Baku Olympiad

cdeb

Uruguay are certainly imploding nicely!

Gearóidín's opponent has sacced knight for pawn, hoping her 3v1 queenside majority will overpower the knight. I don't see how it will though - but the question of course is can Gearóidín avoid her last two pawns being swapped off.

cdeb

The dead live!

Stephen has fought to a (presumably drawn) R v R+N ending. Time is low for both, but the king isn't in any particular danger, so just keep away from forks and skewers and we should win 3½-½.

Seems white finally went wrong on move 81, where the nice Ng3 is winning as it's immune from capture and the king has time to come over.

Joedryan

cdeb wrote: »

The dead live!

Stephen has fought to a (presumably drawn) R v R+N ending. Time is low for both, but the king isn't in any particular danger, so just keep away from forks and skewers and we should win 3½-½.

Seems white finally went wrong on move 81, where the nice Ng3 is winning as it's immune from capture and the king has time to come over.

He drew it! That is a complete miracle to be honest and awful technique by his opponent in a completely won position.

RQ_ennis_chess

Looking like the men will get some sort of result today. Baburin outfoxed his opponent to put us 1 up, looks like O'Donnell will lose, Daly probably win so will probably depend on Mark Heidenfelds game whether we win or draw the match

RQ_ennis_chess

I might have been too hasty calling that! Looks like Conor is doing ok now, his opponent didn't play Rxf3, maybe it wasn't as good as it looked on first glance so a team win very much on the cards!

Tim Harding

sodacat11 wrote: »

Being friends with someone isn't a crime but some of the name dropping like "I bumped into my friend Vesko Topalov" must surely be?
*snip*

The European Chess Federation has decided to suspend Jonathan's pal Danailov for 18 months to take effect in a month's time:
http://www.europechess.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/Final_Decision_13_2014_14_2014.pdf

macelligott

Colm Daly is doing well - I have a bet on him to gain rating points at the Olympiad (€100) :-) Colm is up 12 rating points after today's match - so my bet is not secure by any means. However, I think having to be at the board within 15 minutes of the start of each game is benefiting Colm.

Joedryan

Tim Harding wrote: »

The European Chess Federation has decided to suspend Jonathan's pal Danailov for 18 months to take effect in a month's time:

ufff, the FIDE ethics committee sticks the boot in.

Joedryan

Thats more like it from the mens team today, they need to keep that momentum going forward in the next match now.

RQ_ennis_chess

Was a very good win in the end and they are on a course for a good finish if they can keep that up. Conor was a bit lucky though. I think 23..Rxf3 was winning for his opponent who played a nice game up til then and will probably be disappointed e.g 23Nxf3 Bxf3 24gxf3 Bf4 25Qe4 Qh3! and seems like black is winning. Maybe he missed the strength of Blacks 25th move. It wouldn't really have mattered to the match result anyway as Mark drew so they would still have won the match.

Ballynafeigh Chess

The men did very well against a good Iraq team, back on track now.

Tim Harding

Thailand tomorrow; another winnable match. All their players are between 2200 and 2270 except the low-rated reserve.
The competition at the top is really heating up with 3 rounds to go. USA lead (14 MP, 23.5 game points) from Ukraine & India (both 14/22) who play each other while the Americans have White on odds against Norway (13/20).

So top board tomorrow looks like it will be Caruana-Carlsen. The other crucial matches are Azerbaijan (13/23) v Russia (13/24) and then several teams on 12 MP with an outside chance of bronze if they could finish strongly.

USA-China is the top women's match with China ahead on game points, so expect Irina Krush v Hou Yifan.

The Irish women play Bolivia whose average rating is 1997.

Joedryan

RQ_ennis_chess wrote: »

Was a very good win in the end and they are on a course for a good finish if they can keep that up. Conor was a bit lucky though. I think 23..Rxf3 was winning for his opponent who played a nice game up til then and will probably be disappointed e.g 23Nxf3 Bxf3 24gxf3 Bf4 25Qe4 Qh3! and seems like black is winning. Maybe he missed the strength of Blacks 25th move. It wouldn't really have mattered to the match result anyway as Mark drew so they would still have won the match.

Yes 23...Rxf3 is killing, and kind of thematic also so a little surprising it was missed.

But even later 26...Rxf2 should be a very big advantage for Black.

Sometimes you play terrible and get a result, sometimes you play extremely well and lose

Tim Harding

Conor and Diana are rested today.

