English Chess Forum

In the 50+ Rd 5 board pairings:

Heart of Finland - England I
GM Rantanen, Yrjo A. 2292 - GM Short, Nigel D 2683
FM Salonen, Jyrki 2174 - GM Nunn, John D M 2600
Viljava, Tapani 2187 - GM Speelman, Jon S 2511
Meskanen, Vesa 2052 - GM Arkell, Keith C 2411

Keith and Nigel have won, Jon has drawn whilst John is much better on board 2.

3.5-0.5 as John has now also won.

Good result as game points are the first tiebreak after matchpoints

Top boards were quick draws in the St Petersburg v Ashod & Israel v Armenia matches

Not such a good day for England 2, losing 2.5-1.5 to the much lower rated Greek team.

1 1 England I 8 : 10 Saint Petersburg 2
2 5 Ashdod Chess Club 6 : 8 Armenia 4

65+ Round 6 pairings:

1 1 Russia 10 : 8 Germany 5
2 4 Sweden I 6 : 8 France 2
3 7 England I 6 : 7 Israel 3
4 11 Steiermark 6 : 6 Sweden II 10
5 16 Scotland 5 : 6 Austria 6
6 12 Stiftung BSW / DBAG 5 : 5 Switzerland 8
7 17 Sweden III 4 : 4 England II 14
8 15 Wales 4 : 4 England III 20

LawrenceCooper wrote:1 1 England I 8 : 10 Saint Petersburg 2
2 5 Ashdod Chess Club 6 : 8 Armenia 4

7 13 Germany Women 5 : 5 England II 7

11 19 England III 3 : 1 SCCU 125 22

Here's how they line up in the crucial Round 6 match:

England I - Saint Petersburg
Short, Nigel D 2683 - Khalifman, Alexander 2617
Nunn, John D M 2600 - Ivanov, Sergey 2530
Speelman, Jon S 2511 - Ionov, Sergey 2535
Arkell, Keith C 2411 - Solozhenkin, Evgeniy 2443

Khalifman so far: white win 44 moves, black draw 35 moves, white draw 12 moves, black draw 12 moves, white draw 13 moves

Mick Norris wrote:Khalifman so far: white win 44 moves, black draw 35 moves, white draw 12 moves, black draw 12 moves, white draw 13 moves

I expect Nigel will make him fight.
This is a big match that England must win and quite close on rating.

Not looking great after 90 minutes play, especially for a must-win match. The unforunate pattern discussed in my article
https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2017/ ... ampionship
is in danger of continuing.

Not looking too bad now. All equal, except Arkell's game.

Speelman has put us one up though Nunn and Arkell not doing well and Short equal.

Efficient win by Jon to put some scoreboard pressure on the opposition, whereas it was the other way round in a key match last year.

Keith's position looks awful but as anyone who has ever had a "nearly winning" position against him, but still lost, knows, White has perhaps only done half the job so far.

John Nunn's clock and board situation is worrying after two and a half hours play but I would not write him off. We really need half a point there, though.

I still have confidence that Nigel will bring home the bacon.