Olympiad

[John Moore]

Yesterday against Canada could have been really bad - now the chickens have come home to roost. And I agree with Lewis and I have said it before. David Howell loses games because of his time trouble. Now I don't mind if he wants to do that when he plays in an individual tournament but I get fairly p-issed off in a team tournament.

[Simon Brown]

I suspect he will have been quite busy today as well.

Nigel is such a consistent performer at Olympiads over the years that I can't help wondering if his extra-curricular activities are proving more of a distraction than he anticipated. Whatever people may think of him he has always wanted to do his best for his country.

[Simon Brown]

Sorry John but I don't agree. You don't get to 2650 without being able to manage the way you play a game, and that is just how he is, and has been since he first came onto the scene.

As for today, I don't have a machine running but I fancied black as soon as he played 22...e4. Doubt David was in time trouble then.

[Leonard Barden]

Today's match for me brought back an unwelcome memory of 60 years ago when we met Yugoslavia (of which Serbia was then a part) in Final A at the Amsterdam Olympiad and were crushed 3.5-0.5. They had great players and were bronze medallists then, fielding Pirc, Gligoric, Trifunovic and Matanovic against us, with Rabar and Fuderer on the bench.
Alexander got our half point while Penrose, Wade and I all lost. What made it worse was that near the end of the tournament I was collecting games for annotation in CHESS and asked Matanovic for his best game. He chose his win against me, where I felt I had played like a drain. The only consolation was that he used the Yugoslav King's Indian which I had praised for Black in Guide to Chess Openings, my first book.
At least today thanks to Adams's recovery from a dubious position we have improved on Amsterdam....

[Leonard Barden]

1 GM Adams, Michael 2740 England 2888 6 4.5 75.0 2695
2 GM Giri, Anish 2745 Netherlands 2849 8 6.0 75.0 2656
3 GM Carlsen, Magnus 2877 Norway 2839 7 5.0 71.4 2681
4 GM Kasimdzhanov, Rustam 2700 Uzbekistan 2833 7 5.0 71.4 2675


Current board prize standings.....

[Mick Norris]

Round 9 on 2014/08/11 at 14:00
No. SNo Team Team Pts. MP Res. : Res. MP Pts. Team Team SNo
1 7 CHN China 24 14 : 13 23 Ukraine UKR 2
2 16 CZE Czech Republic 22½ 13 : 13 23 France FRA 3
3 14 NOR Norway 19 11 : 11 20½ Turkey TUR 26
4 8 AZE Azerbaijan 21½ 13 : 13 22½ Romania ROU 32
5 9 ISR Israel 22 12 : 12 21 Hungary HUN 5
6 18 BUL Bulgaria 21 12 : 12 22 Cuba CUB 13
7 27 BLR Belarus 20½ 12 : 12 22 Netherlands NED 11
8 35 ARG Argentina 21½ 12 : 12 22½ India IND 19
9 6 USA United States of America 22 12 : 12 21 Germany GER 12
10 4 ARM Armenia 21½ 12 : 12 20½ Serbia SRB 29
11 1 RUS Russia 21 11 : 11 19½ Norway 2 NOR2 58
12 17 ESP Spain 20½ 11 : 11 19 Latvia LAT 23
13 15 POL Poland 21½ 11 : 11 20 Switzerland SUI 51
14 57 QAT Qatar 20½ 11 : 11 22½ Iceland ISL 43
15 22 PER Peru 20 11 : 11 21½ Vietnam VIE 31
16 33 UZB Uzbekistan 19 11 : 10 22 Finland FIN 56
17 40 DEN Denmark 22 10 : 10 19½ England ENG 10

34. Denmark (DEN / RtgAvg:2536, Captain: Schandorff Lars / TB1: 10 / TB2: 155.5)
Bo. Name Rtg FED 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Pts. Games Rp w we w-we K rtg+/-
1 GM Palo Davor 2562 DEN ½ 1 ½ ½ 0 1 3.5 6 2588 3.5 3.21 0.29 10 2.9
2 GM Rasmussen Allan Stig 2522 DEN 1 0 0 0 1 1 1 4.0 7 2472 4 4.31 -0.31 10 -3.1
3 GM Aagaard Jacob 2525 DEN 1 0 1 ½ 0 1 1 4.5 7 2450 4.5 4.99 -0.49 10 -4.9
4 IM Glud Jakob Vang 2533 DEN 1 1 1 ½ 1 1 1 6.5 7 2737 6.5 5.25 1.25 10 12.5
5 IM Andersen Mads 2477 DEN 1 ½ ½ 1 ½ 3.5 5 2384 2.5 2.94 -0.44 10 -4.4

[Roger de Coverly]

Denmark in the next round, Sweden in the Women's. Scotland and Ireland must have been having reasonable runs as Scotland have caught up on match points with Ireland just one behind.

