Australian Championship: Halfway Mark

The 11 round Australian Championship and Reserves tournament have now had 5 rounds, and will be entering the second half of the tournament tomorrow. Kanan Izzat continues to dominate the Championship field and is the only player on a maximum score in either tournament. Kanan holds a 1 point lead over a somewhat surprising duo of youngsters in second place. Sitting on 4/5 are Luke Li and Karl Zelesco, both still at school! A group of 5 players then sit on 3.5 including giant killer Jason Hu who has drawn with Max Illingworth earlier in the tournament, and today won against Darryl Johansen! Besides that the field is shaping up to about what was expected, with I guess the bad start of Max Illingworth, who regained his winning ways today. Funnily enough, if Max wins again tomorrow, he will probably jump back into the top half of the field.

The biggest disappointment today was probably that of Justin Tan, who apparently lost on time after not pressing his clock correctly. I'm not sure what happened, but I'm guessing he tapped the clock lightly, and the lever didn't go down properly. Anyway, Justin didn't notice that he had mis-hit his clock, and ended up losing the game. Still Justin sits alongside Max and a good run could catapult them back up toward the top.

The Reserves remain tight at the top with no one reaching the maximum 5/5. There are currently 5 leaders on 4.5: Clive Ng, Kris Chan, Alex Jule, Patrick Gong and Michael Kethro. There are then another 32 players within a point of these 5, so it is way too early to tell what is happening here. In the last Reserves tournament in 2014, there were also no players on 5/5, but Doug Hamilton then went on to win his next 5 games and wrap up the tournament with a round to spare. I wonder if we'll see another performance of that type?

There have been a fair few visitors to the venue, and today GM David Smerdon, among others, popped in. There are commentaries happening live while the games are being played. These are being run by a group of strong IM's, Robert Jamieson, Guy West and Leonid Sandler, but as the players finish their games, they will also hang around to watch some commentary, with GM Papin seeming to spend quite a bit of time in the commentary room after his games have finished.

The top games are being broadcast live, and the Championship games can be found at the chess results server not long after they have finished. Arbiter Kerry stead is doubling as data input specialist, as he also did at the Australasian Masters. Along with Peter Tsai and NY Wong, the arbitration team have run things very smoothly, and I don't know of any issues that have arisen during the event. The rules have been explained very clearly, so I guess that helps.

I will be looking at my own blunders later on, but for now, here was the shortest win of the first 4 rounds, and it highlights the issues that plagued defending champion Max Illingworth for the first
part of this event. Even Max himself will probably admit to this game being one of his worst losses for quite some time. But maybe it was the kick he needed as he bounced back to win today! The winner of the game, FM Dusan Stojic is also apparently bouncing back to form I'm happy to say. A few years ago, Dusan was Victorian Champion, 2300+ and seemingly heading towards the IM level. Then he worked his guts out at the 2014 Australian Championship as an organiser, and played at the same time. He had a terrible tournament from a playing perspective, which is no big surprise when taking into account how much work he was doing before and during the event. His poor result seemed to shake his faith a bit, and he was a bit slow to recover his momentum, but results have started to pick up for Dusan again, and hopefully we'll see him jumping back to where his strength really belongs. This is how you beat a 2500+ player who plays a dubious opening system.

A New Grandmaster

Australia's newest GM, Max Illingworth

The Australasian Masters is the only round robin event in Australia to offer norm possibilities. Over the 28 year history of the event, it hasn't always qualified for norms, and even when it has players haven't always achieved the required score. But this year we have had something special.

In the Grand Master section, IM Max Illingworth has scored the GM performance with 2 rounds to spare, with an incredible 6.5/7. I don't know of anyone who thinks Max is not worthy of the title and his occasional hiccup just shows that he is human. In fact, although undoubtedly talented, it could be argued that Max hasn't been the biggest prospect to arise in Australian Junior chess. But what is evident is that Max's workmanlike attitude, and dedication to the game, have meant that he has been able to continue his rise after his junior years, which so many players fail to do. Although I'm probably not qualified to say, it appears that Max is still improving, so where he will end up is anyone's guess. But if determination and effort are the criteria to judge someone by, then Max is right up there. This is the third GM norm for Max, and seeing he has been over 2500 (and may have risen over 2500 again due to his performance here) he should become a GM as soon as it is ratified by FIDE.

