Istanbul 2012, 40th Chess Olympiad

LiamMc

The 40th Chess Olympiad takes place in Istanbul over the next two weeks.
Opening day Monday 27th - Friday 10th September
Ireland has a Men's and Women's team competing.
Both squads have relatively young, next generation of chess talent amongst them. Including the top boards.

Ireland Men ranked 69th.
Sierra leone (147)
http://results.chessolympiadistanbul.com/tnr77681.aspx?art=2&rd=1&lan=1&turdet=YES&flag=30


Ireland Women ranked 91st.
http://results.chessolympiadistanbul.com//tnr77682.aspx?art=2&rd=1&lan=1&flag=30

Swiss Pairing system
Teams are ranked, paired and 4 players play against 4 opponents. One point for a win, half point for a draw, team that gets the most points get Two Match points. The next round a team with the same number of Match Points is paired against a team with the same match points and then with Tournament ranking also coming into play.
I think there may be around a dozen rounds, one per day with a rest day along the way.

LiamMc

Mixed/Normal news from the 1st round.

Ireland Women lost 4-0 to Vietnam (seeded 28th).
Board one Monika Gedvilaite ran her opponent close, but lost under time pressure.

Ireland Men held their seeded and beat Sierra Leone 4-0.
IM Alex Astaneh Lopez, FM Ryan Rhys Griffiths, IM Gavin Wall and FM Daire McMahon all won their games. Named board number one IM Sam E. Collins didn't play with reserve Daire filling in on board four.

It means tomorrow in round two Ireland men will play against opponents that also won their game 4-0.
This won't include Russia, China, Hungary, England, Germany, Czech Republic who won their Match but didn't win with a whitewash. Just at this moment in the most important Chess Tournament in the biennial calendar Ireland are ahead of all these countries and more.

After Edit:
Add Armenia to the teams without 100%.

Pherekydes

LiamMc wrote: »

It means tomorrow in round two Ireland men will play against opponents that also won their game 4-0.

Azerbaijan up next!

Nice to see the legendary Judit Polgar representing Hungary in the open competition. I wonder if she is the only woman in the open?

breadmonkey

Why are there seperate championships for men and women? Surely this is one sport where they can compete together?

LiamMc

breadmonkey wrote: »

Why are there seperate championships for men and women? Surely this is one sport where they can compete together?

I misquoted at the beginning, it is an Open (open to all) and Women Tournaments.
As chess is dominated by male players, it's a development decision to have a separate, dedicated Women's Tournament.

As Pherekydes rightly pointed out, GM Judith Polgar (Hun) is one of the few women competing in the Open section. She is one of the top players in the world.

Chess is a Sport where players of different age, size, gender, Physical make-up are able to compete in the same arena. The Irish Women's team at the moment are playing a representative side from the International Braille Chess Association (IBCA). The IBCA are seeded high up in the rankings.

BTW:

The unseeded Ireland Womens team are pretty equal against IBCA at the minute.
No games finished yet,but on position up one,down one and the other two games are equal.

The Ireland Open side are very even in all four games against seventh seeds Azerbaijan. Time may start to be a factor later on.

LiamMc

Update on round two
Women IBCA 3:0 Ireland with one game to finish. Karina Kruk still playing out, in an even game at the moment.

Open Azerbaijan 3:0 Ireland but FM Ryan Rhys Griffiths is starting to get a very slight advantage in his against GM Rauf Mamedov.

Women in Open Tournament
As already mentioned GM Judith Polgar, sister of Susan (Tsuzana) Polgar of (Hun/USA/Hun - it's quite a story)

Both also WFM Ketavan Arakhamia-Grant (SCO) and Llambi Pasku (ALB) and is giving GM Rodhstein of israel a hard game.

Pherekydes

Round 3 (yesterday):

Open: Ireland beat Algeria 4-0 and play Venezuela in rd 4
Women's: Ireland lost to South Korea 1.5-2.5
Monika Gedvilaite won Ireland's first full point.

Round 4 (today):

Open: Ireland beat #58 Venezuela 3-1. Sam Collins lost his game against GM Iturrizaga.

Women: Ireland lead Angola 3-0, with Gearóidin Ui Laighleis still playing.