Ireland at the 41st World Chess Olympiad Tromsø 2014

brianhere

For the players I think Baburin did maybe just ok, not so good in some games maybe. Alex Lopez played really well in some games but was a bit patchy in others? Mark Heidenfeld had some crushing wins and fought like a lion in the ones he lost. Sam Collins remains unbeaten and was very reliable throughout. Colm Daly was clearly the form man in this tournament as it happens, he ends with a great score but also could even have won two of the games he eventuallly drew.

macelligott

cdeb wrote: »

Kuwait v Netherlands Antilles board 3 - we got us a bishop and knight versus king ending.

Only nine games left now.

Black making hard work of that N+B v K ending. 30 seconds a move puts pressure!

Yreval

Looks like it's not happening - Black has only 17 moves to go, and the computer is showing mate in 21. Still plenty of time for White to slip up though...

macelligott

Yreval wrote: »

Looks like it's not happening - Black has only 17 moves to go, and the computer is showing mate in 21. Still plenty of time for White to slip up though...

Clearly Black doesn't know tha mating technique 130...Nh6 was ridiculous :-(

cdeb

Not even sure if he knows which the right corner is. Was mate in 7 at one stage, then white escaped to the other corner.

But all very easy for me to say, not having to play it! I've only come across it twice in my games - both times, I threatened to sac off into the ending, and both times my opponents admitted afterwards to avoiding those lines as they didn't know how to deliver the mate. Wouldn't be at all confident myself of doing it either, though I've looked at it a few times.

Edit - 135 Kg4 for white just walks towards the mating corner. Though maybe he's aware that there's not enough moves to mate anyway.

macelligott

cdeb wrote: »

Not even sure if he knows which the right corner is. Was mate in 7 at one stage, then white escaped to the other corner.

But all very easy for me to say, not having to play it! I've only come across it twice in my games - both times, I threatened to sac off into the ending, and both times my opponents admitted afterwards to avoiding those lines as they didn't know how to deliver the mate. Wouldn't be at all confident myself of doing it either, though I've looked at it a few times.

I got K,N,B v K once and won. But I had plenty of time on the clock. In the current game both players seem not to know the technique.

Ficheall

Do the players know how many moves have been made? Are they supposed to keep track, or does it say it on the clock, or what's the story?

cdeb

Move 95 was the last capture btw, so at move 145, it's a draw.

cdeb

Ficheall wrote: »

Do the players know how many moves have been made? Are they supposed to keep track, or does it say it on the clock, or what's the story?

With 30 second increments, you can't stop writing your moves down.

macelligott

Ficheall wrote: »

Do the players know how many moves have been made? Are they supposed to keep track, or does it say it on the clock, or what's the story?

Players must record the moves !

Ficheall

cdeb wrote: »

With 30 second increments, you can't stop writing your moves down.

Ah right, fair enough. Looks like it's curtains so...

macelligott

50 move rule fast approaching so will be drawn

macelligott

Had Black won Kuwait would have drawn the match

Yreval

The 50 moves are up, but White doesn't seem to have noticed...

e: It's official now.

macelligott

Yreval wrote: »

The 50 moves are up, but White doesn't seem to have noticed...

Doesn't matter he can play on until the move before mate and then claim the draw if he wants to be a comedian :-)

Ficheall

Yreval wrote: »

The 50 moves are up, but White doesn't seem to have noticed...

An arbiter can step in and call a draw after 75 moves, if I recall correctly?

cdeb

That's right, yep.

It's a draw now anyway.

Could the side with the king reject a draw offer in that circumstance actually? Play on as macelligott has suggested? With a king, you can draw at best, so seems a bit much to turn down a draw.

Ficheall

cdeb wrote: »

Could the side with the king reject a draw offer in that circumstance actually? Play on as macelligott has suggested? With a king, you can draw at best, so seems a bit much to turn down a draw.

Presumably at that point, the opponent just lets his clock run down.

cdeb

I suppose seeing as your opponent's being rude, you can leave and get a pint alright!

Sparks

Sky News' reporting on the Olympiad isn't exactly what you'd hope for...
http://news.sky.com/story/1319279/two-chess-players-dead-at-major-tournament

Ficheall

Next time they should off a player before the match and then one in the first round or somesuch - would get plenty of coverage then.

No offence intended to the poor guys in question.

eclipsechaser

eclipsechaser wrote: »

Sam seems to be holding out for a fatal cardiac incident from his opponent...

And that's the last time I ever make that joke.

Very, very sad for those involved. Jonathan O'Connor posted to say that he knew the opponent of the player who passed away during the game. As for the Sky report, there was a lot of media coverage when a premiership player had a heart attack mid-game. That game was abandoned. I wonder if that was considered in the final round or if they knew the seriousness of it.

Sparks

eclipsechaser wrote: »

I wonder if that was considered in the final round or if they knew the seriousness of it.

According to Pete Morriss's blog entry,

I have already described the playing arena as one huge room, which is true; but the room is not quite rectangular, but sort of L-shaped. The lower teams in the Women’s event play in the foot of the L, without a view of the rest of the hall, and that is where we were playing. (It is, incidentally, better to play there as it is free of the draughts I described in an earlier report.) Shortly after Hannah and her opponent reached the time control, we all heard a commotion taking place in the main area of the hall, with a lot of very loud shouting and screams. It was difficult to work out what was going on – at first it sounded like a fight – but it eventually turned out that someone had had a heart attack and was on the ground surrounded by paramedics who were trying to revive him. This disturbance affected both Hannah and her opponent, and so they decided to agree a draw in their game, rather than play on when neither could concentrate properly. Some other players in other matches managed to continue, but I frankly don’t know how; it was a very distressing and disturbing event, which was made worse when we all discovered – some hours later – that the medics had been unable to revive the person and he had died in the middle of the tournament hall.

Sparks

The Guardian's coverage of the deaths was a bit better, but still ended on a dodgy tone:
http://www.theguardian.com/sport/2014/aug/15/deaths-world-chess-olympiad-norway

Ficheall

The quotes they've chosen are a bit... odd...

eclipsechaser

Sparks wrote: »

The Guardian's coverage of the deaths was a bit better, but still ended on a dodgy tone:
http://www.theguardian.com/sport/2014/aug/15/deaths-world-chess-olympiad-norway

Pete's account sounds just terrible. I doubt I would have been able to continue if I had witnessed that.

As for the end of the Guardian piece, it seems tenuous at best. Chess tournaments involve many people of varying body types and age-groups. People have heart attacks all the time; frankly it would be more surprising if they never happened at the board or at the end of a tournament. The fact that they had to go back 14 years to find another incident says it all.

Zugszwang

The Uzbek player was Alisher Anarkulov, in his mid-40s. RIP. Very distressing for anyone there and a tragic loss to his family of course. Some of us will remember Desmond Perry passing away suddenly during the Ballyfermot Open in 1996. I'm glad to say that that tournament was immediately abandoned.