44th Olympiad, Chennai 28 July to 10 August 2022

[LawrenceCooper]

Diaster for England women today but at 3-0 down and with 93 moves gone, Akshaya's opponent blundered to give her a chance of salvaging a half-point from queen against queen, bishop and pawn down (!) which chance she seems to have taken

Akshaya is black.

[JustinHorton]

Scratch that, I am an idiot

[David Sedgwick]

Diaster for England women today but at 3-0 down and with 93 moves gone, Akshaya's opponent blundered to give her a chance of salvaging a half-point from queen against queen, bishop and pawn down (!) which chance she seems to have taken. EDIT: this is wrong and I am an idiot

I have accused you of many things, but never of being an idiot.

Sadly, it was the other way round. It was Akshaya who blundered, falling into a stalemate trap.

[JustinHorton]

Looks like Rwanda did a no show v Scotland

They don't seem to have turned up at all, for whatever reason. Their women's team similarly has not played (first round default against the Dominican Republic).

São Tomé and Príncipe's women are the ony other defaulters (save Pakistan) although their open team has played all six rounds so far.

[Christopher Kreuzer]

Diaster for England women today but at 3-0 down and with 93 moves gone, Akshaya's opponent blundered to give her a chance of salvaging a half-point from queen against queen, bishop and pawn down (!) which chance she seems to have taken. EDIT: this is wrong and I am an idiot

I have accused you of many things, but never of being an idiot.

Sadly, it was the other way round. It was Akshaya who blundered, falling into a stalemate trap.

That is a really tricky position. The stalemate trap is obvious when you reach that position, but you need to be able to see it a few moves ahead, so I wouldn't class that as an outright blunder. Overall, that sort of position is one where it can be really difficult to find the right way to evade the checks. I think Akshaya had a difficult game a few rounds ago (which I've not looked at yet, only hearing about it secondhand). This result may similarly be difficult to absorb, but I am trying to say (a bit clumsily) that there are a lot of positives to take from that game.

[John Moore]

Brazil next in round 7 after the rest day.

[Nick Grey]

At lunch I thought Akshaya and Gawain were winning. We all need a rest day.

[Martin Benjamin]

Just glancing at a few of the games on the lower boards of the low scoring teams, I have ambivalent feelings about one aspect of the Olympiad. On the one hand, I like the idea of an open to all nations event, which may encourage interest and participation in chess around the world, and which at least dangles the prospect of an occasional giant-killing on an individual board, if not the result of a four board match. On the other hand, the play of some participants makes it look as if they learned how to play the game recently simply in order to get a holiday in Chennai.

Here are six examples:

https://chess24.com/en/watch/live-tourn ... pen/4/90/4
https://chess24.com/en/watch/live-tourn ... pen/3/92/4
https://chess24.com/en/watch/live-tourn ... pen/6/92/4
https://chess24.com/en/watch/live-tourn ... men/3/77/4
https://chess24.com/en/watch/live-tourn ... men/3/76/4
https://chess24.com/en/watch/live-tourn ... men/3/71/2

I am all for a bit of the spirit of Eddie the Eagle and Eric the Eel, but at least they were actually quite good at their sports - if miles behind the standard of the rest of the Olympic field.

[Christopher Kreuzer]

Just glancing at a few of the games on the lower boards of the low scoring teams, I have ambivalent feelings about one aspect of the Olympiad. On the one hand, I like the idea of an open to all nations event, which may encourage interest and participation in chess around the world, and which at least dangles the prospect of an occasional giant-killing on an individual board, if not the result of a four board match. On the other hand, the play of some participants makes it look as if they learned how to play the game recently simply in order to get a holiday in Chennai.

Here are six examples:

https://chess24.com/en/watch/live-tourn ... pen/4/90/4
https://chess24.com/en/watch/live-tourn ... pen/3/92/4
https://chess24.com/en/watch/live-tourn ... pen/6/92/4
https://chess24.com/en/watch/live-tourn ... men/3/77/4
https://chess24.com/en/watch/live-tourn ... men/3/76/4
https://chess24.com/en/watch/live-tourn ... men/3/71/2

I am all for a bit of the spirit of Eddie the Eagle and Eric the Eel, but at least they were actually quite good at their sports - if miles behind the standard of the rest of the Olympic field.

I only looked at the first example, but that looks like a game between two not-that-strong players that swung wildly from side to side before one of them got a winning advantage, and resignation came far too late. It is not great, but it isn't quite as bad as I think you are describing it. Maybe the other examples are closer to what you describe? (No time to look at all of them right now.)

