30 May 2016

Karjakin's/Carlsen's Olympiad Records

Last week I looked at Karjakin's Early Team Events, and this week I'll look at his participation in Olympiad events. While I'm there, let's compare his record to Carlsen's record.

The following charts are from Olimpbase.org. Larger versions are available via the links for each player, where results from other team competitions -- e.g. World Team Championship & European Club Cup -- can also be found.

CHESS OLYMPIADS
Top: Karjakin, Sergei

Bottom: Carlsen, Magnus

The two players, both born in 1990, started competing in Olympiad events in 2004. Carlsen has played five times for Norway, always on 1st board, while Karjakin has played three times for the Ukraine and three times for Russia. Overall, Karjakin has been more successful than Carlsen.

The 2016 Chess Olympiad (Wikipedia) is scheduled for September in Baku. According to Leonard Barden of The Guardian, Magnus Carlsen and Sergey Karjakin unlikely to meet before world title (April 2016).

Carlsen will play the €150,000 Grand Tour blitz tournaments at Paris in May and Brussels in June, the Bilbao Grand Slam in July and the 2016 Olympiad at Baku in September, leaving two months for his final preparations.

Karjakin will compete at Shamkir in Azerbaijan in May, in the Russia v China match in June and finally at Baku. Theoretically the pair could meet at the 150-nation Olympiad but the chance is small. Russia will be going for gold while Norway, even with the world champion to lead them, will do well to finish in the top 15.

That last sentence doesn't mention that the two players have never competed on the same board. Will Karjakin now play on board one for the Russian team?

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