44th Olympiad, Chennai 28 July to 10 August 2022

[JustinHorton]

The first one is a bit odd, though - did her underdog opponent lose on time or something?

Presumably she's losing the b-pawn? Even then you'd think she could play on.

[Jonathan Rogers]

Drama on Shankland's board! Probably even worse to be a USA supporter right now.

(Did the USA pick their board order - that which resulted in Naka's unavailability - before the Candidates'?)

[JustinHorton]

Drama on Shankland's board!

Amazing (disregard the diagram in that clip by the way, the king's on b1)

[LawrenceCooper]

Drama on Shankland's board!

Amazing (disregard the diagram in that clip by the way, the king's on b1)

Ironically, Susan Polgar had just tweeted about him saving the draw.

[Nick Burrows]

Couldn't happen to a nicer team

I'm sure they will still win the thing - though I really hope not.

[JustinHorton]

Odd thing in the standings: Armenia, clear leaders at present, have only 19.5 board points, and in the top 20 there are only five teams with a worse score.

Eight have better and two much better: Uzbekistan (23) and India 2 (22.5).

The only team with a significantly worse score (i.e. lower than 19) is the USA (18).

(it is not of course the main tie-break method.)

[Christopher Kreuzer]

Round 8 pairings out.

Armenia (13) - (12) India
USA (12) - (12) India 2
Germany (12) - (12) Uzbekistan
Kazakhstan (12) - (11) Azerbaijan

England (9) way down the pairings list and play Belgium.
Ireland (9) are already ahead of England on tiebreak and play Austria next.
Scotland (8) against UAE.
Wales (7) play South Africa.
Guernsey (5) play Mozambique.
Jersey (6) play Thailand.

[David Sedgwick]

Couldn't happen to a nicer team

I'm sure they will still win the thing - though I really hope not.

I don't dislike any of the American players.

[LawrenceCooper]

Round 8 pairings out.

Armenia (13) - (12) India
USA (12) - (12) India 2
Germany (12) - (12) Uzbekistan
Kazakhstan (12) - (11) Azerbaijan

England (9) way down the pairings list and play Belgium.
Ireland (9) are already ahead of England on tiebreak and play Austria next.
Scotland (8) against UAE.
Wales (7) play South Africa.
Guernsey (5) play Mozambique.
Jersey (6) play Thailand.

England women's team deserve a mention as they are only two points off the medal positions. They play Iran in round 8. All the best to the team.

[Christopher Kreuzer]

I think any US antipathy is maybe more a perception of how the team has been 'purchased' by the funding that has enabled a number of players to switch federation (I think I have that right). I agree with David, nothing to talk about in terms of the individual players.

Back to the chess, I was looking through David Howell's game from today's round, and it is a nice finish to a hard-fought game that was level at around move 50 when White made the finally decisive blunder and David efficiently brought home the win. It features an underpromotion (by his opponent)! Though not a particularly useful underpromotion.

Yes, Loz is quite right; apologies for not yet looking at how the women's team were doing - I was about to check that next... (India are going to win that easily, aren't they, with 7/7 so far).

[Nick Burrows]

I don't dislike any of the American players.

Neither do I.

[A.Kluckova]

"England women's team deserve a mention as they are only two points off the medal positions. They play Iran in round 8. All the best to the team."

England only lost with India ( seed 1 ) and Armenia ( seed 9). Tomorrow's opponent is Iran - seed 38, so a chance . Good luck to the team !!

[NickFaulks]

(it is not of course the main tie-break method.)

For reasons which nobody has ever been able to explain to me.

[John Moore]

Interesting that both Luke and Ravi play against Belgium today despite losing yesterday. I rather expected Gawain to return. Perhaps he's a bit under the weather.

[MartinCarpenter]

I think any US antipathy is maybe more a perception of how the team has been 'purchased' by the funding that has enabled a number of players to switch federation (I think I have that right). I agree with David, nothing to talk about in terms of the individual players.

Definitely for me. Would definitely prefer if this was kept out of international events - there's loads of club style events that work as outlets for this sort of thing. Hardly important though

It is also gently amusing when this sort of team does still fail. Like when someone was doing it with Monaco in Bridge.