2016 Olympiad - Baku

[Christopher Kreuzer]

I believe Bronstein played his last Olympiad at the age of thirty-four, which may or may not be of any relevance.

Maybe not so much, given that he played well into old age. Which makes me wonder - when was Smyslov's last Olympiad?

Justin pointed you to Bronstein's Olimpbase record, which should make it simple to get to Smyslov's record:

http://www.olimpbase.org/players/4o26ckqg.html

Very impressive record, from 1952 to 1972 (overall 113 games, +69=42-2 - yes, he only ever lost two games at an Olympiad), final performance of 11/14 (+8=6-0), to help his team to first, and he got the silver medal on board 3:

http://www.olimpbase.org/1972/1972in.html#medals

Somewhat surprisingly, he was never board 1. Petrosian, Botvinnik, Tal and Keres at different times were board 1.

All the players in the Olimpbase database are listed here:

http://www.olimpbase.org/statistics/all_id01.html

[Matt Mackenzie]

Thank you for that link which should provide some interesting browsing in the next few days

Didn't know - or, maybe more accurately, had forgotten - that VVS had played his last Olympiad as late as 1972 (aged 51)

[Christopher Kreuzer]

Cripes, some of these Soviet Olympiad records are incredibly impressive.

(The largest number of [Open] Olympiad games without losing by anyone is 19.)

Petrosian played 129 games and only lost one.
Bronstein played 49 games and lost one.
Spassky played 135 games and lost two.
Smyslov played 113 games and lost two.
Tal played 101 games and lost two.
Karpov played 68 games and lost two.
Botvinnik played 73 games and lost three.
Kasparov played 82 games and lost three.
Kramnik (before the 2016 Olympid) had played 73 and lost three.
Kramnik (after the 2016 Olympiad) has played 81 and lost three.
Polugaevsky played 76 games and lost four.

So trivia question time...

Can anyone name any of the 23 players that downed these Soviet/Russian players?

Maybe I should just give the list of names and see if people can match them up to the person they beat?

[Matt Mackenzie]

Gazza's 3 losses I am pretty sure of:

1980 (his first Olympiad) vs Krum Georgiev
1986 vs Seirawan
1994 vs Topalov

[Christopher Kreuzer]

Wow, absolutely right!

[Roger de Coverly]

Can anyone name any of the 23 players that downed these Soviet/Russian players?

One of Tal's losses was to Penrose in 1960.

[Christopher Kreuzer]

I thought someone would get the Penrose one! There is one more English player in the list, try and work it out before reading the list below.

The full list (probably better done as a comprehensive list of anyone who ever won a game against a Soviet/Russian player in an Olympiad):

Barcza
Byrne
Duckstein
Ftacnik
Georgiev
Gligoric
Hubner
Kasimdzhanov
Ljubojevic (twice)
Miles
Nakamura
Padevsky
Penrose
Pfelger
Quinteros
Seirawan (twice)
Smejkal
Topalov
Uhlmann
Unzicker
Vallejo Pons

(One of Spassky's losses was while playing for France.)
(Not sure if Vallejo Pons is alphabetised under 'V' or 'P')

[Roger de Coverly]

I thought someone would get the Penrose one! There is one more English player in the list, try and work it out before reading the list below.

The Penrose win stands out, because aside from the Alexander win against Bronstein, the wins in any event between an English player and a Soviet player are few and far between.

[IM Jack Rudd]

(Not sure if Vallejo Pons is alphabetised under 'V' or 'P')

V. Spanish names usually end with two surnames.

[Christopher Kreuzer]

I thought someone would get the Penrose one! There is one more English player in the list, try and work it out before reading the list below.

The Penrose win stands out, because aside from the Alexander win against Bronstein, the wins in any event between an English player and a Soviet player are few and far between.

The win by Alexander over Bronstein was at Hastings.

In the Olympiads, the win by Miles is surely famous as well? Maybe someone will remember that one.

[John Moore]

Petrosian's one loss was to Huebner at Skopje in 1972 when he lost on time at move 37 in a Rook and pawn ending that he might well have held.

Duckstein beat Botvinnink in the Munich Olympiad 1958 in the preliminaries but Botvinnik got his revenge in the Final. This was when they had qualifying groups and the event went on for ages. Fairly sure that Botvinnik also lost to Gligoric and to Uhlmann.

[Christopher Kreuzer]

Petrosian's one loss was to Huebner at Skopje in 1972 when he lost on time at move 37 in a Rook and pawn ending that he might well have held.

Duckstein beat Botvinnink in the Munich Olympiad 1958 in the preliminaries but Botvinnik got his revenge in the Final. This was when they had qualifying groups and the event went on for ages. Fairly sure that Botvinnik also lost to Gligoric and to Uhlmann.

All three correct. I suspected that rook ending against Huebner had to have been lost on time. Strange.

[Kevin Thurlow]

Akshaya had a splendid score, especially as she had black so often, though her style probably makes the colour less important. I am slightly surprised her school is happy for her to miss at least a week of the new school year.

[Simon Brown]

Pretty sure that Tony Miles beat Spassky, guessing early 80s but maybe late 70s.

[Paolo Casaschi]

Pretty sure that Tony Miles beat Spassky, guessing early 80s but maybe late 70s.

Chessgames has two wins of Miles against Spassky:

• http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1097114
• http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1097536