Batumi Olympiad

[Mick Norris]

Duda has played Karjakin, MVL, Ivanchuk, Shak, Aronian, Caruana, Ding & Vishy in successive rounds; he's earned a rest

His own private super-GM training tournament!

Yes, he only missed Giri of the board 1 possibles (given So, Kramnik & Nakamura weren't on board 1)

[Mick Norris]

Gawain's won and we've finished 5th, wow

[Thomas Rendle]

From twitter

"@Megalovic
23m23 minutes ago
More
ITA wins BIH
SRB lost AZE
EGY wins PER
After Res. USA CHN RUS POL FRA ARM IND NED GEO3 CRO IRI ENG UGA PAN BLR PER MAR GEO2 ITA BIH SRB AZE PER
369,5
360,5 (if GEO3 lost 371,5, but GEO3 wins)
348,5
Waiting for ISR CZE UKR"

[Thomas Rendle]

So looks like China.

[Matt Mackenzie]

Gawain's won and we've finished 5th, wow

We might be thankful for the event not being 14 rounds these days, though.

I expect our next few pairings in that scenario would have been tough.

But yes, well done. As said already nobody had a bad event which helped greatly.

[JustinHorton]

Mad stuff going on now, Kosteniuk's head completely gone

[Nick Burrows]

I'm expecting a just above par performance from England. John Nunn as captain is a big boost. I think Nick Pert & Mickey will be solid, Gawain and especially David will perform well. Luke unpredictable.

2 strong dark horses are Poland and Iran.

My prediction to win - China.

I thank you

[Simon Brown]

As I write we have 59 pages on the chess and 39 pages on the politics. I don't draw any conclusions from that....

[Tim Harding]

Mad stuff going on now, Kosteniuk's head completely gone

Terrible mistakes by both Kosteniuk (who deserved to lose) and worse by the match arbiter.
Kosteniuk was giving lots of checks and if she had carried on doing that she probably would have got a draw.

Instead Kosteniuk made an incorrect threefold repetition claim. The arbiter started to play through the game on the next board, without involving the players.
She allowed both players to sit at the board thinking about the position, with the clock stopped, for several minutes before somebody eventually told them to get up.

The commentators were correct in pointing out the wrong procedure.
Eventually the Chief Arbiter intervened.

Article 11.11 says "Both players must assist the arbiter in any situation requiring reconstruction of the game, including draw claims." and
Article 11.12 says the players must do it under the supervision of the arbiter.

So it was established the position was not drawn (Black king on e7 instead of f7) and Ju Wenjun got two extra minutes.

After the game was resumed, Kosteniuk cracked up immediately and Russia got nothing instead of the gold.

Isn't life wonderful!

[JustinHorton]

Ukraine would have won gold, no?

[Tim Harding]

Official results are up now.
OPEN: 1 China 2. USA 3. Russia 4. Poland 5. England
David Howell 4th best player on board 3.
82. Ireland 94. Scotland 100. Wales

WOMEN: 1. China 2. Ukraine 3. Georgia-1.
29. England 73. Scotland. 75. Wales 83. Ireland

Ketevan Arakhamia-Grant scored an amazing 10.5/11 for Scotland but won't get a board prize I guess because her Rp is depressed by the lower ratings of some opponents. Only a WIM from Moldova (who had White) didn't lose to her.

[Tim Harding]

Ukraine would have won gold, no?

I don't know. The commentators thought Russia or China were going to win while the game was on.

Ukraine and Russia would have been level on 18 MP had Kosteniuk drawn or Girya won (as she should have done).

(Sorry I originally typed this posting incorrectly. Re-read if you saw the original please.)

[JustinHorton]

Russia would have finished on 17

[Paul Cooksey]

Sorry to be slow here, but do we know who has won?

China and China

[Mick Norris]

Rk. SNo Team Team Games + = - TB1 TB2 TB3 TB4

1 3 China CHN 11 8 2 1 18 372,5 28,5 149
2 1 United States of America USA 11 8 2 1 18 360,5 29,0 147
3 2 Russia RUS 11 8 2 1 18 354,5 29,0 144
4 11 Poland POL 11 7 3 1 17 390,0 28,0 158
5 9 England ENG 11 8 1 2 17 340,0 27,5 142