English Chess Forum

This 9 round Swiss runs from the 24 November to 2 November in Batumi, Georgia. Time limit is 90 minutes for 40 moves, followed by 30 minutes to the end of the game, plus a 30-second increment starting from move one.

Here are the team lists. The England Open team are as expected and I think already discussed on the Grand Swiss thread. (Adams, Howell, McShane, Jones and Nick Pert reserve with Malcolm Pein as Captain). England women's team are Jovanka Houska, Katarzyna Toma, Ingrid Lauterbach, Sarah Longson and Kanwal Bhatia reserve with Lorin D'Costa as Captain.

Scotland have a team in the Open as well (Alan Tate, Graham Morrison, Murad Abdulla, Hamish Olson and Andrew Muir who is reserve and Captain.

Chess 24

Oh this actually starts tomorrow, not much rest for those who played IOM. Looking at the team lists there seem to be quite a few big names missing, could be as good a chance as England are going to get. Best of luck to those playing.

Yes, we are number two seeds, and perhaps with the exception of Poland, many or most teams below us seem to have players missing: Radjabov (!) for the Azeris, Gelfand for Israel, most of the usual team from France, and so on.

We also had the benefit of playing against several understrength teams in the world teams last year. One could almost celebrate our ability to consistently field our best teams, were it not for the controversy about just how we are able to do so.

Still, three of our top four just came from IoM so we should be realistic. Finishing in the top three would still be some achievement, and our best result in this event this century.

Round 1 pairings.

Includes in the Open top seeds Russia v Denmark, England v Austria and Slovenia v Scotland.

In the Women's England v Romania.

The individual pairings will appear here at some point in the next 12 hours.

Bo. 22 Austria Rtg - 2 England Rtg 0 : 0
2.1 GM Dragnev, Valentin 2550 - GM Adams, Michael 2694
2.2 IM Blohberger, Felix 2448 - GM Mcshane, Luke J 2682
2.3 GM Shengelia, David 2531 - GM Howell, David W L 2694
2.4 IM Schreiner, Peter 2464 - GM Jones, Gawain C B 2688

Bo. 8 Romania Rtg - 24 England Rtg 0 : 0
8.1 IM Peptan, Corina-Isabela 2371 - IM Houska, Jovanka 2430
8.2 WGM Cosma, Elena-Luminita 2313 - WGM Toma, Katarzyna 2272
8.3 WGM Sandu, Mihaela 2260 - WIM Lauterbach, Ingrid 2078
8.4 WFM Lehaci, Miruna-Daria 2131 - WFM Longson, Sarah N 2073

LawrenceCooper wrote: ↑

Thu Oct 24, 2019 7:21 am

2.2 IM Blohberger, Felix 2448 - GM Mcshane, Luke J 2682
2.3 GM Shengelia, David 2531 - GM Howell, David W L 2694

I note that Blohberger is about seventeen, Shengalia more than twenty years his senior

Now changed to:

Bo. 22 Austria Rtg - 2 England Rtg 0 : 0
2.1 GM Dragnev, Valentin 2550 - GM Adams, Michael 2694
2.2 IM Blohberger, Felix 2448 - GM Howell, David W L 2694
2.3 GM Shengelia, David 2531 - GM Jones, Gawain C B 2688
2.4 IM Schreiner, Peter 2464 - GM Pert, Nicholas 2557

LawrenceCooper wrote: ↑

Thu Oct 24, 2019 8:39 am

Now changed to:

Bo. 22 Austria Rtg - 2 England Rtg 0 : 0
2.1 GM Dragnev, Valentin 2550 - GM Adams, Michael 2694
2.2 IM Blohberger, Felix 2448 - GM Howell, David W L 2694
2.3 GM Shengelia, David 2531 - GM Jones, Gawain C B 2688
2.4 IM Schreiner, Peter 2464 - GM Pert, Nicholas 2557

Chess24 seems confused by it all.

Alex Holowczak wrote: ↑

Thu Oct 24, 2019 10:39 am

LawrenceCooper wrote: ↑

Thu Oct 24, 2019 8:39 am

Now changed to:

Bo. 22 Austria Rtg - 2 England Rtg 0 : 0
2.1 GM Dragnev, Valentin 2550 - GM Adams, Michael 2694
2.2 IM Blohberger, Felix 2448 - GM Howell, David W L 2694
2.3 GM Shengelia, David 2531 - GM Jones, Gawain C B 2688
2.4 IM Schreiner, Peter 2464 - GM Pert, Nicholas 2557

Chess24 seems confused by it all.

Huh.png

Either way, Austria resting their strongest player, Markus Ragger (2684).

Is the start time noon UK time? I see the matches are underway

Doesn't look like England are doing that well. Maybe with time they will pull out a win. Nine rounds, so time to recover from any early wobbles.

Mick Norris wrote: ↑

Thu Oct 24, 2019 1:03 pm

Is the start time noon UK time? I see the matches are underway

Yes the playing schedule is the same every day: start at 1500 local time (1200 BST) but with a rest day on 29 October.

After two hours play the games are too early to call.

Chess24 (probably due to a mistake by the local organisers) have a muddle with the England players' names in match 2 but headed by "Belgium v Greece". Match 18 is headed Austria v England but has the names of the Austrian and English players.

So we cannot even be sure which are the right boards for England!

(According to the pairings at chess-results match 2 should be correct.)

Tim Harding wrote: ↑

Thu Oct 24, 2019 2:12 pm

So we cannot even be sure which are the right boards for England!

Can we tell by the openings, playing styles or clock usage?

All draws at best, loss on one board at worse for England (two games already drawn).

Christopher Kreuzer wrote: ↑

Thu Oct 24, 2019 4:10 pm

All draws at best, loss on one board at worse for England (two games already drawn).

Nick has an extra passed pawn so a scenario where we get 1.5 isn't impossible, however unlikely.