2006 Turin Chess Olympiad
Date of the event:
The 37th Chess Olympiad, the team tournament that the International Chess Federation organises every two years, was held in Turin from 20 May to 4 June 2006[1][2]. The games were played at the Oval of the Lingotto, the arena built for speed skating at the Winter Olympics and designed from the outset to become a trade-fair pavilion after the Games[1][5]. It was one of the largest editions ever: 148 teams in the open tournament and 103 in the women's, 1,290 players in all[1][2][4].
The tournament
The open was played on four boards using the Swiss system over thirteen rounds, with 873 players — including 246 grandmasters, 163 international masters and 104 Fide masters — and 3,836 games; the women's tournament was played on three boards, also over thirteen rounds, with 417 players and 1,992 games[1][2]. Time control was 90 minutes for the whole game plus 30 seconds per move, and the final ranking was decided on match points, then on Buchholz[1]. The organising committee was chaired by Paolo Fresco, with Michele Cordara as director general and the Dutchman Geurt Gijssen as chief arbiter[1]. Somalia and Sierra Leone, both entered, failed to show up[1][2].
The winners
The open was won, in a surprise result, by Armenia — its first Olympiad gold ever — two points ahead of China, with the United States taking third place; the Armenian team, the only one to finish unbeaten, was led by the 23-year-old Levon Aronian and included Vladimir Akopian, Gabriel Sargissian, Karen Asrian, Artashes Minasian and Smbat Lputian[3][4]. Sargissian finished with the best score percentage of the tournament, 10 points out of 12[3]. Russia, among the favourites, finished sixth[3][4]. The women's tournament went to Ukraine — Natalia Zhukova, Kateryna Lahno, Inna Gaponenko and Anna Ushenina — ahead of Russia and China[4]. The Nona Gaprindashvili trophy, which adds together the points of both teams from each country, went to China with 61.5 points[1].
Italy "A" finished 35th in the open and 37th in the women's event[4]; Italy's second team won the category prize reserved for seeds ranked 61st to 89th, with 28.5 points[1]. Among the individual awards, the best performance by Elo rating was by Vladimir Kramnik (2847) in the open and Zhao Xue (2617) in the women's event[1][2].
Turin and chess
For the city, the 2006 Olympiad was its second major chess event, after the "World Master" tournament of 1982, won jointly by Anatoly Karpov and Ulf Andersson; before that, Turin had hosted a national tournament in spring 1892 and, in 1923, a simultaneous exhibition by Alexander Alekhine[4].
Sources
- 37ª Olimpiade degli scacchi: Torino 2006 — OlimpBase
- 37ª Olimpiade degli scacchi femminile: Torino 2006 — OlimpBase
- 37ª Olimpiade degli scacchi 2006 (Torino, Italia): tredicesimo turno — The Chess Drum, 1 June 2006
- I luoghi degli scacchi: Torino — Uno Scacchista, 18 June 2021
- Oval e i suoi fratelli — La Stampa, n. 291, p. 75, 25 October 2005