Armenia wins Olympiad again

Position No. 6031: White to play and win. From the game Jovanka Houska-Antoaneta Stefanova, Women's Olympiad, Dresden 2008.

Solution to Position No. 6030: White wins with 1 Bh6! gxh6 2 Rf8+ Bxf8 3 Qg8 mate. If 1 . . . Bxa3+ 2 Kc2 g6, then 3 Rdd7 leads to mate. Also 1 Bf6 and 1 Rdd7 will win.

The 38th Olympiad in Dresden set new standards for attendance (146 teams) and excitement. The shorter schedule (11 rounds instead of 14) and the glut of powerful teams helped to continually shuffle the leaderboard.

The critical matches began with the seventh-round encounter between the heavily favored Russian team and defending champion Armenia, seeded only ninth. Armenia won, 2 1/2 -1 1/2 , but dropped back two rounds later by losing to Israel, a team composed entirely of former Soviets. Then second-seeded Ukraine, the steadiest superpower, knocked out Russia and defeated Israel.

In the dramatic final round, Armenia beat China to take a clear first place with nine wins, a tie and a loss. Israel defeated Netherlands and finished second (+8, =2, -1). The U.S. team, seemingly out of contention after an eighth-round loss to Russia, routed previously unbeaten Ukraine, 3 1/2 - 1/2 , and finished third (+8, =1, -2) on tiebreak.

Ukraine fell to fourth place. Tied for fifth were Russia, Azerbaijan, China, Hungary, Vietnam, Spain and Georgia.

Gabriel Sargissian of Armenia achieved the best individual result, scoring 9-2 on third board. Teammate Vladimir Akopian also excelled, scoring 8-3 on second board.

Every American player performed slightly above his rating level. Gata Kamsky, Hikaru Nakamura and Alexander Onischuk scored 6 1/2 -3 1/2 each on the top three boards. Yury Shulman (5 1/2 -2 1/2 ) and Varuzhan Akobian (4-2) shared duties on fourth board.

Georgia won its final five matches to edge Ukraine on tiebreak to win the gold medal in the 111-team Women's Olympiad. Maia Chiburdanidze, world champion from 1978 to 1991, scored 7 1/2 -5 1/2 on first board for Georgia. China started 6-0 but finished with three ties and two losses. The U.S. team of Irina Krush, Anna Zatonskih, Rusudan Goletiani, Katerina Rohonyan and Tatev Abrahamyan upset Russia (the top seed) and took third place on tiebreak over Russia and Poland.

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The American Open concludes today at the Renaissance hotel at 9620 Airport Blvd. in Los Angeles. Spectators may watch the games and chess videos for free.