IM Izzet (left) needs half a point for a GM norm vs GM Johansen, 3 times winner of the Masters.

Max has had only one draw in the first 7 rounds, and that was to IM Kanan Izzat, the Azerbaijani teenager who is studying in Melbourne. Kanan has also had an amazing start to the event with 6/7, and he stands in second place with only half a point required to achieve his GM norm. Like Max Kanan has shown excellent opening preparation, strong tactical awareness, and great determination. This latter quality was shown to vivid effect in his endgame win against top seed GM Neiksans from Latvia.

The Grand Masters have not had the best of tournaments, but Neiksans has now moved into third place on 5/7. To be fair, this would be a good score if the two young IM's weren't blazing through the field. However, both Papin and Johansen have been out of sorts, which is a shame to see.  The other young players will probably have mixed feelings about the event. I'm guessing James Morris and Anton Smirnov might be a bit disappointed, though their scores and play show they are competitive at this level, and under other circumstances might even have done better. Bobby Cheng lacks tournament practice, so his 50% must be seen as a good comeback to chess. Bobby will continue into the Australian Championship and hopefully this will be a full comeback for a player who has been Australia's only World Champion at the youth level. Melbourne High School players Ari Dale and Luke Li have found the going tough, but again, have proved competitive, and especially Ari could have been better if he'd been able to convert some promising looking positions.

IM Igor Bjelobrk can afford to relax with his 7/7 start in the IM event

In the IM event that I'm playing in, it is all about IM Igor Bjelobrk who has scored 7/7, and stands 2 points clear with 2 to play. Igor, to put it simply, has not had any trouble at all in any of his games, and his solid style and ability to punish errors has proved too good. In the 7th round he converted a difficult opposite coloured bishop ending against FM Chris Wallis, which put a dent in Wallis's IM norm chances. Chris is currently in second place on 5/7, but he will be focusing on winning his last 2 games, as that will get him his second IM norm. With a good performance in the Australian Championship, Chris could conceivably score another norm, and could be close to reaching 2400. I wish him the best in his last 2 games.

Chris has to face IM Richard Jones, the top seed, who is having a pretty tough tournament. Richard is only on 3/7 but Chris will still have to be aware that Richard could kick into his top form at any moment. The other IM, Mirko Rujevic is in equal third with FM Eugene Schon. This is a funny pair as we have probably the most optimistic player sitting on the same score as probably the most pessimistic, regarding their own positions. Mirko is certainly not short of self belief, while Eugene probably suffers from the complete opposite.And while Mirko sits at the top of the veterans list in Australia, Eugene is only in his early 20's and has a lot of development still hopefully to come.

Last minute replacement in the IM section, Alpaeus Ang is the lowest rated competitor but has scored 2.5 so far.

The rest of the IM field are probably just a little below par, or roughly where they should be. There have been no big breakthrough performances in this event. My own play has become weaker as the week has gone on. I could blame tiredness, but really it has been a lack of my own stamina and determination to perform, so I'd do well to look at those qualities of the leading players from the GM event is I want to improve my results in the future.

Finally, a game from the GM event. Kanan Izzat is a bit better from the opening against Neiksans, but after about 40 moves we are in a rook ending that looks pretty difficult for either side to win. Neiksans was quite short on time at this point, and allowed Kanan to show his endgame technique. Here's a position from the endgame. How confident would you be of beating a 2600+ GM from here?

Izzat as white did exactly that, winning a seemingly drawn position. This was the longest of the GM event so far, and epitomises the fighting determination of the young breed of players. This game and all the others from both sections can be downloaded form the official website, along with arbiter IA Kerry Stead's excellent daily bulletins.

Results Are What Are Remembered

The 4th round of the Australian Masters saw the GM norm hopefuls moving closer to their targets. Max Illingworth has started with a perfect 4/4. He needs only 2.5 from his remaining 5 games, but what a 5 games he has! He has to play the other 2 GM norm aspirants, Kanan Izzat and James Morris, the top 2 seeds, Neiksans and Papin, and IM norm hopeful Luke Li. It is certainly not out of the question, but Max will need to continue in his strong start.

