Batumi Olympiad

[John Moore]

Worst England result ever in an Olympiad? I remember 2.5-1.5 against Japan in Skopje 1972 long before Japan got good.

[JustinHorton]

Pablo Byrne on Twitter draws our attention to Aithmidou-Li

Huge drama in the rook and pawn ending as Aithmidou is winning, lets it slip and then finds himself winning again

[NickFaulks]

Ben Hague, contrary to a post I've deleted, probably hasn't dropped half a point against the Seychelles.

I haven't checked the others, but Ben Hague's game looks like a draw to me.

[John Moore]

Hungary seem to have dropped two draws as well.

[JustinHorton]

Ben Hague, contrary to a post I've deleted, probably hasn't dropped half a point against the Seychelles.

I haven't checked the others, but Ben Hague's game looks like a draw to me.

You're quite right, I wasn't paying attention.

[John Moore]

Aman Hambleton appears to have lost to a player from Nepal.

[Roger de Coverly]

Worst England result ever in an Olympiad?

I expect there are plenty of other candidates. With the pairings now based primarily on match points, winning 3-1 rather than 4-0 matters rather less than it used to.

[JustinHorton]

Pang of Hong Kong, 1981, draws against Chilean GM Henríquez.

[Matt Mackenzie]

Worst England result ever in an Olympiad? I remember 2.5-1.5 against Japan in Skopje 1972 long before Japan got good.

Not sure they're that great even now?

[Chris Rice]

Always interesting to see what the players got in their goodies bag. Long gone are the days of Kirsan when it was champagne and caviar.

[JustinHorton]

Quevedo beating Foisor in the women's competition is quite a result.

[JustinHorton]

Always interesting to see what the players got in their goodies bag. Long gone are the days of Kirsan when it was champagne and caviar.

Qvevri

[Richard Bates]

Worst England result ever in an Olympiad?

I expect there are plenty of other candidates. With the pairings now based primarily on match points, winning 3-1 rather than 4-0 matters rather less than it used to.

Really? Doesn’t it mean they’ll get a much tougher opponent in round 2 than they would otherwise have got? (because the pairings are done by rejigging the seedings according to match points). Whereas under the pure game point system a slightly sub-par result would have given an easier opponent to compensate.

[LawrenceCooper]

Nick Burrows asks whether England have chess training camps.
Usually the English adults don't. Perhaps the nearest the English women came to that was when they met in my living room along time ago when Pter Wells was their captain.
There are financial constraints and the open team is fiercely individualistic.

The women have had training weekend(s) in recent years.

[NickFaulks]

Worst England result ever in an Olympiad?

I don't see how a match win can be a worst ever result, or even a particularly bad one. It scores a full match point and may also secure easier opposition in the coming rounds.

One of their worst starts must have been in my first Olympiad, Moscow 1994. They won in the first round against Mongolia but then went loss-draw-draw ( John Nunn, who is affected more than most by unspeakable food, lost twice with White ). Had they managed to beat Russia 2 in the final round they would have won medals.