The other participating teams were Armenia, Azerbaijan, Israel, the U.S., India, Brazil, Egypt, Turkey and Greece.
Going into the final round with a one match point lead, Russia crushed powerful Israel 3-1, while the U.S. drew with Azerbaijan on all four boards and came second. India trounced Brazil 3.5:0.5 to overtake the Azeris and win bronze.
The top individual performers were American Hikaru Nakamura on board 1; his team-mate Alexander Onischuk, board 2; India’s Surya Sekhar Ganguly, board 3; Azerbaijan’s Shakhriyar Mamedyarov, board 4; Russia’s Vladimir Malakhov, board 5; and his compatriot Nikita Vitiugov on board 6.
Game of the week. IM Malcolm Pein, our annotator, has this to say about our featured partie: “We did not see Hikaru Nakamura’s brand of explosive chess at the London Chess Classic in December but it did not take the U.S. champion long to find his best form and in the fifth round of the World Team Championships he showed us why he is known as the ‘H-Bomb.’ Nakamura led the USA to victory over Israel defeating world number 6 Boris Gelfand in a brilliantly played King’s Indian Defense.”
Let me put it in another way. Against a veteran GM, who just won the World Cup, Hikaru, with the black pieces, sacrificed a knight on move 23, left his queen hanging to a pawn and won in great style.
White: B. Gelfand (2761)
Black: H. Nakamura (2708)
World Team Championship 2010
1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 g6 3.Nc3 Bg7 4.e4 d6 5.Nf3 0-0 6.Be2 e5 7.0-0 Nc6 8.d5 Ne7 9.Nd2 Ne8 10.b4 f5 11.c5 Nf6 12.f3 f4 13.Nc4 g5 14.a4 Ng6 15.Ba3 Rf7 16.b5 (16.a5 h5 17.b5 dxc5 18.b6 g4 19.bxc7 Rxc7 20.Nb5 g3 21.Nxc7 Nxe4!! Belyavsky – Nakamura NH Amsterdam 2010) 16…dxc5 17.Bxc5 h5 18.a5 g4 19.b6 g3 20.Kh1 (20.Nb5 Nxe4 21.fxe4 Qh4 22.hxg3 fxg3 23.Rxf7 Qh2+ 24.Kf1 Qh1+ 25.Bg1! but 20…Nd7 is better) 20…Bf8 21.d6 (21. Bxf8 Nxe4 22. Nxe4 Qh4 wins.) 21…axb6 22.Bg1 (22.axb6 Rxa1 23.Qxa1 cxd6 24.Rd1 Rd7) 22…Nh4 23.Re1 (23.dxc7 Bh3!! 24.gxh3 g2#) 23…Nxg2!! 24.dxc7? (24.Kxg2 Rg7) 24…Nxe1! 25.Qxe1 (25.hxg3 Qxd1 26.Rxd1 Nxf3 27.Nxb6 Rxc7 28.Nxa8 Rxc3 wins material) 25…g2+! 26.Kxg2 Rg7+ 27.Kh1 Bh3 28.Bf1 Qd3!! 29.Nxe5 (29.Bxh3 Qxf3+ 30.Bg2 Qxg2#) 29…Bxf1 30.Qxf1 Qxc3 (Not 30…Qxf1 31.Rxf1 bxa5 32.Nb5 and White is back in the game now Black is a rook up) 31.Rc1 Qxe5 32.c8Q Rxc8 33.Rxc8 Qe6 and 0-1.
Puzzler.
White — Ka4, Ba6, Nb8, Nc6, Qc1, pawns on e3 and h4
Black — Kd5, Nd6, Rf7, Bh7, Rh3, pawns on b3, c4, c7, d4, e6 and f3
White to play and mate in four.
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