European Team Championship 13-22 November 2015

[LawrenceCooper]

7/8 from her rated games is an excellent effort from Jovanka.

Agreed, hopefully news of a medal will follow.

[LawrenceCooper]

Nigel won so we are 1 up with Gawain and Mickey still playing.

[LawrenceCooper]

Mickey drew so 2-1 up with Gawain still playing.

[Barry Sandercock]

Looks as though Gawain may draw and then England win the match.

[John Moore]

Gawain only has to make it to move 140 to draw - but it's very clearly drawn now. Great save!

[LawrenceCooper]

Gawain only has to make it to move 140 to draw - but it's very clearly drawn now. Great save!

Draw after 125 moves

[LawrenceCooper]

Final rankings:

http://www.chess-results.com/tnr191479. ... =30&wi=821

http://www.chess-results.com/tnr191480. ... =30&wi=821

I believe that Jovanka has silver medal on board 1: http://www.chess-results.com/tnr191480. ... =30&wi=821

[Mike Truran]

Call me a curmudgeonly old grumblebunny if you like, but to my mind that was (apart from a couple of excellent individual performances and a miracle save by Gawain in the last round) a less than distinguished performance by either team. Sadly, however, pretty consistent with performances generally over the last few years. with both teams finishing below their seeding and only three players out of ten performing better than their ratings.

[LawrenceCooper]

Call me a curmudgeonly old grumblebunny if you like, but to my mind that was (apart from a couple of excellent individual performances and a miracle save by Gawain in the last round) a less than distinguished performance by either team. Sadly, however, pretty consistent with performances generally over the last few years. with both teams finishing below their seeding and only three players out of ten performing better than their ratings.

You're a curmudgeonly old grumblebunny

[Mike Truran]

Not to mention a dinosaur......

[benedgell]

I think its worth going over why the teams haven't been especially successful for a number of events now, but with all due respect I think its a bit unfair to start the inquest immediately after the last round, and I'm really not convinced a great many forum users would be able to provide knowledgeable insight.

When Malcolm Pein got elected as International Director one of his aims was to secure private funding not just to ensure we send the best English teams to events such as these, but also to provide the right support and conditions in order to achieve optimal results. Hopefully he will be successful in achieving this.

As far as the funds the ECF contributes to the teams for these events, I wouldn't be the least surprised if the Finance Director either puts a motion on the agenda for the Finance Council meeting, or at least attempts to have a discussion on the matter, given he unsuccessfully attempted to have the matter discussed at the AGM.

[Jonathan Rogers]

...

When Malcolm Pein got elected as International Director one of his aims was to secure private funding not just to ensure we send the best English teams to events such as these, but also to provide the right support and conditions in order to achieve optimal results. Hopefully he will be successful in achieving this.

Let's hope indeed. The aims are not exactly new, and no detail was offered as to how they would be achieved. The nature of these gruelling international events is that they seem greatly to favour young players, which is exactly what we lack and will continue to lack for the foreseeable future.

As far as the funds the ECF contributes to the teams for these events, I wouldn't be the least surprised if the Finance Director either puts a motion on the agenda for the Finance Council meeting, or at least attempts to have a discussion on the matter, given he unsuccessfully attempted to have the matter discussed at the AGM.

An overdue motion.

[David Shepherd]

I think its worth noting that the Open team were seeded 5th and finished just one match point below the team which finished in 5th place and only 2 match points below 2nd place. An extra half point on any board in any of 4 matches would have seem them finish in joint 5th place. The reality was that it was a very evenly matched tournament without huge rating differences as a whole. In total out of the 36 games the team only faced 1 players below 2500 (and they won that game)and a total of 5 players below 2550 (scoring 3.5/5 against those).

In my opinion it was nice to see us put out a strong team that stood a realistic chance of a medal although in the end they fell just short.

[Jonathan Rogers]

I think its worth noting that the Open team were seeded 5th and finished just one match point below the team which finished in 5th place and only 2 match points below 2nd place. An extra half point on any board in any of 4 matches would have seem them finish in joint 5th place. The reality was that it was a very evenly matched tournament without huge rating differences as a whole. In total out of the 36 games the team only faced 1 players below 2500 (and they won that game)and a total of 5 players below 2550 (scoring 3.5/5 against those).

In my opinion it was nice to see us put out a strong team that stood a realistic chance of a medal although in the end they fell just short.

That's a little too generous. They only played one of the top teams throughout, and had to beat two somewhat weaker teams at the end in order to finish where they did, and here they looked more likely to drop an extra half-point in each match and thus finish much lower.

It was still a reasonable performance and better than most of their performances in recent years; as you say they did well against markedly weaker players and there was only minor accident with White. But tenth place is certainly not selling them short.

[Mike Truran]

I think its worth noting that the Open team were seeded 5th and finished just one match point below the team which finished in 5th place and only 2 match points below 2nd place.

...... and I think it's also worth noting that if Gawain Jones had not drawn the game he deserved to lose in the last round the Open team would have finished down in 13rd-15th place.

As the old saying has it, "if ifs and ands were pots and pans, there'd be no work for tinkers' hands".

However you cut it, it's a fairly poor return for a not insubstantial investment.