2010 World Universities' Chess Championship team

The very latest International round up of English news.
Alex Holowczak
Posts: 9085
Joined: Sat May 30, 2009 5:18 pm
Location: Oldbury, Worcestershire

2010 World Universities' Chess Championship team

Post by Alex Holowczak » Fri Aug 13, 2010 1:36 pm

The British Universities' Chess Association has assembled a British team to play in the World Universities' Chess Championship in Zurich from September 4 to September 12:

Men's Competition:
FM Peter Poobalasingam (Bath)
Vedantha Kumar (Cambridge)

Women's Competition:
WFM Sarah Hegarty (Bristol)
Hannah Dale (Exeter)

Team Manager: IM Lorin d'Costa

More info: http://www.buca.org.uk

Eoin Devane
Posts: 517
Joined: Fri Sep 11, 2009 5:21 pm
Location: Cambridge

Re: 2010 World Universities' Chess Championship team

Post by Eoin Devane » Fri Aug 13, 2010 2:29 pm

Good work!

Any idea what sort of standard of opposition they can expect to face?

Alex Holowczak
Posts: 9085
Joined: Sat May 30, 2009 5:18 pm
Location: Oldbury, Worcestershire

Re: 2010 World Universities' Chess Championship team

Post by Alex Holowczak » Fri Aug 13, 2010 2:39 pm

For some reason, the last tournament where this information is available is 2004; held in Istanbul. That had:
Countries - 15
Men 43 - 9 GM 11 IM 6 FM
Women 21 - 2 WGM 9 WIM 2 WFM

However, this was an unusually strong year; previously no more than 4 GMs took part. The 2006 event was held in Lagos, Nigeria. I can only assume it wasn't very successful, because I can find no data for it.

20 countries are taking part in the competition this time around though; which is an increase on the 2004 event. So there's every reason to believe that there will be more players this time than Istanbul 2004. It's a bit of a voyage into the unknown...

User avatar
Christopher Kreuzer
Posts: 8806
Joined: Fri Aug 06, 2010 2:34 am
Location: London

Re: 2010 World Universities' Chess Championship team

Post by Christopher Kreuzer » Fri Aug 13, 2010 11:57 pm

Alex Holowczak wrote:20 countries are taking part in the competition this time around though; which is an increase on the 2004 event. So there's every reason to believe that there will be more players this time than Istanbul 2004. It's a bit of a voyage into the unknown...
Good luck! Zurich is a lovely city. Hopefully the event will grow in the future - are the matches played over two boards? If so, that must make for simple calculations on what the possible results are!

Eoin Devane
Posts: 517
Joined: Fri Sep 11, 2009 5:21 pm
Location: Cambridge

Re: 2010 World Universities' Chess Championship team

Post by Eoin Devane » Sat Aug 14, 2010 2:51 am

Christopher Kreuzer wrote:
Alex Holowczak wrote:20 countries are taking part in the competition this time around though; which is an increase on the 2004 event. So there's every reason to believe that there will be more players this time than Istanbul 2004. It's a bit of a voyage into the unknown...
Good luck! Zurich is a lovely city. Hopefully the event will grow in the future - are the matches played over two boards? If so, that must make for simple calculations on what the possible results are!
I believe it's composed of two tournaments - one for men and one for women. Both are played as individual tournaments, and then the team score is taken as the sum of the best male score, the best female score and the next best of either from each country. Countries are allowed up to a total of eight players. There are also individual titles, I think. Details are at http://www.wucc2010.ch/.

Edit: I've just seen the list of participants - wow! That's one strong tournament. Wang Yue! Plus two 2600 Russians I've never heard of and the well-known up and coming players Ghaem Maghami and Dusan Popovic. 31 men + 1 woman over 2400! The British players' seedings are:

Peter 41, Vedantha 55, Sarah 28 and Hannah 35.

Eoin Devane
Posts: 517
Joined: Fri Sep 11, 2009 5:21 pm
Location: Cambridge

Re: 2010 World Universities' Chess Championship team

Post by Eoin Devane » Sat Aug 14, 2010 2:58 am

My word, it's even stronger than I thought - Botvinnik's playing! :lol:

Matthew Turner
Posts: 3600
Joined: Fri May 16, 2008 11:54 am

Re: 2010 World Universities' Chess Championship team

Post by Matthew Turner » Sat Aug 14, 2010 7:58 am

That is an incredible list of players. Is Wang Yue really at University?

Alex Holowczak
Posts: 9085
Joined: Sat May 30, 2009 5:18 pm
Location: Oldbury, Worcestershire

Re: 2010 World Universities' Chess Championship team

Post by Alex Holowczak » Sat Aug 14, 2010 9:17 am

OK... I think it's fair to say that this competition has become stronger since the 2004 edition! :shock:

Alex Holowczak
Posts: 9085
Joined: Sat May 30, 2009 5:18 pm
Location: Oldbury, Worcestershire

Re: 2010 World Universities' Chess Championship team

Post by Alex Holowczak » Tue Aug 17, 2010 10:50 pm

Yesterday, without notifying anybody, the organisers changed the time control for this event from whatever it was before (I forget, it was something like 40 moves in 90 minutes + 15 minutes + 30 seconds from move 1) to 90 minutes + 30 seconds per move from move 1. I thought it was extremely bad form to change time limits after everyone has paid to enter, but norms are available now, so I'm not too bothered!

So Peter will now be aiming for an IM norm, and Sarah for a WIM norm.

Kevin Thurlow
Posts: 5821
Joined: Wed Apr 30, 2008 12:28 pm

Re: 2010 World Universities' Chess Championship team

Post by Kevin Thurlow » Wed Aug 18, 2010 8:13 am

Well done Alex - great news that we are sending players. When did that last happen?
"Kevin was the arbiter and was very patient. " Nick Grey

Alex Holowczak
Posts: 9085
Joined: Sat May 30, 2009 5:18 pm
Location: Oldbury, Worcestershire

Re: 2010 World Universities' Chess Championship team

Post by Alex Holowczak » Wed Aug 18, 2010 9:15 am

Lorin d'Costa played in this event in Lagos 2006, but he was playing as part of the Belgian team. Apart from that, we've never sent anyone before.

David Sedgwick
Posts: 5249
Joined: Mon Apr 09, 2007 5:56 pm
Location: Croydon

Re: 2010 World Universities' Chess Championship team

Post by David Sedgwick » Wed Aug 18, 2010 10:08 am

Alex Holowczak wrote:I thought it was extremely bad form to change time limits after everyone has paid to enter, but norms are available now, so I'm not too bothered!
Count yourself fortunate. Had it been a FIDE event, the organsiers would have changed the dates, the venue, the eligibility conditions and anything else that came to mind.

I imagine that they changed the time limits precisely because someone drew their attention to the norm possibility, albeit belatedly.