The United States and Russia have both posted impressive 5-1 records to share the lead at the 2010 World Team Championships, taking place in Turkey. Despite the broken English, the official site has all the important information on the tournament. There's also a four way tie for third place between rivals Armenia and Azerbaijan, along with India and Israel.
The US team -- made up of Nakamura, Alexander Onischuk, Yuri Shulman, Varuzhan Akobian and alternates Robert Hess and Ray Robson -- lost their head-to-head match with the Russians, but got some help from the Greek team, who beat the Russians in the second round to give both leading teams a match loss.
Perhaps the story of the tournament so far has been the sensational win by Hikaru Nakamura over Israel's Boris Gelfand. Nakamura took the black side of a King's Indian and left his queen en prise for several moves in route to a big win.
Nakamura Brilliancy beats Gelfand
Mark Crowther - Sunday 10th January 2010
It's been quite a while since I've seen such a spectacular game. Hikaru Nakamura's win with black against Boris Gelfand in Round 5 of the World Team Championships contained a number of wonderful tactical points. 24.dxc7? missed the full consequences of the rather wonderful mating threat of g2 mate that Nakamura set up with his following move. Then when the pawn disappeared the threat was replaced with Bg2 mate, the final blow was Qd3 placing the queen en-prise but setting up fatal threats on g2 and f3 again. Gelfand had to give up a ruinous amount of material to stave off mate. He resigned shortly afterwards. Malcolm Pein annotates.
Gelfand,B (2761) - Nakamura,Hi (2708) [E97]
7th World Team Championship Bursa TUR (5), 09.01.2010
[Pein,Malcolm]
1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 g6 3.Nc3 Bg7 4.e4 d6 5.Nf3 0-0 6.Be2 e5 7.0-0 Nc6 8.d5 Ne7 9.Nd2 Ne8 10.b4 f5 11.c5 Nf6 12.f3 f4 13.Nc4 g5 14.a4 Ng6 15.Ba3 Rf7 16.b5 [16.a5 h5 17.b5 dxc5 18.b6 g4 19.bxc7 Rxc7 20.Nb5 g3 21.Nxc7 Nxe4!! Belyavsky - Nakamura NH Amsterdam 2010]
16...dxc5 17.Bxc5 h5 18.a5 g4 19.b6 g3 20.Kh1 [20.Nb5 Nxe4 (20...Nd7) 21.fxe4 Qh4 22.hxg3 fxg3 23.Rxf7 Qh2+ 24.Kf1 Qh1+ 25.Bg1]]
20...Bf8 21.d6 21. Bxf8 Nxe4 22. Nxe4 Qh4 wins.A game with a very similar idea was played in a tournament Nakamura competed in, that game finished: 21. Bg1 Nh4 22. Re1 Nxg2 23. Kxg2 Rg7 24. Nxe5 gxh2+ 25. Kh1 Nxe4 {0-1 Roussel Roozmon, T (2486)-Charbonneau,P (2499)/Montreal CAN 2008/The Week in Chess 720}
21...axb6 22.Bg1 [22.axb6 Rxa1 23.Qxa1 cxd6 24.Rd1 Rd7]
22...Nh4 23.Re1 [23.dxc7 Bh3 24.gxh3 g2#]
23...Nxg2 24.dxc7? 24.Kxg2 when either 24...Rg7 or possibly 24..h4 look best. Alternatives are less good: a) 24...Nxe4 25.Nxe4 Qh4; b) 24...Bh3+ 25.Kxh3 Qd7+ 26.Kg2 gxh2 27.Kxh2 Ng4+ 28.fxg4 hxg4; c) 24...Qd7 25.Kh1 Rg7 (25...g2+ 26.Kxg2 Qh3+ 27.Kh1 Rg7) 26.Bf1;
24...Nxe1
25.Qxe1 [25.hxg3 Qxd1 26.Rxd1 Nxf3 27.Nxb6 (27.Bxf3 Rxc7) 27...Rxc7 28.Nxa8 Rxc3]
25...g2+! 26.Kxg2 Rg7+ 27.Kh1 Bh3 28.Bf1 Qd3 29.Nxe5 [29.Bxh3 Qxf3+ 30.Bg2 Qxg2#]
29...Bxf1 30.Qxf1 Qxc3 [If 30...Qxf1 31.Rxf1 bxa5 32.Nb5 White is back in the game now Black is a rook up]
31.Rc1 Qxe5 32.c8Q Rxc8 33.Rxc8 Qe6 0-1