World Youth Olympiad Round 5: Who will stop the Russians?

Russians continued their domination with a 2.5-1.5 victory over Uzbekistan. The Russia team led by coach Mikhail Kobalia for now looks invincible. They beat the top seeds India 3-1, and now Uzbekistan. Their final and big test will be in the sixth round when they face Iran on the top board. If Russia can win this match or even draw it, it seems highly unlikely that anyone would be able to stop them.

Uzbekistan fared slightly better than team India who had lost to Russia with a score of 3-1. Although the scoreline was 2.5-1.5, the result of the match was not really in doubt after Lomasov and Gaifullin had scored wins on boards one and three respectively. Here's Lomasov's impressive win against the Dutch Defence:

Semen Lomasov is turning into a heavy hitter for Russia as he now has 3.5/4 on board one! A fantastic feat.

India green versus Iran

India and Iran are two of the biggest rising powers in the world of chess. Naturally the match between them was looked forward to with great anticipation by chess fans all over the world. And it turned into a blood bath with four decisive results. Top two boards were captured by the Iranians while the last two by Indians. I would say that India green was lucky to draw this match because on the last board Iniyan was completely losing against Mahdi Gholami.

On board one the opening seemed to have gone pretty well for Aryan. He was around even, but then his opponent Amin Tabatabaei slowly started to turn the screws. He played a fine queenless middlegame and gained an advantage. Aryan fought valiantly and the game was heading towards a draw, but then the Indian blundered in time trouble and it was all over.

The game between Praggnanandhaa and Alireza Firouzja was looked forward to with great interest by chess fans all over the world. Pragg and Firouzja are considered to be two of the most talented youngsters in the world of chess. They played the Classical Scheveningen variation in the Sicilian and we had an extremely complicated game on cards. The Iranian player showed that he had much superior understanding of the position as he outplayed Pragg. A fine game by Alireza.

The first two boards went in Iran's favour, but the last two points were picked up by the Indians.

Iniyan was very lucky to come out unscathed on board four. On many occasions he was just lost, but he fought and when the opponent was under severe time pressure, he managed to lay a deadly mating net!

With this performance the Indian red team has surpassed the Indian green team in points! They are on 8.0/10, while Indian green team is on 7.0/10. In round six the two teams will clash each other and it will be interesting to see if Rajdeep, Jayakumaar, Arjun, Mitrabha and Harshita would be able to hold their own against Aryan, Pragg, Nihal, Iniyan and Vaishali.

Jayakumaar won a fine game against Nisim Iliaguev:

Mitrabha Guha played a highly exciting game in the Caro Kann, where both the players were hunting each other's kings. Finally it was the white king who succumbed under the attack:

Team results of round 5:

Rankings of round 5: