Batumi Olympiad

[JustinHorton]

Minor point: I wonder how Chess24 manages to record 117...Ke4 as being played? Aren't all games drawn once it's down to bare kings?

Ever since they were first designed, DGT boards have had the feature that you indicate results by putting kings on the central squares.

Yes I know. But why does it record it as a move, as opposed to the program knowing that no further moves can be played when it's bare kings?

[Matt Mackenzie]

Minor point: I wonder how Chess24 manages to record 117...Ke4 as being played? Aren't all games drawn once it's down to bare kings?

Ever since they were first designed, DGT boards have had the feature that you indicate results by putting kings on the central squares.

You might think they had devised a way of preventing this polluting game scores by now?

[JustinHorton]

Serbia's draw against Germany (Outpointed 100 a board) is probably worth a mention. Iran did well to put away Belarus (practically equal in strength) 3-1. Russia did not distinguish themselves in beating Georgia II 2.5-1.5, nor Denmark in beating Bolivia by the same score, nor the Faroe Islands against Malta. Zimbabwe did well to draw with Mexico.

[Nick Burrows]

Rd 4 has some great ties:

USA V India
Azerbaijan V England
Poland V Russia

[Tim Harding]

Rd 4 has some great ties:

USA V India
Azerbaijan V England
Poland V Russia

Indeed, Shak v Mickey should be fun, real contrast of styles, and Caruana v Vishy ought to be instructive.

Among the ladies, China v the giant-killing Uzbek team.

Though I am most looking forward to watching Ireland's top board playing the Queen of Katwe, Phiona Mutesi. I hope they don't rest her.

[Tim Harding]

Gawain cocked it up - then thankfully his opponent did

Yes I just checked with the tablebase.
The R+P v B+P ending was always theoretically drawn until 105 f5?? (the obvious Kg4 or even Be5 or Be7 still holds).
It certainly is not obvious, though, that 105..Rd1 was the unique winning move in reply.
After 105...h3? it would even be a draw with Black to move.

Then at move 108, Bg3 was essential. I wasn't watching so I don't know how little time Gawain had for these moves.

In reply, 108...Kd5 was best but the move played 108...Rg2+ still wins (nothing else does).
After 109 Kh6 the winning move was 109...Rf2. Elementary draw once Black missed that.
Lucky Gawain, lucky England.

[J T Melsom]

KSA defaulted top board against ICCD in round 2, as Gruenfeld an Israeli. Does anybody in FIDE actually care about this stuff ? As ICCD only have a four player squad, it wouldn't seem too hard to identify a problem and find alternative pairings.

[Tim Harding]

KSA defaulted top board against ICCD in round 2, as Gruenfeld an Israeli. Does anybody in FIDE actually care about this stuff ? As ICCD only have a four player squad, it wouldn't seem too hard to identify a problem and find alternative pairings.

Perhaps nobody thought of it until after the pairing was published (too late then) or maybe the software wouldn't allow this to be made a forbidden pairing.

It would be interesting to know which countries (if any) have been set up as forbidden to be paired with Israel.

Maybe somebody on the technical team can answer this but my personal opinion is that even if ICCD had a reserve they would have been quite justified to play Gruenfeld,

[Matt Mackenzie]

So much for the Saudis supposedly becoming Bibi's pals, then

[Brian Towers]

KSA defaulted top board against ICCD in round 2, as Gruenfeld an Israeli. Does anybody in FIDE actually care about this stuff ?

Since Makro very recently bought Arab votes with the promise of future GM titles I'm sure it is a matter of complete indifference for the current FIDE administration. I'm sure once Malcolm is deputy president all that will change.

[David Clayton]

Minor point: I wonder how Chess24 manages to record 117...Ke4 as being played? Aren't all games drawn once it's down to bare kings?

Ever since they were first designed, DGT boards have had the feature that you indicate results by putting kings on the central squares.

You might think they had devised a way of preventing this polluting game scores by now?

In British tournaments we ask players not to position the Kings in the center squares, but leave that task to the arbiters. Which works, unless the the players forget and try to do it themselves.

Players should play their final move, shake hands, sign the scoresheet and leave it on the board etc. For example, players positioning the King Kc3 to Ke4 will often be recorded as a final move, which in fact is just the positioning of the Kings to record the result. Know as LMS (Last move syndrome) to pgn inputters, well at least in Britain.

[Mick Norris]

Russia did not distinguish themselves

True but their new board 3 looks a bit useful !

[Roger de Coverly]

Perhaps nobody thought of it until after the pairing was published (too late then) or maybe the software wouldn't allow this to be made a forbidden pairing.

The regular version of the software as used for individual tournaments is believed to allow this. Perhaps those running the pairing software didn't or weren't instructed to screen the three representative teams for players where some opponents would object and flag up forbidden pairings.

[Roger de Coverly]

For example, players positioning the King Kc3 to Ke4 will often be recorded as a final move, which in fact is just the positioning of the Kings to record the result.

How does the sensory software know that Ke4 has been placed by an arbiter, rather than played? Easy enough if it's not a legal move, but if it is?

[Chris Rice]

Round 3 report from Chess.com. Great idea at the end of the report from the legendary Maia Chiburdanidze which was mentioned during a press conference:
"Chiburdanidze also mentioned an interesting way of avoiding loads of opening theory while still playing regular chess (as opposed to Chess960). She said that a tournament had already been held in Georgia, where each player picks a random position after 10-15 moves, which is equal according to the computer. "The most talented players win, and everyone was happy that preparation wasn’t needed!"