FIDE Online Olympiad 22 July to 30 August 2020

[Jonathan Rogers]

I don't think we have much of a chance really, but those who wish to hope should note that Croatia have now lost narrowly to Russia and Armenia. (Gosh they had tough starting pairings!). So, we now ask, might they now be a bit deflated and have a real accident?

For it is clear now that Russia and Armenia are to qualify, Armenia being just as dangerous after all.

[John Moore]

Croatia have already had an accident losing 5.5-0.5 to a tough looking Romanian team. If we are to have any sort of chance of third place, it looks like we will need to beat Bulgaria, who look well placed.

[Mick Norris]

Bulgaria have beaten Armenia and Romania, lost to Russia, drawn with Egypt and Turkey

[John Moore]

Assuming Russia beat Romania tomorrow, then I think that England need two wins from their matches against Armenia, Romania and Bulgaria to make 3rd place. Assuming that Armenia is beyond them, what are the chances against the other two. Fairly slim, one would imagine.

[Jonathan Rogers]

So it's Bulgaria to worry about rather than Croatia (who did indeed suffer from combat fatigue today; not a single respite against strong opposition).

But it looks very bad against Bulgaria if we are on the same matchpoints, surely; if we do lose to Armenia we may not be able to catch Bulgaria even if we do beat them, assuming gamepoints are the deciding factor. Our gamepoints are dreadful, since when we lose, we lose by 5-1, and when we beat anyone reasonable, it is by 3.5-2.5. (It was even only 4.5-.1.5 against a team half of which literally did not show up).

So what are the tie breaks - head to head result or gamepoints?

Remember though, we were never favourites to finish third under this format anyway. Fifth would be decent.

[Leonard Barden]

So what are the tie breaks - head to head result or gamepoints?

Not what we want...

(a) match point totals
(b) game point totals
(c) match point totals in the results between the teams which remain tied
(d) game point totals in the results between the teams which remain tied
(e) Sonneborn-Berger (match points)
(f) Sonneborn-Berger (game points)
(g) drawing of lots

[John Moore]

I can understand the concern about our poor tiebreaks, but if we win against Romania and Bulgaria today (and always provided Russia beats Romania), we will have 12 points and cannot be caught. Bear in mind that Bulgaria start today on 7 points compared to our 8 and two wins would therefore take tiebreaks out of the equation.

Whether we can win these two matches is another matter.

[Chris Rice]

In Pool A there was a surprise result as India only drew with Mongolia. However, the back story to this was how the Indians lost two of the boards due to a power failure in the Chennai area. This affected Vidit and Humpy Koneru and as a result all the Indian players were asked whether they wanted to move into 5 star hotels. Though its expected that India will still qualify anyway, in the report what caught my attention was:

"Both the Indian players were enjoying a positional advantage when misfortune struck. It is learnt, a request for continuation of the two games from the same position and time was not agreed by the opposite team. The one simple question that begs an answer is why the AICF top brass did not do a checklist on the kind of computers, internet connection, backup for power as well as internet connectivity the players representing the country have and suggest corrective action."

I'm a bit shocked that the Indians even made the request. These days on the servers basically you lose the signal you lose the game, end of. But the second part is certainly an important question as to how professional countries should be. For example look at how professional Russia are being:



I'm guessing there is probably a bunch of IT experts on tap if something goes wrong which won't necessarily be available to players playing from home.

[Mick Norris]

TWIC has crosstables, plus the games

Group A - China (12/12) have yet to play India (11) who drew with Mongolia; Germany on 9 have yet to play India, but they look likely to be the 3 qualifiers

Group B - Russia (12), yet to play Armenia (10), with Romania & England (8), Bulgaria (7)

Group C - Hungary (10) have lost to Azerbaijan (8) with Ukraine, Kazakhstan & Spain on 9, so very close

Group D - USA (12) have beaten Greece (9) but are yet to play Peru (8) and Poland (7), so chances for Italy (6) yet to play Greece

