2026 Chess Olympiad

[LawrenceCooper]

I'm getting uncomfortable flashbacks to my first match as England captain in 2009 where the score was 1-1 about three hours in:

Round 1 on 2009/10/22 at 15:00
Bo. 18 England (ENG) Rtg - 38 Monaco (MNC) Rtg 3 : 1
18.1 GM McShane Luke J 2615 - GM Efimov Igor 2433 0 - 1
18.2 GM Conquest Stuart C 2563 - FM Van Hoolandt Patrick 2229 1 - 0
18.3 GM Williams Simon K 2545 - Ribbegren Karl Johan 2158 1 - 0
18.4 GM Gordon Stephen J 2535 - Iclicki Willy 2052 1 - 0

https://s1.chess-results.com/tnr24908.a ... 0&SNode=S0

[Thomas Rendle]

No real predictions for the Olympiad, but who do we think will be the dark horses / surprise package? Turkiye would be mine for the Open.

For the women's I'll go for a small surprise and Kazakhstan to win the event.

[LawrenceCooper]

Israel-Pakistan ended 4-0 without a move being played.

[Roger de Coverly]

Some very low standards of play in the first round at the tail end. For example a game starting 1. d4 d5 2. c4 Be6 3. Nc3 Nc6 4. cxd5 and Black is already losing material.

[JustinHorton]

That reminds me - I'm sure there's somebody with a reputation for turning up any playing deliberately bad games, maybe in the Women's section. Does anybody know who I'm talking about, and are they present in Samarkand?