39th Olympiad Khanty-Mansiysk 2010 (the chess)

[Alex Holowczak]

Anyone care for a guess as to how we got paired with France for the next round? I haven't got a great deal of knowledge about pairings, but surely with the number of teams on the same points seeds 12 and 10 shouldn't be paired at this stage?

It's done by gamepoints. So you're reseeded within your matchpoint scoregroup depending on how many gamepoints you have.

At least, that works for the 8-matchpoint scoregroup!

I have absolutely no idea how the pairings were done for the 6-matchpoint scoregroup at all. Azerbaijan upfloat because they have the most gamepoints on 6 matchpoints - Bulgaria have had two whites in a row. So that explains that. After that though, it seems almost random, and I can't really understand it.

I would ask the arbiters if it were my problem, but I fear I'd get a lot of pointing at computers, and not a lot of verbal explanation.

[Michael Jones]

Nepomniachtchi vs Sasikiran was a nice finish.

The Russia 2 team all look about twelve years old.
http://ugra-chess.com/players.php?teami ... =en&tmnt=1

Especially Timofeev, who's apparently been playing computer games so much he's turned into one of the characters.

At the opposite end of the scale to KAG, Vallejo and Smeets apparently fancied having most of the day off.

Which way round are the colours against France? Black against Vachier-Lagrave would be pretty tough for either Adams or Short.

[LozCooper]

Anyone care for a guess as to how we got paired with France for the next round? I haven't got a great deal of knowledge about pairings, but surely with the number of teams on the same points seeds 12 and 10 shouldn't be paired at this stage?

It's done by gamepoints. So you're reseeded within your matchpoint scoregroup depending on how many gamepoints you have.

At least, that works for the 8-matchpoint scoregroup!

I have absolutely no idea how the pairings were done for the 6-matchpoint scoregroup at all. Azerbaijan upfloat because they have the most gamepoints on 6 matchpoints - Bulgaria have had two whites in a row. So that explains that. After that though, it seems almost random, and I can't really understand it.

I would ask the arbiters if it were my problem, but I fear I'd get a lot of pointing at computers, and not a lot of verbal explanation.

My experience of the arbiters so far is that you get a lot of verbals but not a lot in the way of explanations. The pairing is a mystery to me (10th seed playing 12th in a scoregroup of 20+ teams and both in the bottom half on tie-break) but i don't wish to dwell on it. It could certainly be a pivotal match for both teams.

My list of gripes with arbiters so far includes them distracting the players by talking loudly (when I shushed two of them I got the response "We're arbiters man, you can't shush us or tell us what to do" and they carried on making a lot of noise, removing players from the match area virtually as they finish whilst allowing people with no connection to hang around, standing to close to the players and noisily resetting pieces. Bizarrely the women's team have even had to contend with having the sun in their eyes although this is one occasion where there isn't much the arbiters can do, apart from stand in the way to block it out

[LozCooper]

Round 5 board pairings:

Bo. 10 France (FRA) Rtg - 12 England (ENG) Rtg 0 : 0
14.1 GM Vachier-Lagrave Maxime 2721 - GM Adams Michael 2728
14.2 GM Fressinet Laurent 2718 - GM Short Nigel D 2690
14.3 GM Tkachiev Vladislav 2632 - GM McShane Luke J 2657
14.4 GM Feller Sebastien 2649 - GM Howell David W L 2616

Bo. 39 England (ENG) Rtg - 69 Iceland (ISL) Rtg 0 : 0
24.1 IM Houska Jovanka 2426 - WGM Ptacnikova Lenka 2282
24.2 WIM Lauterbach Ingrid 2169 - Thorsteinsdottir Hallgerdur 1995
24.3 Bhatia Kanwal K 2072 - Fridthjofsdottir Sigurl Regin 1812
24.4 WFM Hegarty Sarah N 2084 - Finnbogadottir Tinna Kristin 1781

[Roger de Coverly]

The pairing is a mystery to me (10th seed playing 12th in a scoregroup of 20+ teams and both in the bottom half on tie-break)

The rules for tie-break aren't the same as the rules for pairing.

If you look at the end of the page on the chess-results site it states

Tie Break1: Matchpoints (2 for wins, 1 for Draws, 0 for Losses)
Tie Break2: Olympiad-Sonneborn-Berger-Tie-Break without lowest result (Khanty-Mansiysk)
Tie Break3: points (game-points)
Tie Break4: Sum Matchpoints (2,1,0) without lowest result (Olympiad Khanty-Mansiysk)

whereas pairings are
match points
game points
rating

Although if you're doing pairings by game points, it would seem logical to do rankings the same way.

[Matthew Turner]

In the mens' match, I think board 3 will be crucial tomorrow. Luke doesn't seem to be playing his best, but there is always the prospect of Tkachiev going on a giant bender on the rest day.

[Roger de Coverly]

but there is always the prospect of Tkachiev going on a giant bender on the rest day.

It won't help Luke though. They play today (Saturday), the Bermuda party is said to be tonight, and on Sunday they rest.

[Matthew Turner]

What an interesting choice from Short

[Matthew Turner]

It look like England have made a good start to me. Nigel seems to got his opponent thinking early on and Adams looks to have a fine position to me.

[Matthew Peat]

According to Marin, Black is better in the Short game provided he continues 11....Kg6 but probably you can only make such a move if you have looked at this line at home.

[Richard Bates]

According to Marin, Black is better in the Short game provided he continues 11....Kg6 but probably you can only make such a move if you have looked at this line at home.

One would expect a 2700 GM to know his theory. And (assuming Kg6 is theory) if you've looked at it once, it's probably not a move you're likely to forget.

[Richard Bates]

It look like England have made a good start to me. Nigel seems to got his opponent thinking early on and Adams looks to have a fine position to me.

Adams looks to have the sort of position that is either genuinely OK, or looks superficially OK but goes downhill very quickly.

[Matthew Turner]

Richard,
Kg6 might even be slight better for Black, but presumably Short has prepared this and he could be an hour up on the clock when it is played. I'll take White to win. I do very agree with your comments re Adams' game

[Richard Bates]

Does Short usually play these lines with new ideas in mind, or is he usually just testing his opponents' theoretical knowledge?

I think length of the think indicates that Fressinet is probably on his own.

[Matthew Turner]

24...c5 from Adams? if dxc5 Nf4!