Svidler - Korchnoi, the all St Petersburg clash. Photo © http://www.europe-echecs.com

The Chess Olympiad is well underway in Dresden with competition as fierce as ever for the Hamilton Russell Cup. The 38th edition has a record number of national teams and participating federations. Even after some "no shows", 144 teams from 139 countries played in round one. The host nation has three teams and there are teams composed of partially sighted and blind players, deaf players and physically handicapped.

Russia were placed a humiliating sixth in the last Olympiad held in 2006 at Turin but their team, headed by 14th world champion Vladimir Kramnik breaks all records for average rating. Kramnik sat the first round out and it was Peter Svidler who took on fellow St Petersburger Viktor Korchnoi as Russia managed only a narrow 2.5-1.5 win over Switzerland. The veteran managed to prove the old Russian proverb that: "all rook and pawn endgames are drawn" despite being a pawn down for much of the time. Joe Gallagher formerly of Wimbledon held the draw with black against Dmitry Jakovenko.

England"s start against Turkey was unconvincing. Stuart Conquest was positionally outplayed by his lower rated opponent and David Howell got into trouble against the King"s Gambit but managed to hold a bad endgame. However Michael Adams gradually outplayed Mikhail Gurevich and Gawain Jones played a fine attacking game giving his opponent no chances to secure a 2.5-1.5 victory.

Scotland got a tough draw against the eleventh seeds Germany and after Jonathan Rowson was ground down by Arkady Naiditsch, Colin McNab rescued half a point on bottom board. Levon Aronian neatly dispatched the prodigy Fabiano Caruana as Armenia won 4-0 over Italy and Azerbaijan crushed Macedonia by the same score.

Hungary were held 2-2 by Iran and China struggled to defeat Philippines 2.5-1.5 after the world"s youngest GM Wesley So defeated Ni Hua in a beautiful game.

Major rule changes

1) Open teams are 5 players not 6 - preventing many fine players from participating

2) Women's teams are 54 players not 4 - ensuring plenty more players around 2000 are there.

3) All matches are over four boards

4) Match points not game points will be counted so winning the match rather than running up big scores takes precedence

5) FIDE nonsense: All players must be seated by 15.00 or be defaulted irrespective of local traffic conditions, security checks, weather, acts of god or car crashes. Has this actually been enforced ?

L Aronian - Caruana Olympiad (1) Dresden

1.d4 d5 2.c4 c6 3.Nf3 Nf6 4.Nc3 e6 5.Bg5 h6 6.Bh4 dxc4 7.e4 g5 8.Bg3 b5 9.Ne5 Bb7 10.h4 g4 11.Nxg4 Nxg4 12.Qxg4 Qxd4 13.Rd1 Qg7 14.Qf4

In an endgame White would be a pawn down for no compensation but with queen's on, Black's king is vulnerable) 14...Na6 15.Be2 Be7 16.0-0 Nc5 17.e5 Qg6 18.Rd4 Rd8 19.Rfd1 Rd5! 20.Qe3

20.Nxd5 cxd5 gives Black a very strong pawn centre and White's rook are blocked

20...h5 21.Bf3 a6 22.b4! cxb3

22...Nd3 23.Be4 Qh6 24.Qxh6 Rxh6 25.Nxd5 exd5 26.Bxd3 cxd3 27.R1xd3

23.axb3 a5

23...Nxb3 24.Nxd5 Nxd4 25.Nc7+ Kd8 26.Nxb5 axb5 27.Qxd4+ Kc8 28.Qd7+

24.Ne4 Nxe4 25.Bxe4 Qh6 26.Bf4 Qg7 27.Bxd5 exd5 28.Bg5 Rg8 29.f4 Qg6

29...Bc5 30.Kh2 Qf8

30.R4d2 c5 31.Bxe7 d4 32.Bg5! 1-0

W So - Ni Hua Olympiad (1) Dresden Ruy Lopez Berlin Wall

1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 Nf6 4.0-0 Nxe4 5.d4 Nd6 6.Bxc6 dxc6 7.dxe5 Nf5 8.Qxd8+ Kxd8 9.Nc3 Ke8 10.h3 b6 11.Ne4

11.Bf4 Bb4 12.Ne4 Ba6 13.Rfc1 Be2 is very annoying, Shirov-Kramnik Moscow Blitz 2007

11...Be6 12.g4 Ne7 13.Re1 h6?!

