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Chennai Olympiad

RooksPawn

Play in the Chennai chess olympiad starts tomorrow morning 1030am Irish time. SO to kick off a new thread, here are some basic facts and a few guesses.

The time difference is five and a half hours.

(The last round on 8 August starts at 0530 Irish time.)

There are 11 rounds; 4 August is a rest day.

Registered teams as of yesterday can be seen at https://chess-results.com/tnr653631.aspx?art=33 where pairings and eventually results will be posted.

I think the team orders may yet be changed for a few hours more as the website shows a final call to captains to announce any changes. As it is nearly midnight in Chennai as I write, the deadline for changes has probably passed and the final orders and round 1 team pairings should soon be up. Captains would normally be given a few hours more to declare their running order for the next round but for round 1 they may have no extra time, or only a littke.

Ireland is seeded 59th in the Open Olympiad which has 188 teams including three from the host country India. Ireland is seeded 51st in the Women's which has 162 teams. China decided not to send teams and both Belarus and Russia were prohibited from doing so, which means the USA and India 1 are favourites. Norway are third seeds. France is under-strength: no Firouzja or MVL.

India are top seeds in the Women's, followed by Ukraine and Georgia. USA looks under-strength.

If the Irish board order remains as shown at present it will be: 1. Alex Baburin 2. Conor Murphy 3. Tom O'Gorman 4. Tarun Kanyamarala 5. Mark Heidenfeld while the women's team is 1. Trisha Kanyamarala 2. Alice O'Gorman 3. Lara Putar 4. Diana Mirza 5. Eibhia Ni Mhuireagain

If all declared teams actually turn up, and the composition is unchanged from what is currently showing, then in the Women's Olympiad team 51 will play the 133rd seed which is Myanmar (formerly Burma).

In the Open Olympiad, team 59 should play team 154 which at present is San Marino.

In theory Ireland should win both matches 4-0 but accidents can happen.

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RooksPawn

Important correction to the above: tomorrow (Thursday) is the opening ceremony. Play starts on FRIDAY.

Sorry about the mistake.

So the first round draw will be some time tomorrow and teams that have not arrived in time will not be in it,

macelligott

Chennai is 4.5 hours ahead, not 5.5 hours ahead of Irish time.

RooksPawn

That's right, sorry; 4.5 hours.

The Open team will be playing Maldives; four teams are not paired for round 1.

The Women's team will play Myanmar (Burma) as I guessed yesterday.

Captains have until 1000 local time to declare their running order.

RooksPawn

Ireland are playing the Maldives (seed 153) in match 59. The top four are playing, resting Mark Heidenfeld.

(Possibly he reached Chennai late as the organisers' spreadsheet for checking teams yesterday showed only four members of the male team had arrived.)

Maldives have two FMs and one CM.

The Irish women's team play match 51 against Myanmar. Trisha is rested.

None of the Burmese players in action against Ireland have a FIDE rating but they are seeded 133 because their declared board 4 is rated 1979 and seeding is determined by the average of the four highest rated players, counting unrated players as 1000, so their average was calculated as 1245.

We have Black on the odd numbered boards in both matches.

Play can be followed from 1030 on various platforms including my preferred chess24 where Peter Svidler and Peter Leko will be commentating.

macelligott

Most electronic boards not working 😕

it’s a massive event and they might get things fixed tomorrow

Pete Morriss

Most are/were working on the official site - all the Irish Open games, though less good for the Women's. The main problem seems to be at chess24: chess.com had most of the games as well.

Pete Morriss

The live games on the official site are showing Ireland as having won 4-0 in the Open and 3-1 in the Women's, though only one women's game is shown (which was a rout).

RooksPawn

On the FIDE site, although the result on Lara's board keeps showing she lost there is a list of results on the left which shows she won, much more plausible I think. Especially as it was showing her opponent won from very early on. In the one game that was broadcast the Myanmar player looked like a beginner, losing both her knights with White inside eight moves.

I think this was the well-known issue with the DGT Livechess software that a board sometimes tries to carry forward the result from the previous time it was used. If the operator doesn't check and reset the field in the form before the new game starts, it keeps showing the old result until the game is over and it's possible to set the correct result.

So eight wins for Ireland today. Conor seems to have had the trickiest game.

Pete Morriss

The results now up on chess_results do indeed show two 4-0 wins for Ireland.

RooksPawn

Indeed, in the women's olympiad, 71 teams scored 4-0, but that includes Scotland whose opponents (Rwanda) were expected but didn't appear. This was despite the best efforts of Alex Holowczak and his team to apparently pairings are done on the basis of match points and initial rankings. Chad therefore got a bye unnecessarily and are the only team on 1 match point.

