Olympiad

[David Gilbert]

Apologies if I missed it, but how did the visa problems get sorted out?

There's no indication of the cause, but several nations have not been included in the first round draw, while others appear to have fewer than a team of four at the moment. This isn't new and has happened in previous Chess Olympiads, but the Norwegians are bound to get the blame!

Those empty positions have been cleared up, and we're off!

[Chris Rice]

Carlsen not playing today. Lawrence in rattling fine form though https://chess24.com/en/olympiad2014/liv ... pen/1/10/1

[David Gilbert]

and we're off!

...or not!

[Martin Benjamin]

Board 1 Jordan v Russia. Oh dear. Not an unexpected result, but even allowing for the huge rating gulf, White clearly had an off day.

[John Moore]

England-Wales is a fairly steady start. Wales with an IM on board 1 and three very solid performers below are doing OK so far.

[John Moore]

Unbelievably, there seems to be more interest today in the Fantasy Olympiad than in the games actually being played.

[LawrenceCooper]

A comfortable win for Akshaya on her debut

[Martin Benjamin]

I find the site very clunky (e.g. I am rarely able to select matches to watch from the drop down list). Maybe my computer is showing its age. Anyone else?

[John Moore]

Am watching on ChessDom.com. Still not ideal.

[Lewis Martin]

A comfortable win for Akshaya on her debut

and with checkmate!

[John Moore]

Really - checkmate as well!!

[Martin Benjamin]

Feel sorry for Kujima on Board 3 who has just blown a completely won position against Movsesian in Japan-Armenia going from a computer evaluation of +15, then a forced mate in 3 to a computer evaluation of -26 in just a few moves! Just shows what pressure can do whilst living off the increment (presumably), but still surprising given how straightforward the win was.

[Lewis Martin]

Feel sorry for Kujima on Board 3 who has just blown a completely won position against Movsesian in Japan-Armenia going from a computer evaluation of +15, then a forced mate in 3 to a computer evaluation of -26 in just a few moves! Just shows what pressure can do whilst living off the increment (presumably), but still surprising given how straightforward the win was.

That's part and parcel of the game. Harsh, but true. There have been many games like this.

[Lewis Martin]

Bhutan has just beaten Luxembourg 4-0! With regards to first round rankings, it is a shock.

The problem is that none of Bhutan's players are rated, so it is hard to tell just how strong they really are. It is still rather impressive, mind.

In the Women's, it is even worse, with Wales going down 4-0 to Sudan, Ghana beating Bangladesh, and Kuwait beating Egypt , Palestine beating Denmark, Burundi(!) 2-0 to Turkmenistan, and Ethopia beating "my" team ICCD .

Speculative of course, but is this in part as a result of the work of the Kasparov Foundation in Africa? Are we seeing improvements there?

[Simon Ansell]

Bhutan has just beaten Luxembourg 4-0!

It's rather more likely that the results are wrong and the teams are the wrong way round.

Edit: In fact there are reports on Facebook and Twitter that this is indeed the case with numerous matches, for example Scotland Women and Ireland Women.