Lahno is probably trying to regain her confidence. After her performance at Corus this year and her early dropout of the WCC (having fallen from 2500 Elo to ~2460), she can probably need some good results... She hasn't faced a single 2400-woman yet in this tournament...

What are the realistic chances that USA men's and women's teams might get a medal. They seem close, but it is a wall to climb that is not easy. they need a minimum of 3rd place and no one wants to give up their position.

Back in the U.S. now... interesting tournament.

Armenia is impressive... USA is undefeated and Sweden has looked good since losing to Egypt.

Lots of nice pics. It has been hard to build the galleries. The press conditions in Turin were not the best.

I did a few audio interviews as well including a short one with Aronian. The interviews with Giovanni Vescovi and Alexander Baburin are good as well as the one with Shane Matthews of Jamaica. Stay tuned.

The use of board points without taking in match points seems a bit harsh. As like all swiss events, the top seeds get the weakest seeds to play in the first two rounds. Match points only count in the third tie-break! So as you see Armenia is in first place even though the US and an other have 6-0 match points. Board points will come hard in the next three rounds! The US has a chance, but seems to have to win at least one match by 4-0. So I think they will be close, but out of the medals, Even if they go 9-0 in matches!

Don't the top seeds actually play stronger seeds than the close-to-top seeds? In the first round of a Swiss with 2N entrants, seed 1 plays seed N+1, seed 2 plays seed N+2, etc.

There are still 7 rounds to go; I think it's far too early to say that the US needs a 4-0 in some match to catch up.

Any comments on India-Ukraine matchup? For my amateur eyes it seems:

Anand-Ivanchuk is dynamically balanced game, all three results possible

Volotkin-Sasi most likely drawn

Harikrishna-karyakin white has slight plus

Pavel-Chanda -- curiously NEAR IDENTICAL to the above game after 14 moves :)

Russia vs Belarus is really interesting.

Kramnik has been made to face the berlin defense by Alexandrov :) nice idea to force a draw (esp. if Kramnik is planning to play it against topy, and thus doesnt want to reveal much)

I like Federov, he is a real attacking player, and he is playing white against svidler and it is a sicilian. so let us hope there will be some fireworks

Azerov has responded nicely in kind to morozovich, in the opening, it is all wild but it seems with 13 e5 morozo has some kind of a distinct space advantage. I suspect he is going to be able to cash into a win.

the fourth game is nothing to write home about, yet.

Russia vs Belarus is really interesting.

Kramnik has been made to face the berlin defense by Alexandrov :) nice idea to force a draw (esp. if Kramnik is planning to play it against topy, and thus doesnt want to reveal much)

I like Federov, he is a real attacking player. He is playing white against svidler, and it is a sicilian. White has to attack on the king-side, so I am hoping to see some fireworks.

Azerov has responded nicely in kind to morozovich in the opening. It is all wild in the opening (at least to my eyes) but it seems with 13 e5 morozo has a space advantage. I smell he is going to be able to cash into a win.

the fourth game is nothing to write home about, yet.

721 PM

Anand-Ivanchuk is getting to be more exciting. Chucky has a doubled pawn on the queen side, and thus Anand has a passed pawn on d5. Chuky's king-side pawns don't seem to be in good formation too.

It seems to me, only two results are possible, Anand win or =.

Phil Haley writes on Chesstalk about the pairing system...

"Olympic pairings are produced by a more sophisticated system than we normally use...within a given group the pairings are made not by top vs one below the middle but instead to balance the strength of each team's opposition to date...this would be impractical by hand...it is probably a fairer system and was devised by Alomog Burstein who is the chairman of the Pairings Committee. Alomog is very competent and was a member of my pairing committee when I was chairman at 4 olympiads. Although an excellent system it has the drawback of being less transparent than the normal system and hence in many cases practically impossible to predict in advance without the pertinent computer pairing system...Phil Haley"

Aronian is crushing Sokolov with black after nice home preparation and a blunder by Sokolov...

Aronian is crushing Sokolov with black after nice home preparation and a blunder by Sokolov...

Kramnik wins so easily with white pieces ... it's impressive. He has played 3 games and has obtained 3 won positions in less than 20 moves. Performance 2970. If he'd showed that before the agrement for the world championship, maybe Topalov wouldn't have signed it..

Funny to see how Holland deals with the pressure.. First board going down within twenty moves with none of its kingside pieces -including pawns- being touched?!

Sweden is looking very good against the US. Could be as good as 3-1 unless the Americans turn in some very good defense.

hey Kramnik did not win. There must have been an error in the transmission. I mean, look at the final board, doesn't look like a draw at all.

