English Chess Forum

They start the nine round event tomorrow (Friday).

The England Open teams is now fifth seeds, though there is nothing to choose from between 3-6 in terms of average Elo. But England is the only team at this exalted level not have to have made a very memorable performance this century. In the past, 4 GM line ups from such countries as Greece, Czech Republic, Bosnia (and other ex-Yugoslav Republics?)* have proven consistently difficult to break down, and this is where the danger for England lies on this occasion too -because such teams are out in force again, indeed the 29th seeds are all GM-outfits.

Of course, history doesn't have to repeat itself. We shall see.

Scotland and Wales are the bottom two seeds and we must all wish the best of luck to them

Edit: I forgot Poland (!) although they are hosts and have been perhaps our most difficult opponents of late

I'd like to:

a) wish the best of luck to both the England teams;
b) support your plea to keep the politics in the other thread.

I agree. Can someone please post a link to the live games soon? if this thread gets going - and I'll be watching and commenting - I find it very helpful to know there is a link to the games under discussion on page 1.

I think the open team could perform well. Mickey looks as solid as ever and Nigel on 3 should pick up some points and he is cool about playing below Luke (though I think he should be on 2)

The women's team are seeded 22nd out of 31 teams. The Ukranians are top seeds, with neither of the Kosintseva sisters playing for Russia. Interesting to note for the England team that Sabrina is playing above Anya Corke.

Simon Brown wrote:I agree. Can someone please post a link to the live games soon? if this thread gets going - and I'll be watching and commenting - I find it very helpful to know there is a link to the games under discussion on page 1.

I think the open team could perform well. Mickey looks as solid as ever and Nigel on 3 should pick up some points and he is cool about playing below Luke (though I think he should be on 2)

Website is here:
http://etcc2013.com/
with a link to Live games (which presumably will operate when it actually starts)

Good luck to both our teams

Did you notice the list of sponsors?
A lot of sponsors, both Polish brands and global brands like Microsoft and IBM.
Well done!

Open pairings for round 1 have been published: http://www.chess-results.com/tnr114411. ... =30&wi=821

Women's pairings here: http://www.chess-results.com/tnr113757. ... d=1&wi=821

Bo. 23 England Rtg - 7 France Rtg 0 : 0
7.1 WFM Chevannes, Sabrina L 2200 - GM Sebag, Marie 2510
7.2 WGM Corke, Anya S 2276 - IM Milliet, Sophie 2383
7.3 WFM Grigoryan, Meri 2039 - IM Collas, Silvia 2292
7.4 WFM Bhatia, Kanwal K 2039 - WIM Benmesbah, Natacha 2248

Bo. 5 ENGLAND Rtg - 24 POLAND 3 Rtg 0 : 0
5.1 GM MCSHANE, Luke J 2696 - GM TAZBIR, Marcin 2555
5.2 GM SHORT, Nigel D 2680 - GM HEBERLA, Bartlomiej 2556
5.3 GM JONES, Gawain C B 2648 - GM BULSKI, Krzysztof 2538
5.4 GM HOWELL, David W L 2644 - GM GDANSKI, Jacek 2518

LawrenceCooper wrote: 5.4 GM HOWELL, David W L 2644 - GM GDANSKI, Jacek 2518

Although ENG is next to POL in the rankings based on the top 10, I don't think we could put out a third team of players above 2500. Leaving out players not willing or unlikely to be selected, an ENG 3 might look something like:-

Conquest, Stuart C g ENG 2490
Zhou, Yang-Fan m ENG 2486
Wells, Peter K g ENG 2479
Ghasi, Ameet K m ENG 2466
Williams, Simon K g ENG 2455

You might put Simon on 1 for his ability to take out on occasion the world's best.

ENG2 might be

Hebden, Mark L g ENG 2556
Pert, Nicholas g ENG 2555
Haslinger, Stewart G g ENG 2548
Gordon, Stephen J g ENG 2518
Hawkins, Jonathan m ENG 2511

So that team at least would meet the 2500 test.

Website says (2.29) that Vallejo Pons has opened 1 h3.

But at 2.30 it says 1 c4. Let's hope it's teething trouble and not a sign of things to come.

So far so good: Ok as Black and we must have some advantage on the White boards.

Jonathan Rogers wrote:So far so good: Ok as Black and we must have some advantage on the White boards.

Not looking so good in the Women's. Anya on board 2 seemed to have got something wrong inside the first ten moves. The engine is giving a plus 2 assessment in a position with queen and pawns against three minor pieces.