Kanan Izzat currently has 1 GM norm to his name and has started with 3.5/4 bringing his live rating up to about 2470. His play has been impressive up to now, and his endgame win against top seed Neiksans, yesterday was excellent. Today is the big game, Illingworth-Izzat. Both players have shown excellent preparation, tenacity and technique so it promises to be a cracker.

The third GM norm hopeful is James Morris. James has started with 3/4 which means he has to score a further 3.5/5. But in James favour is that he has played all the GM's already. Saying that, yesterday James had a bit of a scare against Ari Dale. A wild game was played that seemed to fluctuate in evaluations with Ari coming out of the opening much better and for much of the game he seemed to have a big edge. James became active, and Ari slipped turning the position from big advantage, to level, to much worse. But even at the end, when James seemed to be winning, Ari missed some saving possibilities. The result was a victory for James who has moved a little closer to a GM norm.

This game, and some others in the round, got me thinking about the way we perceive chess after the fact. There aren't many people who will see how well Ari played in this game, how strong his opening play, and even how determined he defended in a tight spot once he was worse. Basically, after the tournament is over, the result will be win for James, loss for Ari and nothing more or less. In the IM tournament, another tragedy happened in the game Rujevic-Nguyen. Nam was a pawn up in a queen ending, but Mirko had cornered Nam's king and offered a draw as a perpetual seemed the most likely result. With a fantastic spirit of fighting chess Nam refused and played on trying to get as much out of the position as possible. Unfortunately, he overplayed his hand and ended up losing the position. What won't be remembered, is that for about 40 moves of this game, Nam held his IM opponent, and then gradually started to outplay him eventuating in a endgame which was equal or slightly better for him. No, all that will be remembered is that Mirko won, and Nam lost.

The win puts Mirko into joint third place, and leaves Nam equal last, but it could have been so different! Igor Bjelobrk continues his dominance of the event with another win and a 4/4 start. Chris Wallis is a point behind and still has a chance of a norm, though he will have to score 4/5 to do it. If Chris can find his best chess, then this could be possible because he can certainly play to master strength. In equal thrid is Richard Jones, who has stumbled a bit. In the third Jones, the top seed, lost to bottom seed Alphaeus Ang. Perhaps trying too hard to win, Jones blundered in a minor piece endgame, and the young New Zealander didn't miss his chance. And then in the fourth round, Jones was winning comfortably against me, and probably had a number of ways to win, but in the end he couldn't find them and the game petered out to a draw.

As for my play? Well, the results are what counts, right? If that is the case, then I'm doing a little better than expected on 1.5/2. However, when looking at my play, I was let off the hook in the draw against Jones, which I'd played badly and should have lost. In the first round, Alphaeus Ang got a big position out of the opening, and again I was let off the hook. The result will show a win for me, but I felt fortunate to get to move 20 unscathed! I played really well against Eugene until I lost the plot as my clock started to tick down. And against Igor Bjelobrk, I blundered a pawn in the early middlegame, and then put up an heroic defence which nearly saw me save a draw, until again I missed a tactic in time trouble. Overall, if I was just assessing my play and not the results, I'd say that my game against Bjelobrk was my best, even though I lost it!

The last 2 games I have had to start late (thanks very much to the organisers, and my opponents, Igor and Richard for agreeing to this) because of work commitments (I think I'm the only player in both fields who is working while the tournament is in progress, though I could be wrong), and this has prevented me from looking at much chess over the past few days. This should change from today, and hopefully this blog will have some more chess content from the event soon.

Australian Chess Championships 2016

There are only 145 days remaining until the 2016 Australian Chess Championships. The event is being held in Melbourne's suburb of Fitzroy which is a short hop from Melbourne's CBD. The tournament is being held from January 2nd through to January 12th with a rest day on the 8th January when the blitz championship is being held.. While the tournament is the property of the ACF, it is being run by my chess club, the Melbourne Chess Club.

The Australian Championship is held every 2 years with an Open Championship happening in the years between. Last year's open in Sydney saw Chinese GM Ni Hua come over and take the title by 2.5 points. The top Australian was IM Max Illingworth. The last Championship was in 2014 and was held in the south east Melbourne suburb of Noble Park. The champion was Sydney based IM Max Illingworth who will hopefully be defending his title in January. There is already one IM entered in the field, Ari Dale, and when I spoke to James Morris on Friday he seemed genuinely excited by the upcoming event. I think that will be the case for lots of local players, and I'd be guessing that a lot of travellers from interstate will come down too. The Championship in 2014 had a field of 42 players. The tournament has an eligibility criteria that basically means that you can't play unless you have an Australian Chess Federation rating of 2150 or higher, or are exempted under one of the other selection criteria. This ensures that the tournament has a decent quality field.