One for the collectors of curios, the Denmark match might feature 5 British Champions.

[Barry Sandercock]

Oh yes, nice one Roger ! Jacob Aagaard, Great Yarmouth 2007.

[Chris Rice]

Allegations that cheating is going on at the Olympiad but all very vague. Seems to have something to do with the Press room which captains and players have now been banned from:

http://en.chessbase.com/post/tromso-08- ... bout-china

Update on the Burundi situation from a chess.com report:

"Before turning to the games, first an update on the Burundi story mentioned yesterday. Apparently a big part of their delegation has simply disappeared! Here's an official statement from the organizers:
“Seven individuals from Burundi have left the Olympiad - five players - four women and one man, plus a team captain and a team leader. We are disappointed that they have not completed the event. The police were informed yesterday (Saturday) evening about their disappearance.
All of the missing persons have Schengen visas, which give them three months freedom of movement in the Schengen area. No laws have been broken and we have not heard anything back from the police and have no reason to suspect any trouble. The matter is now in the hands of the police, and not the Olympiad organization.”

[Mick Norris]

Bo. 40 Denmark (DEN) Rtg - 10 England (ENG) Rtg

17.1 GM Palo, Davor 2562 - GM Adams, Michael 2740
17.2 GM Aagaard, Jacob 2525 - GM Jones, Gawain C B 2665
17.3 IM Glud, Jakob Vang 2533 - GM Howell, David W L 2650
17.4 IM Andersen, Mads 2477 - GM Sadler, Matthew D 2653

[Mick Norris]

Bo. 39 England (ENG) Rtg - 29 Sweden (SWE) Rtg

21.1 IM Houska, Jovanka 2401 - GM Cramling, Pia 2500
21.2 WIM Maroroa, Sue 2120 - WFM Frisk, Ellinor 2257
21.3 Kalaiyalahan, Akshaya 2016 - Bengtsson, Jessica 1933
21.4 WFM James, Ann-Marie 2095 - WFM Horn, Emilia 2000

Should be an interesting match

[Chris Rice]

Bo. 40 Denmark (DEN) Rtg - 10 England (ENG) Rtg

17.1 GM Palo, Davor 2562 - GM Adams, Michael 2740
17.2 GM Aagaard, Jacob 2525 - GM Jones, Gawain C B 2665
17.3 IM Glud, Jakob Vang 2533 - GM Howell, David W L 2650
17.4 IM Andersen, Mads 2477 - GM Sadler, Matthew D 2653

Thanks Mick, guess it was predictable that given this is a big day in the Presidential election Nigel wouldn't be playing.

[Chris Rice]

Bo. 39 England (ENG) Rtg - 29 Sweden (SWE) Rtg

21.1 IM Houska, Jovanka 2401 - GM Cramling, Pia 2500
21.2 WIM Maroroa, Sue 2120 - WFM Frisk, Ellinor 2257
21.3 Kalaiyalahan, Akshaya 2016 - Bengtsson, Jessica 1933
21.4 WFM James, Ann-Marie 2095 - WFM Horn, Emilia 2000

Should be an interesting match

Very true, Pia Cramling is in great form (7/8) so Jovanka's going to have her work cut out today. Their listed board 2, WIM Agrest seems to be having a 'mare of a tournament (2/7) so Frisk has taken over board 2, unfortunately she is on form (6.5/8) so Sue will be up against it as well so we'll have to hope Akshaya and Ann-Marie do the business.

[Mick Norris]

Bo. 40 Denmark (DEN) Rtg - 10 England (ENG) Rtg

17.1 GM Palo, Davor 2562 - GM Adams, Michael 2740
17.2 GM Aagaard, Jacob 2525 - GM Jones, Gawain C B 2665
17.3 IM Glud, Jakob Vang 2533 - GM Howell, David W L 2650
17.4 IM Andersen, Mads 2477 - GM Sadler, Matthew D 2653

Thanks Mick, guess it was predictable that given this is a big day in the Presidential election Nigel wouldn't be playing.

I think so, although the Danish line up is interesting (leaving out their number 2 Rasmussen, albeit he has played the last 5 rounds), as I wondered where Aagaard would play, given he probably knows the English players better than his team mates

I think Mickey needs to win to retain his first place on board 1 TPR, but I'm not sure if his cause is helped or hindered by the team losing (giving theoretically weaker opponents)

[JustinHadi]

I've never seen Adams playing a Slav before. Is this solid play related to playing for the team do we think?