39th Olympiad Khanty-Mansiysk 2010 (the chess)

[David Brock]

looks like a draw now as position repeated three times and they are not trying anything different if so well done Luke and nice win by England.

[Michael Jones]

Luke's hardly likely to either offer or accept an exchange when he only needs a draw. If black wants to play b6 to avoid the fifty move draw, he'll either have to put the rook on b4 (where it would be trapped) or a6 (where it would be completely out of play). Not likely either way.

Erm... has my game viewer gone wrong, or has black just chucked his knight away for nothing?

[Maxim Devereaux]

I'm guessing Luke is confident of his ability to hold this, and didn't claim a draw as he wants to see if his opponent gets too creative in his winning attempts, and gives Luke any winning chances in return. I don't think that's very likely, but it's either that or Luke is short of time and didn't want to risk claiming a draw and be wrong (they were so close together, I'm sure he'd have been aware of it, but maybe wasn't sure since he couldn't follow the usual procedure - i.e. he didn't have a move to claim with).

In other news, the Chucky express marches on - 5/5 now, and I think his rating performance is now up around 3357

And Sam Collins won again, taking him to 4.5/5, helping Ireland to 2-2 with Krygyzstan, and must now be over 2700 on rating performance. He's also likely to appear in the top 20 list for the board 1 prize by this evening... maybe near the bottom of it, but he'll probably be almost the only player in that list rated under 2600! If he can get the two more GMs he needs to play (a pairing like Singapore would be nice tomorrow) then he's looking very good for his final GM norm.

[Phil Neatherway]

the live feed has black dropping his knight on d3.

[Maxim Devereaux]

the live feed has black dropping his knight on d3.

I'm quite sure that's going to be a transmission error, or the players moving pieces after agreeing a draw but not placing the kings on d4&d5/e4&e5.

[Michael Jones]

Also in other news, some bloke I've never heard of has beaten Wang Yue, although it didn't stop China winning the match.

Luke's game is listed as a draw, so I presume the last move was an error.

[Mark Howitt]

Quite a good pairing tomorrow too. Get our strongest team out and we've got and a good chance of a result

[Maxim Devereaux]

Some big big clashes tomorrow:
Ukraine - Georgia
Armenia - Azerbaijan
Russia 2 - Russia 1
USA - Poland

Yes, Belarus is about as "easy" as it gets when you're on 75% and in the bottom half of the draw for that score group. Nothing is a foregone conclusion, but it's got to be considered a fair chance.

EDIT: And I see Ireland have the United Arab Emirates, a beatable team, but with a GM on board 1 for Sam to play, Salem A R Saleh. That's a great pairing for them. If they can win, and Sam can avoid losing, then his final norm is getting really quite realistic.

[Mick Norris]

And Sam Collins won again, taking him to 4.5/5, helping Ireland to 2-2 with Krygyzstan, and must now be over 2700 on rating performance. He's also likely to appear in the top 20 list for the board 1 prize by this evening... maybe near the bottom of it, but he'll probably be almost the only player in that list rated under 2600! If he can get the two more GMs he needs to play (a pairing like Singapore would be nice tomorrow) then he's looking very good for his final GM norm.

Ireland play UAE, who have a GM on top board, hopefully he won't be rested

[Maxim Devereaux]

UAE have played their top 3 in every match so far, and subbed out their board 4 for 5 only twice, so hopefully that will continue tomorrow. With a team the shape theirs is, it's kind of necessary. They shouldn't stand a chance against Ireland without Saleh.

[Alex Holowczak]

Anyone else hope Russia 2 beats Russia 1?

[Michael Jones]

It might be nice, but I think it's unlikely if R1 put their strongest team out. Likely pairings are Kramnik - Nepo, Grischuk - Alekseev, Svidler - Vitiugov and Karjakin - Tomashevsky. R2 might manage to draw every game but it's hard to see where they'd get the win from.

So Israel vs Iran might be too much of a political hot potato to be allowed, but Armenia vs Azerbaijan apparently isn't - wasn't it at the last Olympiad that Chessbase ran a headline "Radjabov: we all hate Armenians", swiftly followed by a retraction?

[Alex Holowczak]

It might be nice, but I think it's unlikely if R1 put their strongest team out. Likely pairings are Kramnik - Nepo, Grischuk - Alekseev, Svidler - Vitiugov and Karjakin - Tomashevsky. R2 might manage to draw every game but it's hard to see where they'd get the win from.

So Israel vs Iran might be too much of a political hot potato to be allowed, but Armenia vs Azerbaijan apparently isn't - wasn't it at the last Olympiad that Chessbase ran a headline "Radjabov: we all hate Armenians", swiftly followed by a retraction?

Israel aren't playing Iran. Russia 3 v Iran, and Uzbekistan v Israel.

Armenia and Azerbaijan play each other at chess quite often. They played at the World Team Championship in Turkey last year. If Armenia v Azerbaijan was ever going to cause a problem politically, it would have been in Turkey.

Let's just worry about the chess.

[Matthew Turner]

Right from the start I thought Russia 2 had a great chance to finish ahead of Russia 1. The last few Olympiads have seen youth fare well over experience. I don't have a personal preference, but I think Russia 2 have a good chance tomorrow.

[Matthew Turner]

Fantastic performance from Adams today, but I understand the big winner was an Indian bookmaker who was taken bets on the opening on board 1