Well, one down at least. Carlsson massed all of his pieces impressively against Akobian and then took a draw. Kaidanov appears to untangling against the Tiger. Hikaru has a passed a-pawn and chances. Ibragimov should defend a worse endgame. Tough Swedes in Turin!

Anand-Ivanchuk drawn. Sasi-Volokitin looks drawn. Chanda looks like he is lost. No clue what happened in Hari-Karjakin. So it could be that we are losing 2.5 - 1.5.

Ruslan says: "Kramnik wins so easily with white pieces ... it's impressive. He has played 3 games and has obtained 3 won positions in less than 20 moves. Performance 2970. If he'd showed that before the agrement for the world championship, maybe Topalov wouldn't have signed it.."

I doubt it.. that's exclusively Kramnik's style, not Topalov's..to avoid matches based on the opponent's strength

It seems like a shame to have world championship decided on the basis of whose Boards 4 through 6 are able to get more extra half points. I think the Olympiad should be based on team record (team win, +1, team draw +1/2). Otherwise, a victory over Belarus is liable to count a lot more than a victory over Ukraine.

Did Alexandrov make a blunder? why did he play 18..Bc8? sheez he plays Berlin defense and then loses a miniature!

yeah, team points make a lot more sense. the current rules are not team-based at all.

In a first board action Mongolia's first board, the guy that made the knight sac against Anand beat Sveshnikov with the French defense. Maybe the guy is not that bad:) Svesh is still a formidable 2500 rated GM.

Nakamura is doing well, but I still think Kamsky and Onischuk should have played here as well. They don't need rests after just one game yesterday. Team USA still plays these 2.5-1.5 games as if they mistakenly beleive it's the team points that count.

Did Alexandrov make a blunder? why did he play 18..Bc8? sheez he plays Berlin defense and then loses a miniature!

Some trivia:
In Calvia 04 Olympiad, India also played Ukraine in the 7th round.
The Indian team was near identical with Kunte playing instead of Chanda. For the Ukranians, Pono was there instead of Volokitin and Eljanov and Karjakin exchanged places.
The final result was a 2.5 - 1.5 victory to the Ukranians, all boards drawing and Karjakin beating Kunte.
Anand-Ivanchuk was a draw after Anand seemed to have a big advantage on the board and clock.

Also why did US rest Onischuk and Kamsky? Shouldn't they be looking to score heavily against the (relatively) weaker teams?

One of the bizarre posts from the lower boards has to be read to be believed. The Brazil ladies Board 1 apparantly accused the Irish ladies Board 1 of being an imposter.

http://www.icu.ie/articles/display.php?id=29

I don't understand Anand's draw with Ivanchuk, especially how with 29 Bg4 Be8 30 Bh5 Bd7 31 Qf3 Rc8 32 Ra1?! he tries to trade the bishops and then suddenly refuses to do so as soon as Ivanchuk lets him force it, instead dithering with his rooks and letting Ivanchuk take over the initiative.

He's really not on form, although his plus score is impressive for not being on form.

can somebody explain what on earth is happening in krnan-zozik in the canada-iraq match? I'm just a patzer but I think this is more than me just not understanding....

go kaidanov go go! push those pawns!

India-Ukraine three boards drawn leaving Harikrishna-Karjakin. What was the result there?

Nigel Short carried out a clinical demolition of what appeared to be a fortified position. Vintage Short.

The Vietnam-Spain result has to be an upset.

Kaidanov wins a nice endgame!

Wow, Kaidanov is now winning a crazy endgame. Wild game, typical of the Botvinnik Variation all the way. Meanwhile, Ibragimov seems to be losing his own endgame. Ah, Kaidanov just won.

Magnus beats Michael!

And since Carlsen beats Adams, that means Norway wins 2.5-1.5 over England. :-D

"Nigel Short carried out a clinical demolition of what appeared to be a fortified position. Vintage Short."

...but Magnus Carlsen won over Adams.
Norway - England 2,5 - 1,5.

Ooops! My first post, and I forget to refresh...

Does anyone have a theory regarding 18. ... Bc8 in the Kramnik game???

I am under the impression that the entire olympiad is 10 games. with 7 played that leaves 3 to go which includes todays games. with completion today there are only 2 games to go. not much time for USA to move up to win a medal. the way usa is winning by narrow margins it will require that those above us will have to lose. not likely.

I would have thought that a team competition might have the team score followed by number of game points as first tie break.

well with Kirsan around trying to change chess everything is possible. who knows what the rules will be after the election. not good if kirsan wins.

