England teams for 2011 European Team Championship

[Leonard Barden]

A question from a technophobe - is there an easier way to play through the games online? I have to click on each move in the column, surely that's not right?

I have recommended www.whychess.com more than once in my columns, and I thought from a previous post that Jonathan read the online Guardian version. In my opinion whychess is the most convenient way now to follow most big events. It has all the live games today in a very user-friendly form with Houdini assessments after every move.

England lead 1.5--0.5 with Howell -3 and Adams +2 on Houdini assessments.

[Jonathan Rogers]

yes, I certainly do read your column in the Guardian - I'll follow up that advice in future.

[Leonard Barden]

The live feed seems to have broken down for a considerable time, but chessresults is showing 2.5-1.5 for England men (win for Adams, loss for Howell) and a 1-3 defeat for England women (Bhatia 0).

[Mick Norris]

England won, which puts us ahead of the French and Dutch

England v Greece tomorrow (they beat Cyprus 4-0)

England ladies v Israel (who lost 3-1 to Russia)

[Nick Thomas]

We'll do well to beat Greece who have a very strong team and always seem to perform well in these team events.

[Paul Cooksey]

Tie of the round, Armenia-Azerbaijan
3.1 GM Aronian Levon 2802 - GM Radjabov Teimour 2781
3.2 GM Movsesian Sergei 2710 - GM Gashimov Vugar 2757
3.3 GM Akopian Vladimir 2681 - GM Mamedyarov Shakhriyar 2733
3.4 GM Sargissian Gabriel 2671 - GM Guseinov Gadir 2636

[Mick Norris]

England Greece
5.1 GM Adams Michael 2734 - GM Banikas Hristos 2620
5.2 GM Short Nigel D 2698 - GM Mastrovasilis Dimitrios 2621
5.3 GM Howell David W L 2633 - GM Papaioannou Ioannis 2600
5.4 GM Jones Gawain C B 2635 - GM Halkias Stelios

[Mick Norris]

Israel England
10.1 IM Klinova Masha 2316 - IM Houska Jovanka 2415
10.2 WIM Porat Maya 2299 - IM Ciuksyte Dagne 2327
10.3 WIM Efroimski Marsel 2230 - WFM Yurenok Maria S 2106
10.4 WIM Vasiliev Olga 2305 - WFM Bhatia Kanwal K 2087

[Jonathan Rogers]

England Greece
5.1 GM Adams Michael 2734 - GM Banikas Hristos 2620
5.2 GM Short Nigel D 2698 - GM Mastrovasilis Dimitrios 2621
5.3 GM Howell David W L 2633 - GM Papaioannou Ioannis 2600
5.4 GM Jones Gawain C B 2635 - GM Halkias Stelios

The Greeks are certainly respectable and are playing at home, but even so it seems to me that we can hardly complain about this pairing.

Interesting to see that Howell and Gawain are both playing again; after yesterday Nick must be wondering how badly they will have to play before he gets his chance! Unless, that is, he is not there yet - I gather that Sarah is arriving late, so maybe the same is true of Nick for work-related reasons.

[Mick Norris]

I think if we had won 3-1 yesterday we would have played Germany today

[Kevin Thurlow]

Is there an explanation of the pairing system somewhere?

[Mick Norris]

Kevin

As far as I can tell, it is based on Match points then Game points are used to rank the teams

If you look here:
http://www.chess-results.com/tnr57856.a ... ES&flag=30
you have the teams in ranking order after round 1

The top 16 have 2 match points (TB1) and then are ranked in games points (TB2) then I think Starting Rank (SNo) probably as TB3 is the same for all?

Then the draw is 1 v 16, 2 v 15, 3 v 14 etc

No idea how this would work with colour sequences

[Kevin Williamson]

Tie of the round, Armenia-Azerbaijan
3.1 GM Aronian Levon 2802 - GM Radjabov Teimour 2781
3.2 GM Movsesian Sergei 2710 - GM Gashimov Vugar 2757
3.3 GM Akopian Vladimir 2681 - GM Mamedyarov Shakhriyar 2733
3.4 GM Sargissian Gabriel 2671 - GM Guseinov Gadir 2636

Interesting how it’s fine for these countries to be paired at chess, but at football UEFA go to great lengths to keep them apart. For Euro 2012 qualification:

“Before the draw UEFA confirmed that, for political reasons, Armenia would not be drawn against Azerbaijan (due to the dispute concerning territory of Nagorno-Karabakh) and Georgia would not be drawn against Russia (due to the dispute regarding the territory of South Ossetia).”

I guess a Russia – Georgia chess pairing would also be OK. Maybe playing at a neutral venue is the key factor.

[Mick Norris]

Tie of the round, Armenia-Azerbaijan
3.1 GM Aronian Levon 2802 - GM Radjabov Teimour 2781
3.2 GM Movsesian Sergei 2710 - GM Gashimov Vugar 2757
3.3 GM Akopian Vladimir 2681 - GM Mamedyarov Shakhriyar 2733
3.4 GM Sargissian Gabriel 2671 - GM Guseinov Gadir 2636

Interesting how it’s fine for these countries to be paired at chess, but at football UEFA go to great lengths to keep them apart. For Euro 2012 qualification:

“Before the draw UEFA confirmed that, for political reasons, Armenia would not be drawn against Azerbaijan (due to the dispute concerning territory of Nagorno-Karabakh) and Georgia would not be drawn against Russia (due to the dispute regarding the territory of South Ossetia).”

I guess a Russia – Georgia chess pairing would also be OK. Maybe playing at a neutral venue is the key factor.

Maybe having no travelling spectators is the big factor

[Mick Norris]

Games under way - live coverage here:
http://euro2011.chessdom.com/etcc-2011- ... n-section/