English Chess Forum

The World Senior Team Championships start today, Tuesday 16th April, at 1300 BST.

See http://chess-results.com/tnr413742.aspx?lan=1.

Teams in the 50+ Section: England 3, Scotland 1, Wales 1, Ireland 1

Teams in the 65+ Section: England 3, Scotland 1, Wales 1, Ireland 1 (also)

The England 1 team in the 50+ section will be aiming to go one better than their Silver Medal of last year.

The Americans clearly intend to retain their title. Of the ten players rated above 2500, five constitute the USA squad.

Round 1 in the 50+; top four matches: Scotland v USA; Armenia v Ireland; Germany Women v Iceland; England 1 v Oslo

In the 65+ with 27 teams they have given the bye to 17th seed Belgium, which is unusual; maybe one of their team is late arriving.
England 1 v Sweden 3 should be one-sided.
The team numbering for some countries is strange; for example the Irish team is down as Ireland 2 but Ireland 1 is in the 50+. We didn't do it that way last year.

50+

round 1 board results

Scotland's Neil Farrell draws with black v Joel Benjamin

round 2 pairings

65+

round 1 board results

round 2 pairings

Good luck to the English teams in the event

Round 2 results in the 50+ and another good win for England 1. Speelman replaced Plaskett but only drew while the other three won. The table shows we are well placed as one of the six teams with two wins.
Round 3 pairings and a real test as we take on the Americans.

In the 65+ section the Round 2 results and a win for England 1 versus the German Stiftung BSW Team and again England 1 are among the six teams on 100%. However, one suspects they will be punching way above their weight if they are able to get any sort of result in Round 3 against the Russians.

A word of warning to those watching on Chessbomb or the live games on the website; even now the result is showing as a 2½ - 1½ victory for Finland and I left work yesterday wondering why John and Chris were playing so poorly. I'm still not sure which game is which.

Simon Brown wrote: ↑

Thu Apr 18, 2019 9:02 am

I left work yesterday wondering why John and Chris were playing so poorly. I'm still not sure which game is which.

Even more, why Chris played 1.e4 and John played the Grunfeld. That was the point at which I stopped believing anything.

Big match today, anyway. The over 65s haven't got an easy ride either.

Best of luck to all.

Yesterday the results posted Chris Ward as having lost, but the game they gave was in fact the game which John Emms won with Black! Meanwhile Chris won a R+P ending with White, so in case there is still any confusion we won the match 3.5:0.5

Today we face the top seeded USA team and by resting Chris Ward we actually have exactly the same team which won against them last year, when John Emms beat Joel Benjamin. This year they rested Benjamin, replacing him, on board 2, with GM Igor Novikov ( 2563) . In fact, as the result doesn't seem to have transmitted, I may as well report that I have just drawn with Black v Novikov.

Well done Keith; doesn't look like the result will be repeated this year though

Hi Mick, and thanks! I think we need Jim to pull off a swindle of some sort. He's certainly capable of doing so...

The unregarded amateurs of England 65+ are in sight of a heroic result against the Soviet legends!

Robert Bellin 0.5 Evgeny Sveshnikov
Nigel Povah 0.5 Yuri Balashov
Tony Stebbings 0.5 Naim Rashkovsky

Three great draws against veterans from the famous USSR championships!

Finally, Ian Snape is level after 40 moves against Vladimir Zhelnin (he was better a few moves back).

A half in that final ongoing game will guarantee praise in this week's Guardian column!

Leonard Barden wrote: ↑

Thu Apr 18, 2019 4:25 pm

A half in that final ongoing game will guarantee praise in this week's Guardian column!

Just achieved, at least according to ChessBomb. In fact, their engine suggests that Snape might have played on.

Wow, great result

Leonard Barden wrote: ↑

Thu Apr 18, 2019 4:25 pm

A half in that final ongoing game will guarantee praise in this week's Guardian column!

Just achieved, at least according to ChessBomb. In fact, their engine suggests that Snape might have played on.

It brought to mind memories of England's famous victory over the Soviet Union in the World Students Team Championship at Harrachov in 1967. I wondered whether Balashov might have played in that match, but it wasn't the case.

http://www.olimpbase.org/1967y/1967fa06.html#eng.

I look forward to the forthcoming praise in the Guardian, which will be richly deserved.