2016 Olympiad - Baku

[MJMcCready]

Without wanting to resort to stereotypes too much, the leading Chinese players are still a bit of an enigma to the West?

Something like that. They seem to be struggling a bit today v Brazil, though one could still imagine three draws and a win for Wang Yue on top board.

... which was pretty much right, except that a tragi-comic error on board three enabled China to win 3-1.

For all the hype about the new-look USA, China are more likely winners in my view.

Do the Chinese players socialize with western players? I never see them doing it, they seem to keep themselves to themselves at all times

[Paul Dargan]

on twitter 3 hours ago.

Tarjei J. Svensen ‏@TarjeiJS

"Hearing a player was caught cheating in Baku.
two devices found on him after scanning. Had checkmated his opponent, result changed."

Surely nobody would be that stupid.

(maybe I am for believing it.)

I've seen some coverage on facebook that a Japanese player was defaulted after the fact when a random check turned-up a phone. The result was changed to a loss, when the pgn seems to have mate in one for him. But the fb coverage was very much of an honest and very upsetting mistake rather than anything to do with cheating devices ... anyone onsite know what the tweet referred to?

[Chris Rice]

I'd be interested to know more about that. Mark Crowther said a round 3 result had been reversed but without mentioning any names and I couldn't see any mates in the Turkmenistan-Japan match on the Chess 24 coverage to narrow it down.

Meanwhile it's getting rather warm on Twitter....

Azmaraiparashvili "concerning excessive anti cheating regulation I join a fair protest of participants and captains of many teams. In 21st century playing hall must be like departure terminal of the airport - without serious suspicion we shouldn't disturb players "

Danailov "when finally FIDE did the right thing introducing "Kramnik anti-cheating rule" all amateurs start crying "privacy"

[Roger de Coverly]

I'd be interested to know more about that. Mark Crowther said a round 3 result had been reversed but without mentioning any names and I couldn't see any mates in the Turkmenistan-Japan match on the Chess 24 coverage to narrow it down.

Not an actual mate, but there's a game which ends with Black facing mate next move. The result of this game is shown as 0-1. It was easy enough to find on chessbomb.

[Paul Dargan]

Gotta lova Danailov - how many years ago was toiletgate now?

Paul

[Chris Rice]

I'd be interested to know more about that. Mark Crowther said a round 3 result had been reversed but without mentioning any names and I couldn't see any mates in the Turkmenistan-Japan match on the Chess 24 coverage to narrow it down.

Not an actual mate, but there's a game which ends with Black facing mate next move. The result of this game is shown as 0-1. It was easy enough to find on chessbomb.

Cheers Roger, found it on chessbomb and also the official results server which I probably should have checked in the first place. So now it will be interesting to know what it was specifically they found on the player, whether it was a random search, whether this player visited the toilet during the game etc. Hopefully this will emerge during the day.

http://chess-results.com/tnr232875.aspx ... ilen=99999

[Chris Rice]

Gotta lova Danailov - how many years ago was toiletgate now?

Paul

Ten years Paul, ten years....clearly neither Danailov or Topalov have moved on since.

[Paul Dargan]

Just to be clear- it's by no means certain that the fb coverage of the Japan game and the "two devices found" tweet relate to the same incident. Certainly the way the Japan incident was portrayed was of an unforunate forget to hand your phone in - then get autodefaulted for having one in the venue.


Paul

[Keith Arkell]

I see Luke's game as being pivotal today.

[IanCalvert]

At the risk of distracting attention from Keith's important point, do the Welsh women face the 9 year old polylingual Monaco star?

[Roger de Coverly]

Today's line up

6.1 GM Adams, Michael 2738 - GM Giri, Anish 2755
6.2 GM Howell, David W L 2665 - GM L'Ami, Erwin 2611
6.3 GM McShane, Luke J 2671 - GM Van Wely, Loek 2674
6.4 GM Jones, Gawain C B 2635 - GM Bok, Benjamin 2592

Nigel rested. White on 1 and 3, Black on 2 and 4

[Chris Rice]

Just to be clear- it's by no means certain that the fb coverage of the Japan game and the "two devices found" tweet relate to the same incident. Certainly the way the Japan incident was portrayed was of an unfortunate forget to hand your phone in - then get autodefaulted for having one in the venue.


Paul

Understood and it would be very unfortunate for the Japanese player if this was a careless slip as a win over someone rated 293 Elo higher would have been a great victory for them. However, that very fact does make you want to start asking questions.

[Leonard Barden]

Looking a touch worse for us after 100 minutes play. I'd settle happily for 2-2 right now as we seem to be equal at best on all boards. I fear for Gawain's position.

[IanCalvert]

Assuming the England team achieves a 2-2 draw against our similar neighbours the Netherlands , I guess we are still on track to achieve an above ranking final result.

[Leonard Barden]

Assuming the England team achieves a 2-2 draw against our similar neighbours the Netherlands , I guess we are still on track to achieve an above ranking final result.

Par against Indonesia and Canada would have been at least 3-1 and we are also seeded slightly higher than the Netherlands so that 2-2 there would be normal. We will do well to match or improve on our No6 seeding after the uncertain start, and realistically a top 10 finish should be judged acceptable, clearly improving on all the sub-standard placings of the past decade.