35th Chess Olympiad in Bled 2002 - Round 3

The Great Book of Chess Olympiads

35th Chess Olympiad - Bled 2002

Edition 1

Completed 4/16 of the work.

Number of pages: 542.

Number of games: 800.

Round 3 and the course of the Olympiad are commented on in this part of the work by: Michal Krasenkow (Poland), Geurt Gijssen (Chief Arbiter of the Olympiad, Netherlands), Yan Teplitsky (Canada), Naum Rashkovsky (Russia), Nicolai Pedersen (Denmark), Bjorn Ansner (Sweden), the editors of "Norsk Sjakk Blad" (Norway), Ovidiu Foisor (Romania), Adrian Bach (Romania), Gerry Graham (Ireland), and of course the author of the monograph.

AFTER FOUR ROUNDS, POLAND AND RUSSIA ARE JOINTLY IN THE LEAD!!!

The Polish team (2592) gave their fans a wonderful gift by defeating a strong Croatia (2546) and advancing to a shared first place. Poland's start was impressive: 10 points from 12 games. Krasenkow and Kempinski won their games, but nobody suspected that this would be Robert Kempinski's last victory at a Chess Olympiad.

The Americans (2600) suffered a sensational defeat against Kazakhstan (2505). This time, with three draws, the "hero" of the previous round's victory over the Philippines, Benjamin 2609, lost to Kostenko 2501, sealing the match defeat for the entire team.

In the match Argentina (2495) - Bosnia and Herzegovina (2560), all games were decisive. The Argentine team saw the debut - immediately in the leader's position - of Ruben Felgaer, a new revelation in the country. In Bled, he was 21 years old and had won the Pan-American Championship twice (in 2000 and 2001), as well as the Argentine Senior Championship (2001). At the zonal tournament (World Championship qualifiers) held in Mar del Plata, he shared first place.