36th Chess Olympiad Round 5 Results

Round 5 was played today.
Men's Results
Women's Results
All the games (ChessBase file download)
Round Bulletin (PDF download)

MEN

The big news this round is that the two leaders Ukraine and Israel tied 2-2 as all four games (Ivanchuk-Gelfand, Ponomariov-Sutovsky, Volokitin-Smirin, Eljanov-Avrukh) were drawn. This allowed Azerbaijan and Russia to close some of the gap separating them from the leaders. Also, France, Spain A, India, Bulgaria, Poland and the Netherlands all won their matches, allowing them all to overtake Slovakia, which lost to #1 Russia 2.5-1.5 and therefore dropped in its relative standing. The United States (#10) was upset by Uzbekistan (#30) 2.5-1.5 and therefore dropped from among the leaders. GM Gulko (2600) lost to IM Filippov (2475), while the other three games were drawn. It seems that both Gulko and the U.S. team have been performing below expectations.

Other important results from this round…

Bulgaria over Scotland 3.5-0.5
Netherlands over Vietnam 3.5-0.5
Poland over England 3-1
Azerbaijan over Bosnia-Herzegovina 3-1
Serbia-Montenegro over Kazakhstan 3-1
China over Switzerland 3-1
Spain A over Georgia 2.5-1.5
India over Armenia 2.5-1.5
Canada over Philippines 2.5-1.5
Argentina over Denmark 2.5-1.5
France over Cuba 2.5-1.5
Czech Republic over Greece 2.5-1.5
Croatia and Germany tied 2-2
Chile and Latvia tied 2-2

The standings after five rounds…

Ukraine – 16.5
Israel – 16
Azerbaijan – 15
Russia, Bulgaria – 14.5
Spain A, India, Netherlands, France, Poland – 14
Slovakia – 13.5
Armenia, Cuba, Serbia-Montenegro, Argentina, China, Uzbekistan, Canada – 13

WOMEN

In this round, China spanked England 3-0, while Russia and Ukraine tied their match 1.5-1.5, allowing China to expand its lead from 1.5 points to a full 3 points. The United States tied with Sweden 1.5-1.5, as GM Polgar drew her game with GM Cramling, WGM Zatonskih beat WIM Agrest and WIM Shahade lost to WIM Johansson.

Other important results from this round…

Slovakia over Uzbekistan 2.5-0.5
France over Germany 2-1
Hungary over Vietnam 2-1
Georgia over Latvia 2-1
Cuba over Slovenia 2-1
Belarus over Serbia-Montenegro 2-1
Israel over Romania 2-1
Armenia over Greece 2-1
Poland and India drew 1.5-1.5
Argentina and Netherlands drew 1.5-1.5

The standings after five rounds…

China – 14
Russia, Ukraine, France – 11
India – 10.5
Germany, Poland, United States, Hungary, Georgia, Slovakia, Sweden – 10