Tim Harding

Horrible opening by Mark today. It looks as if his centre is about to be exploded. After 15 fxe4 Black will be dead; let's hope White doesn't calculate it correctly.

Mark really needs to work on his opening repertoire if he is to play at this level in future.

LATER: 15 fxe4 dxe4 has happened. Now there is no good answer to 16 Bxf6.

A FEW MINUTES LATER: 1-0 in 20 moves. White must be amazed he beat an IM with so little resistance.
Fortunately Colm has a big advantage to balance this out a bit.
In the women's match Alice seems to be winning in a double rook ending.
All to play for in the other games.

macelligott

Tim Harding wrote: »

Horrible opening by Mark today. It looks as if his centre is about to be exploded. After 15 fxe4 Black will be dead; let's hope White doesn't calculate it correctly.

Mark really needs to work on his opening repertoire if he is to play at this level in future.

LATER: 15 fxe4 dxe4 has happened. Now there is no good answer to 16 Bxf6.

A FEW MINUTES LATER: 1-0 in 20 moves. White must be amazed he beat an IM with so little resistance.
Fortunately Colm has a big advantage to balance this out a bit.
In the women's match Alice seems to be winning in a double rook ending.
All to play for in the other games.

Mark Heidenfeld will be very disappointed to loose so quickly against a 2205 player.
It isn't clear to me how Colm Daly can make progress 😕 I hope he at least draws as I have a bet on him to gain rating.
Fortunately Baburin's opponent is short of time.
Jessel must have a slight edge in his game

Tim Harding

macelligott wrote: »

It isn't clear to me how Colm Daly can make progress 😕 I hope he at least draws as I have a bet on him to gain rating.
Fortunately Baburin's opponent is short of time.
Jessel must have a slight edge in his game

Online engine says that the exchange sac 40 Rxh5 soon followed by f4-f5 will win for Colm - and just before I finished typing this, the sac has been played! Alex's opponent probably should have exchanged pawns on e6 before Bf1.

Yes, Stephen seems to be pressing slightly and is not in time trouble for a change (yet).

So there are still good chances Ireland can win the match.

The thing that is annoying many people about the internet coverage is that (unlike Tromso if I recall correctly) you cannot readily switch between games in the same match.

Ballynafeigh Chess

Daly going for the rip down the h file to get momentum from the f&g pawns

macelligott

Tim Harding wrote: »

The thing that is annoying many people about the internet coverage is that (unlike Tromso if I recall correctly) you cannot readily switch between games in the same match.

I can switch between games in same match easily by clicking the forward or back arrows above the board on the live commentary site www1.bakuchessolympiad.com

Ballynafeigh Chess

well spotted and well worked out by Daly it'll take something special by his opponent to stop this now

macelligott

Good live commentary on www1.bakuchessolympiad.com with Susan Polgar & Miroshnicenko

macelligott

Maybe Colm Daly can win with 45.f6, Rh5 46 Ne7+ and g7+

But perhaps after 45.f6 black must play Rxd5 and be fine?
Maybe the intermediate f7 works for white!

macelligott

Played as predicted
48 Rf4 will win for Colm on board 4

macelligott

Colm missed (I think, not using an engine) 48.Rf5.
He played the weaker 48. Kf5 and now it is complicated. But probably still easily winning after a King retreat

Tim Harding

macelligott wrote: »

Good live commentary on www1.bakuchessolympiad.com with Susan Polgar & Miroshnicenko

Yes I have been following that, off and on, on chess24. Polgar is a great improvement on Dirk Jan ten Geuzendam, whom I don't like as a commentator, but Illescas in the early rounds was quite good.

Unfortunately I missed most of rounds 7 and 8 because of a wedding and will have to miss the last two for a different family event.

Thanks to your tip, I have found that chess24 also allows you to move from one board to another, but at Tromso the multiboard worked so you could see all four positions in a match at once.

Also I find the results and assessments are not always coming up unless you refresh the page frequently.

Colm has won and Stephen should win so it looks like 2.5-1.5.

I see USA have won but the other top matches are still in the balance.

Tim Harding

Karina blundered on move 39 (Qg6?? instead of Qe4) and will lose, so it is up to Geraoidin to try to salvage a drawn match.

