Ireland at the 41st World Chess Olympiad Tromsø 2014

Ficheall

brianhere wrote: »

Well I might as well set the ball rolling, Sam I take it is Wilton Calicoca and I wonder why didn't he put the bishop on f5 , going to h7, when he had the chance there?

Because he grabbed a pawn instead?

cdeb

So who missed that lovely stalemate trick, I wonder?

brianhere

I'm sorry the board updates erractically on this computer, I'm very sorry it didn't even show he was killing a pawn...it's crashing regularly on me! He is flying for sure...

brianhere

Anyway I was right that he would want to get his bishop on h7, now he can swing down with the king if he wants ..

Ficheall

cdeb wrote: »

So who missed that lovely stalemate trick, I wonder?

Eh? In this game with the bishops? Or the previous (reasonably obvious :P) stalemate which you were asking about earlier?

cdeb

The one in the game that had a stalemate!

As in, I wonder what game we all spent our afternoon watching?

Sparks

cdeb wrote: »

Colm's blog later may be a useful source of info

And pigs might fly out of my butt
I'd check Jonathon O'Connor's facebook feed instead or wait to hear back from Sam or Alex.

edit: Or just read all of the thread here I guess

brianhere

I think he will race the pawn to c2, back it up with the white square bishop, then hit c1 with the other bishop. It's all over anyway...

cdeb

The site has kind of fixed itself, though now it shows Ireland 2-2 Sudan, with Mozambique and Zimbabwean flags underneath, while it's showing Mozambique 3½-½ Zimbabwe, with Irish and Sudanese flags underneath. And the individual games add up to a 2½-1½ defeat.

Was it just the boards were programmed incorrectly then?

cdeb

So we have Uganda in round 4. An IM and a CM top two boards. Might be one to give Sam a rest in as his norm chances can't really take too many low-rated players? Hope for a win and higher-rated opposition in round 5.

The women have Chile, who had a bad result against Malaysia today, losing 3-1 where a 3-1 win was the expected score.

eclipsechaser

cdeb wrote: »

So we have Uganda in round 4. An IM and a CM top two boards. Might be one to give Sam a rest in as his norm chances can't really take too many low-rated players? Hope for a win and higher-rated opposition in round 5.

The women have Chile, who had a bad result against Malaysia today, losing 3-1 where a 3-1 win was the expected score.

What was the result for both teams? Did Sam win and against whom? Thanks!

cdeb

Women's team lost 4-0. Bit unlucky.

Main team lost 2.5-1.5. Sam beat 2150 or so. Colm drew; Alex and Alex lost.

brianhere

Well all the games are there now and we can see what happened. In my - distinctly unexpert! - opinion I think what has happened is that they got caught up in all this talk about going for open and unusual lines in order to take apart a weaker player who is otherwise trying to keep things tight and go for a draw. But its still the Olympiad and they should be still somewhat cautious?

So for example Baburin sacrificed a pawn each on moves 27 and 28 which destroyed his pawn defences and opened it up for the opposition. It was to launch an attack that yielded a rook/knight exchange but then his opponent swapped queens and so that attack petered out. I think Baburin was sure he would come out on top once it opened up but he was letting down such a phalanx of pawns that with a good player it was always going to spell trouble?

Alex Lopez played, I think anyways, way too open and gung-ho throughout and again I think underestimated his opponent.

Sam also seemed to go for a more open, and hence leaking looking, defence originally but after a while he reverted to his more usual game and we got a bit of solidity e.g. he carefully defended with pawns both his bishops before he launched his attack and then won very well from what was a bad enough position originally.

Colm bucked the trend and played an ordinary game and seemed to be winning by quite a bit in development at move 15 say. Then about 20 he got the prevailing fever and went gung-ho as well! (Correctly as it happens!) At move 25 he was -2.98 to the good then went a pawn up and could have gone another maybe? Anyway at about move 35 he looked very consolidated with his pawn up and maybe going onto win. (Just a query I wonder could he go f4 on move 53? edit: I see now, he was afraid to lose his pawn on e5 to a rook bishop combination). Anyway he definitely let his opponent get back at him with a passed pawn that Colm could have killed but possibly underestimated again? Then maybe in time trouble blundered a piece at which point it looked dire (move 60 ish). But then Colm worked out the pawn ending brilliantly to scrape the draw. Overall he was in control most of the time, playing well, and I guess was unlucky.

Again this is just my, extremely, humble opinion and anyhow there is all to play for yet!

Ciaran

cdeb wrote: »

So we have Uganda in round 4. An IM and a CM top two boards. Might be one to give Sam a rest in as his norm chances can't really take too many low-rated players?

Norm chances are pretty much shot anyway I'd say. Performance of under 2400 at the moment, it'd need a massive finish to get it up to 2600.

mikhail

eclipsechaser wrote: »

I doubt they're making the teams to give Sam white. With Alex and Colm taking a break, that's just the way it has fallen. Unless it happens again, I'd just presume it's coincidence. Next round should tell us anyway.

The pattern in the past has been that if he's close to the norm with a few round left, they'll start giving him whites then.

Ciaran wrote: »

Are the board orders not set in stone at the start, or am I thinking of some other competition?

Yes, all they can do is choose which four play, so Sam can only play 1 (if Baburin is rested) or 2.

Sparks

Today's games up on the site here. Allegedly.

cdeb

The team captain, Jonathan O'Connor, has a diary on the ICU site here.

Gary O'Grady has a diary on the women's team here

And Noel Keating, captain of the Glorney teams, has a diary here (or maybe it's more of an intro)

cdeb

Wonder what happened here?

Can't imagine a 1900 wasn't aware of Fool's Mate.

Sparks

What the...?

L1m1tless

Must be a joke, or maybe a bribe

cdeb

If it's match fixing, you might want to make it a little bit less obvious!!

Sparks

Why isn't the other player's rating listed?

cdeb

Doesn't have one. Not all the players in the weaker teams - particularly in the women's section - have FIDE ratings.

National ratings aren't used for this.

Sparks

That makes even less sense - an unrated FIDE player getting a fool's mate on a 1900 rated FIDE player?!?!?! Someone check if the leads on that board are all plugged in

cdeb

An unrated FIDE player could still be 1900/2000 or higher, especially if they're from a country (like Togo) which presumably wouldn't have that many FIDE-rated chess tournaments. Most of the players in the Heidenfeld would have no FIDE rating, for example, but there's a fair few around 1600-1800.

It's likely they're not quite that high, but it's not the same as being unrated at national level.

mikhail

Sparks wrote: »

That makes even less sense - an unrated FIDE player getting a fool's mate on a 1900 rated FIDE player?!?!?! Someone check if the leads on that board are all plugged in

Lack of access to FIDE-rated tournaments can mean some players can be pretty strong without having a FIDE rating. Not that you have to be all that strong to pull off fool's mate.

cdeb

Looks like the black side of all the boards in the women's game is broken.

Sparks

It's getting some comment on the live stream now... they have no more idea than we do

brianhere

Anyway we are doing well now (if this is really us!). Baburin is beginning to bully his opponent, Sam feels strong enough to concede a pawn to open things up. Colm looks comfortable and is dominating a bit while Mark sacrificed a knight for an early queen attack. It might work but the computer doesn't like it.

brianhere

Sam's opponent is now in some trouble, dont think this will be a long game...