Round 14 Women

China retained their title in the Women's Olympiad after keeping a half point advantage over Russia intact in a tense final round at Bled. Facing a strong Bulgarian team China won 2.5-0.5 as Russia defeated Slovakia by the same score. For China the world champion Zhu Chen defended accurately to draw against Antoineta Stefanova and let boards two and three play for gold medals. China's latest teenage sensation Zhao Xue won yet again to take her personal score to a phenomenal 11/12 and World Cup winner Xu Yuhua ensured China's triumph with her victory.

Two of Russia's three games were wild tactical melees in which the advantage swung back and forth. Vice World Champion Alexandra Kosteniuk played very nervously on board one and was fortunate to draw after an early repetition of moves. Her team mates then won to secure silver.

The Georgian collapse was completed when they lost for the fourth successive time and ended up out of the medals. They appeared to tire after having a seemingly unassailable lead of three points over China after ten of the fourteen rounds. However it was the youngster on the side Nino Khurtsidze who suffered the biggest loss of form.

The older generation including former world champion Maia Chiburdanidze all had fine overall results. Ketevan Arakhamia-Grant of Edinburgh started with five out of five and a tournament rating performance of over 3000 but it was her loss in the last round to a much lower rated player that cut Georgia out of the medals after she went all out for the win when the position from the opening did not justify it. Mrs Arakhamia-Grant scored 7/10 and was the only player to defeat Zhao Xue. Poland scored a remarkable last round 3-0 win over Vietnam and grabbed the bronze medals from the unfortunate Georgians.

England disappointed with Harriet Hunt off form and Ruth Sheldon clearly out of practice. Jovanka Houska was again the star performer with 9/13. Scotland's Heather Lang played with a broken wrist continuing the tradition started by her colleague Carey Wilman who played with a broken arm at Yerevan in 1996. Lang scored 7/10 and a 2238 performance and the team had a marvellous 1.5-1.5 result against Moldova in round one but never reached those heights after that. Women's Olympiad

Final scores 1 China 29.5/42; 2 Russia 29; 3 Poland 28; 4 Georgia 27.5; 5-8 Hungary Ukraine Yugoslavia Azerbaijan 25.5 9-10 USA Czech Rep. 25;England 24; Scotland 20.5; Wales 20; Ireland 18

Lakos,N (2350) - Zhao Xue (2367) [B90]
Olympiad w Bled SLO (6), 31.10.2002

1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 d6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nc3 a6 6.Be3 e5 7.Nb3 Be6 8.f3 Nbd7 9.g4 b5 10.g5 Nh5 11.Qd2 Nb6 12.Nd5 Bxd5 13.exd5 Rc8 14.Na5 Nxd5 15.Nb7

Now black sacrifices her Queen. 15...Nxe3 16.Nxd8 Nxc2+ 17.Kd1 Nxa1 18.Nxf7 Kxf7 19.Qd5+ Ke8 20.Qb7 Rd8 21.Qxa6 Kf7 22.Qb7+ Be7 23.Qd5+ Kf8 24.Qe4 g6 25.Qb1 Bxg5 26.Qxa1 Rc8 27.Bxb5 Kg7 28.Rg1 Bf6 29.a4 Rc5 30.b4 Rd5+ 31.Kc2 e4 32.Qa2 Rc8+ 33.Kb1 Rd4 34.Qb3 e3 35.Re1 Nf4 36.Rxe3 Nd5 37.Ba6 Rb8 38.b5 Rb4 39.Ka2 Rxb3 40.Rxb3 Nc7

0-1

Zhao Xue (2367) - Gaponenko,I (2411) [E92]
Olympiad w Bled SLO (13), 08.11.2002

1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 g6 3.Nc3 Bg7 4.e4 d6 5.Nf3 0-0 6.Be2 e5 7.Be3 Ng4 8.Bg5 f6 9.Bh4 Nc6 10.d5 Ne7 11.Nd2 Nh6 12.f3 g5 13.Bf2 f5 14.c5 g4 15.fxg4 Nxg4 16.Bxg4 fxg4 17.0-0 Ng6 18.Nc4 dxc5 19.Bxc5 Rxf1+ 20.Qxf1 Bh6 21.Qf2 b6 22.Be3 Bxe3 23.Nxe3 Bd7 24.Rf1 Qf8 25.Nf5 Nf4 26.Qh4 Bxf5 27.exf5 Qxf5 28.g3 Qh5 29.Qe7 Nh3+ 30.Kh1 Re8 31.Qxc7 Rf8 32.Rxf8+ Kxf8 33.Qd8+ Qe8 34.Qf6+ Kg8 35.Ne4 Qa4 36.Qe6+ Kf8 37.Qf5+ Ke8 38.Qxe5+ Kd8 39.Qh8+ Kc7 40.Qxh7+ Kb8 41.Qg8+ Kb7 42.Qf7+ Ka8 [ 42...Ka6 43.Qf1+ Kb7 ( 43...b5 44.Nc5+) 44.Nd6+ Kc7 45.Qc4+ wins.] 43.Qf8+ Kb7 44.Nd6+ Ka6 45.Qc8+ Ka5 46.Qc3+ Ka6 47.b3 Qd7 48.Qc6

1-0