2024-09-14 01:37:11
The Bulgarian women’s national team, which is European champion since last year, achieved its third consecutive victory at the 45th Chess Olympiad in Budapest.
In a meeting of the III round, our girls won against Slovakia with 3:1 points and continue with a maximum asset of 6 match-points, with which they share the leading position in the ranking.
The first victory of the day was achieved by Beloslava Krasteva, who beat Simona Bohnichkova with the white pieces on the third table. Shortly afterwards, on the first board, also with white, Antoineta Stefanova won against Zuzana Boroshova. The success of the Bulgarian team became a fact after Gergana Peycheva drew with Emma Walter on the fourth board with the black pieces. In the longest game, which lasted 106 moves, also with the black pieces on the second board, Nurgyul Salimova ended in a draw with Eva Repkova.
However, the men’s national team suffered its first defeat in the tournament. On the first table, the Bulgarians lost 0.5:3.5 points to the USA team, which is number 1 in the starting list and the main favorite for the title.
The only draw was achieved by 18-year-old Momchil Petkov, who on the fourth board with the black pieces shared the points with Ray Robson after 36 moves of play. On the first board with the whites, Ivan Cheparinov also had a completely equal position with Fabiano Caruana, the third in the world ranking, but in the white he made a mistake that a classy opponent like the American could not help but take advantage of. On board two, Arkadiy Naidich lost to world number 10 Wesley So, while on board three, Martin Petrov lost to veteran Levon Aronian.
In this way, Bulgaria remains with 4 match-points in the ranking, while the Americans continue to be in the lead with the maximum 6 match-points.
The fourth of the Chess Olympiad is on Saturday. The tournament is held according to the Swiss system in a total of 11 rounds.