Batumi Olympiad

[Mick Norris]

Adams and McShane have drawn. Howell is equal and Jones isn't.

Howell somewhat better and moreover in an easy position to play - whereas Jones is considerably worse, but in a position that is quite tricky from his opponent's perspective, so the situation is not as bad as all that. It was always going to be a hard fight, this one.

David has won so the team leads 2-1

Very difficult for Gawain and his opponent playing on increment, but a draw looks likely?

[Roger de Coverly]

whereas Jones is considerably worse, but in a position that is quite tricky from his opponent's perspective

Now drawn according to the tablebase. Jones has Bishop and f4 pawn, whilst his opponent has Rook and h6 pawn. Both Kings are able to blockage the passed pawns.

[Nick Burrows]

Yes amazing defence from Gawain. He's been losing for half of the day!

[JustinHorton]

Surprised by 5...g6 in So-L'Ami, I thought it was considered an error.

The recent NIC Yearbook headlines Luke Mcshane's ideas in steering for positions in the style of the Kings Indian from the Spanish. The chessbomb stockfish doesn't like it, but I don't think it rates a lower evaluation than "provocative". A search for previous games unearths So v Nakamura from 2015, so that may also have influenced the opening choice.

I played it in this game and was quite taken aback by White flashing out 6. d3-d4. Bernal's recent book (which doesn't dwell much on 4...d6) only gives 5..Bd7 and 5...Be7.

[JustinHorton]

The Brazillian women's team, by the way, have been pasted by a Georgia III side who they outgraded by about 200 points each on three of the boards.

<detects juniors>

[Christopher Kreuzer]

Looking further down the matches, bit of a crazy game here (but good fun to play through):

https://www.chessbomb.com/arena/2018-ba ... Siame_Kela

Look at where the White king has ended up (currently at move 59)!

Oh dear. Commentator's curse. Still, might end up seeing if Black knows how to mate with knight and bishop...

(I can't watch any more, more swings in the evaluation than, er, swings and roundabouts.)

Final update (it really is worth playing through the game, even though I give away how it ended, as some strange positions arise during the course of play): it finished in a perpetual after both sides queened pawns.

[JustinHorton]

Via Matt Fletcher, Howard Staunton draws our attention to a terrible error in the France v Algeria match.

[JustinHorton]

Meanwhile Jennifer Yu is winning a drawn ending to salvage the win for the American women's team.

[LawrenceCooper]

Adams and McShane have drawn. Howell is equal and Jones isn't.

Howell somewhat better and moreover in an easy position to play - whereas Jones is considerably worse, but in a position that is quite tricky from his opponent's perspective, so the situation is not as bad as all that. It was always going to be a hard fight, this one.

David has won so the team leads 2-1

Gawain has drawn in 117 moves to win the match for England

[Nick Burrows]

Gawain cocked it up - then thankfully his opponent did

[JustinHorton]

Minor point: I wonder how Chess24 manages to record 117...Ke4 as being played? Aren't all games drawn once it's down to bare kings?

Major point: I also wonder whether Gawain's opponent will think he might have seen how to win it at the end. (Not the very obscure and complicated win the tablebase shows after 105 f5? but the one after 108 Bb8? which I'd have no idea about but a grandmaster might.)

[Matt Mackenzie]

David, how much time do you have on your hands?!

LOL. I was thinking earlier that I hadn't given enough time to the games. Then I started browsing, and became intrigued (in a kind way) about the chess-craziness of the Olympiad (the uselessness of many teams) compared with the fabulous Olympic ideal of pitching peoples against each other who would otherwise never meet: Jamaica v. Turkmenistan, for instance; Venezuela v. Syria; Mali v Kyrgyzstan and so on.

And where, or what, or who is Sao Tome & Principe, for whom the wonderfully named Patricia Espirito Santo plays? Plays, but with work to do, as her rd 1 game reveals:

1 e4 e5; 2 Nc3 Nf6; 3 Bc4 Bc5; 4 Nf3 d6; 5 Ng5 (ah ha!) Bxf2+; 6 Kxf2 Ng4+; 7 Qxg4 (hhmm....nominative determinism won't save her now!)

Even in the "good old days" of Olympiads with far fewer minnows, this sort of stuff was not unknown.

For example this timeless classic from Skopje 1972 - 1 e4 e5 2 f4 d5 3 fe5??????????????????????

The sort of thing considered a bit embarrassing even in kiddies tournaments - they actually played on for a bit after 3.....Qh4+ too

[Chris Rice]

John Nunn has been lecturing Gawain for 10 minutes on what he should have done. Wonder how much stronger England would be if it was like football and we could bring John as a sub once a technical ending was reached?

[Roger de Coverly]

Minor point: I wonder how Chess24 manages to record 117...Ke4 as being played? Aren't all games drawn once it's down to bare kings?

Ever since they were first designed, DGT boards have had the feature that you indicate results by putting kings on the central squares.

[John Moore]

David, how much time do you have on your hands?!

LOL. I was thinking earlier that I hadn't given enough time to the games. Then I started browsing, and became intrigued (in a kind way) about the chess-craziness of the Olympiad (the uselessness of many teams) compared with the fabulous Olympic ideal of pitching peoples against each other who would otherwise never meet: Jamaica v. Turkmenistan, for instance; Venezuela v. Syria; Mali v Kyrgyzstan and so on.

And where, or what, or who is Sao Tome & Principe, for whom the wonderfully named Patricia Espirito Santo plays? Plays, but with work to do, as her rd 1 game reveals:

1 e4 e5; 2 Nc3 Nf6; 3 Bc4 Bc5; 4 Nf3 d6; 5 Ng5 (ah ha!) Bxf2+; 6 Kxf2 Ng4+; 7 Qxg4 (hhmm....nominative determinism won't save her now!)

Even in the "good old days" of Olympiads with far fewer minnows, this sort of stuff was not unknown.

For example this timeless classic from Skopje 1972 - 1 e4 e5 2 f4 d5 3 fe5??????????????????????

The sort of thing considered a bit embarrassing even in kiddies tournaments - they actually played on for a bit after 3.....Qh4+ too

That timeless classic was John Cooper's first game for Wales in the Olympiads. He was Black(!) and, to be fair, White did resign after move 5.