Round 14 Men

Russia duly took the gold medals and the Hamilton Russell Cup at the 35th Chess Olympiad at Bled. The world number one Garry Kasparov watched his teammates play four short draws against Yugoslavia as Russia coasted home. Russia's margin of victory was cut to a point as China made a last gasp attempt to capture bronze and suffered a heavy defeat at the hands of second seeds Hungary who comfortably took silver. Russia played without world champion Vladimir Kramnik and WCC Candidate Evgeny Bareev and despite the apparent closeness of the result they strolled home despite losing their individual match to the Hungarians. The Armenians won the bronze medals after another impressive 3-1 win over Georgia. England ended on a high with a hard fought 2.5-1.5 victory over Poland as Jon Speelman came good in the last round. Speelman outmanoeuvred his opponent and won with a mating attack. Luke McShane pushed too hard for the win and was completely outplayed but then defended with great determination to save a completely lost endgame two pawns down. McShane managed to reach a drawn position with rook against rook and rook's pawn and secured the half point on the ninety fourth move . This result pushed England up to equal fifth, a very good performance. If Speelman, John Emms or Stuart Conquest had been on form a medal position would have been within the team's grasp. England missed Julian Hodgson, John Nunn and Matthew Sadler who have had to give up full time chess. Scotland ended with a creditable 1.5-2.5 defeat against a very strong Azerbaijani side who fielded the prodigy Teimour Radjabov on top board. Jonathan Rowson, who flew in from the USA where he is studying at Harvard held the youngster to a draw. Colin McNab scored another fine win.

Chess Olympiad round fourteen results Russia 2-2 Yugoslavia; Hungary 3-1 China; Armenia 3-1 Georgia; Israel 1.5-2.5 Netherlands; England 2.5-1.5 Poland; Adams draw Krasenkow (w), Short draw Macieja, Speelman 1-0 Miton, McShane draw Markowski; Final scores 1 Russia 38.5; 2 Hungary 37.5; 3 Armenia 35; 4 Georgia 34; 5-7 China Netherlands England 33.5; 8-12 Slovakia, Israel, Macedonia Yugoslavia Switzerland 33; Ireland 31; Scotland 30; Wales 27; Jersey 23.5; Guernsey 17;

England individual performances Michael Adams 8.5/13; Nigel Short 9/13 Jon Speelman 5/9 Luke McShane 6.5/11 Stuart Conquest 3/6 John Emms 1.5/4

Miton,K (2564) - Speelman,J (2583) [A15]
Olympiad Bled SLO (14), 10.11.2002

1.Nf3 Nf6 2.c4 b6 3.g3 Bb7 4.Bg2 g6 5.0-0 Bg7 6.Nc3 0-0 7.d3 d5 8.Bg5 d4 9.Nb5 h6 10.Bf4! Ne8 11.b4 a6 12.Na3 a5! 13.bxa5 Rxa5 14.Qc1 Na6 15.Nb5 g5 16.Bd2 Ra4 17.h4 g4 18.Ne1 Bxg2 19.Nxg2 c6 20.Na3 Qd6 21.Nc2 Nc5 22.Rb1 Nd7 23.a3 Ra8 24.Bb4 c5 25.Bd2 Nc7 26.Rb3 f5! 27.e3 dxe3 28.Ncxe3 e5 29.Nc2 h5 30.Bg5 Rf7 31.f3 gxf3 32.Rxf3 Raf8 33.Qf1 Ne6 34.Nge3 Nxg5 35.hxg5 Qg6 36.Nd5 Qxg5 37.Nxb6 e4 38.dxe4 fxe4 39.Rxf7 Rxf7 40.Qg2 Qc1+ 41.Kh2 Ne5 42.Ne3 Ng4+ 43.Nxg4 hxg4 44.Qe2 Qh6+ 45.Kg2 Qh3+ followed by Bd4+ wins.

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