2016 Olympiad - Baku

[Matt Fletcher]

Howard Staunton on Twitter has pointed out a rather good Worst Move on the Board from round 9 (Sulkis-Blagojevic):

8/pp4pk/5p2/P7/1P2Q1P1/2q5/5P2/6K1

[Carl Hibbard]

I am not even home yet so just reading what I missed.

[Christopher Kreuzer]

McShane sits out the final round as well, same team as for round 10.

http://chess-results.com/tnr232875.aspx ... =30&wi=821

The Mexican IM is playing, so Kramnik may still get gold on board 2 (though both are playing board 1 for their respective countries tomorrow).

Anyone know what results the USA and Ukraine need tomorrow to try and finish first?

[Carl Hibbard]

Hard for Luke to be honest to take time off work turn up and play at this level even at his standard.

[Christopher Kreuzer]

Hard for Luke to be honest to take time off work turn up and play at this level even at his standard.

True. Really hope Nigel and Gawain can win and get in the medals. If they win (they are the ones with the biggest rating advantages) the team will probably win as well, and fourth could be a real possibility. Would it be tempting fate to try and calculate what other results are needed for us to finish fourth (or is this one of those impossible calculations involving too many teams)?

[Christopher Kreuzer]

Howard Staunton on Twitter has pointed out a rather good Worst Move on the Board from round 9 (Sulkis-Blagojevic):

8/pp4pk/5p2/P7/1P2Q1P1/2q5/5P2/6K1

Oh dear. Activating the king?

[Christopher Kreuzer]

Interesting list of norms here:

http://chess-results.com/tnr232875.aspx ... =30&wi=821

The performance of the young Australian IM Anton Smirnov (only 15 years old) has been amazing.

[Nick Grey]

Peru 0-4 England is my prediction & will be nice if someone lets us know at tomorrow's Thames Valley league meeting since will not be able to log in at work first.
Looks like the right team for last round and yes it must be difficult for Luke in these circumstances.
Best wishes for those out in Baku & those commenting on the forum.

[Mick Norris]

Anyone know what results the USA and Ukraine need tomorrow to try and finish first?

The tiebreak lead looks so big that I would assume that any USA win against Canada would give them gold even if Ukraine win 4-0 - given the pairings, I can't see the US failing to win the match

Further down though, as well as board prize possibilities, there must be players trying to secure norms with a result tomorrow

[Mick Norris]

Would it be tempting fate to try and calculate what other results are needed for us to finish fourth (or is this one of those impossible calculations involving too many teams)?

If USA beat Canada and Ukraine beat Slovenia and we beat Peru, then if India & Norway draw, we get 4th without needing a tiebreak

If Italy then beat Russia, we get third I think on tiebreak from Italy

If there's a decisive result in India - Norway, then we must surely finish behind the winner on tiebreak

I think the way to look at it is that any win against Peru would likely see us matching our seeding of 6th, or even beating it, which would be excellent

Good luck to both teams tomorrow, hopefully the Women can win to get back up close to their seeding too, Akshaya is gaining lots of rating points

[Richard Bates]

Would it be tempting fate to try and calculate what other results are needed for us to finish fourth (or is this one of those impossible calculations involving too many teams)?

If USA beat Canada and Ukraine beat Slovenia and we beat Peru, then if India & Norway draw, we get 4th without needing a tiebreak

If Italy then beat Russia, we get third I think on tiebreak from Italy

If there's a decisive result in India - Norway, then we must surely finish behind the winner on tiebreak

I think the way to look at it is that any win against Peru would likely see us matching our seeding of 6th, or even beating it, which would be excellent

Good luck to both teams tomorrow, hopefully the Women can win to get back up close to their seeding too, Akshaya is gaining lots of rating points

Akshaya doesn't appears to do anything other than "lots" in rating terms!

[Paul Dargan]

I believe that both the Mexican Bd.2 and the Jordanian Bd.4 had to play round 11 as board prizes require 8+ games to be played and both were sitting on 7/7 scores. The Jordanian IM on bottom board has an unrated opponent from Myanmar, meanwhile Kramnik is relyng on the Japanese Bd.2 (IM, 2398) doing him a favour.

Paul

[Mick Norris]

I believe that both the Mexican Bd.2 and the Jordanian Bd.4 had to play round 11 as board prizes require 8+ games to be played and both were sitting on 7/7 scores. The Jordanian IM on bottom board has an unrated opponent from Myanmar, meanwhile Kramnik is relyng on the Japanese Bd.2 (IM, 2398) doing him a favour.

Paul

Yes, thanks Paul, I see the 8 game requirement now

Vlad also had to play because of that, as does Mamedov for Azerbaijan, and more significantly Fressinet who is just behind Gawain and Aleksandrov who is ahead of Nigel

[IanCalvert]

When was the last time the England won two Board prizes at an Olympiad??

[JustinHorton]

Match 65 today - the real highlight of the event.... Guernsey vs Jersey.

If you were looking for interesting local derbies, you presumably missed match 53 of Round 9: Iraq v Syria!

Vietnam v China today