Ireland at the 41st World Chess Olympiad Tromsø 2014

brianhere

i.e. I wonder if ye chess pros out here could tell this gossan how does his opponent now defend against queen to d7?

cdeb

Rf8 looks forced for starters!

Though maybe 1. Qd7 Qa1+ 2. Kh2 Rf8 3. RxP QxP is ok for black.

Sparks

Ra8 seems to have been a better retort?

checknraise

Only person in danger of losing now is Baburin because his opponent has two bishops and will always be slightly worse in any endings and his two minor pieces are awkwardly placed . I dont see him losing it tho.

Predicting 3.5 - .5 for Ireland with either Alex or Sam nicking a win....

cdeb

Baburin has kept the queens on, which will hopefully help him eke out some sort of attack.

But would bite your hand off at 3½-½.

Zugszwang

No, Qa1+ first then Rf8, then White's c pawn hangs.

Collins won't win this against sensible play, but may well win it :-)

brianhere

Point taken I suppose that attack would go nowhere. I wonder will Baburin go knight to h7 to start unravelling the knight?

brianhere

Just to cover the other games: Alex has gone a solid two pawns up and I suppose should now win. Mark's attack has kind of petered out although he is up a pawn and might now go up another one.

cdeb

Don't understand why Mark's opponent just gave up a pawn there?

Does he feel that much under pressure? Going two pawns down can't really help?

brianhere

He is under time pressure though, only a minute left until move 40.

cdeb

Sam takes a draw. Was going nowhere anyway.

cdeb

Bit of a boo-boo from Mark's opponent allowing Qxf7+

That game's over so.

cdeb

Poormina wins; 3-0 up against Palestine.

Lopez facing mate in one and has to be very careful. Mark missing various mates, but I'm sure he'll get there in the end.

cdeb

Mark eschews mate in favour of the more fun "I'll take all your pieces first and then mate you" route. A mere rook and queen up by the end of that.

Alex has negotiated his last few moves well, it seems; back to being well on top.

Baburin has an interesting endgame; a (doubled, isolated) pawn down in a same-colour bishop ending. Definite drawing chances there I'd say. I wonder will the psychological effect of the ratings gap make his opponent happy with a draw if Alex wins to end the match as a contest?

Karina looking like drawing.

brianhere

Although the games aren't over yet its pretty obvious that Alex Lopez will win and Alex Baburin will draw (his opponents king cannot go wandering or the black pawn will go down so maybe they have agreed a draw already?) So thats 3 to 1 another great result!

cdeb

Baburin has drawn.

3-1 is a teensy bit disappointing; expected score was 3½-½.

A half point can always be dropped, but it seems every game, we're a half point or so under expected score. Which can only mean we're due a good result soon.

Ficheall

Looks like Valentin Iotov of Bulgaria is the only player on 5 out of 5 in the Open section. Fair play to him

cdeb

Andorra in round 6. Another team we should beat; they've a strong board 1, but there's a 300-point gap to board 2.

Obviously not to say we will beat them, but if we do, then we're in line for quite a decent team in round 7 potentially.

The women have Lebanon; a bit stronger than them; similar to Chile.

No games on Thursday though; a deserved night on the piss for everyone tonight.

macelligott

It's interesting that Colm Daly is being "rested" again in round 6 of the "open" section. He has only got 3 games from the first 6 rounds. It's not that the other team members are doing exceptionally well and he is doing badly. Mind you I haven't gone over the games and am just going by the results. However, it may well be that Colm didn't want to play today for some reason. But the good news is that we have a really good chance to beat Andorra today. Their top board is strong but the Irish team is much stringer on boards 2, 3 & 4. We should score 3-1 or better :-)

checknraise

The only logic behind Colm being rested today is surely to even out the colours. Mark Heidenfeld has had white every game.

Sparks

Today's matches up here...

brianhere

Well anyway Sam has won, via a kind of discovered attack on his oppenent's queen which the latter seemed to be too relaxed about. Mark has also won but I was sure he was going to draw, what happened? Alex Lopez is looking comfortableish, he has two bishops and doubled up pawn advantage but its early days yet there. The computer has Baburin doing well but it looks very dangerous, his opponent certainly has some play?

checknraise

I really do not see how Mark could have won and I am guessing it was agreed a draw.

Baburin is easily winning now tho too many discovered attacks.

The first time Sam hasn't played an ultra solid opening and he won easily.

macelligott

The Mark Heidenfeld result looks like a mistake. His opponent had 16 minutes left so could hardly loose on time. I think it was a draw.

brianhere

I think you must be right, another glitch, it must be a draw.

cdeb

Phone going off is another possibility.

But given we've already had an example of a win and draw being mixed up (Gearóidín's game), I'd imagine it was a draw alright.

cdeb

Grischuk's game getting rave reviews on the twitter; apparently it would push him over 2800 for the first time too if he won.

brianhere

Baburin definitely ahead now, his opponent has lost what I thought was a dangerous knight...

Yreval

brianhere wrote: »

Mark has also won but I was sure he was going to draw, what happened?

