European Team Championship November 2023

[Nick Burrows]

A stunning finish from Stavroula Tsolakidou today:

White to play and win:

r4rk1/1p3pp1/p2p4/3P1N1q/2PBpn2/1Q6/PP3P2/R4RK1 w - - 0 28

[Christopher Kreuzer]

3 draws with Mickey left in the open and the women have won 4-0.

Mickey now looking likely to win when I had thought it was drawn... Classic grind (if he finishes it off).

EDIT: Adams did win (as I was typing this). Great result.

[Mick Norris]

Mickey wins to win the match

[Mark Howitt]

Classic play by Adams.

[LawrenceCooper]

A stunning finish from Stavroula Tsolakidou today:

White to play and win:

r4rk1/1p3pp1/p2p4/3P1N1q/2PBpn2/1Q6/PP3P2/R4RK1 w - - 0 28

Very nice and you have to see a long way ahead to be sure it's winning.

[Christopher Kreuzer]

A pleasing symmetry around the knight moves too. Hope that doesn't give it away!

[Mick Norris]

The Open has Germany on 9

On 8 are Serbia, Netherlands, Romania and England I think

Germany have already played Serbia

[LawrenceCooper]

The Open has Germany on 9

On 8 are Serbia, Netherlands, Romania and England I think

Germany have already played Serbia

Netherlands-England in the open & Spain-England in the women.

[Christopher Kreuzer]

That pairing for the Open team against the Netherlands is a tough one.

The Dutch board one, Jorden Van Foreest, is performing at 2867 and leads the board 1 gold medal table. The only player with a higher rating performance is Ivan Saric (Croatia board 1) who has 2900 after scoring 3/4 so far. The Netherlands did draw with Israel, with their only individual loss so far coming in that match (Benjamin Bok).

Will be interesting to see the pairings after the rest day (unless they are published earlier?).

Taking this mid-tournament break as a chance to look at other results, I happened to glance at the Scotland matches. It does not make happy reading. They have lost all five matches so far by the same score of 3.5-0.5 (i.e. 5 draws and 15 losses). It is not surprising, as they are by some distance the lowest-rated team in the event. They get Finland after the rest day.

In the Women's event, France and Azerbaijan are the joint leaders, and play Georgia and Bulgaria after the rest day. Both the France board 3 (Mitra Hejazipour) and the Slovakia board 5 (Alena Mrvova) are on 5/5. Nothing comparable in the Open.

[Mark Howitt]

Key thing now for men is to play strongest 4 for all the remaining matches.

[Mick Norris]

That pairing for the Open team against the Netherlands is a tough one.

The Dutch board one, Jorden Van Foreest, is performing at 2867 and leads the board 1 gold medal table. The only player with a higher rating performance is Ivan Saric (Croatia board 1) who has 2900 after scoring 3/4 so far. The Netherlands did draw with Israel, with their only individual loss so far coming in that match (Benjamin Bok).

Will be interesting to see the pairings after the rest day (unless they are published earlier?).

I'd expect tomorrow, just in case someone is ill

It might end up as:

Jorden Van Foreest - Nikita Vitiugov
David Howell - Max Warmerdam
Benjamin Bok - Mickey Adams
Luke McShane - Liam Vrolijk

Luke's won both his whites, so that might be where the best chance is

The board medals are based on number of points, then number of games, then performance, so there's an incentive for players to play as often as they can, rather than the risk of being rested to protect a high performance rating at the end of the event

[Mark Howitt]

Of course it's a tough pairing but like at this stage all of them would be...

I'd make that English team a slight favourite...

[Mick Norris]

I got the pairings right

Jorden Van Foreest - Nikita Vitiugov
David Howell - Max Warmerdam
Benjamin Bok - Mickey Adams
Luke McShane - Liam Vrolijk

Open round 6 pairings

Women

We have our top 4 out, Spain have their highest rated and best performing player on board 4, who has played black every time

[Jon D'Souza-Eva]

We have our top 4 out, Spain have their highest rated and best performing player on board 4, who has played black every time

The Spanish board 4, Ann Matnadze Bujiashvili, is rated more than 150 points higher than their board 3, Ines Prado Acebo (2397 vs 2246). Although teams don't have to be in strict rating order, this discrepancy does seem unusual and more than the 100 points difference which I've seen as the limit in other FIDE team tournaments.

[Kevin Thurlow]

"The Spanish board 4, Ann Matnadze Bujiashvili, is rated more than 150 points higher than their board 3, Ines Prado Acebo (2397 vs 2246). Although teams don't have to be in strict rating order, this discrepancy does seem unusual and more than the 100 points difference which I've seen as the limit in other FIDE team tournaments."

The Olympiad has never had to be in order of strength - indeed the smaller nations frequently put their best untitled player on bottom board to try to get them a FM or CM title by scoring 66 or 50 %. I think FIDE are trying to narrow that loophole, if not actually close it.

It's mainly here that you get board order rules - the English obsession with a rating number allows amusement at hearing someone say, "I'm 1850, you're only 1845, so I'm the better player!"