Ballynafeigh Chess

did i not see a threat or something .... on move 43 for Alex why did he not play Kf2

Tim Harding

Ballynafeigh Chess wrote: »

did i not see a threat or something .... on move 43 for Alex why did he not play Kf2

44 Kh2 and the K escapes the back rank. Anyway it's always a draw as long as White doesn't blunder into mate because the worst that could happen to him is a rook ending with his K and R well enough placed for a book draw.

Even if White lost both his pawns he would still have had a theoretical draw (though a hard one) but he would have to be very weak or very short of time for that to happen.
Alex probably reckoned the best practical chance was that White would try to keep guarding his b-pawn and so not play R to 8th at the critical moment in reply to ...f3.

Joedryan

In Mark Heidenfelds game, even though the move order was maybe not the normal stuff I didnt see any reason to press the panic button with 11...Kf7? After 11...Bf7 its still playable I think since White at least has no easy way to win a pawn and the game goes on.

Tim Harding

Joedryan wrote: »

In Mark Heidenfelds game, even though the move order was maybe not the normal stuff I didnt see any reason to press the panic button with 11...Kf7? After 11...Bf7 its still playable I think since White at least has no easy way to win a pawn and the game goes on.

Agreed; was there a touch-move issue here I wonder?

Anyway before that he had a standard position sometimes reached via the English. Black usually castles at move 7 or 8 but Mark was maybe worried about d4-d5 which would have conceded him the e5 square for his QN.

Instead he spent 7 minutes on 8...d5 which is known from a few games, notably P. Cramling-N. Davies, Katrineholm 1995 (analysed in ChessBase's Mega Database). After 9 cd cd 10 Bg5 Black should play 10...Nc6 when 11 Nf4 can be met by 11...Ng8 according to GM Piket's notes.
Pia Cramling played 11 Bxf6 Bxf6 12 e3 Be6 13 Nf4 Bf7 and now 14 Qb3 which forks two pawns but simply Davies replied 14...0-0.
Perhaps this is what Mark forgot or failed to see. Now if 15 Qxb7 Qd6 with compensation, but instead Pia
lost quite quickly after a miscalculation. She played 15 Nfxd5? and White is in a deadly pin after 15...Kh8.

Maybe 10...Be6 (on which he spent far too long) 11 Nf4 Bf7 is playable but 11...Kf7?? could have been refuted at once by 12 Nxe6 Kxe6 13 f3 according to Houdini.

Ballynafeigh Chess

Tim Harding wrote: »

Ballynafeigh Chess wrote: »

did i not see a threat or something .... on move 43 for Alex why did he not play Kf2

44 Kh2 and the K escapes the back rank. Anyway it's always a draw as long as White doesn't blunder into mate because the worst that could happen to him is a rook ending with his K and R well enough placed for a book draw.

Hi Tim,
White can't play Kh2 or it instantly loses to Ke3 discovered check and the white rook falls

macelligott

Colm Daly now has 5/7
He might be in with an IM norm chance provided he doesn't get any more sub 2050 opponents in the last 2 rounds!

Tim Harding

Ballynafeigh Chess wrote: »

Hi Tim,
White can't play Kh2 or it instantly loses to Ke3 discovered check and the white rook falls

After your suggestion 43...Kf2 you must have had the wrong position on your board. Look at it again.
Since the white rook is on d3, Ke3 for Black is illegal.

Kh2 is the Stockfish recommendation.

Did you mean 42...Kf2 perhaps?; one answer to that is Ra4. Then if 43...Rb2 44 Kh2 Rxb3 45 g4 reaching the dead drawn R+h-pawn v R ending.

Joedryan

Tim Harding wrote: »

Agreed; was there a touch-move issue here I wonder?

Anyway before that he had a standard position sometimes reached via the English. Black usually castles at move 7 or 8 but Mark was maybe worried about d4-d5 which would have conceded him the e5 square for his QN.

Instead he spent 7 minutes on 8...d5 which is known from a few games, notably P. Cramling-N. Davies, Katrineholm 1995 (analysed in ChessBase's Mega Database). After 9 cd cd 10 Bg5 Black should play 10...Nc6 when 11 Nf4 can be met by 11...Ng8 according to GM Piket's notes.
Pia Cramling played 11 Bxf6 Bxf6 12 e3 Be6 13 Nf4 Bf7 and now 14 Qb3 which forks two pawns but simply Davies replied 14...0-0.
Perhaps this is what Mark forgot or failed to see. Now if 15 Qxb7 Qd6 with compensation, but instead Pia
lost quite quickly after a miscalculation. She played 15 Nfxd5? and White is in a deadly pin after 15...Kh8.

