44th Olympiad, Chennai 28 July to 10 August 2022

[JustinHorton]

Ukraine have lost to Slovakia, who they outgrade by more than a hundred points a board

[JustinHorton]

Conor Murphy seems to have passed up a chance to beat Bluebaum

But wait!

Although Kanyamarala on the next board appears to have conceded the match by agreeing a draw in a won position

[MJMcCready]

Eng open are winning

We played well as a team today.

[JustinHorton]

Shouldn't go unnoticed that Zambia beat Egypt today

[JustinHorton]

Eh

[David Sedgwick]

Eh

This seems to be a recurrent glitch on Chess24. Several match results in earlier rounds have also been shown as 1 - 4 initially. They seem to get corrected, or self-correct, fairly quickly.

[JustinHorton]

Chinese Taipei appear to have achieved a stunning draw with Estonia

[MJMcCready]

That's a good result for them.

[JustinHorton]

Late tragedy in Morocco v Kazahstan as, with the scores level, Morocco's board three (as it happens, the least outgraded of any of his side) who had, according to the computer, never been significantlyworse, and with a number of drawing lines available to him, blunders on move 99 and now has to try and draw king and rook against king and queen on the increment (EDIT) which he swiftly fails to do.

[MJMcCready]

That's a shame but I'm quite sure he wasn't the only one to blunder today.

Laos does not seem to be doing very well.

[Geoff Chandler]

Scotland lost 4-0 to Argentina

Here are two instructive moments.

Hamish Olsen - Leandro Krysa,

[FEN "6k1/3n2pp/4p3/5p2/rpNP4/1Nn1P1P1/2R2PKP/8 w - - 0 24"] 24. Nc1 b3 {Nice play, Black has this all worked out. the b-pawn beats a Rook and Knight.} 25. Rxc3 Rxc4 26. Rxc4 {Missing a black move to come. White had to play Ne2 , then Black has Rb4.} 26... b2 27. Rc8+ Kf7 28. Rc7 {Now b1=Q Rxd7+ and Rc7. The Rook and Knight can hold back the Queen. But...} 28... Ke8 {The move White missed when not playing Ne2. 0-1}

This next one is surprising, I've played Freddy a few times and he usually
spots my tricks and traps. Here his sense of danger deserted him.

Freddy Waldhausen Gordon - Flores Diego
[FEN "r3k3/1p2qp2/2p1p2p/p4prP/P2P1b2/2P2B2/1P2QPP1/R4R1K w q - 0 25"] 25. Rfe1 {Missing Black's threat. White had to play Kg1.} 25... Rxh5+ {Bxh5 then Qh4+ and mate.} 26. Kg1 {Now it is the standard Rooks sac, Queen check and mate trick.} 26... Rh1+ 27. Kxh1 Qh4+ 28. Kg1 Qh2+ 29. Kf1 Qh1

[Christopher Kreuzer]

India 2 appear to be leading the Olympiad on board points, with 5 teams on maximum match points (including England in third).

Is this the first Olympiad where the host nation has fielded three teams with all GMs?

USA recovered to hold a draw with Uzbekistan. Armenia and France drew. Several other match draws on the top tables in round 4.

[MJMcCready]

Seemed closely fought today. The host nation is probably pretty happy with itself.

[LawrenceCooper]

Is this the first Olympiad where the host nation has fielded three teams with all GMs?

I was about to quote 2010 but Russia 3 had an IM rated 2556 alongside 4 GMs http://chess-results.com/tnr36795.aspx? ... S3&flag=30

[Roger de Coverly]

I was about to quote 2010

1994 in Moscow, Russia had two teams only. The "B" team were third, fielding two IMs and an untitled player out of six.

1 IM Morozevich, Alexander 2575
2 IM Zviagintsev, Vadim 2585
3 GM Ulibin, Mikhail 2510
4 GM Rublevsky, Sergei 2565
1 res. GM Sakaev, Konstantin 2555
2 res. Yemelin, Vasily 2520

(from OlimpBase)
http://www.olimpbase.org/1994/1994rus2.html