In round 2 Rwanda are not paired, so no bye. There are four Open teams and six Women's teams missing, presumably due to visa issues. All the absent countries are African apart from Pakistan (in both tournaments) who of course also have issues with India.

Someone who is usually well-informed is saying on on the English forum that round 2 pairings will be first quarter versus second and third quarter versus fourth. This should reduce mismatches and make title norms more attainable.

Tomorrow in match 12 Ireland play Hungary who dropped half a point to Panama. Presumably our top four will play.

The Irish men's team will meet Iran in match 13, Black on odd numbered boards again, which I think suits us because it will give Alex the Black pieces and probably Conor and Tarun will play White. I expect Mark to be held back until round 3.

In the Open olympiad there were 92 whitewashes. Most prominent failures were Levon Aronian who, in his first game for USA after defecting from Armenia, sacrificed the exchange for very little and grovelled to move 41 where his 2315-rated opponent accepted his draw offer. Not many people will feel sorry for Aronian, I think. One of the Norwegians was being crushed out of the opening but also got a draw when his opponent, having missed the killer move, forced a repetition.

RooksPawn

Sorry, my post got garbled when I edited it. It was in the Open Olympiad that Scotland got the 4-0 forfeit,

sodacat11

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119404875#Comment_119404875

You seem to have provided more misinformation in your posts than Donald Trump's press secretary. Maybe you should delete this whole thread and start a new one?

macelligott

Mark Heidenfeld is still not on the team - and not listed as part of the delegation 😳

checknraise

Mark did arrive later than the rest of the team but he should be there now. Is it possible he would only be listed once he plays a game?

RooksPawn

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119406634#Comment_119406634

Yeah I was hoping someone else would start the thread, but you waited for others to make an effort...

Mark is listed under Team Composition without round results

Team 59 at https://chess-results.com/tnr653631.aspx?lan=1&art=8&fed=IRL&flag=30

He wouldn't appear on the list with round results until he plays.

It would be good to have confirmation that he's there. If so he will probably play tomorrow.

Iran are playing their top four today. The Hungarian women are resting their number two.

sodacat11

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119406926#Comment_119406926

I've started enough threads in my time and anyway I'm not a huge fan of the Olympiad with so many people playing for countries they weren't born in and to which they have no connection apart perhaps residency. International sport should compare different nationalities and pit them against each other, having an Armeniam or Philipino playing for the U.S is ridiculous and if they win the title it will mean nothing. I know that it is the same in many sports but that doesn't make it right. Ireland beating the All Blacks at rugby with three Kiwis a South African or two and God knows who else in the team is not really a victory for the best Irish players v the best NZ players as it should have been.

RooksPawn

Anyway a good win today for Conor against a young Iranian who is in the FIDE top 100, and Tarun managed to draw.

Alex outprepared his opponent but Maghsoodloo (even higher rated than Conor's opponent) is very strong and bailed out just in time, after which he gradually outplayed our hero.

So 1.5-2.5 and tomorrow our Open team plays Ethiopia who don't have any strong players it seems; so the traditional olympiad yo-yo effect is well under way.

Our female team took two draws on the upper boards against Hungary which was an excellent result, especially as Trisha was probably dead lost but resourcefully took advantage of a slip by her opponent. So now the Irishwomen meet Japan who look beatable.

Nevertheless not every match in Chennai followed the script.

Zambia won 2.5-1.5 against Denmark despite conceding a rating deficit of around 200 per board, and Malaysia drew 2-2 with Slovakia where the rating difference was even bigger on average.

macelligott

Heidenfeld plays his first game today. I’m glad he arrived. Murphy is rested.

on the woman’s , O’Gorman is rested.

sodacat11

Probably not the right thread for it BUT why no City of Dublin this year? It is always a very well attended tournament.

RooksPawn

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119412435#Comment_119412435

That's for cdeb to answer I think. Why not start a new thread?

Joedryan

Any updates from the team on how it is going, is anybody doing a daily update?

RooksPawn

At the olympiad, our Open team seems to have had a comfortable 4-0 win in round 3.

Tomorrow in round 4 they play Germany who somewhat somewhat surprisingly went down to Austria, losing boards 3 and 4. The German top board, their teenage star Vincent Keymer, has still not played a round. Maybe we shall see him tomorrow, or has he not arrived? Or is there an outbreak of "Delhi belly" in the German camp?

The Women's team beat Japan 3.5-0.5. Their top board held Trisha to a draw with solid play so is probably under-rated.

Tomorrow the Irishwomen meet the formidable Armenian team.

Both our teams have Black on odd-numbered boards.

Joedryan

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119413440#Comment_119413440

Cool, are you on the team or delegation Rookspawn? Any word of playing conditions and how the teams are getting on etc?

macelligott

Baburin will have his 3rd black from 4 games today. Tough going against a 2686.

