2024-09-14 21:38:33
Bulgaria’s men’s national team defeated Scotland by 3:1 points, while the women lost 1.5:2.5 points to Uzbekistan in the fourth round of the Budapest Chess Olympiad.
For the ladies, the match was completely equal. The three remits that were fixed in it also speak of this. On the second board with the white pieces, Nurgyul Salimova shared the point with Umida Omonova, on the third board with the black pieces, Victoria Radeva did the same with Marjona Malikova, and on the fourth board, Gergana Peycheva and Nodira Nidarjanova also failed to beat each other. The advantage for Uzbekistan came from the victory of Afraza Khamdamova on the first board with the white pieces over Antoineta Stefanova. The two remained last above the chessboard, but in the rook endgame the Bulgarian had a very bad pawn structure, which Hamdamova took advantage of.
The defeat, which was the first since the beginning of the tournament, left the Bulgarians with 6 match points. Ours are European champions from last year.
The win over Scotland, the third for the team led by grandmaster Kiril Georgiev, came after wins on the first and second boards. Riga-born German grandmaster Arkadiy Naidich recorded his first point as a Bulgarian national after winning with the black pieces against Andrew Greet on the first board. On the second board, Martin Petrov beat Hamish Olson with the white pieces. The other two Bulgarian grandmasters, Momchil Petkov and Grigor Grigorov, drew with Frederic Waldhausen Gordon and Ian Gurley, respectively, to shape the success with 3:1 points.
With the victory, the Bulgarian team now has 6 match points.