[David Sedgwick]

Looks like Rwanda did a no show v Scotland

They don't seem to have turned up at all, for whatever reason. Their women's team similarly has not played (first round default against the Dominican Republic).

São Tomé and Príncipe's women are the ony other defaulters (save Pakistan) although their open team has played all six rounds so far.

Those numbers are lower than on previous occasions and much lower than I for one was expecting this time.

[Martin Benjamin]

Just glancing at a few of the games on the lower boards of the low scoring teams, I have ambivalent feelings about one aspect of the Olympiad. On the one hand, I like the idea of an open to all nations event, which may encourage interest and participation in chess around the world, and which at least dangles the prospect of an occasional giant-killing on an individual board, if not the result of a four board match. On the other hand, the play of some participants makes it look as if they learned how to play the game recently simply in order to get a holiday in Chennai.

Here are six examples:

https://chess24.com/en/watch/live-tourn ... pen/4/90/4
https://chess24.com/en/watch/live-tourn ... pen/3/92/4
https://chess24.com/en/watch/live-tourn ... pen/6/92/4
https://chess24.com/en/watch/live-tourn ... men/3/77/4
https://chess24.com/en/watch/live-tourn ... men/3/76/4
https://chess24.com/en/watch/live-tourn ... men/3/71/2

I am all for a bit of the spirit of Eddie the Eagle and Eric the Eel, but at least they were actually quite good at their sports - if miles behind the standard of the rest of the Olympic field.

I only looked at the first example, but that looks like a game between two not-that-strong players that swung wildly from side to side before one of them got a winning advantage, and resignation came far too late. It is not great, but it isn't quite as bad as I think you are describing it. Maybe the other examples are closer to what you describe? (No time to look at all of them right now.)

Yes, the first one is a lot better than the rest, but that really is not saying much, even for that game. Are those players in the top four of the best chess players in their countries? Most of us make bad mistakes, but that game is littered with some real howlers.

I could not find it, but I am told that there was one game from the women's tournament which went something like 1 e4 e5 2 Nf3 c6 3 Nxe5 c5 4 d4 exd4 5 Qxd4 Nc6 6 Qd5 Nf6 7 Qf7#.

[Christopher Kreuzer]

Oh dear. That's not great, I agree. Anyway, as I seem to be on a roll of mentioning the August 2022 issue of CHESS in every post at the moment (I am not on a commission, I promise), I'll just say that in the editorial, Malcolm Pein says he was surprised that Gukesh was omitted from the first team (India 1). Malcolm's tip of Norway as a dark horse doesn't seem to be particularly prescient though. Malcolm also covers the visa problems and (of course) the politics.

[Roger de Coverly]

On the other hand, the play of some participants makes it look as if they learned how to play the game recently simply in order to get a holiday in Chennai.

Nothing new there perhaps. Wales got its first ever point in Olympiads with a game that started 1. e4 e5 2. f4 d5 3. fxe5 Qh4
(John Cooper in 1974 against Netherlands Antilles)

Mind you in club league play I've won the slightly more subtle version that goes 1. e4 e5 2. f4 d5 3. exd5 c6 4. fxe5

[Richard Bates]

Just glancing at a few of the games on the lower boards of the low scoring teams, I have ambivalent feelings about one aspect of the Olympiad. On the one hand, I like the idea of an open to all nations event, which may encourage interest and participation in chess around the world, and which at least dangles the prospect of an occasional giant-killing on an individual board, if not the result of a four board match. On the other hand, the play of some participants makes it look as if they learned how to play the game recently simply in order to get a holiday in Chennai.

Here are six examples:

https://chess24.com/en/watch/live-tourn ... pen/4/90/4
https://chess24.com/en/watch/live-tourn ... pen/3/92/4
https://chess24.com/en/watch/live-tourn ... pen/6/92/4
https://chess24.com/en/watch/live-tourn ... men/3/77/4
https://chess24.com/en/watch/live-tourn ... men/3/76/4
https://chess24.com/en/watch/live-tourn ... men/3/71/2

I am all for a bit of the spirit of Eddie the Eagle and Eric the Eel, but at least they were actually quite good at their sports - if miles behind the standard of the rest of the Olympic field.

Eric the Eel almost drowned!

[JustinHorton]

If you want to move from there being no good players to there being lots of good players, the route necessarily runs through lots of bad players playing.