China, USA Will Battle In Sunday Superfinal At FIDE Chess.com Online Nations Cup – Chess.com
Posted: May 10, 2020 at 12:44 am
China and the USA will face each other in Sunday's Superfinal of theFIDE Chess.com Online Nations Cup. On Saturday, the USA lost toEurope in round one, but then they became the only team to beat China in the tournament. Thus, USA finished in a tie with Europe, advancing to the Superfinal due to scoring precisely half a board point more.
The Chess.com Day 5 Live Broadcast for replay.
The big clash between the USA and Europe was likely going to decide the fight for second place, considering the pairings for the final round where the USA would face the leader China, while Europe would play the Rest of the World.
After three tense games on the top three boards, where GM Maxime Vachier-Lagrave was closest to a win vs. GM Hikaru Nakamura, it was the ladies' board where this key match was decided. GM Nana Dzagnidze always had a slight edge, and she eventually outplayed GM Irina Krush in a rook endgame:
With no chance for qualifying for the final, team captain Vishy Anand and player Vishy Anand must have agreed that he could take the day off.
Meanwhile, GM Yu Yangyi was the absolute star player of this event. Well, at least for nine rounds. He improved his score even further to 6.5/8 with another excellent win, this time against GM Baskaran Adhiban.
In a match that was only played for the history books, GM Sergey Karjakin learned the hard way how fast GM Alireza Firouzja has improved lately. He was completely outplayed and then beaten with a kingside attack:
The legendary Judit Polgar joined our live broadcast for a bit during the break.
Europe was going into the final round a match point ahead of the USA, and as said, with a much better pairing. But the unthinkable happened.
While Europe couldn't win their match, the USA did manage, with GM Wesley So becoming the first player to beat Yu in this tournament and, with that win, securing the two match points.
So where did it go wrong for Europe? As always, it's a team effort, but the one board that was lost was GM Levon Aronian's game with Firouzja. Unfortunately for Aronian and his team, the Iranian star had his best day of the event as he scored 2/2 with two fine games:
In another match where not much was at stake, GM Vladislav Artemiev stole the show with a flashy attack on GM Vidit Gujrathi's king. The Indian player later apologized on Twitter for his disappointing level of play in the event.
FIDE Chess.com Online Nations Cup | Final Standings
Tomorrow's Superfinal will start an hour later, so7:00 a.m. Pacific / 10 a.m. Eastern / 16:00 CEST. China will have white on boards one and three. As the winner of the round-robin, China got to choose colors and also has draw odds in the one match that is the final.
In other words, the USA needs to do for a second time what no other team has managed: beat China.
The FIDE Chess.com Online Nations Cup is a team competition held from May 5-10, 2020 on Chess.com featuring Russia, USA, Europe, China, India, plus a team representing the "Rest of the World." The total prize fund is $180,000, sponsored by Chess.com.
The first stage consists of a double round-robin, with each team playing each other twice. The top two teams after 10 rounds qualify for a "Superfinal" match.
All matches are played on four boards: three with male players and one with female players. The time control for all games is25 minutes + 10 seconds increment per move, starting from move one.
Games Day 5 for replay/download
During today's live broadcast, the songwriter and musician Juga released her latest chess song.