I dont like pressure like this in an election. Who says democracy works. Bush has won ( sort of ) the last 2 times. ( some claim he stole the elections ) now Kirsan is coming up. if he steals the election he will simply say that is the way democracy works. He will say he was democratically elected. haha. and his little hottie Beatrice will get her little job.

tommy, don't worry. 13 rounds in total. :-)

History repeats itself: India loses to Ukraine with Karjakin the only decisive game :-(

2.5-1.5 USA-Sweden =)

Did they take back the 72)... Re7 move in board 2 US game or there is something wrong with the Java applet?

Never mind, the Applet just refreshed, US ties with Sweden.. too bad ... they should have played with Gata.

Awww I thought he could draw. I guess it's 2-2 then.

Someone commented about match point scoring vs. game point scoring earlier--about once one board is decisive, the other boards of the leading team start trying to draw, if they're not already.

Do we really need another reason for GMs to draw?

Beatriz isn't the only scandal-plagued US chess politician involved in this Olympiad-plus-FIDE election. Another member of the crooked former USCF Executive Board that the Goichberg slate kicked out (?) in last year's board elections, was Elizabeth Shaughnessy. I notice upon going to the Irish team link that "Muddy Mik" gave earlier in this thread, that she is playing for the Ireland women's team. (I'm reasonably sure it's the same person.)

I am surprised that there has been little or no mention of Aleksandrov's blunder against Kramnik. I cannot recall anything like it.

well with 13 games there is time to move up. USA has won all its matches. but not by 4-0 scores. slowly but surely if we can keep up the wins we have a reasonable chance. correction. USA tie today with sweden.

Susan Polgar says she has always played all the games in the olympiad. she says she does not agree with all these rest days by the players.

I suspect on many teams that there are some egos that want to play and so the captain has to keep the players happy by giving people rest days and rotating the players. this can espicially allow different players on board 1. not exactly team spirit but then the scoring is not team oriented either.

Well Beatrice is elected through next year but I suspect she will not get re elected next year. Cleaning up USCF is a long slow process. and cleaning up FIDE is an every longer and slower more painful process.

I have been a USCF life member since 1972. all this time waiting for chess to get its act together. and it just has gone down the tubes. I hope we are going to now bounce off the bottom and come up a ways. if Kirsan gets in again, I just might take up golf. haha.

Amazing!! The USCF website at http://www.uschess.org has no coverage at all of the Olympiad! Not even of their own US team... Instead, they have as top news their politician's fight with Ilyumzhinov!

Not so nice way to go for the leaders of USCF. They pay no attention to chess but only to the intrigues concerning their own personal affairs...

Cynical,

Hmm, good point, but one which can be relieved by preventing GMs from finding out other results till their own game is finished. Even without it, I would probably still rather have TEAM competition with draws than Board 4 competition without them.

Muddy Mik, thanks for that link to the Irish chess team's web site.

Pure comedy gold!

from TWIC:

"Aleksandrov committed a strange blunder at the end of his game against Kramnik. He calculated 18. ...Kf7 19.Nc5 Bc8 but played 18. ...Bc8 instead and had to resign."

oops.

Thank you, fluffy! Now I understand.

That kind of blunder, mixing up the order of moves is mentioned in Kotov's "Think Like a Grandmaster", I believe.

I guess not only TWIC, but other sources have started to found "quite coincidential" the poor level of the games Kramnik has won so far (strange blunders before move 20 by all three players Kramnik has defeated). There is circulating the rumor that all these victories are part of a publicity strategy to disturb Topalov and announce Kramnik is on back, without showing really high class chess. Then, even in Dortmund, with this psychological advantage, players can underperform against Kramnik and ha can continues his winning streak.

I hope players in Dortumnd don't keep those suggestions; then, we will see the real Kramnik, with real opposition.

Peace...

Pascual, why must you leap forward with yet another bogus conspiracy theory? Why is it that so many chess players and fans are paranoid and turn everything into evidence of some complex scheme? The guy was 2800! He can play the game!

Hotep,

Maliq

Absolutely paranoid...Aronian didn't loose voluntarily against Vlad. So did the others.

I guess that with all the crazy Topalov conspiracy theories floating around, Kramnik got jealous and decided he wants one for himself too. Oh well.

For the statistically obsessed among you, the Czechs seem not to know what "balanced team" means:

Their board 4, Viktor Laznicka, has 6/6 and a performance of 2856. On board 5, Radek Kalod has 0/3 and a performance of... 1732?! That's over 1100 points of difference over one board.

