World Team Championship, Round 6: Russia's Lead Narrows

The Azeris strike again! Half a strike, anyway: they drew their match with Russia, thanks above all to Arkadij Naiditsch's victory with Black over Sergey Karjakin. Ian Nepomniachtchi won for Russia - also with Black - against Rauf Mamedov, and the other two games were drawn. As a result, Russia's lead was cut in half, as India and England, hitherto a full point behind (technically two points behind, but that's because the totals are based on 2-1-0 scoring), both won their matches decisively to close the gap to the minimum.

The Indians drubbed Kazakhstan 3.5-.5, only surrendering a draw on board 1, and England beat the strong young Iranian team 3-1, only losing where they were badly outrated, on board 4. (Iran's board ordering seems strange, with their second highest-rated player on board 4, but since the rules allow it they might as well exploit it.)

The U.S. also made progress, as expected, winning easily against a heavily outrated Swedish team. Heavily outrated on boards 2-4, that is; on board 1 they were favored, and that was where they made their only draw.

Finally, the incredible troubles of the Chinese team continued. Despite heavily outrating the Egyptians, they only managed a 2-2 draw. We Yi (2733) lost with White on board 2 to Ahmed Adly (2611), and only Ni Hua's (2683) win on board 4 against the 2435-rated Imed Abdelnabbi saved the match. Ding Liren's 103-point rating advantage on board 1 and Bu Xiangzhi's 270-point rating advantage on board 3 didn't convert into a plus on the scoreboard.

Here are the round 7 pairings, with team match points given in 2-1-0 totals:

• China (6) - Sweden (4)
• England (9) - Egypt (1)
• Kazakhstan (4) - Iran (5)
• Azerbaijan (4) - India (9)
• USA (8) - Russia (10)

The Americans are heavy underdogs, so they're going to need great opening prep to have a chance to win or draw the match. We'll see.