CHESS

THE 42nd Chess Olympiad finished last Tuesday in Baku. This brilliantly organised event was a true festival of chess, with 170 teams competing in the open section and 134 teams in the women’s tournament. In the open section USA took its first gold since the 1976 Chess Olympiad in Haifa, with 20 match points out of 22. Ukraine also finished on 20 points, but had a worse tiebreak score. Russia came third with 18 points. China, winner of the 2014 Chess Olympiad, had a bad tournament, finishing in 13th place. It did better in the women’s tournament where the Women World Champion Hou Yifan led the Chinese team to victory with 20 match points. Poland finished second on 17 points, overtaking Ukraine on tiebreak. Russia, the 2014 champions, came fourth. The following nice game is from round 5:

Hou Yifan – Zimina 1.E4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.BB5 Nf6 4.d3 d6 5.0–0 Bd7 6.Re1 g6 7.D4! White is trying to open up the centre while the black king is still there. Black should have responded with 7... Bg7, but her next two moves were too extravagant: 7...QE7?! 8.Nc3 Nb8? 9.BG5 c6 10.dxe5 dxe5 (D) White is playing the middlegame, while Black is still stuck in the opening. The World Champion finished the game in exemplary fashion: 11.ND5! cxd5 12.exd5 Bxb5 13.NXE5 h6 14.Bxf6 Qxf6 15.NG4+ Qe7 16.Qd4 Be2 17.QXH8 Nd7 18.Qc3 f5 19.RXE2! Qxe2 20.Re1 Qxe1+ 21.QXE1+ Kd8 22.Ne5 Nxe5 23.QXE5 Rc8 24.c3 1–0