No guys, it's true. Everyone is deliberately tanking against Kramnik. Just like Topalov will.

Of course, Pascual. Kramnik simply must have paid all his opponents to blunder against him. (The draws are a smoke-screen, I need hardly add.) Apparently he did not have enough money to pay for a more subtle blunder by Aleksandrov.

I would, by the way, not call his win against Aronian on a "poor level". I am much reminded of a Karpov-Kasparov game (could have been #17 or so) in one of their matches. I suppose he had to pay more for that.

Alex, when you score either 100 % or 0 % in a tournament, the rating performance is totally meaningless, as it is not possible to calculate the actual performance.

Pascual--

Your sources are laughably unreliable.

My sources tell ME that Kramnik conspired to act sick and play lousy chess for a year or so, hoping to make Topalov overconfident, and, incidentally, to get better odds on himelf at Bettson.com.

Thus, at about move forty of his games with Naiditsch, Aronian and Alexandrov, Kramnik had planned to collapse in a heap on the chessboard, forfeiting. But his three opponents managed to lose before move 40, denying Kramnik his opportunity.

My sources tell me that since these three "wins" were short, lousy games, Kramnik hopes Topalov will remain overconfident.

My sources tell me that Kramnik has got a mini PC set up in the ass. Since he's ill, his temperature is getting higher day by day, and therefore it's overclocking his Rybka, which explains his successes at Turin.

Ruslan--

I thought that, too. But in some of Kramnik's games, "Fritz" spends long stretches of moves saying, "what the hell's he doing?"

Anyone else impressed by Carlsen's win over Adams? This wasn't a blunder win like Kramnik's, but a tough positional endgame. I thought it was a certain draw, but Carlsen found and executed a winning plan. I was mightily impressed.

"overcooking his Rybka"

Hahaha--a special joke for the Russian speakers here, Ruslan?

I have always wondered what was up Kramnik's ass. Now I know it's a mini PC.

Karpov also had a PC there, but back in those days they were larger and caused severe irritation to the digestive system, which is why he needed the yogurt.

was it Kasparov who said dont let the young kids beat you the first time because they will gain confidence and beat you every time after that.

That Magnus is becoming a trouble maker on the chess board. He seems to want to beat everyone. If he keeps winning he is going to think he is pretty good at this game.

Tarjei, tell that to Jeff Sonas.

Future World Chess Champion
Radjabov: Perhaps?
Nakamura: No!
Karjakin: No!
Carlsen: Definately!

Regarding USCF and its coverage of the Olympiad, the post above (by Giannis) is mistaken.

The USCF home page does provide (fairly high up) a link to coverage of the US team's reaults. In fact there are round-by-round reports from a few people accompanying the US team, including Donaldson and Carol Jarecki (although as of today, Sunday 5/28, the latest report they had seemed to be for Round 3).

It is true that the top link on that page relates the USCF's formal protest about Ilzhuminov interfering in USCF internal affairs by involving himself in a squabble among current members of the USCF Executive Board. (FIDE actually posted a letter from a dissident USCF board member at the top of its own, FIDE, Web site.)

Within USCF policy circles, Kirsan's having deliberately stepped into an internal debate within the USCF, is being seen as a major misstep that may have handed the Kok forces their biggest talking point thus far among the smaller-country federations.

That is, federations in Africa, the Middle East, Latin America, have mostly been in the Kirsan camp. But another thing these federations have in common is that they relish their autonomy. Any outside authority who tries to dictate to them, or otherwise involve itself in their internal affairs, very likely will face a backlash of monumental proportions.

By publicly rushing to support a national federation official who ran afoul of her colleagues within her national federation; and by using the FIDE Web site to publicize and inflame an internal conflict within that member federation, Kirsan has sent a very specific message to ALL federations.

The message is this: should debates or divisions arise within a member federation's internal governing body, it is fair game for Kirsan to jump in and actively assert his (or FIDE's) interests within that member national federation.

One hardly needs to be a Kok supporter, or a genius, to see that that message must be prompting a good deal of nervousness among officials of various federations that are presumed to be in Kirsan's corner.

Who is Arora Neel??

Probably he could be the son of a politician, or
a famous person in Fiji. There is no other explanation to the fact that

- He is the only unrated player in the Fiji Team.
- However, he is on the first board.
- He has lost all his games so far (0/7).

sheesh, there is always a hidden agenda, isn't there, some mean plot to overcome the righteous ones???

