Armenia, Hungary, Poland, Ukraine Enter Friday's Online Olympiad Quarterfinals

Armenia, Hungary, Poland, and Ukraine won their matches in Thursday's preliminary round of the FIDE Online Olympiad's playoff. The biggest upset was the elimination of China by Ukraine.

China-Ukraine: 1-1 (6-7)

As the reigning champions of the official Olympiad (in both the open and women sections) and the Online Nations Cup, China seemed to be the clear favorite for the Online Olympiad as well. Their elimination just before the quarterfinals definitely came as a surprise.

The teams played 3-3 in both of their matches with China doing better on the top boards and Ukraine winning on the U20 junior and girls boards. At the same time, it was surprising that both GMs Hou Yifan and Ju Wenjun, who played in the first match, were left out in the second.

That wouldn't have matted if GM Tan Zhongyi had seen the tactic in the opening in her game against IM Iulija Osmak in round two (although Ukraine missed chances as well):

With 3-3 in both matches, one single armageddon (five vs. four minutes, no increment) had to be played as a tiebreaker. But who would play?

The regulations state that a drawing of lots determines which one of the four categories the armageddon game is to be played: open, women, U20 or girls U20. The captain of each team then nominates a player from the respective category.

In this case, the game was played on the U20 board between GMs Kirill Shevchenko and Liu Yan. The final phase of the game was unfortunate because White didn't seem to be doing much for many moves and could have given the impression that he was mostly trying to flag his opponent.

However, all this is part of online play and at the very end, Shevchenko did make some progress (and even could have taken a full piece) just before Liu flagged.

From the moment the tournament was announced, it has been debated whether the U20 and girls U20 boards are good ideas. GM Peter Heine Nielsen prefers countries to come with their strongest players. GM Ivan Sokolov pointed out that in this particular case, when looking at all games, Ukraine won deservedly.

Just went through the games.
Fully deserved win by Ukraine!
China should have lost the 1st match, Gaponenko lost (to Hou) from better position, Zhukova gave draw (to Ju) in totally won position.
Well done Ukraine, fully deserved https://t.co/FY2h54KTVC

— Sokolov Ivan (@GMSokolovIvan) August 28, 2020

Germany-Hungary: 1-1 (6-7)

Another armageddon was seen in the clash between Germany and Hungary. Here, Hungary started with a 3.5-2.5 win, but then Germany leveled the score with the same figures.

This time, the armageddon game was played in the open category between GMs Tamas Banusz and Dennis Wagner. As both players got into huge time trouble, the game saw a dramatic finish:

The drama! Hungary beat Germany in the armageddon game as GM Tamas Banusz beat GM Dennis Wagner by 0.3 of a second!#OnlineOlympiad https://t.co/2psh9VgMkv pic.twitter.com/Uk8vZ4ulSN

— ChesscomNews (@ChesscomNews) August 27, 2020

Armenia-Greece: 2-0 (8-4)

No armageddons were in the other two matches. Armenia defeated Greece twice, first by 4.5-1.5 and then by 3.5-2.5. Their top board, GM Levon Aronian, scored two wins; the first one is the following.

Bulgaria-Poland: 0-2 (4.5-7.5)

Poland also won both matches. beating Bulgaria 3.5-2.5 and 4-2. Top boards GM Jan-Krzysztof Duda and Radoslaw Wojtaszek both scored 2-0. Here's Duda's second win:

Preliminary round | All games

The FIDE Online Olympiad is a major online chess event for national teams that runs July 25-August 30 on the Chess.com server. More than 1,500 participants and 163 teams from all over the world are playing.

Each team consists of six players, including at least two women, at least one player who is 20 or younger, and at least one female player who is 20 or younger. The time control for all matches is 15 minutes for the game and a five-second increment per move, starting from move one.

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