Murphy will have his 3rd white from 3 against a 2673

A tough match for the men today - all their opponents are over 2600

macelligott

Looking promising against Germany after two and a half hours 😀

our team is doing a good job so far in this Olympiad.

Joedryan

No news from the team then I guess?

Great game by Murphy btw, fantastic prep.

Millwall

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119408228#Comment_119408228

Jesus Christ. I'm using NASA's satellite dishes right now to find out who asked, and I can't find anyone. What's your problem with such a thing? It's been going on for years. Russians who don't agree with Putin are now playing under a plethora of different countries or under the FIDE flag. No one actually cares my dude. I'm surprised you're not over there dressed in a toga parading around and protesting that U1900's should be banned from the tournament. Leave them be. The talbot hotel was seen as unsuitable for all participants of the Irish championships due to your unworthy complaints.

Cop on. What's wrong with a bit of diversity in peoples nations? Are you suggesting that they must be thoroughbred's to make the team? I don't understand your actual logic behind this. So are you saying GM Alexander Baburin should not play for team Ireland, as he was not born here? Poppycock. He's been here since the 90's and has contributed so much to Irish chess in all areas of the field and is a great advocate of the sport here, particularly amongst the youth in Irish chess. People have their own reasons for switching federations, and it's always for the greater good, not just because 'they want to play for the other team'.

Next time on KarensGoWild, @sodacat11 lashes out at FIDE for players for being allowed to eat crunchy nut bars and cashews at the board. The police are called into action as pandemonium erupts. Stay tuned Rosie.

RooksPawn

For the benefit of those (admittedly probably the minority) who may come to this forum to share information rather than read/write rants, I offer the following.

No I'm in Ireland but have access to chewss24, chess-results.com etc and there are team reports on the ICU website - previously only about round 1 but they added rounds 2 and 3 today.

Round four summary follows. Our women's team, pitted against the mighty Armenia, sadly failed to trouble the scorer but tomorrow they meet a much less redoubtable opponent - Tadjikistan, in match 28. Another former Soviet republic, it's true, but their top board is "only" a WFM rated 1832 so we shall have the rating edge on each board and may hope for success.

The Open team came within a whisker of drawing with Germany which would have been a fantastic result. As already noted, Conor took down another high-rated GM thanks to great opening prep in a very wild line, followed up by more excellent endgame technique, though somewhere in the middle his opponent could probably have saved a draw.

On board 3 Tarun shouldn't blame himself for too much for taking a perpetual check a piece down because he had been worse earlier for a while and the winning line was (according to elite commentators Leko and Svidler) probably findable only by a computer.

Tomorrow it's perhaps time for Alex to have a rest? Or else let him have the White pieces at last and rest Conor whose pursuit of a GM norm would not benefit by playing below board 1.

The opponents are Zimbabwe who faced top seeds India in round 1 but have won two out of three matches since. Their top board (IM Rodwell Makoto, rated 2346) was praised by the commentators for the terrific resistance he put up against GM Vidit before he lost in about six hours, but we heavily out-rate the African team on the other boards.

Otherwise the main news from round 4 is that the two top seeded nations, India (1st team) and USA only drew their matches, against France and Uzbekistan respectively. Great kudos to France who did this without Firouzja and MVL, and this result will please those who like their teams to be, if not native, then at least genuine immigrants rather than hired guns. Caruana was beaten and Aronian held to another draw. The real standard-bearer for the USA seems to be Wesley So the Filipino. Wouldn't we prefer all-American Sam Shankland to be the hero?

These results mean there are now just five teams on 8 MP: India 2, England, Armenia (despite losing Aronian), Spain and Israel.

The game of the day could be Shirov (who earned a world championship match with Kasparov but never got to play it) versus Gukesh (who has 4/4). This is the kid who, a few years ago and in a losing position, saw Nigel Short hadn't pressed his clock and "won" their game in controversial circumstances.

So it's India1 v Romania, Spain v India2, England v Armenia and Israel v USA in the top four matches. Ireland are in match 34 so it's back to the second hall for them for, we hope, only one day.

The India first team will always play at the first table, because of television arrangements presumably.

From now on there should be some interesting match-ups every day and also some surprises. Zambia won today (against Egypt) and are on 6MP; they will meet Norway tomorrow, though I guess Magnus may not play.

L1m1tless

https://youtu.be/ZdcrF9ZnBBo

Conor's game at the end of the video

Ficheall

For those interested in today's Irish games but without time to watch the entire thing, Leko and Svidler's commentary on the Irish games is here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UkpTMKnow78&t=8400s (The timestamp should work, but 2hrs 20 if not).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UkpTMKnow78&t=15610s (4hrs 20)

https://youtu.be/UkpTMKnow78?t=16633 (4hrs 37)