13...h5 14.Nd4 Bd5=

14.Nd4 Bd5 15.Bf4 Kd7 16.Rad1 Kc8 17.Bg3 Kb7 18.e6! Rd8

18...fxe6 19.Nc3 Ng6 20.Nxe6 19.Nc3 f6 20.Nxd5 cxd5 21.Nb5 Rc8 22.c4! a6 23.Nxc7 Rxc7 24.cxd5 Nc8 25.Bxc7 Kxc7 26.Rc1+! Kd8 27.Rxc8+! Kxc8 28.e7 Bxe7 29.Rxe7 Rd8 30.Rxg7 Rxd5 31.Rg6

White wins easily by creating three connected passed kingside pawns

31...Rd2 32.Rxh6 Rxb2 33.Rxf6 Kd7 34.a4 Ke7 35.g5 Rb4 36.Kg2 a5 37.Kg3 Rxa4 38.Rxb6 Ra1 39.Ra6 a4 40.Kg4 a3 41.f4 a2 42.Kf5 1-0

38th Olympiad Dresden (GER), 13-25 xi 2008 (GER), 13-25 xi 2008 Leading Round 1 Results 13th Nov 2008. 2pm GMT start.
Br.	1	RUS Russia (RUS)	Elo	2.5 : 1.5	36	SUI Switzerland (SUI)	Elo
1.1	GM	Svidler Peter	2727	½-½	GM	Korchnoi Viktor	2584
1.2	GM	Grischuk Alexander	2719	½-½	GM	Pelletier Yannick	2557
1.3	GM	Morozevich Alexander	2787	1-0	GM	Jenni Florian	2543
1.4	GM	Jakovenko Dmitry	2737	½-½	GM	Gallagher Joseph G	2480
Br.	11	GER Germany 1 (GER)	Elo	3.5 : 0.5	46	SCO Scotland (SCO)	Elo
2.1	GM	Naiditsch Arkadij	2678	1-0	GM	Rowson Jonathan	2596
2.2	GM	Khenkin Igor	2647	1-0	GM	Shaw John	2469
2.3	GM	Gustafsson Jan	2634	1-0	IM	Arakhamia-Grant Ketevan	2448
2.4	GM	Baramidze David	2557	½-½	GM	McNab Colin A	2455
Br.	37	VIE Vietnam (VIE)	Elo	1.5 : 2.5	2	UKR Ukraine (UKR)	Elo
3.1	GM	Nguyen Ngoc Truong Son	2567	½-½	GM	Ivanchuk Vassily	2786
3.2	GM	Le Quang Liem	2583	½-½	GM	Karjakin Sergey	2730
3.3	GM	Dao Thien Hai	2510	½-½	GM	Eljanov Pavel	2720
3.4	CM	Nguyen Van Huy	2422	0-1	GM	Efimenko Zahar	2680
Br.	3	CHN China (CHN)	Elo	2.5 : 1.5	38	PHI Philippines (PHI)	Elo
4.1	GM	Wang Yue	2736	1-0	GM	Villamayor Buenaventura	2468
4.2	GM	Ni Hua	2710	0-1	GM	So Wesley	2610
4.3	GM	Wang Hao	2696	1-0	GM	Gonzales Jayson	2469
4.4	GM	Li Chao B	2622	½-½	IM	Gomez John Paul	2519
Br.	39	MKD Former Yug Rep (MKD)	Elo	0 : 4	4	AZE Azerbaijan (AZE)	Elo
5.1	GM	Georgiev Vladimir	2517	0-1	GM	Radjabov Teimour	2752
5.2	GM	Nedev Trajko	2525	0-1	GM	Mamedyarov Shakhriyar	2731
5.3	GM	Stanojoski Zvonko	2502	0-1	GM	Huseynov Gadir	2650
5.4	IM	Colovic Aleksandar	2458	0-1	GM	Mammadov Rauf	2631
Br.	5	HUN Hungary (HUN)	Elo	2 : 2	40	IRI Iran (IRI)	Elo
6.1	GM	Polgar Judit	2711	½-½	GM	Ghaem Maghami Ehsan	2599
6.2	GM	Almasi Zoltan	2663	½-½	GM	Moradiabadi Elshan	2499
6.3	GM	Balogh Csaba	2616	½-½	GM	Bagheri Amir	2490
6.4	GM	Berkes Ferenc	2645	½-½	GM	Mahjoob Morteza	2507
Br.	41	GER Germany 2 (GER)	Elo	2.5 : 1.5	6	BUL Bulgaria (BUL)	Elo
7.1	GM	Meier Georg	2558	1-0	GM	Cheparinov Ivan	2696
7.2	IM	Braun Arik	2567	1-0	GM	Georgiev Kiril	2645
7.3	GM	Bindrich Falko	2517	½-½	GM	Delchev Aleksander	2632
7.4	IM	Bogner Sebastian	2448	0-1	GM	Iotov Valentin	2532
