2012 Olympiad results and games

[Colin Patterson]

One interesting point - Montenegro appear to be able to play way above their ratings not just in the open section, but also their women's team. I wonder if they have a pre-Olympiad traning camp or something? Very impressive results.

[Alex Holowczak]

One interesting point - Montenegro appear to be able to play way above their ratings not just in the open section, but also their women's team. I wonder if they have a pre-Olympiad traning camp or something? Very impressive results.

They've not done that well: http://results.chessolympiadistanbul.co ... =1&flag=30

You'd expect them to beat Kenya, which they did. Belgium and Mexico were 50/50 games. The draw against Germany and win against Greece were great results. However, we've only got a sample size of 2, so it's a bit too early to sing their praises. Their Elo is +16.7, which is great, but again, I think it's too early.

Let's see how they perform in the rest of the tournament.

[Warren Kingston]

Which country pound for pound is the strongest?
Like if the Vatican had 5 registerd players and three were graded 2500, would that mean they are the strongest?

[Alex Holowczak]

Which country pound for pound is the strongest?
Like if the Vatican had 5 registerd players and three were graded 2500, would that mean they are the strongest?

Well, Armenia has a population of ~ 3,000,000 (according to Wikipedia), and they've won it twice. Seeded 3 this time.

[Warren Kingston]

Looks like a very good candidate then. I read here, somewhere, that Spain has a lot of registered players, but seem to not preform at the Olympiad, is that right?

[Alex Holowczak]

Looks like a very good candidate then. I read here, somewhere, that Spain has a lot of registered players, but seem to not preform at the Olympiad, is that right?

Probably in the thread where I gave countries a nominal 1 vote per 1,000 rated players to see what the FIDE Voting Register would look like.

Without having checked exhaustively, I think Spain have more rated players than any other country. They have 9,512 in the September list.

I don't know if it's a case of them not performing in the Olympiad. They probably perform to their ability more often than not. The problem appears to be that they're not actually good enough to do any better than they do. Now that Shirov has returned to Latvia, Spain's best player, Vallejo Pons, is loitering about the 2700 mark. They have more depth than most, but they have an unusually weak top end.

[Roger de Coverly]

Looks like a very good candidate then. I read here, somewhere, that Spain has a lot of registered players, but seem to not preform at the Olympiad, is that right?

If you want to see how many internationally rated players a country has, it's available through the FIDE ratings site.

England has 984 according to
http://ratings.fide.com/advaction.phtml ... g&line=asc

Spain has 9512
http://ratings.fide.com/advaction.phtml ... g&line=asc

You have to be careful with interpretation as it's known the total of individuals with either or both ECF grades is around the 12,000 mark whilst the total playing at least one graded game approaches 16,000. Whether there's a reliable count if those taking part in the UK Chess Challenge isn't known, but the estimate is that the school stage of this boosts the number of "players" towards 80,000.

[Andrew Martin]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HrPWWSE3vkA

Rd 5 Game of the day

[Andrew Bak]

Olympiad Round 5 Report

[Andrew Bak]

A couple of other things to keep you occupied on the rest day!

Rupert Jones has been running a fascinating blog about life on the lower boards, definitely well worth a read:

The PGN Files

If you didn't enter the Fantasy Ches Olympiad Competition the first time, or just want a second crack at winning some prizes - you can enter the Fantasy Chess Olympiad Week 2 Sprint Competition. There is a free version, or you can take part in the £3 Winner Takes All Prize.

Playing a Stinker?

[Roger de Coverly]

Any alternative sites that may be covering that match?

There's a new site with a familiar name.

www.twiclive.com

It may just be embedding coverage from the official site, so not any faster.

[Graham Borrowdale]

After Aronian's model win against Ivanchuk last round, Kramnik has now beaten Aronian in a really smooth game.

[JustinHorton]

And a Slav Exchange as well.

[Matt Mackenzie]

Grischuk messed it up for Russia, though. Still, at least Armenia didn't win 2.5-1.5 again

[Andrew Bak]

Grischuk messed it up for Russia, though. Still, at least Armenia didn't win 2.5-1.5 again

I think that's a bit harsh on Grischuk. Movsesian played a very good game, it was incredibly complex and interesting! I'm sure there is plenty that can be learned from it.

It's nice to see that there will be 3 teams on 11/12 and a further few on 10/12. Armenia vs Azerbaijan will have to happen at some point - expect them to go all guns blazing in that one! (Hopefully not literally...)