2010 Chess Olympiad : Statistical overview

The 2010 Chess Olympiad takes place from September 21st to October 3rd in Khanty-Mansiysk, Russia. It is an 11-round Swiss System team event, in which each team has four players with one reserve. Time control: 90 minutes/40 moves + 30 minutes + 30 seconds/move as of move one. Game start: rounds 1-10 at 9 AM UTC (5 AM New York / 2 AM Pacific daylight), and round 11 at 5 AM UTC (1 AM New York / 10 PM Pacific daylight) Rest day: September 26th (after round 5) and October 2nd (after round 10).

2010 Chess Olympiad Khanty-Mansiysk

Team stats

Team consistency

To avoid an overdose of information, the teams chosen were those who have more or less consistently appeared in the top 10.

In the men’s section, it is not hard to guess that the team with the most consistent results since 1992, in other words over the last 10 Olympiads, is Russia, here is a table with some of the major players and their results. Interestingly, Russia’s last win also coincides with Kasparov’s last participation in the team. Another noteworthy statistic is Israel´s consistent top 10 result since 1998, a result only equaled by Russia.

It is immediately obvious that three teams have always appeared in the top 10: China, Georgia, and Russia. If you were to average their places, they would also be ranked in that order, though barely as China’s average place is 2.5 while Georgia’s is 2.6. As to Hungary, it is worth pointing out that the Polgar sisters ceased playing for the Hungarian women’s team in 1990. In 1994, Judit Polgar would sensationally appear as the top board in Hungary’s male team.

Team Scoring

What is meant by scoring, is not who won the most matches, but who among the more successful teams, won the most, or fewest games.

Men

That Ukraine, the gold medalists, scored the most points with 31 (out of a possible 44), is not truly surprising. What may surprise some is that despite their silver and bronze medals, neither Russia 1 with 28 game points nor Israel with 29 were the second heaviest scoring team. That honor goes to the sixth place young guns from Russia 2, who scored 29.5 points. In fact, even the Czech Republic in 20th place, won as many game points as the silver medalists. Of course, the difference lay in clinching the matches and the key games.

Of the teams that scored the fewest games, always edging out their opponents with that one key victory in many cases, France's 25 points was the lowest total of the top 10 finishers, with only the Netherlands with 24.5 scoring less of the top 20.

Women

The women's section presented fewer surprises, especially with both Russia and China clearly winning more matches than the rest, though Bulgaria´s unusually low 24.5 despite their 8th place, does stick out.

Player stats

Men

Before entering the domain of who scored what, and who gained what, the provisional chess ratings calculated by Hans Arild Runde at his wonderfully useful site, chess.liverating.org have been released, and include the current permutations in the 2700+ Elo group that can be expected when FIDE's new rating lists come out in November.

At the very top, Carlsen lost 16 points after his uneven event though is still in clear first with 2810. Topalov's rating took a nasty hit, and if nothing changes, he will drop to fourth with 2785. That said, he will be playing in Nanjing in a couple of weeks, facing both Anand and Carlsen, and will have the opportunity to settle the score. The same is true of Carlsen obviously. Among the notable gains, Aronian can expect to move up to third place at the moment as his next rating stands at 2794, his personal best, moving ahead of Kramnik as well. Karjakin, who is currently rated 2747 and ranked 8th gained 14 Elo and will go to 2761, however will remain ranked 8th as Grischuk's 2 Elo gain keeps him a fraction ahead. Chinese GM Wang Yue had declared at the World University championship that he wanted to regain his top 10 status, after having dropped down to 29th in July this year, and his win there combined with his Khanty-Mansiysk result have taken him to 8th place where he has 2753.

There are two more players who bear commenting on, one who is no doubt becoming a familiar name to readers, and another who cannot be overlooked: Nepomniachtchi and Wojtaszek.

Nepomniachtchi has been a very high-profile player over the last year, with his win at the European Championship, his clear win at the Russian semi-final, and of course his remarkable 2821 performance at the Olympiad. His rating in November 2009 was 2626 and he was not even listed in the top 100 players, while now the 20-year-old is at 2731 and is expected to be ranked 18th in the world.

Wojtaszek has been almost discrete in his appearance, but cannot possibly remain so any longer. This 23-year-old Polish grandmaster, who was one of Anand’s seconds during the world championship, has had an absolutely meteoric rise in the last 12 months. Much like Nepomniachtchi, in November 2009, he too was not even in the top 100, and was rated 2637, yet in the last year, something obviously clicked for him as he has added some 90 Elo, and is now looking at a very hefty 2725 rating in the next list making him 22nd in the world.

Last but not least, near the bottom of the list (bottom of the 2700 list lest you forget), is Ukrainian fourth board, Efimeenko, who will make his appearance in the list for the first time with 2705, very much due to his superb result in the Olympiad.

Elo performances

Outside the 2700 club, you will find the absolute rating performance king of the Oympiad, Israel’s second board GM Emil Sutovsky (2665) who scored 6.5/8 and a staggering 2895 performance, edging out both Ivanchuk who performed at 2890, and Aronian with 2888. Still, the king of the overachievers was GM Vitaly Teterev (2511), the third board for Belarus, who scored 7.0/8 and an incredible 2853 performance, which is no less than 342 Elo more than his normal rating. It is not a little remarkable that no fewer than seven players achieved 2800+ performances.

Dutch prodigy Anish Giri (2677) will also be earning added rating points as he played all 11 rounds for his team with a strong 2730 performance.

Highest percentage

As to who simply scored the most, here are the top 10:

Top Boards

Finally, here are all the top performers per board:

Largest Elo gains

Inevitably, the question players always ask themselves is not only how well they did, but how much Elo they gained or lost. Here are the largest Elo gains made by titled players.

Women

Although the provisional list above is for 2700 players only, and thus excludes female players, who have only had Judit Polgar to represent them at that level, there is also a similarly updated Women's Live Ratings list. Unsurprisingly, Judit is far ahead of the field, and will add a few points to reach 2685. Next is Indian Koneru Humpy at 2593, who did not play at Khanty-Mansiysk, and Hou Yifan who will remain third at 2586. The Kosintseva sisters continue their rise as they both pursue the 2600 barrier, and are both at 4th and 5th respectively. Tatiana will move to 2581, while her sister Nadezhda is right beside her with 2575. 23-year-old Georgian GM Nana Dzagnidze has also had a strong aboutface as she comes back from a slump where she had dropped to 2478 in May this year, to achieve her highest rating yet at 2551 and ranked 6th, just ahead of Bulgarian Antonaeta Stefanova who is expected to drop a few points to 2549.

Elo performances

Although mush has been made of the Kosintseva sisters, who obviously did very well, the queen of Elo performances was Ukrainian IM Inna Gaponenko with a 2691 performance. As to amazing performances, the title for greatest overachiever has to go to Azerbaijan WGM Zeinab Mamedjarova, rated 2234 who scored a full-fledged GM norm and a 2623 performance. In case that last name sounds vaguely familiar, it is because she is the sister of the Azerbaijani genius Mamedyarov.

Highest percentage

In case you are wondering why Valentina Gunina was not the top performance or board, it is because a minimum of eight games were required.

Top boards

Largest Elo gains

Sponsors

Links Official tournament site Men's games in PGN (zipped) Women's games in PGN (zipped) The games are being broadcast live on the official web site and on the chess server Playchess.com. If you are not a member you can download the free PGN reader ChessBase Light, which gives you immediate access. You can also use the program to read, replay and analyse PGN games. New and enhanced: CB Light 2009!