44th Olympiad, Chennai 28 July to 10 August 2022

[JustinHorton]

White should win here if she can keep her head

[John Saunders]

Cliff Shaw rolls back the years and plays the exquisite quiet move 18...Kh8!!

[JustinHorton]

Gawain playing the sort of game I've always liked to play: twenty moves in, hasn't had to do anything complicated, none of his pieces are beyond the second rank and he's plus four

[Roger de Coverly]

Cliff Shaw rolls back the years and plays the exquisite quiet move 18...Kh8!!

He's certainly doing better now he's abandoned the Morra Gambit in favour of creating murky positions with the Birds (1. f4). With Black his French and Dutch mostly seem to be working well, none of his opponents playing anything near critical lines.

[Matt Mackenzie]

White should win here if she can keep her head

What you did there, I see it.

[JustinHorton]

Both US sides have won. The Armenia v Azerbaijan matches are going different ways: the open clash to Armenia, the women's to Azerbaijan. Uzbekistan are losing to India 2 so the open leaders should be beaten for the second consecutive round. The women's leaders, Poland, looked like they were strolling to victory against Georgia but Socko has suffered a reverse of fortunes against Batsiashvili and now it's not looking so easy. Kiolbasa drops a half-point!

Moldovan IM Schitco, 2490, has drawn with the world champion.

Serbia should draw with Netherlands after White won what looked like a wildly hard to calculate finale in time trouble. The Chess24 compyter seems to think White might have got away with a couple of things but see what you think.

England women struggling to beat Canada after a nightmare for Zoe.

[Ian Thompson]

Moldovan IM Schitco, 2490, has drawn with the world champion.

Rather poor timing on Chessable's part to have just sent me an e-mail advertising this course.

[Geoff Chandler]

Hi Justin,

Thanks.

Recently due to a very good run in the battle Me v William Hills I have bought myself a brand new(!) laptop.
My old one, 19 years old (2nd hand) could never, or very rarely load in the links you often give.
I suspected they would be interesting but gave up trying to see them. Frustrating.

I have not tossed out the old one because William Hills has a habit of
getting their own back and my brand new laptop could end up in hock.

Sorry to keep mentioning 'brand new' but it's so exciting.
(everything else I have is 2nd hand. The wife has been married before, the kids are adopted....)

[JustinHorton]

The jokes.

Most people round here understand pairing systems better than I do, but am I right that it's going to have to be India 2 v India in the last round?

[LawrenceCooper]

Not sure what you are saying/implying here. Conor Murphy's parents are both Irish and he has always been IRL-registered with FIDE so far as I'm aware. He won the 2019 Irish Championship and has played in several other events here.

Conor's result (7.5.8 so far) has been terrific in this olympiad and a true GM quality performance.

He transferred from England to Ireland on 24/1/18 and became eligible to play for them on the 25/1/20 according to the FIDE site:

421669 Murphy, Conor E IRL ENG 2018-01-24 2018-01-10
Last FIDE event: European Youth Team CC 2017 - Open Section
Citizenship IRL
Date of eligibility
to participatein the FIDE events under the new flag 2018-01-25
Transfer fee Euro 1000
Date starting from which a player
can represent the new federation fee free 2020-01-25

All the best to Tarun today who needs to win for a GM norm.

Thanks, Lawrence, I stand corrected.
I see from the FIDE ratings site that he was born in 1999 and he made the big leap forward to 2300+ in 2017.
I've never spoken with Conor so I wasn't aware of the transfer.
Good luck indeed to Tarun but his opponent today is an IM. He will need to met a GM in the last round or else no norm is possible.

Ah yes, good spot. That will teach me to not to check before posting.

[LawrenceCooper]

Gukesh-Nodirbek looks very tense with India 2 leading 2-1 but Gukesh seemingly having overpressed. Armenia beat Azerbaijan. All to play for.

[LawrenceCooper]

Gukesh-Nodirbek looks very tense with India 2 leading 2-1 but Gukesh seemingly having overpressed. Armenia beat Azerbaijan. All to play for.

On the very next move Gukesh hangs a knights so the match will be drawn.

[Mick Norris]

The jokes.

Most people round here understand pairing systems better than I do, but am I right that it's going to have to be India 2 v India in the last round?

I suspect that's the case

Not sure if Gukesh is going to lose the ending?

Pleased to see both England teams won

[JustinHorton]

Socko's game unbearably tense

[Mick Norris]

Socko's game unbearably tense

She loses, so Poland draw with Georgia

Was there a way for her to draw that ending, or was it always going to be very difficult to hold?