 15, scored 6.5/11 (4Wins-5Draws-2Losses) delivered an Rp of 2111 and gained +33.9 FIDE rating points in the process. Her most significant games were her win against WGM Jana Krivec SLO(2240) in R2 and her drawn games against IM Rusudan Goletiani USA(2341) and WGM Elena-Luminita Cosma ROU(2352) in R9.   Her major accomplishment in the 2012 Olympiad was acquiring a ‘New Title’ of WIM which she achieved after R9 when she scored 6.0/9.

Bo. 4:  Jedara Docena PHI(2061)

Though she scored 3.5/10 (3Wins-1Draw-6Losses) with an Rp of 1876 and losing -24.6 FIDE rating points  but what she achieved in 2012 Olympiad was bringing home a ‘New Title’ of WCM which she achieved after R8 when she scored 3.5/7.

Bo. 5:   Jan Jodilyn Fronda PHI(2022)

The 2nd youngest @18  in the PHI Women’s Team was the 2^nd best performer scoring 5.5/7  (5Wins-1Draw-1Loss) with an Rp of 2223.  Had she completed 8 games she could had figured in the Top 10 of Bo. 5 players with the best Rp.  Her 2223 Rp was actually 9^th best at Bo. 5 but she lacks one game of the minimum 8 to be considered.  She also brought home a ‘New Title’ of WCM which she achieved after R11 when she scored 5.5/7.

Team Philippines(Women) placed Nr 6 in Group ‘C’ of the Women’s Categorie-prizes.

HERETO are BOARD STANDINGS and WINNERS:

A.  OPEN SECTION

B.  WOMEN SECTION

Board 1: Yifan Hou (Gold), Nana Dzagnidze (Silver), Kateryna Lahno (Bronze)
Board 2:  Xue Zhao(Gold), Mariya Muzychuk (Silver), Betul Cemre Yildiz (Bronze)
Board 3:  Nadezhda Kosintseva(Gold), Jolanta Zawadzka(Silver), Tania Sachdev(Bronze)
Board 4:  Qian Huang(Gold), Silvia Collas(Silver), Alexandra Kosteniuk(Bronze)
Board 5:  Natalija Pogonina(Gold), Melissa Castrillon Gomez(Silver),Madina Davletbayeva(Bronze)

BEST PLAYERS (OVERALL)

Open Section: Best Players according to Rating Performance

1. GM Shakhriyar Mamedyarov : Azerbaijan (Gold)
2. David Navara : Czech Republic (Silver)
3. Levon Aronian : Armenia (Bronze)

Women Section: Best Players according to Rating Performance

1. Nadezhda Kosintseva : Russia(Gold)
2. Yifan Hou : China (Silver)
3. Nana Dzagnidze : Georgia (Bronze)

SO LONG ISTANBUL 2012, HELLO TROMSØ  2014  !!!