Related articles
Excerpt from:
China, USA Will Battle In Sunday Superfinal At FIDE Chess.com Online Nations Cup - Chess.com
- What Is The Best Online Chess Time Control? - Chess.com - January 23rd, 2021
- On Chess: Chess And The Arts - St. Louis Public Radio - January 23rd, 2021
- Daily Chess Ratings And Daily960 Ratings Adjusted - Chess.com - January 23rd, 2021
- Chess Looks Wild In 2021 - Kotaku - January 23rd, 2021
- Grand Chess Tour Returning in Summer 2021 | US Chess.org - uschess.org - January 23rd, 2021
- Chess: Carlsen starts well but slows as Swedish outsider impresses at Wijk - The Guardian - January 23rd, 2021
- Chess: Two cases of cancel culture - TheArticle - January 23rd, 2021
- Mamedyarov Grabs Another Titled Tuesday - Chess.com - January 23rd, 2021
- Updates: Scholastic National Invitational Event and Award Requirements - uschess.org - January 23rd, 2021
- Thunder players passing time with chess, video games on long road trip: 'Still a lot to be grateful for' - Oklahoman.com - January 23rd, 2021
- Texas' Botez sisters are at the forefront of an unlikely, and booming, partnership: Chess and esports - The Dallas Morning News - January 23rd, 2021
- Chess is having a moment on Twitch - Eurogamer.net - January 23rd, 2021
- Auto Chess, the Dota 2 spin-off, is getting its own MOBA - PCGamesN - January 23rd, 2021
- Chess Corner: Over and over - Muskogee Daily Phoenix - January 23rd, 2021
- Mike Evans: At this point in his career, Tom Brady is playing chess - NBC Sports - January 23rd, 2021
- First ever Barak Valley Open Chess Tournament kickstarts in Silchar - Barak Bulletin - January 23rd, 2021
- The Embiid-Theis chess match - Celtics Blog - January 23rd, 2021
- Best mobile chess games for iOS and Android - Gamepur - January 23rd, 2021
- Lenderman Wins Playoff, Will Appear in 2021 National Championship - uschess.org - January 23rd, 2021
- Daily Deal: The Complete Chess Bundle - Techdirt - January 23rd, 2021
- Reece James and I played chess for four hours on the way back from Russia! - Chelsea's Chilwell - Goal.com - January 23rd, 2021
- Who are the Botez Sisters, one of chess's most popular streamers? - Sports Interactive Network Philippines - January 23rd, 2021
- Auto Chess MOBA is a new MOBA based on Auto Chess - PC Invasion - January 23rd, 2021
- Here's How to Play Chess by Mail, and What Movies to Watch to Get Your Game Going - Willamette Week - November 22nd, 2020
- So Defeats Duda With Incredible 3|1 Performance In Speed Chess - Chess.com - November 22nd, 2020
- The art of chess: a brief history of the World Championship - TheArticle - November 22nd, 2020
- Humpys Gambit: How Koneru disturbed the male-dominated status quo in chess - The Indian Express - November 22nd, 2020
- Cardinals QB Kyler Murray might be the best chess player in the NFL - Sporting News - November 22nd, 2020
- The Queen's Gambit On Netflix - All The Info - Chess.com - November 22nd, 2020
- Washington state team crowned national chess champions - KING5.com - November 22nd, 2020
- On Chess: Mizzou's Chess Team Proves Capable Of Winning Even In A Virtual Space - St. Louis Public Radio - November 22nd, 2020
- Outlawing heading would turn football into chess but game has to act to break dementia link - The Times - November 22nd, 2020
- Understanding before Moving 2: How to improve the activity of my pieces - Chessbase News - November 22nd, 2020
- Local Event: Thanksgiving Chess Camp For The Little Ones ~ Keep Em Active 😉 - Patch.com - November 22nd, 2020
- How Dama's Gambito nailed the chess world re:Jerusalem - re:Jerusalem - November 22nd, 2020
- Packers will have an interesting chess match against the Colts defense - Acme Packing Company - November 22nd, 2020
- Chess Online: How to Play and Win Chess | Chess Tips & Strategies - Popular Mechanics - October 6th, 2020
- On Chess: Returning To Over The Board Chess Tournaments - St. Louis Public Radio - October 6th, 2020
- October Cover Stories with Chess Life: GM Maurice Ashley - uschess.org - October 6th, 2020
- 'Audiences wont have seen anything like this': how Iranian film Chess of the Wind was reborn - The Guardian - October 6th, 2020
