World Senior Teams 23 April to 3 May, Crete

[Chris Rice]

In the 50+ Rd 5 board pairings:

Heart of Finland - England I
GM Rantanen, Yrjo A. 2292 - GM Short, Nigel D 2683
FM Salonen, Jyrki 2174 - GM Nunn, John D M 2600
Viljava, Tapani 2187 - GM Speelman, Jon S 2511
Meskanen, Vesa 2052 - GM Arkell, Keith C 2411

[LawrenceCooper]

Keith and Nigel have won, Jon has drawn whilst John is much better on board 2.

[LawrenceCooper]

3.5-0.5 as John has now also won.

[Mick Norris]

Good result as game points are the first tiebreak after matchpoints

Top boards were quick draws in the St Petersburg v Ashod & Israel v Armenia matches

[LawrenceCooper]

Not such a good day for England 2, losing 2.5-1.5 to the much lower rated Greek team.

[LawrenceCooper]

1 1 England I 8 : 10 Saint Petersburg 2
2 5 Ashdod Chess Club 6 : 8 Armenia 4

[Chris Rice]

65+ Round 6 pairings:

1 1 Russia 10 : 8 Germany 5
2 4 Sweden I 6 : 8 France 2
3 7 England I 6 : 7 Israel 3
4 11 Steiermark 6 : 6 Sweden II 10
5 16 Scotland 5 : 6 Austria 6
6 12 Stiftung BSW / DBAG 5 : 5 Switzerland 8
7 17 Sweden III 4 : 4 England II 14
8 15 Wales 4 : 4 England III 20

[Mick Norris]

1 1 England I 8 : 10 Saint Petersburg 2
2 5 Ashdod Chess Club 6 : 8 Armenia 4

7 13 Germany Women 5 : 5 England II 7

11 19 England III 3 : 1 SCCU 125 22

[Chris Rice]

Here's how they line up in the crucial Round 6 match:

England I - Saint Petersburg
Short, Nigel D 2683 - Khalifman, Alexander 2617
Nunn, John D M 2600 - Ivanov, Sergey 2530
Speelman, Jon S 2511 - Ionov, Sergey 2535
Arkell, Keith C 2411 - Solozhenkin, Evgeniy 2443

[Mick Norris]

Khalifman so far: white win 44 moves, black draw 35 moves, white draw 12 moves, black draw 12 moves, white draw 13 moves

[Tim Harding]

Khalifman so far: white win 44 moves, black draw 35 moves, white draw 12 moves, black draw 12 moves, white draw 13 moves

I expect Nigel will make him fight.
This is a big match that England must win and quite close on rating.

[Leonard Barden]

Not looking great after 90 minutes play, especially for a must-win match. The unforunate pattern discussed in my article
https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2017/ ... ampionship
is in danger of continuing.

[Barry Sandercock]

Not looking too bad now. All equal, except Arkell's game.

[Chris Rice]

Speelman has put us one up though Nunn and Arkell not doing well and Short equal.

[Tim Harding]

Efficient win by Jon to put some scoreboard pressure on the opposition, whereas it was the other way round in a key match last year.

Keith's position looks awful but as anyone who has ever had a "nearly winning" position against him, but still lost, knows, White has perhaps only done half the job so far.

John Nunn's clock and board situation is worrying after two and a half hours play but I would not write him off. We really need half a point there, though.

I still have confidence that Nigel will bring home the bacon.