English Chess Forum

We are only a week away from this event starting in Dresden and in the Open 50+ event England are very strong favourites with the Germans, not for the first time, providing the main threat of preventing us winning:

England 1 50+ average 2570

1. Nigel D Short 2664
2. John D M Nunn 2601
3. Keith C Arkell 2510
4. Jon S Speelman 2506
5. Terry P D Chapman 2262

Scotland have also shown enthusiasm for this event and have put out a team that is fourth favourites:

Scotland A 50+ average 2369

1. Colin A McNab 2432
2. Douglas M Bryson 2351
3. Roderick M McKay 2348
4. Stephen R Mannion 2345
5. Alan Minnican 2131

Its also worth noting that even the England second team comes in at seventh strongest:

England 2 50+ 2282 (these are four board matches and some teams haven't got reserves)

1. Glenn Flear 2463
2. H James Plaskett 2445
3. Shawn Tavares 2140
4. Chris Fegan 2081

http://www.schachfestival.de/world-seni ... pants.html

Here is the link for the participants in the 65+ team event which is separate from the one for the 50+ men and women:

http://www.schachfestival.de/world-seni ... ft&tngid=3

Russia 65+ are clear favourites with a rating average of 2412, more than 100 more than the second seeds, Germany.

The four players plus reserve all played in the 65+ individual last year.
There are 44 teams in the 65+ section, mostly German and Scandinavian. The 50+ tournament also has 44 teams.

England 65+ are 22nd in the last with Elo average 2068:
1. Geoffrey James 2174
2. Kenneth Norman 2112
3. Ian Reynolds 2075 (he played in the individual last year)
4. Roger Scowen 1909

Unfortunately, according a posting a while back at the ECF forum, one of the team has to leave three rounds before the end so they appealed for a reserve to avoid defaulting a game in each of the last three rounds, but it seems from the posted list that nobody has taken up the offer.
I think if they had posted the request on this forum also, maybe somebody might have seen it.

Is there a website which will give the pairings and results ? After much searching I've drawn a blank.

Barry Sandercock wrote:Is there a website which will give the pairings and results ?

This appears to be the official site, as mentioned by other posters.
http://www.schachfestival.de/world-seni ... pants.html

No pairings though.

Nigel Short is scathing about round times on twitter
https://twitter.com/nigelshortchess/sta ... 6682274817

"Nigel Short is scathing about round times on twitter
https://twitter.com/nigelshortchess/sta ... 6682274817"

I'm not surprised!

That is ridiculously early.

So for the only round starting in the afternoon, Nigel has been rested.

Michael Yeo wrote:So for the only round starting in the afternoon, Nigel has been rested.

The standard of the opposition in this round does not appear high. The opening in the board 4 game would be embarrassing in a local evening league, never mind being broadcast to the world.

1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 c5 3. d5 b5 4. cxb5 a6 5. Nc3 axb5 6. Nxb5 Ba6 7. e3 Bxb5 8. Bxb5 Qa5+

Roger de Coverly wrote:The standard of the opposition in this round does not appear high. The opening in the board 4 game would be embarrassing in a local evening league, never mind being broadcast to the world.

Our former Insurance Chess Club team mate, Dieter Kurka, is a perfectly respectable player. However, I have to agree that this is not his finest hour.

Kevin Thurlow wrote:"Nigel Short is scathing about round times on twitter
https://twitter.com/nigelshortchess/sta ... 6682274817"

I'm not surprised!

That is ridiculously early.

It is not every day that I find myself in total support of Nigel, but here I do. I didn't even try to raise a Bermuda team, which would not have been particularly weak, because I knew that their reaction to having to get up early to play chess would be the same as mine.

When I pressed the organisers on this point I was told that 9.30am was already a compromise - German players apparently like to start at 9!

They put towels on their seats at 7.

Live games here:

http://www.schachfestival.de/world-seni ... games.html

I decided, just for a change, to open my account with a Rook ending (and, by the way, the clock times are back to front).

Our opponents were not so weak. About what you'd expect for round 1. They averaged 2117.

Well done Keith, good start, good luck in the rest of the games

Cheers Mick! 4:0, so helpful for any (typically unnecessarily convoluted) tiebreak.

Keith Arkell wrote: Our opponents were not so weak. About what you'd expect for round 1.

The engine at the chessbomb site didn't have a high opinion of Jon Speelman's position out of the opening. Perhaps like most of us, it didn't really know what was going on. But it did point out a moment where by cutting off the Bishop on b4 with an advance of the pawn to c5, it was claiming a serious White advantage.

It was saying that White could win a piece, but presumably it was a typically obscure Speelman sacrifice. I'm sure I would have accepted it to see what happened.