England Olympiad pairings

[Alex Holowczak]

Our recent results against the French:
2010 Olympiad: 2-2 D
2009 Euros: 1-3 L
2003 Euros: 1.5-2.5 L
2001 Euros: 2.5-1.5 W
2000 Olympiad: 3-1 W
1998 Olympiad: 3-1 W

We haven't won against the French since 2001, so let's hope the recent trend is reversed today.

[LawrenceCooper]

Round 4 pairings:

Bo. 8 France Rtg - 11 England Rtg 0 : 0
4.1 GM Vachier-Lagrave, Maxime 2686 - GM Adams, Michael 2722 DRAW
4.2 GM Fressinet, Laurent 2714 - GM Jones, Gawain 2653 DRAW
4.3 GM Edouard, Romain 2652 - GM Short, Nigel 2698 DRAW
4.4 GM Bauer, Christian 2682 - GM Howell, David 2635 DRAW

Bo. 54 Indonesia Rtg - 44 England Rtg 0 : 0
28.1 WFM Medina, Warda Aulia 2218 - WGM Corke, Anya 2254 DRAW
28.2 WIM Sihite, Chelsie Monica 2162 - WFM Yurenok, Maria 2058 DRAW
28.3 WFM Citra, Dewi 2143 - WFM Hegarty, Sarah 2120 1-0
28.4 Aay, Aisyah Anisa 1818 - WFM Chevannes, Sabrina 2090 0-1

[Alex Holowczak]

Having seen the results come in, I've attempted to do the pairings for the top two scoregroups.

I make the following the pairings:

Armenia v Ukraine
Hungary v Russia
United States v Czech Republic
Canada v Azerbaijan
Montengro v France
India v England
Germany v Argentina
Croatia (downfloats)

Not sure about the downfloating. Argentina should downfloat, but Germany have to play white (WWBB so far), and Croatia have to play white (BBWB so far). As far as I can tell, this means they can't play. So I've swapped the downfloat (Argentina) with Croatia. I don't know if I was supposed to do that, or swap Argentina with India. (I've read the rules, and they aren't clear. 30b and 39 of this document are slightly contradictory. The group can be paired without changing the downfloat, but the subgroup can't.)

Anyway, pending that little issue involving India, Argentina and Croatia (and assuming my hack-job spreadsheet got all the results in correctly ), the above should be the pairings.

[LawrenceCooper]

Round 5 on 2012/09/01 at 15:00
No. SNo Team Team Pts. MP Res. : Res. MP Pts. Team Team SNo
1 3 ARM Armenia 12 8 : 8 12½ Ukraine UKR 2
2 4 HUN Hungary 11½ 8 : 8 12 Russia RUS 1
3 14 GER Germany 12 7 : 7 11 Montenegro MNE 44
4 19 CRO Croatia 10½ 7 : 7 12 France FRA 8
5 5 USA United States Of America 13 7 : 7 12 Czech Republic CZE 17
6 53 CAN Canada 11½ 7 : 7 13 Azerbaijan AZE 7
7 13 IND India 12 7 : 7 11 England ENG 11
8 16 POL Poland 12 6 : 7 10½ Argentina ARG 29

England-Armenia in the women's event.

[Alex Holowczak]

The 8-point scoregroup I got correct.

In the 7-point scoregroup, I think they got as far as:

United States v Czech Republic
Canada v Azerbaijan
Montengro v France
India v England
Germany v Croatia (can't happen)

Then tried to pair Germany, and realised they had a problem. I got this far.

I wasn't supposed to swap Argentina with anyone; they had to downfloat whatever.

So then, they switched Croatia with Montenegro, the team immediately above Croatia in the ranking list. This gives you:
United States v Czech Republic
Canada v Azerbaijan
Croatia v France
India v England
Germany v Montenegro

Which is what the pairings are. They'd presumably have to check the colours in the swaps at this stage too.

I have the answer to the downfloat question though: The downfloat is the downfloat if the group can't be paired without changing it. If the subgroup can't be paired, then you swap within the scoregroup, in the way outlined in regulation 39.

Will have another go tomorrow.

[IM Jack Rudd]

I have the answer to the downfloat question though: The downfloat is the downfloat if the group can't be paired without changing it. If the subgroup can't be paired, then you swap within the scoregroup, in the way outlined in regulation 39.

Or to put it another way, they deal with downfloats in a way similar to the CAA pairing method, rather than the FIDE pairing method. I couldn't possibly comment.

[Jonathan Rogers]

India, perennial underperformers in the Olympiad - albeit much in the same way that Spain used to be perennial underachievers in major football events...

