2012 Olympiad results and games

[PeterTurland]

I'm an expert yawner

[Andrew Bak]

Olympiad Report - Round 1

[Michael Jones]

The website is all over the shop. Gawain Jones has now lost on Boards one and four......for Wales!

A reliable source of results is the chess-results.com site which is at
http://results.chessolympiadistanbul.co ... =1&flag=30 for Olympiad coverage. This also has the team compositions before play starts.

The results linked to the live boards are as noted, erratic. It doesn't appear that they are reliably downloading the "who is playing where" from the chess-results server.

Thanks for that, Roger. It shows Romania as having beaten Syria 3.5-0.5, which sounds more plausible than the previously reported 1.5-2.5 loss, Vescovi winning and Bologan drawing rather than the losses for both which the official website claimed. Movsesian and van Wely losing appear to be correct, though.

[Eamonn O'Molloy]

Can anyone explain to me the thinking behind playing Gawain Jones a board higher than Nigel Short? Seems a little strange given that Short is rated more than 40 points higher.

[IM Jack Rudd]

Can anyone explain to me the thinking behind playing Gawain Jones a board higher than Nigel Short? Seems a little strange given that Short is rated more than 40 points higher.

Short's recent results suggest that this is a good idea. He's been exceptionally good at beating somewhat weaker players (cf his results at Gibraltar), but not great at holding somewhat stronger players (cf the London Chess Classic). Therefore he's better off playing down the order where his strengths can shine.

[Paolo Casaschi]

Can anyone explain to me the thinking behind playing Gawain Jones a board higher than Nigel Short? Seems a little strange given that Short is rated more than 40 points higher.

Short's recent results suggest that this is a good idea. He's been exceptionally good at beating somewhat weaker players (cf his results at Gibraltar), but not great at holding somewhat stronger players (cf the London Chess Classic). Therefore he's better off playing down the order where his strengths can shine.

Makes sense. I considered him for my fantasy chess selection, finally decided otherwise wondering how many games he will actually play considering his duties as FIDE delegate (the fantasy chess rules reward players for just showing at the board).

[Eamonn O'Molloy]

Can anyone explain to me the thinking behind playing Gawain Jones a board higher than Nigel Short? Seems a little strange given that Short is rated more than 40 points higher.

Short's recent results suggest that this is a good idea. He's been exceptionally good at beating somewhat weaker players (cf his results at Gibraltar), but not great at holding somewhat stronger players (cf the London Chess Classic). Therefore he's better off playing down the order where his strengths can shine.

Usually I'd argue against selecting teams on subjective factors, although I see the logic in that explanation. It would be interesting if someone showed performance ratings for both players against, say, players over 2650 and players under 2650 in the past two or three years. Azerbaijan must be subscribing to a somewhat similar school of thought, playing Safarli ahead of Mamedyarov despite a 100+ rating gap.

[Andrew Camp]

England ladies getting hammered by Mongolia.

[Mick Norris]

I am not sure how reliable the live games part of the official website is (I see Gawain, rather than Rupert, Jones lost on board 3 for Papua New Guinea) but it appears that Felix Ynojosa beat Jan Smeets

[Michael Jones]

Is the displayed result that Wang Hao drew with Caruana correct? The final position looks winning to this humble patzer, since black will lose the d-pawn. Is there some trick with g4 fxg4 f3?

[Roger de Coverly]

I am not sure how reliable the live games part of the official website is (I see Gawain, rather than Rupert, Jones lost on board 3 for Papua New Guinea) but it appears that Felix Ynojosa beat Jan Smeets

Luckily today Wales only selected one Jones, else Gawain would have needed to be on four boards at once, instead of just three. There were two Israel teams today.

[Leonard Barden]

it appears that Felix Ynojosa beat Jan Smeets

Not only a win for Felix against an opponent rated 250 points superior, but also the only decisive result in the Venezuela v Netherlands match, a good turn against one of England's rivals for a top ten finish.

[Jonathan Rogers]

After Van Wely's loss yesterday, it is just going from one shock to a greater shock for the Dutch so far.

I was very impressed with our team today. It was entirely possible not to beat Brazil, and we may remember that we lost to a similarly slighter weaker team in round two last time (Bosnia) where they won good game and held worse positions elsewhere. But we made a completely different type of 2.5-1.5 win today - our win was again very convincing but more to the point we were completely comfortable elsewhere and we might never have been worse on any board. Very authoritative stuff and I'm sure they all regard that as a good day's work.

[LawrenceCooper]

After Van Wely's loss yesterday, it is just going from one shock to a greater shock for the Dutch so far.

I was very impressed with our team today. It was entirely possible not to beat Brazil, and we may remember that we lost to a similarly slighter weaker team in round two last time (Bosnia) where they won good game and held worse positions elsewhere. But we made a completely different type of 2.5-1.5 win today - our win was again very convincing but more to the point we were completely comfortable elsewhere and we might never have been worse on any board. Very authoritative stuff and I'm sure they all regard that as a good day's work.

Agreed. After I captained us to three successive round two defeats it was good that Peter enjoyed a better result today against a similar strength side to the ones that had overcome us in 2010 & 2011. Cuba next in round three.

[Andrew Bak]

Olympiad - Round 2 Report