Well, so much for the theory that US scholastic chess dropouts are being caused by having all those foreign top players coming here.
@ Randy Bauer
How about a Lotto winner chess enthusiast buying those 23 Russian GMs and bringing them to the good ole US of A? Shouldn’t cost more than a few million. 
@ mike nolan
If you’re going to paraphrase or quote, try to get it right. I said “young players” not “scholastic”. And since you brought up “scholastic dropouts” perhaps the USCF has just done a lousy job of retention. 
Looking at the Russian team performance so far:
Kramnik is basically ‘holding serve’ on board 1, with +1 and =6. Given the fact that Russia is generally going to heavily outrate teams on the remaining boards, that is generally a reasonable result. Of course, he had one big win - over 2816 Aronian against Armenia. Nakamura is having a great tournament, with a performance rating over 2800, but I still suspect that he and Kramnik will draw.
Grischuk on board two is one of their two big scorers - +5 -1 =2 so far. This should be a great game, as Kamsky is also in good form and has the same record so far (interestingly, these two, while both scoring well, also have their teams’ only lossses). That said, Grischuk’s performance rating is over 100 points higher (2838) than Kamsky’s in the tournament.
Of their next two, Karjakin is also scoring well, at +2 =5, and Tomashevsky has been lackluster, scoring just four draws. Expect to see Karjakin on third board. On the US side, Onishuk has also been stellar, at +4 =3. His performance rating is 2767, better than Karjakin’s 2736. This might be the US’ best chance to break through.
The major concern is board four. Expect to see Jakovenko here, who has scored +4 =2 for a performance rating of 2819 (!). It will be very hard for either Akobian at +1 =4 (performance rating of just 2557) or Robson (+3 =3 with a performance rating of 2614) to hold up.
After looking at performance and likely match-ups, I still think 2 points would be an excellent result for the US.
Onischuk & Karjakin drew
games at http://www.chessolympiadistanbul.com/livegames/games.php?section=0&round=9&match=0
The draw was in 31 moves - the minimum to offer is 30.
Robson has a long row to hoe - we need a +1 on one of the top 2 boards in the open. Going to be tough.
Nakamura much better, Kamsky tiny pull (almost certain draw), Robson stabilizing.
UPDATE: Nakamura winning, Kamsky bigger pull, Robson equal! We could score 2½ to 3 points here; we won’t lose.
The men’s match is a true study in how “swingy” team events are. An hour ago, the US would’ve been thrilled with 2-2. Truth be told, I’ll still be happy with 2-2. Actually winning the match…well, I don’t want to jinx our team, so I won’t talk about that. 
Not sure what Kramnik’s idea was with …g5, but he’s in critical condition now. As for Robson, he still has a lot of issues…but just getting that c-file closed was yeoman’s work. (As if you need any more examples of how hard Russia is to beat…Jakovenko, Russia’s board 4 this match, is the reigning European men’s champion.)
As for the women, the story looks like it’ll be told between boards 2 and 4. I don’t think Zatonskih is going to get anywhere against Lahno on board 1, and Foisor made peace a little while ago. Krush is slighlty better, I think, and I don’t like the look of all those piece massing around Abrahamyan’s king.
There may be technical problems for Nakamura: the push to d2 (39…d3, not yet played) will win material back, and the h-pawn has the wrong color bishop.
Houdini gives: 40.Rxe7 d2 41.Rd1 Be2 42.Ne3 Bxe5 43.c4 and now why not 43…Bd4, undermining the defender? Not Houdini’s choice, but I don’t see why. DUH: d2 hangs.
Abrahamyan just resigned. Nakamura and Kamsky have good chances to win.
Anyone else experiencing technical difficulties trying to log on to the chessolympiadistanbul site? I’m getting a lot of “502-Bad Gateway” errors.
I’m wondering if the interest in the US-Russia match is overloading servers or network equipment.
Beat me to it. 
BTW, what technical problem would Kramnik’s h-pawn pose for Nakamura?
I was writing about a different (earlier) position in the same post: ignore that. (EDIT: though we’re now seeing variations in Houdini in which Black plays …h5-h4 to give White the useless pawn) There are some technical issues, but with a c-pawn surviving, I’d think this is an easy win for White.
Robson may now be losing: he missed 37…Nd4! Good game even if he does lose…
That error has been here since about Round 3. It’s traffic related. I’m not sure where the servers are hosted (if it’s cloud based or not) but there is massive traffic from Asia hitting the servers (China, Philippines, India).
The women are probably done for.
Abrahamyan basically waved a red cape at her opponent, who promptly gored her into submission.
Zatonskih may have missed a good chance on move 38: I think she could maybe win material with Bd4 instead of Bc1. I think she’s just busted now.
Krush will grind for a while, but Muzychuk is not likely to lose from here.
Grischuk can now play 44.Rb6 with what looks like a dead draw (again, h-pawn is wrong color). But Kamsky has fixed White’s pawns on dark squares, which means Black might be able to force bishops off if that happens.
(Just trying to verbalize my weakie understanding; stronger players, please don’t hesitate to correct!)
Is Nakamura making this more complicated, or is he trying a “slower but surer” method? Evaluation has dropped sharply (but he still has his precious c-pawn).
Jakovenko’s B is the wrong color for his two h-pawns!
Women do lose this round - just the final score to be determined 2.5-.5 with Krush still playing on board 2