…. started yesterday in Tromso, Norway – over 170 countries and 2,000 players are participating!
As England, Scotland and Wales are all competing in both the Open and Women’s events, it is unclear why the British Broadcasting Corporation feels this is unworthy of note.
Nevertheless, excellent coverage of the 41st Chess Olympiad may be found here
The determination of the BBC and all the Press to ignore the Olympiad is compounded by the fact that the farce of Ilyumzhinov buying his re-election as boss of FIDE makes the six-o’clock news.
I have a distinct feeling, actually, that the moves of Rigaud-Cooper made an appearance recently in a late-night skittle at the club. Would either Mr Gill or Mr Valerio confirm whether my recollection is correct?
It’s easy to find the right moves playing through a game with Fritz, but it is very surprising that Arakhamia-Grant didn’t find 80 Rxb6! getting a crucial protected passed pawn (+14.90 according to Fritz).
In the final position, though, what does Black do? The b-pawn is threatened and if 101…Rf6 102 Rxf6 Kxf6 103 Kf4 Black is going to get squeezed even though the bishop’s on the wrong colour (Fritz starts off by suggesting about +20 and ends up claiming a mate in 42). Arakhamia-Grant had just under two minutes on the clock and had been gaining time with the increments each move for some time. Strange indeed.
Pgn error – she won
Nice to know I’m not going absolutely bonkers!
Didn’t Tim Kett play at one time in the Bedfordshire League? Lost to Short on Board 2 for Wales against England.
England aren’t doing too badly after four rounds, with three wins and a draw. Those of us who don’t like tie-breaking systems can think of them as equal fourth rather than 14th, but either way they are above Germany, France, Hungary and the USA on 6/8. So far.
4th is fine – the team all look to be in good form, especially Sadler with 4/4. In with a good chance I reckon – some of those Eastern European outfits look like accidents waiting to happen to me!
A couple of gems from the Women’s Olympiad which certainly won’t make it into my collection:
From Zimbabwe-Togo, a game which finally erases R F Combe from the record books as the loser of the shortest game of all time in an Olympiad. Combe-Hasenfuss, Scotland v Latvia 1933, went 1.c4 c5 2.d4 cxd4 3.Nf3 e5 4.Nxe5?? Qa5+ 0-1, and survived as a record when it took Black five moves to win in Rigaud-Cooper, Dutch Antilles v Wales 1974: 1. e4 e5 2. f4 d5 3. fxe5 Qh4+ 4. g3 Qxe4+ 5. Kf2 Bc5+ 0-1. But the answer to the trivia quiz question is now Masiyazi v Esse 1. e4 g5 2. d4 f6 3. Qh5# 1-0.
And almost as embarrassing, given the ratings of the players: Nava Starr (2145) – Luzia Pires (1538) Canada v Angola 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Nc3 Bc5?! (allows the fork trick) 4.Nxe5! Bxf2+ 5.Kxf2 Nxe5 6.d4 Qf6+ 7.Kg1 Ne7 8.dxe5?? (“Well, my opponent’s obviously a rabbit, so let’s have a free piece…”) Qb6+ 0-1. Black was apparently aged 11. White became another one to learn the hard way to beware juniors. (For those who use English money, the ratings convert approximately to 192 and 111).
I don’t understand half of what’s going on in the Women’s Olympiad! Can you explain to me why the Scottish top board (Arakhamia-Grant, GM 2394!) took a draw today – a bishop up in a rook ending with two pawns each. Did the board catch fire or am I missing really subtle?
There’s actually some really good stuff being played (imvho) but, as you point out, some hideous blunders (and not just in the lower reaches of the Women’s Olympiad). One of my favourites is Almasi (GM 2690) v Yu (GM 2668) in round 3 in the open. You can hear Zoltan’s thought process at move 81 (“I’ve had the better of this game but now I’d better to settle for a draw – anything will do – just need to keep the queens on or swap off that f-pawn – oh bugga….!”)