There is a reserves tournament for those players who don't meet the championship entry criteria. This will run alongside the championship and will also be a great event. Over 90 players entered the 2014 Reserves which was won resoundingly by ex Australian Champion, FM Doug Hamilton. In a very competitive field Doug ended up a point clear. Like Max Illingworth, I hope to see Doug at the tournament in January.

And I hope to play myself. My rating has made it 2151 and hopefully it will rise again. As an Australian citizen, I am hoping that my FIDE designation as English will not count against me. I'll put my name in the list and see what happens. It would be a funny twist if I did play. When I lived in England I tried to qualify for the British Championship and only managed it the year I emigrated and so missed playing in the Championship. Now after 10 years in Australia I could play in my first national championship, but not in the country of my birth.

Here is the final round game from the 2014 Australian Championship. It was dramatic with Max Illingworth playing Anton Smirnov, the winner taking the Championship.

Australian Champion

It was a grandstand finish to the Australian Championship dominated by Australia's youth, The big game was between 22 year old IM Max Illingworth, and 13 year old FM Anton Smirnov, with the winner being crowned champion. In the event of a draw, a play off would have ensued and could have included a number of players in the chasing pack.

Board 1 in the final round

In the end a play off wasn't necessary as Max Illingworth won the game and took the title. Anton found himself leapfrogged by a group of players and dropped to =5th place, still an excellent achievement for the schoolboy. Equal second were GM Tu from Vietnam, IM Moulthun Ly and 15 year old Melbourne star, Karl Zelesco who beat GM Johansen in the last round, attracting a big crowd of onlookers into the bargain.

GM Papin and IM Goldenberg drew in the final round

Neither ex Champion IM Solomon, nor Zonal Champion IM Bjelobrk could catch the leaders

This Championship was certainly a victory for youth, with 6/7 of the top Australians under 25 years of age (40 something IM Igor Goldenberg flew the flag for the more mature age groups), and 3 of these still teenagers (Zelesco, Smirnov and 17 year old Bobby Cheng). Perhaps we are on the verge of a bright future for Australian chess?

The Reserves tournament had alreaady been decided before the final round with Doug Hamilton taking out the title. There were still the minor places to be decided. In the end 2014 Victorian country Champion Oladoyin Fasakin from Nigeria came outright second, while Marko Grabovac, Milenko Lojanica and Kevin Sheldrick came third.

Chess equivalent of a "runner"

The organisers did their best to accommodate all players. For example, a number of players had no intention of finishing this event, but wanted to play before leaving to play in the Australian Junior Championship which overlapped this tournament. This requirement was accepted by the organisers, and hopefully this ridiculous situation is something that future organisers will not have to contend with! There was also byes allowed for players, and players with religious observations (such as in the picture above) were allowed assistance (I was one of the helpers pressing a clock and writing down moves, but not as photogenic as Aryn in the photo above). Splitting the Reserves and Challengers into 2 different events was a great success, and this should be continued in future Championships.

Besides the tournament and title prizes, there were also awarding of the annual medals.

2013 Player of the Year: IM Bobby Cheng
2013 Young Player of the Year: IM Ari Dale
2014 Koshnitsky Medal (organiser): Andrew Saint

There were also brilliancy prizes awarded in the Championship and Reserves. The Reserves winner was Max Chew Lee, which matches his sister's win in the Challengers tournament. The Championship brilliancy prize was awarded to Andrew Brown for his victory against Jason Tang. A nice game where white sacrifices a couple of pawns to open lines on the king side. He then scrambles his king, and comes up with excellent piece play to attack black's king (and queen).

Best In The West

Now this is a tournament I would have really liked to have played in, but I had to work for most of the first day so it wasn't an option for me. The turnout was fantastic from both a quality and quantity point of view. A great tribute to the organisers, Hobson's Bay Chess Club.

Tony Davis, player and organiser.