- Why Utah's new Teacher of the Year wants his students of color to play chess - Salt Lake Tribune - October 6th, 2020
- CCPS hosting in-person chess tournament, limited to students in Grades 4-12 - The Southern Maryland Chronicle - October 6th, 2020
- Its more natural for men to pick chess as an interest or women to pick arranging flowers - Mint - October 6th, 2020
- Gone too soon: Brimfield teen remembered as jokester and expert chess player - Pekin Daily Times - October 6th, 2020
- Meet these mini-grandmasters of chess - two brothers from Cork - EchoLive.ie - October 6th, 2020
- Carlsen and So tie in Chess 9LX tournament - Stabroek News - October 6th, 2020
- Sacred squares and foolish horses - Chessbase News - October 6th, 2020
- More than 100 players start at the Fagernes Open - Chessbase News - October 6th, 2020
- Russias Post-Covid Economic Policies Will Be a Game of Chess - ETF Trends - September 23rd, 2020
- The Only Problem In Fischer Random Chess - Chess.com - September 23rd, 2020
- AlphaZero (And Other!) Chess Variants Now Available For Everyone - Chess.com - September 23rd, 2020
- On the origins of chess (7/7) - Chessbase News - September 23rd, 2020
- Ten Years of Chess Innovation. How Lichess grew from a simple tech | by Samuel Sullivan | SUPERJUMP | Sep, 2020 - Medium - September 23rd, 2020
- Mechanics' to Host U.S. Cadet National Championship this Weekend - uschess.org - September 23rd, 2020
- Guess the child prodigy - Chessbase News - September 23rd, 2020
- Blitz Tournament of the Americas: Bringing Cultures and Communities Together Through Chess - uschess.org - September 23rd, 2020
- Int'l online chess event to mark 74th birthday of PM Hasina - Dhaka Tribune - September 23rd, 2020
- Road To The PCL Finals: China Pandas - Chess.com - September 23rd, 2020
- CHESS Health Selected by Next Step Community, an Addiction Recovery Program Located in Terre Haute, Indiana - PR Web - September 23rd, 2020
- The True Story Behind Critical Thinking, Movie Based in Miami - Miami New Times - September 23rd, 2020
- DeepMind's AI is helping to re-write the rules of chess - ZDNet - September 15th, 2020
- The 10 Best Chess Moves Of All Time - Chess.com - September 15th, 2020
- The classic game of chess has found a new home: Twitch - The Next Web - September 15th, 2020
- John Leguizamo on bringing the 'intellectual hustle' of chess to life - Page Six - September 15th, 2020
- On Chess: St. Louis Chess Club To Host Two Upcoming Online Chess Tournaments Featuring The World's Top Grandmasters - St. Louis Public Radio - September 15th, 2020
- Chess.com Teams Up With CLG For First CLG Arena With $2,100 In Prizes - Chess.com - September 15th, 2020
- Indian chess team celebrates its Olympiad victory with a special Twitter Chat - WION - September 15th, 2020
- Nihal Beats Tang In Junior Speed Chess Championship - Chess.com - September 15th, 2020
- An interview with Ben Johnson, the perpetual podcaster - Chessbase News - September 15th, 2020
- Auto Brawl Chess from Panoramik Games is available now for iOS following its Android launch earlier this year - Pocket Gamer - September 15th, 2020
- A game of chess in the Himalayas - The Hindu - September 15th, 2020
- Reward Olympiad-winning Indian team: Chess Forum appeals to Kiren Rijiju - Moneycontrol.com - September 15th, 2020
- Retired Chess Grandmaster, AlphaZero AI Reinvent Chess - Science Times - September 15th, 2020
- Sign Of The Times - Sparta Chess Online - TAPinto.net - September 15th, 2020
- Chinas check on Indias chess board: New Delhi will have to fall back on its own resources - The Times of India Blog - September 15th, 2020
- Chess masters make all the smart moves - IOL - September 15th, 2020
- Hennessy Spotlights Living Legend and International Chess Grandmaster Maurice Ashley In Latest Chapter of Award-Winning "Wild Rabbit"... - September 15th, 2020
- 'He is a chess player on a tennis court' - ATP star tipped to beat anyone - Tennishead - September 15th, 2020
- Just the Rules: New Internet Chess RulesEssential Player Tips - uschess.org - August 20th, 2020
- Norway Chess Oct. 5-16 With Reduced Field Of Participants - Chess.com - August 20th, 2020