2016 Olympiad - Baku

[MJMcCready]

Nigel has played an interesting line against the Petrov Defence, does anyone know what it is called?

[IanCalvert]

No name in David Hooper's 1960's book but lots of games in Chess24 Opening Tree pane. I guess since it's the Petroff , Obliteration Variation might possibly be appropriate?

[MJMcCready]

Richard Rapport is playing some strange stuff (again).

[Angus French]

Gawain has just sac'd his queen.

[MJMcCready]

Tasty.

[IanCalvert]

Mickey's game looks very drawish. I guess 7.5-0.5 would be really good after, as Chess24 reported , we were " obliterated " by our Dutch friends yesterday!?

[MJMcCready]

Many crazy games today. Shirov Rapport right up there.

[Jonathan Rogers]

painful loss for Hungary on the cards

[Simon Brown]

Gawain's game looks nice now (after 28 Rxf1) with Nc3+, e4 and Bg7 to come.

[Jonathan Rogers]

I presume that Gawain will win - might prove to be the match winner too.

[Jonathan Rogers]

Now we look on course to win on 4, so minimum 3-1 win today. A calm team response to the events of yesterday.

[Jonathan Rogers]

Incidentally, Gawain was quite brave to play the queen sacrifice. Not in the practical chess sense - I am sure he was very tempted to play it; but because England had lost so badly the day before. It would be easy in his position to imagine being blamed for another match defeat if he played an unsound queen sacrifice and lost. Such thoughts occur even to strong grandmasters and need to be resisted; which is what he did today.

[IanCalvert]

Yes, IMHO too 3-1 would be a calm, and good team result after the "obliteration" (Chess24) of yesterday. Although on a rating basis, I guess it is the approximate par result.

I completely agree about Gawain too. I guess Luke must be tempted to settle for a draw!

[Simon Brown]

So Luke drew, but did Mickey really play 56..Qb5+ which looks like a trivial loss?

[John Moore]

I suspect Mickey's Queen and Pawn ending is quite difficult to defend. You can ignore what the engine on the official site says since it keeps giving lines involving Black taking the pawn on g3, allowing the exchange of Queens and a trivial win for White by pushing the a-pawn.

The trouble is White's Queen is very well placed in the centre of the board defending the a and g pawns and Black's King side pawns are vulnerable. May not be enough to win but looks quite tough to defend.