I don't know when we last played them, in fact. I recall that we lost to them in 1988(!) when they had no more than two GMs (if even that) and we were the team which came second. But we must have played since then.

I could imagine another four draws, but let's see. "Youthful" Harikrishna is their man in form.

Team-wise, I should imagine we will stick again - no reason to replace anyone, and the double Black on odds means that this would enable Gawain and David to play another White.

[Alex Holowczak]

I don't know when we last played them, in fact. I recall that we lost to them in 1988(!) when they had no more than two GMs (if even that) and we were the team which came second. But we must have played since then.

Our meetings since 1988:

1988: England 1.5 India 2.5
1990: England 2.5 India 1.5
1992: England 1.5 India 2.5
2000: England 2.5 India 1.5
2002: England 3 India 1

[Mick Norris]

Bo. 13 India Rtg - 11 England Rtg 0 : 0
7.1 GM Sasikiran, Krishnan 2707 - GM Adams, Michael 2722
7.2 GM Harikrishna, Pentala 2685 - GM Jones, Gawain 2653
7.3 GM Negi, Parimarjan 2664 - GM Short, Nigel 2698
7.4 GM Gupta, Abhijeet 2637 - GM Pert, Nicholas 2555

Interesting team selection

[Mick Norris]

Bo. 44 England Rtg - 8 Armenia Rtg 0 : 0
23.1 WGM Corke, Anya 2254 - GM Danielian, Elina 2476
23.2 WFM Hegarty, Sarah 2120 - IM Mkrtchian, Lilit 2454
23.3 WFM Chevannes, Sabrina 2090 - WGM Kursova, Maria 2338
23.4 WFM Bhatia, Kanwal 2103 - WIM Hairapetian, Anna 2203

[Leonard Barden]

I am going to appear obsessed with Chessbase now. They also refer to the "young Indian GM Pentala Harikrishna". I am glad to learn that he has retained his youth from the time when he shadowed the leaders in the British Championships of 1998. He seemed to be his mid twenties when I played him in 2006 and I had wondered whether he had since got even older!

Jonathan has been going on a bit in this and the other Olympiad thread about "youthful" (his quotation marks) Harikrishna and implying that the Indian is really a veteran in his thirties. In fact Harikrishna is 26 (born May 1986) and the 'British championship of 1998' above was probably in 2002.
My main point is not to correct Jonathan but to recall that Harikrishna's first success was winning the world U10 championship in 1996, beating Teimour Radjabov, who won the bronze medal, in a key game. Next year in 1997 Gawain Jones was the England representative in the world U10 and before that tournament I recall sending Gawain a pile of Harikrishna games from Chess Mate, the Indian national magazine, and advising him to study them as examples of the level of play he needed. I also told him that Radjabov would be the player to beat in 1997, and so it proved as Gawain made a good start then was paired with Radjabov and lost in 19 moves. Both games, Harikrishna v Radjabov 1996 and Radjabov v Jones 1997 can be found on chessgames.com.

So I am watching today's game Jones v Harikrishna with some interest....

[Jonathan Rogers]

my memory is rather above average and I meant what I said about the British of 1998 - though I would appreciate it if someone else could verify.* My memory is Harikrishna getting a won position v Short in round nine on the white side of a Nimzo. I was not for a moment confusing the British of 1998 with the British of 2002 when he lost to Haslinger in round 10.

My mistake is that I didn't imagine that Hari could only have been 12 when he gave Short such a hard time in 1998!

* I tried to do so moments after posting and was unable to do so one way or the other. I did wonder whether I could have confused him with Sashikiran but I doubt it. Can anyone get access to the table of the British in 1998?

[Roger de Coverly]

My memory is Harikrishna getting a won position v Short in round nine on the white side of a Nimzo.

Torquay - yes
1998 - yes
Nimzo-Indian - yes
Round 7 rather than round 9
dodgy position for Nigel - yes
young Indian prodigy - yes
but Sasikiran not Harikrishna,

[Jonathan Rogers]

and moments after my edit, Roger confirms that I did confuse Harikrishna with Sashikiran.

So much for my memory then, and thanks to Roger and Leonard for their corrections.

That I could have imagined Harikrishna as a 12 year old contender for the British is not so very outlandish - there were excited talks about a 13 or so year old girl doing the same, just four or so years later (Humpy Koneru)

[Andrew Bak]

I've heard a few complaints (specifially from Kramnik and the Ukranian coaches) about the poor format of the Olympiad claiming it is too random and isn't the best way of allowing the best teams to win.

Kramnik suggested that the tournament should be decided by board points instead of match points.

Any thoughts?