Olympiad

[Lewis Martin]

Lewis Martin: "Short has been so-so in recent Olympiads, I think he has always been a steady competitor but unfortunately for a team medal we need more than that."

Sure - like 7.5/10 in Istanbul 2012.

I stand corrected. Clearly my memory is telling me a few fibs. More of the same please!

[Mick Norris]

Bo. 31 Vietnam (VIE) Rtg - 10 England (ENG) Rtg

9.1 GM Le, Quang Liem 2710 - GM Adams, Michael 2740
9.2 GM Nguyen, Ngoc Truong Son 2634 - GM Jones, Gawain C B 2665
9.3 IM Nguyen, Duc Hoa 2501 - GM Howell, David W L 2650
9.4 IM Nguyen, Huynh Minh Huy 2507 - GM Sadler, Matthew D 2653

[Mick Norris]

Bo. 1 Russia (RUS) Rtg - 18 Bulgaria (BUL) Rtg 0 : 0
2.1 GM Kramnik, Vladimir 2760 - GM Topalov, Veselin 2772

Bo. 4 Armenia (ARM) Rtg - 14 Norway (NOR) Rtg 0 : 0
3.1 GM Aronian, Levon 2805 - GM Carlsen, Magnus 2877

[Mick Norris]

Bo. 76 Algeria (ALG) Rtg - 39 England (ENG) Rtg

39.1 WFM Meghara, Lylia 1811 - IM Houska, Jovanka 2401
39.2 WIM Mezioud, Amina 2052 - WIM Chevannes, Sabrina L 2171
39.3 WIM Latreche, Sabrina 1972 - Kalaiyalahan, Akshaya 2016
39.4 WIM Toubal, Hayat 1938 - WFM James, Ann-Marie 2095

[Phil Neatherway]

Sadler seems to be taking a long time. Perhaps he is thinking about Stckifish's suggestion of b4?

[Christopher Kreuzer]

Mickey winning, but Gawain losing. Could be 2-2, though David Howell's position looks difficult (Matthew Sadler drew).

[Matt Mackenzie]

I think you'll find that Kramnik convincingly beat Topalov in Khanty-Mansiysk earlier this year

Think it was a rather more close run thing than that, and it was with White - wouldn't he have Black tomorrow?

Pairing is Russia - Bulgaria, so Kramnik would have white I assume

Indeed so - which means Russia have had two board 1 Whites in a row. That will teach me to presume things

[Barry Sandercock]

David Howell should get a draw--with a bit of luck.

[John Moore]

Gawain has certainly had a bad day at the office. Looked like 4 draws when I joined and Matthew agreed one shortly after. Strangely enough the Vietnamese board 1 blundered horribly about the same time as Gawain decided to drive Black's King forward and become much worse and then lost. Meanwhile David's clear draw has become a little more complicated but is probably still drawn.

What should the team be tomorrow. I'd be inclined (if I was Mark Howitt!) to play both Gawain and Nigel and give Matthew a rest. He will be much needed later.

[Christopher Kreuzer]

Lots of 2-2 draws today. I make it possibly (depending on games still in progress) about 7 of the top 10 matches drawn. Well, that's if you include the obligatory putting Norway 1 in the top matches to showcase Carlsen. Not sure about if you just look at the actual order of the draw.

[Christopher Kreuzer]

What should the team be tomorrow.

Rest day tomorrow (plus some election, I hear). Round 6 is on Friday.

[John Moore]

Rest day - then Nigel and Gawain, it seems to me, both have to play on Friday.

[John Moore]

Lets not forget Mickey - 2 successive wins against 2700s. Great performance and shows he is still our best player by a mile.

[Matt Mackenzie]

Ivanchuk is currently in one of his "Mr Hyde" periods, I see

[Christopher Kreuzer]

Lets not forget Mickey - 2 successive wins against 2700s. Great performance and shows he is still our best player by a mile.

Indeed. And his current live rating (2748) is approaching his previous peak of 2755 (in 2000 at world number 5):

http://www.2700chess.com/

Adams has gained 5 places to move to world number 16. Ivanchuk has dropped 9 places to number 26 (Gelfand, a fellow veteran, seems to be doing better at keeping in the top 20).

Up at the top, Caruana at number 3 has closed the gap on Aronian to less than a single point (2802.5 vs 2803.2). Caruana probably has a real chance here to take the world number 2 spot.

EDIT (much later): Oops. I got Adams' peak rating wrong there. His peak rating at the time I wrote the above was 2761 in the September 2013 list.