Olympiad

[Nick Ivell]

I see the commentators were confidently predicting a draw in Kett - Short. It is one thing for Stockfish to call an endgame equal; quite another to play out the draw, tired and under pressure, against a world-class player! Well done to Kett for pushing Short so close.

[AustinElliott]

Singapore - England tomorrow

The older Fernandez not selected, not available, or excluded for playing all his chess in England?

Alternatively he could be, er, busy, not in the mood, or having a holiday. He's just played an eleven-rounder, after all, and he's off to University in September.

[Mick Norris]

Interesting to see Mickey not playing - Kramnik, Ivanchuk, Carlsen, Aronian, Leko, Vachier-Lagrave, Gelfand, Wang Yue, Mamedyarov all play

[Christopher Kreuzer]

Hopefully Mickey will be fresh to play in later rounds (as opposed to rusty due to not playing in the earlier rounds). Do the rounds start at the same time each day - does anyone have a link to the full schedule?

EDIT: PS. Will there be a new thread about the games themselves, or will all discussion be in this thread? In the past there have been two threads, which is sometimes useful as general stuff is discussed in one and the games and results in another (mostly focusing on the England games and matches), but sometimes having two threads causes discussion to hop between the two at random...

[Daniel Young]

Shirov-Sulskis has apparently started 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bc4 Nf6 4. Ng5 d5 5. exd5 Nxd5. Black must be feeling very brave...

[Mick Norris]

EDIT: PS. Will there be a new thread about the games themselves, or will all discussion be in this thread? In the past there have been two threads, which is sometimes useful as general stuff is discussed in one and the games and results in another (mostly focusing on the England games and matches), but sometimes having two threads causes discussion to hop between the two at random...

TWIC has

The 41st Olympiad takes place in Tromso, Norway 1st August (Opening Ceremony) to 14th August 2014. Round 1 14:00 BST 15:00 CET. Rounds 2-10 13:00 UK 14:00 local time. Final Round 10:00 BST 11:00 local.

Also see
https://chess24.com/en/olympiad2014/off ... o/schedule

Rest days 7 & 13 August

[Roger de Coverly]

Shirov-Sulskis has apparently started 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bc4 Nf6 4. Ng5 d5 5. exd5 Nxd5.

The watching Stockfish reckons that 6. Nxf7 Kxf7 7. Qf3 is just winning. Basically it doesn't want to play 7. .. Ke6, thinking that just being a pawn and position down with 7. .. Qf6 is a relatively better idea.

I found myself sitting next to this in the 4NCL once. Black elected to lose slowly with 7. .. Ke8 8. Bxd5 Qd7 9. Bxc6 Qxc6 9. Qxc6 bxc6 .

Engine opinions differ, others say that White is only a little better after 7. .. Ke6.

[Mark Howitt]

I think Adams should have played today!

[Stewart Reuben]

Roger > The older Fernandez not selected, not available, or excluded for playing all his chess in England?<

Daniel has lived in England for 3 years. Singapore after very concerned about not selecting 'occasional visitors'. I am in discussions with him about switching to ENG. His younger brother already is of course.

For those who don't know.
The score is the match result. Thus in the first place 2.5-1.5 is no worse than 4-0.
The first tiebreak is I believe match score x opponent's Sonneborn-Berger, deleting the lowest-scorig opponent. All the British Isles teams are likely to have the same match result total as other team(s). Thus the match score is of some importance.

I arrive there tomorrow. RTRC meeting Tuesday morning.

But surely the most important for many is the Bermuda Party? Probably 12th.

[Daniel Young]

Shirov-Sulskis has apparently started 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bc4 Nf6 4. Ng5 d5 5. exd5 Nxd5.

The watching Stockfish reckons that 6. Nxf7 Kxf7 7. Qf3 is just winning. Basically it doesn't want to play 7. .. Ke6, thinking that just being a pawn and position down with 7. .. Qf6 is a relatively better idea.

I found myself sitting next to this in the 4NCL once. Black elected to lose slowly with 7. .. Ke8 8. Bxd5 Qd7 9. Bxc6 Qxc6 9. Qxc6 bxc6 .

Engine opinions differ, others say that White is only a little better after 7. .. Ke6.

Well, after 32 (!!) minutes' thought Shirov played 6. Nxf7 (is 6. d4 still a move?) Unsurprisingly, Sulskis disagreed with Stockfish.

[Mick Norris]

I see Ben Hague (formerly of Rochdale and Oldham) is playing for New Zealand

[Richard Bates]

EDIT: PS. Will there be a new thread about the games themselves, or will all discussion be in this thread? In the past there have been two threads, which is sometimes useful as general stuff is discussed in one and the games and results in another (mostly focusing on the England games and matches), but sometimes having two threads causes discussion to hop between the two at random...

There's nothing stopping you starting a new one...

[Nick Ivell]

Are we shaping up for a classic Carlsen grind? Just enough asymmetry to make it interesting.

[John Moore]

Mamedyarov has just played the remarkable 21 ..f6 against Colin McNab risking a bad position to keep some tension in the position. The trouble is 22 f5 Qf7 23 Rf1 looks very strong for White.

[Mark Howitt]

Still don't understand why Adams isn't playing... it's one of number of 'curious' team decisions I've seen over the years. The team is obviously stronger with Adams playing- and why rest him twice right at the start of the event?