Maybe 10...Be6 (on which he spent far too long) 11 Nf4 Bf7 is playable but 11...Kf7?? could have been refuted at once by 12 Nxe6 Kxe6 13 f3 according to Houdini.

yes 10...Nc6 also. I had something like this with reversed colours out of a Gurgenidze Modern where I thought my opponent had simply played rubbish but then realised it was far from easy to proceed. You just presume the centre will collapse somehow but actually it doesnt.

Tim Harding

macelligott wrote: »

Colm Daly now has 5/7
He might be in with an IM norm chance provided he doesn't get any more sub 2050 opponents in the last 2 rounds!

He would need to play one more IM or GM in the last two rounds and get his Rp to minimum 2450. That would require 1.5/2 or perhaps 2/2 depending on who Ireland meet next. Clearly he must play tomorrow instead of Mark.

He has a good chance of an IM tomorrow but must not lose I think and might need to win (depending on the opponent's rating). An FM would be insufficient as 1/3rd of opponents must be IM or GM; Colm has met two GMs but no IM.
If he gets an untitled (or FM) tomorrow he probably needs Ireland to win in which case he might get a last round titled opponent. In a couple of hours we shall probably know whether it can be done or not.

At present his RP is 2409 but a bit higher for norm purposes as he can raise today's opponent as you say to 2050. Colm is allowed this for one opponent only. If he gets another sub-2050 it's not possible for him to get a norm.

If we are paired with a team whose board 4 is titled but their reserve is not, it might require some diplomacy from our captain to the opposing captain to ensure the titled player is nominated. Such negotiations are far from unknown in the later rounds of Olympiads and are perfectly legitimate.

Of course this is one of the areas where the captain has some power and after the way Colm tried to get Jonathan ejected at the egm last month, Jonathan could not be blamed if he did the opposite, i.e. asked for the IM NOT to play!

macelligott

Men's team plays Austria tomorrow. Colm Daly will play black against a 2400+ rated IM. A win (maybe a draw depending on last round opponent) would keep Colm on target for his 3rd IM norm.

Tim Harding

macelligott wrote: »

Men's team plays Austria tomorrow. Colm Daly will play black against a 2400+ rated IM. A win (maybe a draw depending on last round opponent) would keep Colm on target for his 3rd IM norm.

That solves that need for a titled opponent problem then, and a draw should guarantee you win your bet.

The women are playing Aruba so should win. At present they are mostly down on their ratings except Alice O'Gorman which is rather disappointing, especially Diana Mirza who has evidently found top board tough. So let's hope they can have a strong finish.

zeitnot

Tim Harding wrote: »

macelligott wrote: »

Colm Daly now has 5/7
He might be in with an IM norm chance provided he doesn't get any more sub 2050 opponents in the last 2 rounds!

If he gets another sub-2050 it's not possible for him to get a norm.

Is this correct? I used to think so myself but I now think all that happens is that the second and subsequent sub 2050 players don't have their ratings raised to 2050 for purposes of the norm. The FIDE handbook isn't very clear and 1.46b seems to point to the rule being as stated above. But then 1.46c goes on to say "No more than one opponent shall have his rating raised to this adjusted rating floor. Where more than one opponent is below the floor, the rating of the lowest opponent shall be raised."

Anyway it'll be great if he manages to get the norm.

zeitnot

Tim Harding wrote: »

macelligott wrote: »

Colm Daly now has 5/7
He might be in with an IM norm chance provided he doesn't get any more sub 2050 opponents in the last 2 rounds!

If he gets another sub-2050 it's not possible for him to get a norm.

Is this correct? I used to think so myself but I now think all that happens is that the second and subsequent sub 2050 players don't have their ratings raised to 2050 for purposes of the norm. The FIDE handbook isn't very clear and 1.46b seems to point to the rule being as stated above. But then 1.46c goes on to say "No more than one opponent shall have his rating raised to this adjusted rating floor. Where more than one opponent is below the floor, the rating of the lowest opponent shall be raised."

Anyway it'll be great if he manages to get the norm.

cdeb

The multiboard feature is back now for the Open tournament - so can keep an eye on all four boards at the same time there now.

Aruba for the Women - and their strongest player is on board 2, so a tough game for Alice, though she is having the best tournament of anyone out there, up 50 points so far. We'd be strong favourites in the other three games.