Dr. Neel finished second in this years Fiji Rapid Championship - that's why he's on the team. That he's seated as board one might well be a strategic decision: Maybe they figured that even their strongest players wouldn't have a chance against the "usual board one strength". Therefore they "wasted" their weakest player on that board, and are trying now to gain points on the lower boards, where they have at least some chances...

I nominate Pascual for chief librarian of the Chess Conspiracy Hall of Fame.

"Another member of the crooked former USCF Executive Board that the Goichberg slate kicked out (?) in last year's board elections, was Elizabeth Shaughnessy. I notice upon going to the Irish team link that "Muddy Mik" gave earlier in this thread, that she is playing for the Ireland women's team. (I'm reasonably sure it's the same person.)

Posted by: Jon Jacobs at May 28, 2006 15:06

- - - -

SO, DOES THE ABOVE MEAN the complaint launched by some team member against this Elizabeth Shauganassy IS AN IMPOSTER, i.e. posing as an Irish player (while in fact being an American) IS TRUE?

any comments?

Here are a set of interviews I conducted while in Turin for one week. They include a diverse group including several GMs and Jamaica's Shane Matthews who is in the center of a dispute under deliberation. Enjoy!

http://www.thechessdrum.net/newsbriefs/2006/NB_TurinTalk.html

Thanks, DS

Only a draw by Magnus Carlsen versus Macieja Bartlomiej (2584), but Norway still beats Poland 2.5-1.5. :-)

Quoted:

"Another member of the crooked former USCF Executive Board that the Goichberg slate kicked out (?) in last year's board elections, was Elizabeth Shaughnessy. I notice upon going to the Irish team link that "Muddy Mik" gave earlier in this thread, that she is playing for the Ireland women's team. (I'm reasonably sure it's the same person.)

Posted by: Jon Jacobs at May 28, 2006 15:06

- - - -

SO, DOES THE ABOVE MEAN the complaint launched by some team member against this Elizabeth Shauganassy IS AN IMPOSTER, i.e. posing as an Irish player (while in fact being an American) IS TRUE?

any comments?
Posted by: Ashok Patel at May 29, 2006 08:06

Shaughnessy maintained her Ireland Federation affiliation throughout her stay in the US; correct me if I'm wrong, but I'm not sure she was ever strong enough to be FIDE-rated then, so switching to USCF affiliation was never an issue.

She first played for Ireland in '69, at Lublin. In '70, she became Ireland's Women's Champion.

After almost thirty years, she re-surfaced for Ireland and played at Elista, Istanbul, and Bled. Not sure why she skipped Calvia.

Armenia-Cuba 3-1
Russia-Czech Republic 2-2
Sweden-Ukraine 1-3

Unless I'm mistaken, Armenia has a 2 point lead over Ukraine and Russia now.

Brilliant game by Navara against Svidler. Comprehensively smashed. Russia were lucky I think, Moro's opponent declined a perp and then loses in a few moves. weird. And Bareev was really scrambling at the the end. Could have been 3-1 for Czech!

Armenia 24
Russia 22
Ukraine 22
USA 21.5
Georgia 21.5
France 21.5
China 21.5

USA moves to 4th in the standings, only half point behind Russia and Ukraine!

The result of Babula-Moro game is not clear, official site says 1-0 but playchess.com says that its probably wrong and final position looks better for White, unless it lost on time!

-Amit

Will I see my dream match Israel-Iran?
I really hope so.

penguin_with_visor, it might not happen. Apparently there are "forbidden pairings". If they appear, the arbiter changes the pairings.

http://www.chesscafe.com/text/geurt73.pdf

Most Arab nations consider themselves in a state of war with Israel and thus refuse to play them or participate in events in Israel. Iran, while not Arab, follows this line of reasoning as well to my knowledge. Gens Una Sumus.

It will not be a problem except in round 1. Unless the Arab countries do some Russian recruitment to keep up with Israel, US, Germany, etc.

Ermenkov of Palestine in in the vanguard in this respect.

Iran has more points than Israel after eight rounds.

Oh, Mig, surely you are not suggesting that Iran is an Arab country? Any Iranian friends you ever had - you don't have them any more.

More on the subject of "team results counting rather than individual" leads to more draws.

1. Individual results would still be the tiebreak. So you can draw hoping that in the end you will be in sole position and tiebreakers won't matter, but it's not a very favorable proposition.

2. Members of the team which lost first would now on the opposite want to get a victory, since a draw would not help their team much as individual results would only matter in tiebreaks.

3. During the first 30 moves or so, the GMs would be playing in the same setup as they would be now, since few games would be over. Having developed this far, unless the game is already drawish, it's harder to switch over from playing for the win.