The 1996 Chess Olympiad held in Yerevan, Armenia, featured teams from over 100 countries. This page has the round 12 standings and results.
The round by round Olympiad results will remain up
until November 15th. At that time we will archive a single
Olympiad article including just the final standings. So if you
want to save the round by round results, please do so before
November 15th. Thank you.
For a description of the event format, location, and player biographies of the top teams, see our Hot Chess Feature Section.
The official event site at http://chess96.com/ offers live coverage with commentary from IM Jack Peters and IM Jeremy Silman, as well as photographs, standings, crosstables, and more.
If you're in a hurry, you'll find a round by round summary of the top team standings here.
For team profiles of the teams favored to medal at the start of the event, see Team Profiles.
Complete
Team Standings at the end of Round 11
Russia's lead has been trimmed just slightly, to 3 points, but with only 2 rounds to play (maximum of 8 points possible), the Russian team would have to have two terrible rounds in order for anyone else to have a shot at the Gold. It's mathematically possible for another team to take the Gold, but not likely. After all, Russia's worst scores of the event so far was a 2-2 tie with Bosnia&Herzegovinia and another 2-2 tie with 2nd place Ukraine.
On the other hand, the race for the Silver and Bronze team medal remains lively, with the top 16 teams (after Russia, of course) all within 2 1/2 points of each other. Ukraine, led by Vassily Ivanchuk, went 2-2 with Russia in Round 11, and 3-1 over the strong Uzbekistan team in Round 12, giving them sole possession of 2nd at 30 1/2 points. The USA won their 12th round match with Bulgaria 2.5-1.5, to take sole possession of 3rd at 30 points.
Then there are five teams tied for 4-8 at 29 points. Armenia 1 drew with Georgia in Round 11 at 2-2, then defeated Bosnia-Herzegovinia with 2.5-1.5 in Round 12. Bulgaria had a great round 11 but a bad round 12 as they lost to the USA--even so, they scored 5 of a possible 8 for the last two rounds, and remain tied with the group for 4th-8th. England got the same end results in a less dramatic manner, with a 2.5 victory over Sweden in Round 11, followed by a 2-2 tie with the obviously underrated China team in round 12. Israel, which had scored 75% in rounds 9, 10, and 11, got their reward in round 12: a chance to square off against Russia. The Gold medal favorites won 2.5-1.5, dropping Israel back into the tie for 4th. Croatia had a nice 2-2 match against Spain, to complete this group.
In the next group, tied for 9th-14th, we see mostly the teams that lost their 11th or 12 round matches to those in the top 8. Spain is here, as well as China and Uzebekistan. Hungary and Georgia drew 2-2 with each other. In fact, the only plus score in this group for Round 12 was Iceland's 2.5 victory over Indonesia. Only 2 points behind Ukraine, all these teams are still in the medal hunt, but must score strongly in rounds 13 and 14 in order to overtake the more succesful group tied for 4th-8th.
I also wanted to mention the three teams tied at 28 points for 15th-17th position. All three were considered possible medal contenders at the beginning of the event, and they've all had up and down results. Bosnia&Herzegovnia, the early favorite for 2nd, has only scored 12.5 points in its last 6 rounds (a percentage of only 52% from a team that was expected to score 60% or better). Germany has done about the same, although they did manage a 3-1 victory over the fading Belarus in Round 12. The Netherlands, after their 3-1 loss to Israel in Round 10, has benefitted a bit from the Swiss system, with a 2-2 tie with Latvia in Round 11 and a 3-1 Round 12 victory over 37th position Lithuania to keep the Netherlands team still with slight medal chances.
We also have updates for two more countries that we've been following in feature coverage. First, Yugoslavia, considered a possible medal contender at the start of the event, continues to have difficulty. They've scored only 6.5 of a possible 16 in the last four rounds, and are now in the group tied for 40th place at 26 points. Their round 12 2.5-1.5 win over Italy was better than the round 11 disaster against Croatia (Yugoslavia scored only 1/2 point in that round), but they're probably out of the medal race.
Then there's the host country, Armenia. Host countries are allowed to enter multiple teams, and Armenia has three. Armenia 1 is right up at the top in the race for the silver, as expected. Armenia 2 hasn't done quite so well, but has a slight plus score, with 25/48. Armenia 3 didn't join the event until round 2, but they have almost a 60% score, a win percentage that would normally put them in the top 15, and possibly even the top 10. Admittedly, this team should have had somewhat easier pairings than those at the top due to the Swiss System, which pairs leaders against leaders in each round, but still, this is a very fine result for a team thrown in at the last minute just to even out the pairings, and shows the depth of chess strength and interest in Armenia.
