2014-08-14

Olympiad!

After two weeks, the big chess celebration in Tromsø is over. It has been fantastic to be here as a coach; I have experienced the atmosphere much more than when I played two years ago. Meeting people, following the presidental campaigns, or walking to the playing hall with the sea and the mountains just nearby. The Olympiad really comes to its right when played in a small city where all players meet each other whether they want it or not.
   But when I really wanted to follow the games, the best way was on Norwegian television, which sent 80 hours live.

One player seems to have taken this competition seriously: +110 over two months, being as close to a WGM-norm as possible in Tromsø.

But I was there to coach Guernsey, a team I had never met before but that had experienced Olympiad players. The examples below were originally for Guernsey's Chess Fedration's website, but why not publish them here as well?
   When registrering the team in Tromsø, the organizers first looked for the African teams and then for the American. Honestly, a few months ago I didn't know much about the channel island either.

A few losses
In round 1-3 we lost against Austria (0-4), Haiti (1½-2½) and Palestine (1-3). In the second match Andy played his first game in an Olympiad, and how he did it!



Andrew Hale - Jean Louis Marckens
11.Bxc6 Andy gives away the bishop pair to keep his strong knight on e5, a decision that eventually decides the game. 11...Bxc6? A strategical mistake. Black should have taken with the b-pawn in order to make White's pawn majority less dangerous. 12.Be3 Nd7 13.Nxd7 Qxd7 14.b4 axb4 15.axb4 Rxa1 16.Qxa1 0–0 White doesn't have the strong knight any more, but if he manages to play b4-b5 Black will be catched. 17.0–0 e5 18.Rd1 f5 19.dxe5 Bxe5 20.Bd4 Bxd4 21.Rxd4 Qg7 22.Qd1 Re8 With a threat... 23.Kf1 Andy didn't want to allow 23.g3 Re1+ 24.Qxe1 Qxd4 and White has lost control. 23...Qe5 24.f4 Qe3 25.Qd2


25...Qxd2? Every move is better than this one. Now the superiority of White's minor piece will be felt much more. 26.Rxd2 Rd8 27.Rd4 Kf7 28.Ke2 Ke6 29.Kd2 h6 30.Kc2 g5 31.g3 g4 32.b5 Be8 33.Kb3 Bf7 34.Kb4 h5 35.Ka5 h4 36.Kb6 hxg3 37.hxg3 Rd7


Finally, White is ready to create a passed pawn. 38.c6 bxc6 39.bxc6 Rd6 40.Nb5 Rd8 41.c7 Rc8 42.Na7 Kd7 43.Nxc8 Kxc8 44.Kc6 Be8+ 45.Kb6 Bc6 46.Rd1 Bb7 47.Rh1 Ba6 48.Rh8+ Kd7 49.Rh7+ 1–0

Andy was close to draw an IM in the next game. Overall, it really felt unnecessary to lose this match, especially after what happened on board one. Chris has played almost no games for 15-20 years, and the rust made him play far too slow.


Mondly Sanon - Christopher Holland
With an extra pawn for Black, the bishop pair and an tremendous attack one could ask why White hadn't resigned yet. I did, when I followed the game, but Mondoly was very right in not resigning. 38...Qxf4+?? Everything else was winning, basically, but with only seconds left, Chris paniced and went for an ending with two passed pawns. A safe win, he thought. 39.Qxf4 Bxf4 40.Kxf4 Oh, wait, The g-pawn is lost! 40...g2 41.Rhg1 Rf8+ 42.Ke3 Bf1 43.Ne6 Rd3+ 44.Kxe4 Rxc3 (44...Rff3 45.Raxf1! is also a draw.) 45.Nxf8 Kxf8 46.Rgxf1+ gxf1Q 47.Rxf1+ Ke7 48.Ra1 Kd6 49.Kd4 Rh3 50.a4 ½–½

Two African teams
Against Rwanda, Guernsey won with 4-0 for the first time in 14 years. Andy finished with a nice combination and Toby made the best move in the whole Olympiad, at least in our team. Fred's win was a bit more lucky but won a pawn race that Garry Kasparov also calculated properly.


Rugema Ngarambe - Andrew Hale
28...e2+! 29.Rxd4 Bxd4+ with mate to follow.


Toby Brookfield - Alexis Ruzigura
Black has captured a pawn on h4, only temporarly delaying development. At least that it was he thought. 20.d4!! The pawn can be captured in two different ways, but after both White plays Qb5 and starts attacking Black's king. 20...Qf6 Preparing Dc6 as a reply to Qb5+. 21.dxe5 Qc6 22.Qc4 h4 23.Ne2 a4 24.Nf4! Not spending an unnecessary tempo on the queenside. 24...a3 25.bxa3 bxa3


26.e6! Black's weak pawn on g6 is undermined. 26...fxe6 27.Rxg6 Be7 28.Rxe6 a2 29.Qc3 Kf7 30.Rxc6 and Toby won without problems, even though he took his time.


