Batumi Olympiad

[Nick Burrows]

Come on then, all aboard the Mcshane train..

David will be very upset to have not won that.

[JustinHorton]

Draw for Gawain

I'll be impressed if Mickey gets one, my prediction on that board having been well out

I'm impressed too, assume Boris didn't play the best moves?

I dunno, I think maybe Mickey defended very well after a certain point.

I think England Women won, yes? (I've been using Chessbomb after seven rounds of mostly Chess24, and as the set-up is different it's possible to get confused.)

[Christopher Kreuzer]

Come on then, all aboard the Mcshane train..

David will be very upset to have not won that.

True. Makes it difficult for him to medal now. The team are unlikely to medal, I think (do you see what I am doing there?! ).

[JustinHorton]

Also, Caruana winning against Mamedyarov. How many rating points will he gain there?!

Gap down to 4.5.

[Brian Towers]

I'm impressed too, assume Boris didn't play the best moves?

Boris offering the exchange of queens was probably it, but you have to hand it to Mickey for staying cool and finding the best moves.

[Christopher Kreuzer]

Presumably USA (15 points) versus Poland (14 points) is the top match. Then a group of 7 countries on 13 points: Azerbaijan, Armenia, India, Germany, England, France, China.

England have already played France and Azerbaijan.
Azerbaijan have played England and Armenia.
Armenia have played Azerbaijan.
France have played England.
Germany, India and China have not played anyone else in the 13 points score group.

Six teams are in the next score group down on 12 points: Croatia, Russia, Austria, Norway, Italy and Moldova.

[Nick Burrows]

David Martins from Oxford 4ncl has 6.5/7 with a 2700 TPR!

[Paul Dargan]

Not where I thought the point to beat Israel would come from when I lost the connection on the East Coast mainline ...

[JustinHorton]

Hungary women beating India 3-1 is something of a surprise.

[JustinHorton]

Round nine, women:

(13) Kazakhstan v China (14)
(13) Azerbaijan v Ukraine (14)
(13) USA v Hungary (13)
(13) Armenia v Iran (12)

Interesting question for China and Ukraine - how much are they going to try and win by a margin?

[Mick Norris]

I'll be impressed if Mickey gets one, my prediction on that board having been well out

I'm impressed too, assume Boris didn't play the best moves?

I dunno, I think maybe Mickey defended very well after a certain point.

I think England Women won, yes? (I've been using Chessbomb after seven rounds of mostly Chess24, and as the set-up is different it's possible to get confused.)

Yes, Jovanka won and the rest drew; they play Colombia next

[Richard Bates]

Will it be England-Norway? Bottom vs top floats? What a great opportunity if so.

[LawrenceCooper]

Will it be England-Norway? Bottom vs top floats? What a great opportunity if so.

Team pairings - Open
Round 9 on 2018/10/03 at 15:00
No. SNo Team Team Pts. MP Res. : Res. MP Pts. Team Team SNo
1 11 POL Poland 22½ 14 : 15 23 United States of America USA 1
2 4 AZE Azerbaijan 22½ 13 : 13 21 China CHN 3
3 5 IND India 22½ 13 : 13 21½ Armenia ARM 8
4 16 GER Germany 21 13 : 13 22½ France FRA 7
5 9 ENG England 19½ 13 : 12 23 Norway NOR 38

[Nick Burrows]

It's like the World Cup all over again. The draw is opening up, McShane is on FIRE, John Nunn needs to start rocking his waist coat - It's coming home guys

[Richard Bates]

Will it be England-Norway? Bottom vs top floats? What a great opportunity if so.

Team pairings - Open
Round 9 on 2018/10/03 at 15:00
No. SNo Team Team Pts. MP Res. : Res. MP Pts. Team Team SNo
1 11 POL Poland 22½ 14 : 15 23 United States of America USA 1
2 4 AZE Azerbaijan 22½ 13 : 13 21 China CHN 3
3 5 IND India 22½ 13 : 13 21½ Armenia ARM 8
4 16 GER Germany 21 13 : 13 22½ France FRA 7
5 9 ENG England 19½ 13 : 12 23 Norway NOR 38

Indeed it is! And a rare objective opportunity for me to restate my view that the FIDE pairing system approach to floats is infinitely inferior to standard U.K. approach