27th NATO Team Championships, Shrivenham, 22-26 August 2016

[Kevin Thurlow]

http://serviceschess.wixsite.com/home/nato-news

19 Teams (16 countries, 2 "NATO" and one veteran), 98 players, either military, Ministry of Defence or retired. Theoretically, there are teams of six, but not every country can manage that. The one Luxembourg player got enthusiastic applause. It is paired as an individual Swiss, but players may not play someone from their own country. Theoretically, several players from the same country could score 7/7 as they would not be allowed to play each other. The trophy, shown top left of the web-page is about 40 cm tall and weighs 8 kg.

The opening ceremony saw players in uniform, and there were speeches from Vice-Admiral Potts and Mike Truran (who said nice things about me - thanks). Other distinguished visitors were Phil Ehr and Ray Keene, who made the ceremonial first move on top board. Photos will be available in due course.

The UK organisers have managed to get half a dozen people to turn up to assist, which is good. But Chief Arbiter Luc Cornet (Belgium) and I (Deputy Chief Arbiter) are kept busy. Playing hall is spacious and well-lit.

UK had a great start, the top four players winning, also achieved by Denmark, Germany and Poland. Poland got 6/6 and German only dropped one draw...

[IanCalvert]

Kevin

I guess it would be politically incorrect to ask an arbiter, how the Brits are doing? Has anyone played an Anti-Moscow variation yet?

Best wishes

[Kevin Thurlow]

Round 2 wasn't so great. Dave Onley is on 2/2, (all the other UK players lost) but now has a tough opponent in Dharim Bacus of USA. Poland lead with 8/8, USA 7, Germany 6.5.... UK 6th= on 5/8.

Dave should be viewable online now on Chess24 or via the CSCA website. If you're a fan of Poland, they have players on Boards 1, 2, 4 and 5.

[Mick Norris]

chess24 live

[Kevin Thurlow]

Poland and USA lead on 10/12, Germany 9.5, Romania 8.5, Denmark, Netherlands and UK 8...

Chase Watters (US) and Finn Pedersen (Denmark) lead with 3/3, Dave Onley is now on 2.5/3 along with 17 others.

One tradition at these events is that players present their opponents with a little gift, e.g. a bottle of beer or miniature of some spirit, chocolate, small books about their country, USB drives, maple syrup, key rings (with some appropriate slogan, like "Airborne Attack Unit"), bottle openers, commemorative teaspoons. biscuits, mugs.

Key rings and USBs are a good choice as seven of them don't take up much room in your luggage. One player presents his opponents with quite a large paper bag of stuff. I will try to find out what's in it.

[Kevin Thurlow]

I just finished writing a piece about how great our hosts were, with regard to accommodation, food, and playing conditions when the internet crashed.

Live games were probably also affected...

Germany 15.5/20, Denmark 14.5, Poland and USA 14, Netherlands 13... UK are 11th with 10.

Finn Pederson (DK) 5/5, Fabrice Wantiez (BE) and Mark Helbig (DE) 4.5, Chase Watters (US), Ulrich Bohn (DE), Alexander Rosenkilde (DK) 4.
Dave Onley is still top UK player on 3, gaining rating points.

[Kevin Thurlow]

We seem to have internet today...

Germany lead 18/24, Poland and Denmark 17.5, USA and Netherlands 15.5, Romania, UK, Belgium, NATO 2 on 13.5, this is the last round. There are two "NATO" teams for people who are not in their national team.

Since 2003, Turkey won in 2008 and 2011, Germany have won every other time. Turkey are not here, following certain difficulties in their country.

Finn Pedersen (DK) and Fabrice Wantiez (BE) lead on 5.5/6, Mark Helbig (DE) 5, Ulrich Bohn (DE), Darius Sycz, Rafal Przedmojski, Mateusz Sypien (all PL), Alexander Rosenkilde (DK), Hans-Christoph Andersen (DE), Arie Werksma (NL), Slawomir Kedzierski (NATO 2/PL) 4.5...

UK best scores - David Tucker 4, Dave Onley and Daniel Wells on 3.5.

Half an hour into the last round, no results yet. There is a blitz event this afternoon and a final banquet and prize-giving.

[NickFaulks]

Half an hour into the last round

Good Lord, 5am reveille?

[LawrenceCooper]

Half an hour into the last round

Good Lord, 5am reveille?

I remember the 8am starts from my time playing these events

[Nick Grey]

Kevin, Thanks for coverage on this event. It is good to see. Best wishes.
Your internet blip may have just been an upgrade of the local security systems & alerts going live yesterday.
One of my children live locally and mentioned it last night.

[Kevin Thurlow]

Breakfast at 0700, start 0800. Of course the arbiters are there at 0730 to switch clocks on. (Our IT guy let us in to the building...) We finished putting score-sheets out and name cards about 2130 last night. IT guy was still there.

[Kevin Thurlow]

Final scores:-

Poland and Germany 20.5/28 (Poland won on tie-break), Denmark 20, USA 17.5, Netherlands 16.5, Hungary 16, Romania and UK 15.5.... 19 played.

Individual:-

Finn Pedersen (DK) (2249, 2605 performance) 6.5, Mark Helbig (DE) 6, Rafal Przedmojski (PL) and Fabrice Wantiez (BE) 5.5, Dariusz Sycz (PL), Mateusz Sypien (PL), Ovidiu-Jean Lupu (RO), Slawomir Krainski (PL), Dharim Bacus (US), Hans-Christoph Andersen (DE), Marcin Pietruszewski (PL), Alexander Rosenkilde, (DK), and Marko Sauer (DE) 5.0, 98 played

Top UK players were Dave Onley, David Tucker and Daniel Wells on 4 and Ngadi Sherpa 3.5.

A Blitz tournament followed, 66 played, Luc Cornet said he would run it on his own, so I got to play.

Finn Pedersen (DK), Damian Graczyk (PL), Alexander Rosenkilde (DK), Ovidiu-Jean Lupu (RO) and Ionel Luca (RO) all scored 7/9, but finished in the order stated (after tie-break).

I started off by beating Helbig, followed by M Kiersic (My TPR was now 3008!) and Luca (TPR down to 2990), but I fell away a bit and only got 5/9, (TPR 2157) finishing 21st. At least the Blitz rating is going the right way. Dave Onley also got 5/9.

[Carl Portman]

I witnessed your win against Helbig Kevin - very smooth. I am still basking in the warm afterglow of a great week. Good to see you and Luc - here's to the next chess experience whatever it may be.

[Kevin Thurlow]

http://de.chessbase.com/post/nato-schac ... bundeswehr