Fred Hamperl - Godfrey Kabera
Fred offered a draw around here, and the opponent was probably mislead and thought that he had a chance to win. 45.Ke2 Kc6 46.Ke3 Kb6 47.Kxe4 Kxa6 48.f4 gxf4 49.h4! A move Garry spotted without too much trouble. 49.Kxf4 would only lead to a draw, but how could Black think that he was winning? 49...Kb7 50.g5 hxg5 51.h5 a5 52.h6 Kb6 53.h7 Kb5 54.h8Q a4 55.Qc3 Kb6 56.Qb4+ Kc6 57.Qxa4+ Kd6 58.Qa5 1–0

Namibia (1-3) felt like another loss that could have been avoided. Time trouble spoiled two games, but at least we could celebrate Andy mating with Philidor's mate (what is not named after him?) and securing a CM-title.


Andrew Hale - Rex Oberholzer
20.Qg8+! 1–0

Playing in the lower half of the Olympiad means less experienced arbiters. One didn't allow Andy to stop the clock when they examined whether a three fold repetition had taken place. «New rules», he said. Andy played on instead, to avoid losing on time, and the repetition continued for a few more moves.
   Another arbiter had to examine the position before accepting the players to repeat. He wanted to see whether they could deviate and play on. And a third arbiter disappeared just in time for the time trouble.

Islands, islands and islands
The pairings for the following five rounds gave us five islands! We played Netherland Antilles, which doesn't exist anymore, only to play Aruba in the next round – previously a part of Netherland Antilles! How do the players chose which team to play for? Fair enough, we lost to both (1-3, 1½-2½).
   The most important match was against the neighbour Jersey. Our top scorer Fred made a seemingly sleepy bishop come alive and Chris got a position that was unbelievable positionally overwhelming. Toby accepted a draw in a winning position to end the match 3-1.


Paul Wojciechowski - Fred Hamperl
15...Bd8! 16.c4! A good move which limits the bishop's scope. 16...bxc4 17.dxc4 Re8 18.b3 e4 19.Nxd4?? White should not consider anything else than 19.f4, to keep the e-file and the diagonal b6-g1 closed. 19...cxd4 20.Qxd4 Bb6 21.Qc3 exf3 22.Rxf3


Black's positional compensation is without any doubt, but is there something immediate? Fred thought for a while and found the best moves. 22...Nxd5 23.Qd3 Nb4 24.Qc3 Qb7! 25.Kg2 Bxe3 26.Bxe3 Nd5 27.Qd4 Nxe3+ 28.Kf2 Nc2 0–1


Christopher Holland - Graham Mooney
Black's pieces do a god job to spoil for each other. The bishop on e8 shuts in the rook on f8 and the knight on f6 takes away Nh7's only square. 26.Nxe7+ Chris cashes in. 26...Kh8 27.d6 Qd7 28.Ne5 Qd8 29.Nxc8 Qxc8 30.Bf3 Kg8 31.Rf2 Nd7 32.Nc6 Time for a second knight to e7! 32...Kh8 33.Ne7 Qd8 34.Rh2 Ndf6 Since the first position we saw, Black has not managed to improve any of his pieces. 35.g5 Nh5 36.Bxh5 1–0

Our best team performance came against US Virgin Islands. They had their strongest player on board two and we played Peter to neutralise him. After 12 moves, he found a repetition that the opponent couldn't escape. He had to agree to the draw, completely unaware that he became FM when doing so.


Peter Rowe - Jorge Massana
12.Nb5 Black has only one way to defend the pawn on c7, since the queen is busy to defend e5. 12...Rc8 (12...e4 13.Nxc7 Qd8 14.Nxa8 exf3 15.Bxf3 Qxa8 16.Bxb7 Qxb7 17.Bxd6 is overwhelming for White with all the pawns in the centre.) 13.Na7 Ra8 14.Nb5 Rc8 15.Na7 Ra8 16.Nb5 Rc8 17.Na7 ½–½
   We won the other games to take the match with 3½-½, and scored the same numbers against Maldives. In the final round we faced a relatively unknown but strong Nepalese team. The match started well with promising positions at all boards. Peter played a fantastic move.


Rijendra Rajbhandari - Peter Rowe
Peter played 13...Ba6, with the idea of being able to make Bb7 later! He had already figured out that they were going to reach a position where both players have to wait. It's not only Ulf Andersson and Antolij Karpov that can make constructive-looking waiting moves! Several moves later he had played Ra8-c8-d8, Qc7-b8-c7. When White got a bit impatient, Peter openend the centre and won the e-pawn. But unfortunately, he miscalculated soon thereafter and lost.
   It all came down to Andy to save 2-2 as well as securing his FM-title. He played a good game and won on the queenside, in the centre and on the kingside. But trying to get everything, he allowed his opponent to escape into a lost endgame which was finally drawn. Anyway, with 21/44, we were only a point away from getting 50 %. The same result has been achieved twice before: 1976 in Haifa and 1986 in Dubai.