European Team Championship 13-22 November 2015

[LawrenceCooper]

http://chess-results.com/tnr191479.aspx ... =30&wi=821
http://chess-results.com/tnr191480.aspx ... =30&wi=821

http://etcc2015.com/

http://etcc2015.com/etcc/agenda/

[Mick Norris]

chess.com preview

[Mick Norris]

from the website

Dear participants and guests. Please be advised that according to long-term weather forecasts, it might get freezing cold in Reykjavík during the tournament, with temperatures as low as -8°C. Therefore it is worth considering packing some warm clothes for the trip.

[Matthew Peat]

Excited to note England appear to have their strongest team out.

England and Russia seem to have opted out of having a non-playing GM captain. I seem to recall that Peter Wells normally fulfils this role for England. Anyone aware of the reason why he is not captain for this competition?

[LawrenceCooper]

Excited to note England appear to have their strongest team out.

England and Russia seem to have opted out of having a non-playing GM captain. I seem to recall that Peter Wells normally fulfils this role for England. Anyone aware of the reason why he is not captain for this competition?

He's the open team coach.

[Roger de Coverly]

Excited to note England appear to have their strongest team out.

Gelfand is training the Norwegian team.
http://chess-news.ru/en/node/20399

He's quoted somewhere as saying that his Federation (Israel) weren't sending a team for budgetary reasons. So it's not just the ECF which has problems financing national teams. (Blowing the ECF's contingency budget on the teams for Iceland appears one of the causes of the row between Phil Ehr and David Openshaw, which saw them both voted off the ECF Board by the recent AGM.)

[Mick Norris]

Strong line up of those playing
TWIC

Board orders interesting too - the England order particularly Howell & McShane, and Leko & Rapport with Hungary

[Roger de Coverly]

- the England order particularly Howell & McShane

I don't think board orders are confirmed until the captain's meeting.

[LawrenceCooper]

- the England order particularly Howell & McShane

I don't think board orders are confirmed until the captain's meeting.

That's correct, it does keep the other teams guessing, I think that our women's order may be the one that will be used but the open team will definitely be different with McShane/Howell on 2/3 and Short/Jones 4/5 but not necessarily that way around.

[Mick Norris]

Ok, didn't realise that - I assumed as they had been listed that way, that was the actual board order

chief arbiter

[Christopher Kreuzer]

Looking at the team compositions:

http://chess-results.com/tnr191479.aspx ... =30&wi=821

England are seeded 5th, though the seedings are done by taking the average of the four top-rated players in each team (two of the teams only have four players: Belgium and Lithuania). Anyone want to predict whether England will challenge for the medals based on recent performances?

Russia and Ukraine heavy favourites by ratings. Anyone want to predict which teams will do well?

Good to see Carlsen playing for Norway (seeded 11th). Will be interesting to see who gets board 1 gold.

[Mick Norris]

There's not much between the top 10 (and as you say, seed 11 have a decent top board ) so it will come down to players staying healthy and being in form

Armenia tend to play better than seeding, and Russia worse, and there's no reason why England shouldn't challenge, let's hope so

Board 1 gold - I won't jinx Mickey Adams by suggesting him, so I'll go for Aronian

Your predictions Chris?

[Christopher Kreuzer]

I have a feeling that France and England might do well.

Forgot to mention that Richard Forster and Joe Gallagher are playing for Switzerland.

[Jonathan Rogers]

There's not much between the top 10 (and as you say, seed 11 have a decent top board ) so it will come down to players staying healthy and being in form

Armenia tend to play better than seeding, and Russia worse, and there's no reason why England shouldn't challenge, let's hope so ...

apart from the history of their performances in most team events this century, that is

On the plus side it sounds as though our board order is better this year (Gawain Jones on board 5 rather than 2), which is a good start. Short could do very well on board 4. But I'm a bit concerned that after a generally excellent year, David Howell has started to dip a bit, at the wrong time as far as this event is concerned. One problem I identified last year after the Olympiad also remains valid; Adams apart, our players seem all a little too prone to losing with White, whether it be due to style, time trouble, or what have you, and it somehow always seems possible for us to lose with white on either board two or three against comparable teams. If Gawain does not get many games, he too could prove fallible with White if asked to play against one of the stronger teams.

I'm a bit more optimistic than in most years but I'd be very happy with a team finish in fifth still.

[Christopher Kreuzer]

Jonathan does seem to accurately predict such things. My fear would be narrow losses to the top teams if England are unlucky enough to have constant pairings against the top teams even when losing (constant draws would be OK, though not too many). Nine rounds. One rest day (after round 5). 3pm start each day (Reykjavik on same time as UK). Regarding staying healthy, here's hoping people are careful in the ice and snow!

The chess.com preview said: "the 2015 European Team Championship will surely be one of the strongest ever".

Have there been stronger team events in the past? How would you measure the strength of such an event against past events?

Interesting that they are playing in the venue where the 1972 Fischer-Spassky match was held!