2016 Olympiad - Baku

[John Moore]

Interestingly, Nigel said on the other thread about the Olympiad Teams that he was playing on bottom board on the bottom board and Roger pointed out that there was a board 86 below England-IBCA. Nigel ought to know where he is playing - I wonder.

[Leonard Barden]

I have sent an email to Malcolm asking for confirmation or otherwise whether this is really happening. Not sure if he will see it soon. Does anybody have any other likely contacts?

[Nick Burrows]

For the colours to be wrong, that would mean Gawain is playing 1e4 e5 2Nf3 Nc6 as black. Has he ever played that? Seems unlikely

[MJMcCready]

But given the rating disparity on the boards, the colours shouldn't really matter. McShane about to lose.

[David Gilbert]

Have the organizers been watching James Bond movies or something. On Chess 24, they said players can't bring their pen to the board, in case it has a camera or microphone, you can't bring your watch either, and obviously no mobile phones. What will be next I wonder?

Trousers, Gromit

[MartinCarpenter]

Probably shoes actually Even a long history of them!

Pens/watches are actually really very obvious ways to cheat in a fairly well hidden fashion, so a sane enough thing.

[Matthew Peat]

The cameras for the live coverage just showed a shot over the playing hall.
It (very briefly) showed Gawain Jones getting up from the black side of the board.

[John Moore]

Yes, I think I saw that and him putting his jacket on! Maybe we can forget about worst results ever - how could we ever have had doubts!

[John Hickman]

What will be next I wonder?

This player had to hand in their glasses

[Carl Hibbard]

I have sent an email to Malcolm asking for confirmation or otherwise whether this is really happening. Not sure if he will see it soon. Does anybody have any other likely contacts?

Help is on its way.

[David Gilbert]

Chess 24 is now showing Short won with black on board one and Jones won with white on board 2. And Jones was seen getting up from the black side? Who knows what's going on!

[Simon Brown]

Looks like they had the right games on the wrong boards. Luke is now playing Black on the game we thought was Gawain, according to Chessbomb.

[MJMcCready]

What will be next I wonder?

This player had to hand in their glasses

And so he should, glasses and contact lens give players an unfair advantage over those who rely on their natural eye sight. They can see the board more clearly and thus calculate faster.

[IanCalvert]

Leonard is clearly a journalist in the best traditions of the Grauniad!

[gmpetewells]

I am 99.5% confident you will find that the match has been broadcast in reverse ( ie Boards 1 and 4 on the one hand and Boards 2 and 3 on the other have been swapped around). So Nigel was the first to win with Black, and we are now 3-0 ahead with Luke pressing on the remaining board.
In the meantime, it has been a delight to see a range of factors blamed for our 'unfolding disaster', from the very reasonable decision to rest Mickey, to the replacement of a random ordering of names by a sensible board order!