European Team Championship November 2023

[Mick Norris]

Presumably will be

Vitiugov- Keymer
Svane- Howell
Adams- Bluebaum
Donchenko or Kollars - McShane

Donchenko plays

[Mick Norris]

England women play the same top 4 again

Good luck to both teams

[LawrenceCooper]

England women play the same top 4 again

Good luck to both teams

Bo. 13 England Rtg - 2 Azerbaijan Rtg 0 : 0
2.1 IM Houska, Jovanka 2352 - IM Mammadzada, Gunay 2441
2.2 WIM Yao, Lan 2344 - IM Fataliyeva, Ulviyya 2395
2.3 IM Hunt, Harriet V 2315 - WGM Beydullayeva, Govhar 2383
2.4 WGM Toma, Katarzyna 2193 - IM Balajayeva, Khanim 2328

Round 7 on 2023/11/18 at 15.00
Bo. 4 England Rtg - 3 Germany Rtg 0 : 0
1.1 GM Vitiugov, Nikita 2712 - GM Keymer, Vincent 2721
1.2 GM Howell, David W L 2676 - GM Svane, Rasmus 2647
1.3 GM Adams, Michael 2670 - GM Bluebaum, Matthias 2670
1.4 GM Mcshane, Luke J 2626 - GM Donchenko, Alexander 2664

[Jonathan Rogers]

Understandable given that he had beaten Magnus earlier in the tournament. Other than that, 2010 is probably best remembered for Sebastien Feller.

I think he wrote that if someone had told him beforehand that he would beat Magnus and that England would finish ahead of two Russian teams, then he would have thought that we would do rather well (implication - that we didn't). The Russian point being that they fielded five teams (!!) instead of the traditional three permitted to hosts.

I think it's fair to say the French match was a critical point. Two comfortable draws with black, Nigel beating Fressinet and then the infamous Howell-Feller game. A win in that match would have banished the memory of the Bosnia match and might have led to a better second week, even allowing for Nigel being totally distracted by the FIDE stuff which caused him to miss two rounds.

The Bosnia match wasn't that bad surely, just a disappointing early result. Even Adams is permitted the very occasional loss with black on board one, and we stood equal or better on the other boards but just couldn't get an equaliser. A good example of a match we would never have lost if we had had white on odds, but them's the breaks.

Interesting to hear that you regarded the French match as a turning point. That also looked reasonable, back at home. Presumably none of you was suspicious of Feller at the time?

[Jonathan Rogers]

England women play the same top 4 again

Good luck to both teams

It seems (and this is very impressionistic) that increasingly the most successful teams do not rotate significantly. They have identified their top four, all of whom pretty much by definition are on good to excellent form, and they stick with them.

[Jonathan Rogers]

Indeed, best of luck. When did the women last medal? Twenty three to twenty five years ago?

[Paul Cooksey]

It seems (and this is very impressionistic) that increasingly the most successful teams do not rotate significantly. They have identified their top four, all of whom pretty much by definition are on good to excellent form, and they stick with them.

In football there is a generally held belief that it is success that creates stability, rather than the other way round, as used to be thought. But either way, good to see the team doing well.

[Jonathan Rogers]

Certainly the converse is true - if someone is consistently underperforming, you would not willingly choose to keep that person in the team (assuming other options) in the hope of maintaining stability; indeed, dissatisfaction from other team mates might force one's hand. Admittedly I can think of some exceptions, precisely in football ...

[Kevin Thurlow]

"They have identified their top four, all of whom pretty much by definition are on good to excellent form, and they stick with them."

That makes sense - one view of the recent English cricket disaster was that they played the first match with a team that had never played together before, then panicked and picked a different team for nearly every game. (Apart from all the other organizational mistakes.)

Chess-wise, it's reasonable to give someone a break if they have had an interminable game or a very stressful one. Didn't David Howell rest the day after his disputatious draw?

[LawrenceCooper]

Interesting to hear that you regarded the French match as a turning point. That also looked reasonable, back at home. Presumably none of you was suspicious of Feller at the time?

One thing that did stick in my mind was that that night David checked the game with his engine and mentioned that his opponent had found the top move 17 out of 19 times (or something along those lines) and one of the deviations was a repetition. At the time I just assumed it was a 2650 playing an inspired game but knowing what I know now he was probably on to something. I left him out of the following round (after a rest day) and with him being very much a confidence player it did impact the later rounds.

[Christopher Kreuzer]

Any thoughts on the England-Germany games after nearly 2 hours of play? All look roughly level to me.

The Carlsen game is interesting. Exchange for two pawns.

[Paul Cooksey]

Luke's position concerns me a bit at move 15. Seems a bit loose.

I enjoy Magnus vs "ordinary" GMs. He clearly thinks mixing things up is the best strategy.

[LawrenceCooper]

Vitiugov-Keymar drawn. Other games still going.

[John Moore]

Vitiugov certainly doing the job on Board 1. 4.5 out of 7 unbeaten and the two wins against Navara and Van Foreest. Very impressive.

[Jonathan Rogers]

Luke's position concerns me a bit at move 15. Seems a bit loose.

I enjoy Magnus vs "ordinary" GMs. He clearly thinks mixing things up is the best strategy.

Yes (on everything). This Pirc line of magnus was played at blitz some years ago, though. Provocative, lui?

I think Luke is a fair bit worse. According to the engine, he always was. That in itself was of little concern to start with because Luke never tried to impress computers with his Black repertoire. However his human opponent is likely still quite happy. Luke too is a "mixer", but perhaps without Carlsen's large repertoire of "mixing" openings.