I see on chess-results.com that Stephen has a different k-factor to Mark, even though there's only one point in their rating (2367 v 2366). Any reason why that is? A quick google hints at a change whereby once you go above 2400, your k-factor drops to 10 and stays there, even if you drop below again. I don't know if that was actually enacted though - but I presume it's the reason?

Joedryan

cdeb wrote: »

The multiboard feature is back now for the Open tournament - so can keep an eye on all four boards at the same time there now.

Aruba for the Women - and their strongest player is on board 2, so a tough game for Alice, though she is having the best tournament of anyone out there, up 50 points so far. We'd be strong favourites in the other three games.

I see on chess-results.com that Stephen has a different k-factor to Mark, even though there's only one point in their rating (2367 v 2366). Any reason why that is? A quick google hints at a change whereby once you go above 2400, your k-factor drops to 10 and stays there, even if you drop below again. I don't know if that was actually enacted though - but I presume it's the reason?

Yes once your rating goes above 2400 at any time the k factor drops, and stays at the new level forever even if you go down again.

Joedryan

Dragnev-Daly I think 13...Na5 is a good positional pawn sacrifice in that position. Colm had that position before against Stephen Brady so must have analysed it.

Also interesting was 13...h6!? as I played myself one time - waiting for a White move before going for the pawn sac.

checknraise

Its just a bad line agains the French Tarrasch from what I remember. Daly has played it a few times before so quite a risky decision to play it today.

Joedryan

something has gone badly wrong now, putting the Knight on b3 maybe wasn't the best.

cdeb

Colm has resigned now.

As has Diana's opponent, who twice had potential for some manner of counterplay by saccing an exchange for a pawn - including in the final position - but overlooked both.

Conor has drawn, Stephen looks lost and Baburin looks maybe drawish at this stage, though a while to go yet. That would be a 3-1 defeat, which is what the ratings predicted in fairness.

The Women's team are on course for a big win; possibly even a 4-0

Edit - and it is a 4-0 for the Women's team.

Joedryan

looking at it, after ...Nb3 it also looks fine for Black. That said I still prefer my ....h6 move earlier.

cdeb

To the final round so.

In the Open, the US are level on match points with Ukraine, but enough ahead of them on tie-break that Ukraine's match result against Slovenia needs to be better than the US result against Canada can take something off the US. Canada and Slovenia probably not two countries you'd have envisaged on the top two boards for the final round. I don't know if there's a feeling a US win would be devalued by "signing" Caruana and So, who had previously played for their home countries in the Olympiad though.

Ireland are ranked 66th and seeded 69th. We play Venezuela in the last round - the 59th seeds, so a win far from out of the question there. All players have played 8 matches, but presumably Daly will be rested to get our strongest team out for the last match and one final push up the table.

Elsewhere, Azerbaijan and China - 4th and 3rd seeds - are nowhere, and Greece are actually unbeaten after 6 2-2 draws.

Meanwhile, China are two points clear of Russia in the Women's section, but they meet in a winner-takes-all battle in the final round. Russia's tie-break is marginally better, so they would triumph in the event of a win. Below them, it's much more predictable than the Open, with only Georgia of the top 9 seeds outside the top 9.

Ireland are both seeded and placed 81st, so again, the final round will be the difference between a good and a bad Olympiad. We face 71st seed Tajikistan. Alice is on 56%, and a win would lift her to 61%, so I think not enough for a norm there, but her RP is 1981 after 8 games (a gain of 78 points); I don't know is that enough for something, or does she need to play the last game too to try get a norm somewhere? Tajikistan's board 2 (and they have no sub) is 2073, while their board 1 is 2015 - if Alice needs a result, maybe best to rest Diana to give Alice an "easier" game?

checknraise

If Ireland are to put out there best team tomorrow then Mark Heidenfeld should sit out tomorrow. We will see what happens tho but its clear Mark is rusty and playing well below his best.

anchor4208

checknraise wrote: »

If Ireland are to put out there best team tomorrow then Mark Heidenfeld should sit out tomorrow. We will see what happens tho but its clear Mark is rusty and playing well below his best.

Heidenfeld is playing, which I agree is a strange decision. Maybe Gerry McElligott paid JOC €50 to guarantee that Daly finishes with a rating gain?!

cdeb

Or maybe Daly needs to start treating his captain with a bit of respect, as suggested earlier in the thread?