The mighty were brought low as the first-place teams in both the open and women's divisions fell in round nine on Saturday. In the open division, Israel played the role of David, knocking off Armenia 2.5-1.5. On the women's side, Serbia edged China 2.5-1.5. The US women's medal hopes suffered a severe setback as Poland beat them 3-1. The US men, already virtually eliminated from contention by Russia in round eight, crushed India 3.5-1.5. There were a number of other upsets in the open section. Ukraine downed top-seed Russia 2.5-1.5; 22nd-seed Serbia beat fourth-seed Azerbaijan by the same score. Sixteenth-seed Vietnam held fifth-seed Hungary to a 2-all tie; and Slovenia beat Norway 3-1. England kept its medal hopes alive by beating Vietnam 3-1 on wins from Michael Adams and Nigel Short on the top two boards. Veteran Boris Gelfand led the way for the Israelis on board one defeating the world's seventh rated player Levon Aronian with Black, exploiting his opponent's weakened king position to win a pawn and then winning the ensuing rook-and-pawn endgame. Israel's other win came from Maxim Rodshtein on board four over Tigan L. Petrosian. The American men put on a strong performance that was probably too little, too late. Gata Kamsky beat Krishnan Sasikiran on board one when Sasikiran apparently missed an interpolation on move 34 and had to resign just two moves later. On board two, Hikaru Nakamura won a powerful game out of an unorthodox opening against Penteala Harikrishna. The American's other win came on board four where Varuzhan Akobian won a tactical melee against Geetha Narayanan Gopal. The day's results put Israel in first place with eight points. Armenia and Ukraine are tied for second with 7.5 points. China, England, and Serbia each have seven points. Ten teams, including the United States and Russia, have 6.5 points. On the women's side, Poland, Serbia, and Ukraine have leapfrogged China into a first place tie with 7.5 points. Armenia, China, and Georgia have seven points each. Hungary, Russia, the United States, and Uzbekistan have 6.5 points each. Round 10 of the 11-round event takes place here on Sunday. In other news, the president of the world chess organization FIDE, Kirsan Ilyumzhinov, who was injured in an automobile accident just before the event started, has arrived in Dresden for the FIDE Congress after being released from a Moscow hospital.
