39th Olympiad Khanty-Mansiysk 2010 (the chess)

[Mark Howitt]

We might have to wait until after the event to know why McShane wasn't played in this game- he should have been.

[Ian Kingston]

Can anyone tell me what ...d2 was all about? I thought ...Qc5+ left Black OKish

After 34...Qc5+ 35. Qxc5 bxc5 36. g5 threatens mate in 1. Black loses the h- and g-pawns and mating threats remain.

[John Philpott]

Meanwhile, Meri and Kanwal have won for the Women's team.

[Alan Walton]

McShane has played every game already, and also had a 100+ move game yesterday, so that is a good excuse to be rested

I think the players in the whole squad are good enough, and resting Luke in this round was a sensible idea if he was expected to play the final 3 rounds

[David Brock]

Also look at Gawains game he is playing best out of all the players today. So if Luke was playing it would have probably been Gawain who missed out not David or Nigel.

[Richard Cowan]

34...Qc5+ doesn't work, but is ...Rc2+ then ...fxe6 an alternative to the crazy-looking Rf1+?

[Alex Holowczak]

We might have to wait until after the event to know why McShane wasn't played in this game- he should have been.

I'm not so sure it mattered; the team we put out should still have beaten Belarus over 4 boards.

I'm quite disappointed, today was a golden opportunity to move up the field.

[Alan Walton]

After Rc2+ Kg3, fxe6 f7 seems good for white

[Simon Ansell]

Maybe we should play Gawain on board one next time can't believe Micky took the easy road out with the early draw after his win against Magnus yesterday. But Sai la vie

You think it's easy beating 2640 GMs with Black?

The board order can't be changed during the event. Gawain hasn't played that well today, his opening was poor.

England should have been able to win this match with any 4 of the 5.

[David Brock]

Simon I was only joking (calm down calm down). I am sure none of the players go out and intentionally lose it's just disappointing that when it matters we as a team seem to be lacking in some department to take that step up. Whether it is the sense of occasion or tiredness or something else who knows. In three of the games we seemed to play with our backs to the walls and the other was an early draw. I thought Micky might have played on for a while to see what happened in the other games before agreeing a draw.

However it is easy to criticise when we have not been in that position. I think we all wanted to see a win and to see how far we could go. This really does say goodbye to a top ten finish now.

The other thing is who can we say is coming through to challenge these five for the next Olympiad . If no one then we can not expect much difference in our results next time. As Nigel and Mickey have carried the flag on their own for a number of years it would be nice to see some fresh blood come through capable of playing to 2700+ strength. As both Nigel And Mickey are not getting any younger.

We need to learn from other Countries if we want to do well as the ECF as far as I can see is an amateur organisation and what we really need is funding to run a Professional organisation. We also need direction on bringing chess in at grass roots level in every school not just ones where some of the teachers are interested in it. Then we would have the players coming through and not just by keeping our fingers crossed that a miracle will happen. I'm not an expert by any means but i do believe that the likes of Turkey have the right idea ( maybe someone can confirm this). Really some of this should come by way of FIDE but until they sort their house out then this is not going to happen.

[Simon Ansell]

I'm perfectly calm!

I was just making the point that it's ridiculous to criticise Mickey for making a quick draw with Black against their by far most dangerous player. In the context of a 4 board match, a draw with Black on 1 is a good result.

2700s can't just be produced like that, it takes a pretty special talent regardless of the environment.

[Alex Holowczak]

We need to learn from other Countries if we want to do well as the ECF as far as I can see is an amateur organisation and what we really need is funding to run a Professional organisation.

Other countries have the buffer of being recognised as a sport, so they get government funding. We're actually losing the DCMS grant next year (probably), having gone from £60,000, to £45,000 to £0.

The ECF's structure as a Federation doesn't help. For example, if the 4NCL were run by the ECF before someone else came along and organised it, then they'd be running major national competitions that could potentially generate income. Unfortunately, such is the nature of a federation, that the ECF doesn't organise many competitions. Instead of the 4NCL, the ECF is instead lumbered with the National Club, which according to the Director's reports, seems to be slowly dying out.

[Mick Norris]

3-1 defeat is disappointing, but shows just how tough all these teams can be

I see Ivanchuk won and so Ukraine won again, as did the Azeris, and Russia 1 beat Russia 2

Carlsen won, but Topalov lost

[Maxim Devereaux]

Sam Collins drew and Ireland won comfortably, so that ought to mean another GM for Sam tomorrow and that'll be all the titled players he needs for his norm. 2/3 now. Maybe 1.5 even

EDIT: ran some numbers: 2/3 vs. 2343 average or 1.5 vs. 2505 average, both with 1 GM, any others.

[Roger de Coverly]

For example, if the 4NCL were run by the ECF before someone else came along and organised it, then they'd be running major national competitions that could potentially generate income. Unfortunately, such is the nature of a federation, that the ECF doesn't organise many competitions. Instead of the 4NCL, the ECF is instead lumbered with the National Club, which according to the Director's reports, seems to be slowly dying out.

Cynics have long stated that successful ventures in English chess have usually arisen despite the BCF/ECF rather than because of it. It's worth recalling the long run of Olympiad success from 1976 to 2000. We had a world championship finalist in 1993 (Short) and Adams came very close to winning the FIDE KO version. The BCF wasn't more professional in the 1970s, 80s and 90s than it is today. It did however have the advantage of sponsorship income both for domestic events and the national team. This was in addition to the government grant.

Both the Counties Competition and the National Club could potentially have evolved into the 4NCL. There are a number of reasons why this didn't happen, the obsession with complex eligibility frameworks amongst them.