2016 Olympiad - Baku

[JustinHorton]

The USA have won their match and with it the Olympiad.

[LATER EDIT: actually this was not quite as done and dusted as I thought.]

[Alasdair MacLeod]

Jones has drawn. Difficult to follow Short's game as the knight has turned into a king and the real Black king has donned a cloak of invisibility. Adams looks to have won. Am refusing to watch board 2. Too stressful.

Not as stressful as sitting next to game like it and my teammate is winning...

But yeah, 2 minutes left each with only 18 moves played is a bit ridiculous, no-one I know would dare do something like that....oh hang on a minute...

[Christopher Kreuzer]

But really, the last 10 moves in about one minute. I know David has lots of experience of this, but I wish Nigel had a way to press for a win.

(I have no idea who you are thinking of Alasdair... )

[JustinHorton]

Looks like David might have blown this one.

[Christopher Kreuzer]

Ah, Howell is lost now.

Just going to be 2-2. The players in contention for board medals and with big rating advantages, blew it, only drawing their games. Is that a fair (if brutal) assessment? Or should we be kinder about this result?

[JustinHorton]

Ngel has drawn, so that's a bit of a disappointing finish (though not as disappointing as Ukraine's finish is likely to be I suppose).

[JustinHorton]

Harikrishna has drawn with Carlsen, demonstrating for the second time this tournament that he knows how to draw king and two pawns on the kingside against king and three.

[IanCalvert]

I think 16/22 in the Open is really good and England finished above the Netherlands.

Does anyone think England could have done significantly better than Top 10 (approx.)? Analogies with England football not allowed!

[Christopher Kreuzer]

The results against China and Azerbaijan were excellent. Balanced out by the drawn matches against Iran and Peru.

[JustinHorton]

All four games still going on on the top board of the Women's Olympiad. Would Russia winning give them the title?

[JustinHorton]

(This is looking less plausible than it did a few minutes ago, as Goryachkina's position has gone the shape of a pear.)

[Angus French]

The results against China and Azerbaijan were excellent. Balanced out by the drawn matches against Iran and Peru.

... and the loss to the Netherlands. Suspect on rating performances England were slightly below par.

[Alan Walton]

On first inspection it looks like David had a bit of a nightmare; but actually 3 of his 4 losses came against opponents who seemed to be on fire with 2800+ performances (Kovalyov, Mamedov and Cori); it proves that there are fine margins in this competition

[Paul Dargan]

Far from convinved that a 2.5 - 1.5 win for USA locks-up the Gold .. they're probably a favourite but 3.5 - 0.5 for ukraine plus their previous unique opponents doing well ... There can be big swings in Team SB scores in an 11 round event.

Paul

[JustinHorton]

Yes, I thought it was done and dusted but it appears it's not so clear and that the Germany-Estonia match (where two Estonians are hanging onto possible draws) may be of some relevance.