39th Chess Olympiad Khanty-Mansiysk 2010 (3)
McShane struggles but England win
Mark Crowther - Saturday 25th September 2010
Luke McShane lost to a player over 350 points weaker that him but England do win 3-1 against South Africa in Round 2 of the Olympiad. Malcolm Pein reports.
Italy - Russia from Round 3. Photo © | http://www.europe-echecs.com
There was an amusing 'non story' in the first round of the Chess Olympiad underway at Khanty Mansisk in Siberia. In the first round Yemen were paired with Israel and refused to play. This kind of nonsense has been tacitly accepted over the years, but usually, someone adjusts the pairings computer to avoid any such possibility.
Yemen did not arrive at the board, but nobody told the sensory chess boards they were due to play on, or perhaps simpler, switched them off. In the absence of any moves from the Israel-Yemen boards, the computer network broadcast the moves of the adjacent match, from the adjacent sensory boards, on the official website. Coincidentally, this was England's match against Malaysia.
After about two hours, the error was rectified but not before someone had alerted the Yemeni authorities. With a fuss brewing in the Arab world, they promptly sacked the team and the management, quite unnecessarily as it turns out. Of course Yemen should be kicked out of the tournament for refusing to play but Kirsan probably needs their vote.
Fourteen of the one hundred and forty eight teams remain on maximum match points after three rounds. Three of the leaders are Russian teams. Russia II actually lead as they have 11/12 game points. Teams score two points for a victory and one for a 2-2 draw.
England continued to struggle a little despite defeating South Africa 3-1. Luke McShane was simply unrecognisable and lost with the white pieces to Henry Steel who is rated over three hundred and fifty points lower. Michael Adams, Nigel Short and Gawain Jones all won.
Scotland achieved an excellent 2-2 draw with Philippines as Colin McNab held former world junior champion Wesley So to a draw. Russia I dealt quite brusquely with Italy. Alexander Grischuk and Sergey Karjakin won quickly with white as Vladimir Kramnik and Peter Svidler drew with Black.
S Karjakin (2747) - D Rombaldoni (2501)
Russia v Italy
Sicilian Richter Rauzer
1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 d6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nc3 Nc6 6.Bg5 e6 7.Qd2 a6 8.0-0-0 Nxd4 9.Qxd4 Be7 10.f4 b5 11.Bxf6 gxf6 12.f5 Bd7 13.Kb1 Qc7 14.Qd2 Qc5 15.fxe6 fxe6 16.Ne2!
(Planning to attack e6 with knight and bishop)
16...Rc8 17.Nf4 0-0 18.Be2 a5
(Perhaps 18...Qe5 19.Rhf1 Rf7 but Black's king looks more vulnerable)
19.Rhf1 b4 20.Bh5 Kh8 21.Rf3! Rg8
(21...a4 22.Ng6+! hxg6 23.Qh6+ Kg8 24.Qxg6+ Kh8 25.Qh6+ Kg8 26.Rg3+)
22.Bf7
(Black's game collapses after e6 falls)
22...Rg4 23.Bxe6 Rxf4 24.Bxd7 Rxf3 25.gxf3 Rg8 26.Bg4 Qg5 27.Qf2
(Black has a weak king so the queens stay on)
27...h5 28.Rd5 Qf4 29.Rf5 1-0
D Rombaldoni
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Sergey Karjakin
Final position after 29.Rf5
have been a couple of pairings with political overto
MJ Alvarez - BD Banlock
Venezuela - Cameroon
King's Indian Smyslov System
1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 g6 3.Nc3 Bg7 4.Bg5 d6 5.e3 0-0 6.Nf3 c5 7.Be2 Nbd7 8.0-0 a6 9.Qc2 Qc7 10.Rac1 e5 11.dxe5 dxe5 12.Rfd1 h6 13.Bh4 g5 14.Bg3 Nh5? 15.Nd5 Qb8 16.Ne7+ Kh8 17.Nxg5 hxg5 18.Bxh5 Nf6
BD Banlock
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MJ Alvarez
Position after 18...Nf6 White to play and win
Answer to puzzle
19.Bxf7! Rxf7 20.Rd8+ Rf8 21.Ng6+ Kg8 22.Nxf8 1-0
There was another match with political overtones although these two countries are trying to improve relations. The defending champions, Armenia, beat Turkey 4-0.
B Esen - L Aronian
Turkey - Armenia
Gruenfeld Defence
1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 g6 3.Nf3 Bg7 4.g3 d5 5.cxd5 Nxd5 6.Bg2 Nb6 7.Nc3 Nc6 8.e3 0-0 9.0-0 Re8 10.Re1 a5 11.Qe2 Be6 12.Rd1 Bc4 13.Qc2 a4 14.Qb1 Nb4 15.e4 c5!?
(15...Qd7 16.Be3 e6)
16.d5?
(16.dxc5! Bd3 17.Rxd3 Nxd3 18.cxb6 a3)
16...a3 17.h4 Ba6 18.h5 axb2 19.Bxb2 Nc4 20.Bf1 Nxb2 21.Qxb2 Bxf1 22.Kxf1 Qb6 23.Qd2? Qf6!
Levon Aronian
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Baris Esen
Position after 23...Qf6!
24.Kg2 Qxc3 25.Qf4 Nd3 26.Rxd3 Qxd3 27.Rh1 e5 0-1