Br.	7	FRA France (FRA)	Elo	2 : 2	42	MNE Montenegro (MNE)	Elo
8.1	GM	Bacrot Etienne	2705	1-0	GM	Djukic Nikola	2519
8.2	GM	Vachier-Lagrave Maxime	2716	½-½	GM	Drasko Milan	2537
8.3	GM	Tkachiev Vladislav	2664	½-½	GM	Kosic Dragan	2511
8.4	GM	Maze Sebastien	2577	0-1	GM	Blagojevic Dragisa	2522
Br.	43	LAT Latvia (LAT)	Elo	2 : 2	8	ISR Israel (ISR)	Elo
9.1	GM	Miezis Normunds	2557	½-½	GM	Roiz Michael	2677
9.2	GM	Sveshnikov Evgeny	2525	1-0	GM	Avrukh Boris	2657
9.3	GM	Meijers Viesturs	2514	½-½	GM	Postny Evgeny	2674
9.4	GM	Lanka Zigurds	2491	0-1	GM	Rodshtein Maxim	2609
Br.	9	ARM Armenia (ARM)	Elo	4 : 0	44	ITA Italy (ITA)	Elo
10.1	GM	Aronian Levon	2757	1-0	GM	Caruana Fabiano	2640
10.2	GM	Akopian Vladimir	2679	1-0	GM	Godena Michele	2517
10.3	GM	Sargissian Gabriel	2642	1-0	IM	Shytaj Luca	2472
10.4	GM	Petrosian Tigran L	2629	1-0	IM	Brunello Sabino	2455
Br.	45	ISL Iceland (ISL)	Elo	1.5 : 2.5	10	USA United States (USA)	Elo
11.1	GM	Stefansson Hannes	2575	½-½	GM	Kamsky Gata	2729
11.2	GM	Steingrimsson Hedinn	2540	0-1	GM	Onischuk Alexander	2644
11.3	GM	Danielsen Henrik	2492	1-0	GM	Shulman Yuri	2616
11.4	IM	Kristjansson Stefan	2474	0-1	GM	Akobian Varuzhan	2606
Br.	47	GER Germany 3 (GER)	Elo	0.5 : 3.5	12	ESP Spain (ESP)	Elo
12.1	GM	Buhmann Rainer	2541	0-1	GM	Shirov Alexei	2726
12.2	GM	Prusikin Michael	2538	0-1	GM	Vallejo Pons Francisco	2664
12.3	GM	Naumann Alexander	2518	½-½	GM	Illescas Cordoba Miguel	2604
12.4		Heimann Andreas	2428	0-1	GM	Khamrakulov Ibragim S	2580
Br.	13	IND India (IND)	Elo	2.5 : 1.5	48	CAN Canada (CAN)	Elo
13.1	GM	Harikrishna P	2659	½-½	GM	Bluvshtein Mark	2557
13.2	GM	Ganguly Surya Shekhar	2603	1-0	GM	Charbonneau Pascal	2499
13.3	GM	Geetha Narayanan Gopal	2548	½-½	IM	Zugic Igor	2457
13.4	GM	Sandipan Chanda	2579	½-½	IM	Noritsyn Nikolay	2372
Br.	49	EGY Egypt (EGY)	Elo	0.5 : 3.5	14	ROU Romania (ROU)	Elo
14.1	GM	Adly Ahmed	2586	½-½	GM	Nisipeanu Liviu-Dieter	2684
14.2	GM	Amin Bassem	2560	0-1	GM	Istratescu Andrei	2633
14.3	IM	Ezat Mohamed	2425	0-1	GM	Parligras Mircea	2611
14.4	IM	Frhat Ali	2418	0-1	GM	Vajda Levente	2582
Br.	15	ENG England (ENG)	Elo	2.5 : 1.5	50	TUR Turkey (TUR)	Elo
15.1	GM	Adams Michael	2734	1-0	GM	Gurevich Mikhail	2634
15.2	GM	Howell David W L	2593	½-½	IM	Can Emre	2464
15.3	GM	Jones Gawain C B	2548	1-0	IM	Erdogdu Mert	2449
15.4	GM	Conquest Stuart C	2526	0-1	IM	Haznedaroglu Kivanc	2436
Br.	51	EST Estonia (EST)	Elo	1 : 3	16	CUB Cuba (CUB)	Elo
16.1	GM	Kulaots Kaido	2556	½-½	GM	Dominguez Perez Leinier	2719
16.2	GM	Kanep Meelis	2524	0-1	GM	Bruzon Batista Lazaro	2623
16.3	IM	Liiva Riho	2460	½-½	GM	Quezada Perez Yuniesky	2580
16.4	IM	Sepp Olav	2440	0-1	GM	Hernandez Carmenates Holden	2580