Many questioned the ability of Armenia to produce an event of this magnitude. They've obviously pulled it off with great success. The country's President has frequently been in attendance at the matches, the Website is very nicely done, we hear the playing hall and the players' hotels are at least up to the standards of previous events, and the press resources, though strained by the local political events, have certainly been courteous and helpful, if occasionally delayed. Whether all of this is due to local interest in chess, a particular set of organizers, a bit of luck, or some combination of all of these and more, is difficult to tell from a distance. Still, it's a full-scale international event for chess, and the organizers have obviously met the challenge so far from the fans' point of view.
The only perfect scores in round 12 came from the bottom of the group: Afghanistan scored 4.0 vs Guernsey, Andorra had a perfect 4.0 round against Sri Lanka, Mauritius scored 4.0 against the US Virgin Islands, and Uganda went 4.0 over Monaco. (By the way, the only perfect score in Round 11 was Tajikistan's 4.0 vs. Uruguay.)
In round 13, it the USA will get its reward for its current high position in 3rd: the chance to face Russia.
Teams shown in bold were considered good medal possibilities at the beginning of the event.
Teams scoring 4.0 in Round 12 ----------------------------------------- AFGHANISTAN 4.0 Guernsey 0.0 ANDORRA 4.0 Sri Lanka 0.0 MAURITIUS 4.0 US Virgin Isl.0.0 UGANDA 4.0 Monaco 0.0
Teams scoring 3.5 in Round 12
------------------------------------------
COLOMBIA 3.5 Angola 0.5
EGYPT 3.5 Wales 0.5
KAZAKHSTAN 3.5 Norway 0.5
LIECHTENSTEIN
3.5 Nicaragua 0.5
HONG KONG 3.5 Netherland Antilles 0.5
ZIMBABWE 3.5 Mozambique 0.5
Teams scoring 3.0 in Round 12 ------------------------------------------ BOTSWANA 3.0 Mozambique 1.0 FINLAND 3.0 Singapore 1.0 FRANCE 3.0 Australia 1.0 GERMANY 3.0 Belarus 1.0 HAITI 3.0 Seychelles 1.0 IBCA 3.0 Thailand 1.0 INDIA 3.0 Morocco 1.0 LEBANAON 3.0 Cyprus 1.0 NETHERLANDS 3.0 Lithuania 1.0 PARAGUAY 3.0 Faroe Islands 1.0 PHILIPPINES 3.0 Greece 1.0 SAN MARINO 3.0 Honduras 1.0 SOUTH AFRICA3.0 Yemen 1.0 SLOVENIA 3.0 Brasil 1.0 SWITZERLAND 3.0 Portugal 1.0 UKRAINE 3.0 Uzbbekistan 1.0 VENEZUELA 3.0 Ireland 1.0
Teams scoring 2.5 in Round 12 ------------------------------------------ ARMENIA 1 2.5 Bosnia-Her. 1.5 BANGLADESH 2.5 Denmark 1.5 BARBADOS 2.5 Puerto Rico 1.5 BERMUDA 2.5 Malta 1.5 CZECH REPUB 2.5 Armenia 1.5 ESTONIA 2.5 Moldova 1.5 ICELAND 2.5 Indonesia 1.5 IRAN 2.5 United Arab Emirates 1.5 LATVIA 2.5 Argentina 1.5 POLAND 2.5 Macedonia 1.5 ROMANIA 2.5 Viet Nam 1.5 RUSSIA 2.5 Israel 1.5 SLOVAKIA 2.5 Peru 1.5 SYRIA 2.5 El Salvador 1.5 TURKEY 2.5 Malaysia 1.5 URUGUAY 2.5 Bahrain 1.5 USA 2.5 Bulgaria 1.5 YUGOSLAVIA 2.5 Italy 1.5
Teams scoring 2.0 in Round 12 ------------------------------------------ Armenia 2 2.0 Tajikistan 2.0 China 2.0 England 2.0 Croatia 2.0 Spain 2.0 Ecuador 2.0 Luxembourg 2.0 Georgia 2.0 Hungary 2.0 Jersey 2.0 Macau 2.0 Qatar 2.0 Zimbabwe 2.0
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