England teams for 2011 European Team Championship

[Jonathan Rogers]

Gawain drew with Black, I believe. Hopefully the colours are right for us - didn't Short lose to the same player as Black in the last round of the Olympiad last year? (In which case he is likely happy to play White today).

Four points for the women - invaluable for tiebreak purposes! It means that only David Howell has not won a game yet.

We still have two undefeated players, both on +2 (Adams and Dagne) though Adams' game is still in progress.

[Christopher Kreuzer]

Win for Adams and a draw for Pert. All down to Short's game then.

(Azerbaijan beat Russia)

Given that Adams and Jones are the form players (4.5/6 and 4/6 respectively) would the right decision be to keep playing them in the team until the end of the tournament? Or might they need a break? (Though waiting until Short's game finishes and seeing the resulting pairings would help inform that decision, and there are often other factors as well, and I really, really wish they had all the matches being broadcast live. ).

[John Moore]

Excellent result for Mickey

[Christopher Kreuzer]

2-2, Short lost. Wonder when the games will be up for viewing? Will be interesting to see what happened.

And all the games are finished. England still in 21st place in the rankings, but possibly well positioned for a good finish:

http://chess-results.com/tnr57856.aspx? ... ES&flag=30

Is anyone timing Alex H for the next round's pairings?

[John Moore]

That's a shame - England determined not to get back to the live boards. So what's the team for tomorrow - does David Howell play. I guess he must.

[Mick Norris]

10.1 GM Navara David 2724 - GM Adams Michael 2734 0 - 1
10.2 GM Laznicka Viktor 2703 - GM Short Nigel D 2698 1 - 0
10.3 GM Hracek Zbynek 2628 - GM Jones Gawain C B 2635 ½ - ½
10.4 GM Stocek Jiri 2600 - GM Pert Nicholas 2563 ½ - ½

Mickey now the top performing board 1 at the event
http://www.chess-results.com/tnr57856.a ... ES&flag=30

[Mick Norris]

SNIP

Is anyone timing Alex H for the next round's pairings?

I'm guessing Switzerland

[Alex Holowczak]

Pairing predictions for Round 7 in the Open (on England's scoregroup):
England v Ukraine
Switzerland v Israel
Poland v Czech Republic
Georgia v Croatia
Iceland v Serbia

Sigh

[Alex Holowczak]

Aha, I was wrong! :/

[Paul Dargan]

I hope you're wrong! I thought we'd get Serbia... but I think we've actually got Poland!

The good news of course is that we're back on the live boards!

Paul

[Alex Holowczak]

Does anyone with more knowledge than me - who might even have read the document! - know why Poland can't play Czech Republic?

The document revealed all; Israel couldn't play black because they'd have had three blacks in a row.

I had worked out that Israel's colour split was 0 before this pairing, but had missed that their last two games had been played with "black".

Therefore, the published pairings are correct. For this I am glad, we have a chance against Poland!

I note on the document, from the explanation by Dirk de Ridder:

The system proposed here offers the advantage that one pairing system is applied throughout a competition. Application of the Olympiad system at the occasion of the European Club Cup in Neum (BIH, 2000) resulted in the criticism that the pairings were hardly to be understood by the participating teams.

Perhaps Loz can say if this system is understood by the participating teams.

[Mick Norris]

Does it matter if you understand the system? You just get drawn against someone and play them, you get enough notice

England ladies v Greece

[Alex Holowczak]

Does it matter if you understand the system? You just get drawn against someone and play them, you get enough notice

England ladies v Greece

Yes, I think it does matter.

We originally had "random" Swisses; i.e. no consideration for seeding. Because it was random, there were accusations of bias. Similarly, you could potentially accuse the Chief Arbiter at this event of bias if the pairings are alleged to be wrong. So you need something that players and fans understand. I'm sure this is understandable; I picked up the basics without even reading the document explaining how to do it, just by playing around with the pairings for a while. However, I'm not convinced this is better than a more simple system.

[David Sedgwick]

...you could potentially accuse the Chief Arbiter at this event of bias...

You could, but it wouldn't be very wise when he may shortly have to decide whether or not to award you the FA title.

[Mick Norris]

9.1 GM Wojtaszek Radoslaw 2705 - GM Adams Michael 2734
9.2 GM Socko Bartosz 2635 - GM Howell David W L 2633
9.3 GM Bartel Mateusz 2653 - GM Jones Gawain C B 2635
9.4 GM Miton Kamil 2622 - GM Pert Nicholas 2563