Yeah, I'm pretty sure that's a mistake. If that is correct, though, we're well-placed to secure a whitewash with significant advantages for Baburin and Lopez.

On the women's side, Lebanon appear to have board 3 in the bag, but Kruk's doing the business on the next board. Nekrasova-Mirza on 2 looks headed for a draw, while board 1 is swinging about quite a bit - Poornima was losing for a while but she's right back in it as I type this.

cdeb

Baburin wins. 3-0. Officially anyway!

Sparks

cdeb wrote: »

Phone going off is another possibility.

With the amount of security they're all having to go through to get into the place? Unless they just waived the security today, that'd be a bit surprising.

Site's saying Baburin's won his game now...

L1m1tless

Nice Finish by Barburin. Its looking like 3.5 - .5

Yreval

Poornima apparently has a mate in 23... it's 1-1 as it stands.

cdeb

She's missed it; computer giving dead level now?

brianhere

I think Alex Lopez has a pawn now if he wants it? Because king to f4 challenging the knight has to be replied with knight to e4? I could be wrong though as usual!

mikhail

cdeb wrote: »

Phone going off is another possibility.

But given we've already had an example of a win and draw being mixed up (Gearóidín's game), I'd imagine it was a draw alright.

I don't think they can bring a phone into the hall any more.

brianhere

No he didn't want it, he is after bigger fish here! He clearly wants to hunt down blacks bishop on f8 by opening up his black square bishop...

brianhere

A simple trick by Alex has just won two pawns so I think thats it, a 4-0 by the computer but maybe a 3 1/2 win in relaity.

cdeb

mikhail wrote: »

I don't think they can bring a phone into the hall any more.

Are they searched on the way in?

Otherwise yes, you're right, but they'd only know he had it if it went off. Wouldn't be the first time.

But agree a draw is more likely if the clocks are correct

Sparks

Site says Alex has won, so his opponent must have seen the writing on the wall. A 4-0 round for us so, that's a nice result

Sparks

cdeb wrote: »

Are they searched on the way in?

Yup. Susan Polger's got some nice photos up including ones showing the entry security:

L1m1tless

As expected, the result has changed to a draw for Heidenfeld now.

cdeb

Bloody hell on the security!

3.5 is a good win; maybe the first time we've exceeded the expected score?

Touch wood now we get a top 40 team or better next round.

How's the women's team doing?

Sparks

cdeb wrote: »

Bloody hell on the security!

Welcome to zero tolerance anti-cheating rules. Last time I saw that much security it was for the Olympic shooting in the UK (at which point most of the pistols being used were illegal to own in the UK so everything was over the top).

EnPassant

The open team are playing Scotland tomorrow who are close to Ireland in strength:-
1 GM McNab Colin A 2441
2 IM Greet Andrew N 2431
3 GM Shaw John 2419
4 FM Tate Alan 2347
5 IM McKay Roderick M 2349

The women play Qatar who only have 4 players, all lower-rated than Ireland.

There are day by day reports from the team captains on the ICU site:
http://www.icu.ie/articles/455 (Open)
http://www.icu.ie/articles/456 (Women)
Currently they are up to round 5.

The Chess Results site is very good: Carlsen is 5th in terms of rating performance so far: http://www.chess-results.com/tnr140380.aspx?lan=1&art=5&fed=GUY&flag=30&wi=821

cdeb

Interesting draw for us; very winnable (as indeed it is for Scotland of course). But if either of us win, we'll be up to five wins from seven games. Could be some very good teams on ten. The loser of Armenia v Hungary, for example. Norway and Germany if they draw. The loser of Bulgaria v Holland.

Could be a tasty tie for us yet!

checknraise

Daly is not playing again. I wonder is it getting personal!?

Sparks

checknraise wrote: »

Daly is not playing again. I wonder is it getting personal!?

For the lowest ranked player not to play in a challenging match in favour of a better player? You'd need a monumental ego to think that personal when playing in the Irish team. The only I in team being in the a-hole and all that.

checknraise

Having played both Mark is certainly not a better player then Colm. He might be higher rated but that is more due to playing very little and being slightly more consistent.

I can guarantee you if anybody was in Colm's position they would be extremely annoyed having 2.5 out of 3 (all with black) and not looking likely you were going to get a look in.

Sparks

checknraise wrote: »

Having played both Mark is certainly not a better player then Colm. He might be higher rated but that is more due to playing very little and being slightly more consistent.

I can guarantee you if anybody was in Colm's position they would be extremely annoyed having 2.5 out of 3 (all with black) and not looking likely you were going to get a look in.

So he's higher ranked and more consistent and there's an important game and you think you shouldn't pick him? That'd be a good reason to be irked.

As to Colm 's position, well, he's just played three games for his country in a big event despite slandering his team captain, the women's team captain, the arbiters at the Olympiad and half the remaining ICU committee for the last year, and he was banned from Irish Chess for several years in the recent past for doing the same thing to his current teammates so it's not like he doesn't know that kind of thing isn't on. Frankly, there's no real grounds for him to be complaining at all, if anything he's been extremely fortunate - most sports would have banned him for life years ago with a record like that rather than give him a chance to represent his country internationally.