2nd Women World Team Chess Championship

Whew! How quickly that year passed! This international team event is here again - this time represented by 10 teams. Doesn't exactly read "world" to me with only 10 teams, but what the heck. The USA is in it, bringing their Not really A Team except for the top-2 (minus GM Susan Polgar, of whom it is probably hopeless we'll ever see her play again in serious competition), so let's see what happens. Here are the teams competing and my quick takes on the the players/teams: China A 2490 1 GM Hou Yifan 2584 (if her handlers allow, she'll top 2700 but will want to get married) 2 GM Zhao Xue 2544 (vastly under-rated) 3 WGM Shen Yang 2453 (ditt0) 4 Ju Wenjun 2443 5 WGM Huang Qian 2424 (unknown quantity) Geogia 2474 1 GM Chiburdanidze, Maia 2506 (wily veteran who knows what it takes to win) 2 GM Dzagnidze, Nana 2536 (steady performer) 3 IM Javakhishvili, Lela 2470 (under-estimated because of her beauty) 4 IM Lomineishvili, Maia 2427 5 IM Khukhashvili, Sopiko 2430 Russia 2468 1 IM Tatiana Kosintseva 2539 2 IM Nadezhda Kosintseva 2482 (wow, both Kosintseva sisters on the same team, oh oh) 3 IM Ekaterina Kovalevskaya 2436 (has not performed up to expectations but keeps trying) 4 IM Marina Romanko 2447 5 IM Valentina Gunina 2437 Ukraine 2444 1 IM Anna Ushenina 2478 (except for Zdebska, unknown to me, a steady team of competitors) 2 WGM Natalia Zhukova 2461 3 IM Yanovska Inna 2428 4 IM Maria Muzychuk 2441 5 WGM Natalya Zdebska 2412 India 2390 1 IM Harika Dronavalli 2474 (I love each of these ladies, but they will have their hands full) 2 IM Tania Sachdev 2423 3 WGM Kruttika Nadig 2361 4 WGM Eesha Karavade 2359 5 WGM Gomes Mary Ann 2332 Poland 2378 1 IM Iweta Rajlich 2448 (under-rated) 2 WGM Jolanta Zawadzka 2387 (steady but unspectacular) 3 WGM Joanna Majdan 2382 4 IM Joanna Dworakowska 2345 5 WIM Karina Szczepkowska-Horowska 2327 USA 2372 1 IM Irina Krush 2458 2 IM Anna Zatonskih 2466 3 IM Rusudan Goletiani 2391 4 WIM Alisa Melekhina 2270 (progress stalled - maybe deciding between chess and - ?) 5 WFM Tatev Abrahamian 2273 (a charming chess femme, but not competition for the others) Armenia 2372 1 IM Elina Danielian 2503 (steady but unspectacular veteran player, she's seen it all) 2 IM Lilit Mkrtchian 2479 (dangerous - came into her own in 2008 Womens' WCC) 3 WGM Lilit Galojan 2323 (needs more experience against higher-rateds) 4 WGM Nelli Aginian 2322 5 WIM Siranush Andriasian 2235 China B 2356 (the Chinese Chess Federation is probably laughing up it's sleeve at the world) 1 Tan Zhongyi 2435 2 WIM Zhang Xiaowen 2391 3 IM Wang Yu 2380 4 WFM Ding Yixin 2343 5 Wang Xiaohui 2231 Vietnam 2177 (untested hopefuls, will learn a lot and finish 8th to 10th) 1 WGM Hoang Thi Bao Tram 2274 2 WIM Pham Le Thao Nguyen 2314 3 WFM Hoang Thi Nhu 2119 4 WFM Pham Bich Ngoc 2105 5 WFM Vo Thi Kim Phung 2073 So much for my prognostications and uninformed opinions :) How'd the Teams do after Round 1? See Chess-Results.com for team-by-team round results. Standings after Round 1 (by Team): Rk. SNo Team Games + = - TB1 TB2 1 8 China Team One 1 1 0 0 2 3,0 2 1 Poland Team 1 1 0 0 2 2,5 3 9 Georgian Team 1 1 0 0 2 2,5 4 4 Ukraine 1 0 1 0 1 2,0 5 5 India Team 1 0 1 0 1 2,0 6 6 Armenian Team 1 0 1 0 1 2,0 7 7 Russian Team 1 0 1 0 1 2,0 8 2 Vietnam Team 1 0 0 1 0 1,5 9 10 American Team 1 0 0 1 0 1,5 10 3 China Team Two 1 0 0 1 0 1,0 Annotation:Tie Break1: Matchpoints (2 for wins, 1 for Draws, 0 for Losses)Tie Break2: points (game-points)