Houska, Jovanka vs Lagno, Kateryna
1. d4 Nf6 2. Nf3 g6 3. Nbd2 Bg7 4. e4 d6 5. Bb5+ c6 6. Bd3 O-O 7. O-O c5 8. c3 cxd4 9. cxd4 e5 10. dxe5 dxe5 11. Nc4 Nc6 12. Ncxe5 Nxe5 13. Nxe5 Re8 14. Nf3 Bd7 15. Re1 Bc6 16. e5 Ng4 17. Bf4 Qb6 18. Qe2 Bxf3 19. Qxf3 Nxe5 20. Bxe5 Bxe5 21. Re2 Re6 22. Bc4 Rf6 23. Qb3 Bd4 24. Qxb6 Bxb6 25. Rd1 Rc8 26. b3 Kf8 27. Kf1 Rd8 28. Rxd8+ Bxd8 29. Re3 Bb6 30. Rf3 Rxf3 31. gxf3 Bc7 32. h3 Ke7 33. Bd5 b6 34. a4 f6 35. Bg8 h6 36. Ke2 Bd6 37. Bc4 Bf4 38. Kd3 f5 39. b4 Bd6 40. b5 Kf6 41. Ke2 Ke5 42. Kf1 Kd4 43. Bf7 g5 44. Bg6 Ke5 45. Be8 Bc5 46. Bd7 h5 47. Be8 h4 48. Bd7 Bd4 49. Bc8 Kf4 50. Ke2 Bc5 51. Bd7 Ke5 52. Bc8 Bd6 53. Bd7 f4 54. Kd3 Bc5 55. Bg4 Kd5 56. Ke2 Kc4 57. Bc8 Kb4 58. Ba6 Kxa4 59. Ke1 Kb4 60. Ke2 Kc4 61. Ke1 Kd3 62. Bc8 Kc2 63. Ke2 Kc3 64. Bf5 Bd4 65. Bc8 Kc4 66. Ba6 Bc5 67. Ke1 Kd3 68. Bb7 Kc4 69. Ba6 1/2-1/2

[LawrenceCooper]

FIDE's summing up of the day:

Day 2 of FIDE Online Chess Olympiad has its all. In three pools strong favorites (China, India, Russia, Armenia, USA) completely dominate. Only Team India lost one match point due to power failure & disconnection.

Pool B is on the other hand wide open - five teams (Hungary, Kazakhstan, Ukraine, Spain & Azerbaijan) fight for three play-off spots.

Day 2 report on the official site - https://olymp.fide.com/…/dyx9zutdpj-chi ... -russia-an…

Leaders after Day 2:
Pool A: 1. China - 12. 2. India - 11
Pool B: 1. Hungary - 10
Pool C: 1. Russia - 12. 2. Armenia - 10
Pool D: 1. USA - 12

[LawrenceCooper]

India top their group:

Bo. 6 India Rtg - 4 China Rtg 4 : 2
2.1 GM Vidit, Santosh Gujrathi 2636 - GM Ding, Liren 2836 ½ - ½
2.2 GM Harikrishna, Pentala 2690 - GM Yu, Yangyi 2738 ½ - ½
2.3 GM Koneru, Humpy 2483 - GM Hou, Yifan 2621 ½ - ½
2.4 GM Harika, Dronavalli 2450 - GM Ju, Wenjun 2610 ½ - ½
2.5 GM Praggnanandhaa, R 1781 - GM Liu, Yan 2427 1 - 0
2.6 WIM Divya, Deshmukh 1775 - WGM Zhu, Jiner 2326 1 - 0

[LawrenceCooper]

Ranking crosstable
Rk. Team 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 TB1 TB2 TB3
1 India * 4 4½ 4 3 4 4½ 5½ 4 6 17 39,5 0
2 China 2 * 4½ 4 3½ 5 4½ 5 4½ 6 16 39,0 0
3 Germany 1½ 1½ * 3½ 4½ 3 3½ 1½ 3½ 6 11 28,5 0
4 Iran 2 2 2½ * 2½ 3½ 3 5 4 5½ 9 30,0 0
5 Mongolia 3 2½ 1½ 3½ * 3 2 4 2 6 8 27,5 1
6 Georgia 2 1 3 2½ 3 * 4 4½ 2 5½ 8 27,5 1
7 Indonesia 1½ 1½ 2½ 3 4 2 * 3 3½ 6 8 27,0 0
8 Uzbekistan½ 1 4½ 1 2 1½ 3 * 3½ 5½ 7 22,5 0
9 Vietnam 2 1½ 2½ 2 4 4 2½ 2½ * 6 6 27,0 0
10 Zimbabwe 0 0 0 ½ 0 ½ 0 ½ 0 * 0 1,5 0

[Kevin Thurlow]

"GM Praggnanandhaa, R 1781"

I wouldn't want to play him with that rating!

[Mick Norris]

So if we finish 3rd we play China next

[John Moore]

Mick, I thought if we finished 3rd, we would play the second placed team in Group D but I have no idea where I saw that.