Three rounds before the end of the World Chess Olympiad, which is taking place in the Spanish city of Calvia, the Ukrainian men's team made another confident step toward overall victory. In the match of the 11th round, the Ukrainians defeated the Cuban team with a score of 3:1 and, having scored 32 points, lead the tournament table.
In the meeting with the Cubans, victories were recorded by Vasyl Ivanchuk, Andriy Volokitin and Serhiy Karyakin, while the 2003 FIDE world champion Ruslan Ponomariov was defeated by Lazaro Bruzon.
Following Ukraine in the overall standings is the Russian team, which, having won on Tuesday against the USA, continues to hope to catch up with the Ukrainian team, although with less optimism now. The Russians have 29.5 points to their credit. The third place is held by the Armenian chess team, which has 29 points. Ivanchuk and company will play their next match against the Polish team.
In the women's competition at the Olympiad, the Ukrainian team's chances of a place in the top three remain, however, they are theoretical. In the 11th round, the Ukrainian women drew 1.5:1.5 with the Bulgarian team. The leader of our team drew her meeting with Antoaneta Stefanova. The matches of Inna Gaponenko with Margarita Voiska and Kateryna Lagno with Emilia Djingarova also did not produce a winner.
After 11 rounds, the Ukrainian women's team has 19.5 points and 12th place. The Chinese team leads with 26 points. The Georgian team has 22 points and second place, and third is the Hungarian women's team, which has scored 21.5 points.