2024 Olympiad

[Kevin Thurlow]

This seems the best place to discuss the event(?) Doubtless there will be live games as well.

Good luck to all the the "UK" teams. USA vs Panama looks the nearest to a local derby. I suspect some entrants are studying an atlas (OK, search engine) to find out where their opponents are from...

[Roger de Coverly]

This seems the best place to discuss the event(?) Doubtless there will be live games as well.

Good luck to all the the "UK" teams. USA vs Panama looks the nearest to a local derby. I suspect some entrants are studying an atlas (OK, search engine) to find out where their opponents are from...

The chess-results link is https://chess-results.com/tnr967173.aspx?lan=1

Quite a number of first round half point byes. Visa problems preventing team arrival, captains not submitting teams or registering their arrival?

The England open board order is Vitiugov, Howell, Adams, McShane, Jones. Tactically that likely makes Jones the designated rabbit catcher.

The Women's board order is more conventional with the young newcomer Bodhana placed on bottom board. The full order is
Lan Yao, Jovanka Houska, Harriet Hunt, Katarzyna Toma, Bodhana Sivanandan

Looking through the team lists, there are players who have played in the UK. My rival school and Cambridge University college colleague from long, long ago Clifford Shaw is again appearing for the Cayman Islands.

[Christopher Kreuzer]

Worth a watch:

Grandmaster Clash - Stephen Fry's documentary about the 1988 Chess Olympiad in Thessaloniki

[NickFaulks]

You have to feel sorry for Vanuatu, who get the day off in both competitions because of their position in the alphabet.

[LawrenceCooper]

Gawain and Lan Yao rest in round 1:

Bo. 103 South Korea Rtg - 15 England Rtg 0 : 0
15.1 WFM Park, Sunwoo 1877 - IM Houska, Jovanka 2333
15.2 Khan, Anastasia 1859 - IM Hunt, Harriet V 2304
15.3 WCM Kang, Sohyun 1726 - WGM Toma, Katarzyna 2184
15.4 WCM Cho, Yeonhee 1696 - WFM Sivanandan, Bodhana 2196

Bo. 8 England Rtg - 100 Chinese Taipei Rtg 0 : 0
9.1 GM Vitiugov, Nikita 2676 - IM Bai, Adelard 2378
9.2 GM Howell, David W L 2677 - GM Song, Raymond 2503
9.3 GM Adams, Michael 2661 - FM Yang, Ching Wei 2121
9.4 GM McShane, Luke J 2611 - Wang, Ting-Hao 1842

[Simon Myles]

Is Mamedyarov really on board 4 for Azerbaijan. The opening round seemingly sees him paired on board 4 with an untitled below 2000 rated opponent. England's opening opponents have a wide rating range, with David black against 2500+ opposition and Luke paired with someone circa 800 points lower!

[Mick Norris]

Chess Mind preview

Vladimir Kramnik will be taking time out from accusing people of cheating to coach Uzbekistan, while Alexander Grischuk will help out the Iranians. Another surprise is Teimour Radjabov, who would be board two for Azerbaijan team if he were playing rather than coaching

[Mick Norris]

You have to feel sorry for Vanuatu, who get the day off in both competitions because of their position in the alphabet.

Yes, seems unfair; is it because of the first round byes that there's an odd number of teams? I thought the hosts would normally have extra teams to avoid this problem

[NickFaulks]

I thought the hosts would normally have extra teams to avoid this problem

You're joking, right? That was indeed the pretext under which the rule of extra teams for the hosts was introduced, but I do not believe there has ever been a host team given the bye.

I asked this question once at a General Assembly. Makro replied that he was shocked to hear my information and would look into it.

[LawrenceCooper]

You have to feel sorry for Vanuatu, who get the day off in both competitions because of their position in the alphabet.

Yes, seems unfair; is it because of the first round byes that there's an odd number of teams? I thought the hosts would normally have extra teams to avoid this problem

Russia had five in the open section in 2010

[John Saunders]

My rival school and Cambridge University college colleague from long, long ago Clifford Shaw is again appearing for the Cayman Islands.

Strictly speaking, Cliff Shaw was your university colleague, not your college colleague, Roger. He was my college (Selwyn) colleague for two years in the early 1970s. I had dinner with him in London a few days ago. He was top board for Aylesbury Grammar School in the late 1960s, above Steve Orton, who is still an active player in Norfolk. Cliff won the Bucks Junior Championship in 1969 (beating me along the way) and was (adult) Bucks county champion in 1972/73 and 1973/74. In the 1970 British Under-21 Championship Cliff beat Robert Bellin in round 2 on his way to 5/11.

[Martin Benjamin]

Deleted

[Ian Thompson]

White was checkmated in six moves in one game today. 1 g4 2 d5 2 f3 e5 3 e3 e4 4 f4 Qh4+ 5 Ke2 Bxg4+ 6 Nf3 Bxf3#

... and I correctly guessed who the loser would be so it didn't take long to find the game.

[Jonathan Rogers]

How could you guess something like that?!

[Martin Benjamin]

I have conflicting thoughts. It is good to encourage participation from every nation, but maybe there should be a separate pool for weaker teams (however you define that). It is a bit brutal to expose someone clearly inexperienced at chess to a WFM, and I doubt it was satisfying for the WFM either.

On reflection, I don't think I should have posted the game, even without identifying the players, so I have deleted it.