The tournament has been run since the early 1980's, but this must surely be the strongest and biggest of all so far. There were over 80 players competing this year and it caused a few comments about the fact that the tournament was only to be a 5 round swiss. This meant that there was potentially going to be more than one winner without them having to play each other, but in the end the tournament had only one winner, and some great games and upsets. Members of Hobson's Bay Chess Club were happy with the format, and chief organiser Tony Davis said that if more than one player finished on full points, then a play off match would be organised. It seems that no one who played was too bothered with the arrangements.

Top seed in the tournament was a real coup for the small Western suburbs club. GM Hrant Melkumyan from Armenia came to Australia straight from the World Cup in Norway and agreed to play in the event. This attracted some big names from Australian chess, with young guns Bobby Cheng, Max Illingworth and James Morris all coming along for the chance to play the 2600+ GM. In the end, the Armenain proved too good and won the tournament with a perfect 5/5, beating Morris and Illingworth among others.

GM Melkumyan taking his coat off as he arrives to play IM James Morris. Cheng-Illingworth is already underway in the background.

It was great to see the 3 young Aussie players competing in the same weekender, with Max travelling down from NSW. They represent, perhaps, the future of chess in this country, and already occupy top 10 positions  for Australians in the FIDE list (Illingworth 3rd, Cheng 4th, Morris 9th). These 3 stars finished on 4/5, Illingworth and Morris only losing to Melkumyan, while Cheng lost to Illingworth. They were however beaten to second place by FM Chris Wallis who finished on 4.5. Chris was held to a draw in the third round by Sylvester Urban, but won the rest. Knowing Chris, I'm sure he would have rather scored less and had the chance to take on the GM, but he proved too good for the rest of the players he had to play. The group on 4/5 was large, and Illingworth, Cheng and Morris were joined by another IM Ari Dale, FM's Bill Jordan, Dusan Stojic and Greg Canfell (last year's winner with another good showing), and Zachary Loh (the high school kid, had an unbeaten tournament including a draw with NZ FM Luke Li). However, it was a Hobson's Bay Club member, Dean Hogg, was the star of the show joining this elite group on 4/5. Dean's only loss was to Chris Wallis, and his scalps included IM Ari Dale.

Dean Hogg of HBCC with a great tournament performance.

And now on to the upsets. On the first day Marko Grabovac already produced 2 amazing victories and could be said to be the player of the day. In round 1, Marko rated 1560 beat FM Anton Smirnov (2328), and in the second round won against WIM Emma Guo (2018). He couldn't maintain this pace, and had to concede a draw to FM Bill Jordan in round 3! Unfortunately Marko's run only lasted the first day and he lost both games today, albeit to another 2 strong players, FM Stojic, and Noble Park club champion, John Nemeth.

Day one hero, Marko Grabovac writes his move down against FM Dusan Stojic

While Marko was the hero of day one, the upsets continued on the second day, and the biggest upsets were probably caused by Alanna Chew Lee. Alanna, rated 1206 first beat George Hua (1951), and then Anurag Sannidhanam (1663) to help her to reach a score of 3/5. In fact, the tournament featured many of Australia's top women players, Emma Guo (5th), Sally Yu (6th, and currently on vacation from her studies in America where she returns to tomorrow!) Savithri Narenthran (14th), Tanya Krstevski (22nd), Rebecca Strickland (26th) and Alanna (27th) were all playing, as well as some younger girls.

Sally Yu, playing the day before going back to America to study

Women's Olympian Emma Guo playing Youth Olympian Savithri Narentran. Second day hero Alanna Chew Lee fills in her scoresheet on the next board.

 The tournament was run by Hobson's Bay Chess Club, with support from International Arbiter Gary Bekker, and a live display board was operated by Noble Park's Phillip Drew. Seeing Melkumyan's game live was great, and more games can be seen through the tornelo operating system, which was provided by David Cordover of Chess Kids. All in all, this will be a tough tournament to top, but the guys at Hobson's Bay Chess Club are a pretty much down to earth bunch, and they will no doubt organise next year's event with the aim of producing a good event that all the competitors will enjoy, not one that will be bigger and better than previous tournaments. That is why the Best in the West is an enduring and successful event, and I hope it will remain so for many years to come.

Olympiad round up

Well that was an amazing event! Both the men's and women's tournaments went to the wire, with Armenia edging out Russia in the Open section, while Russia beat China in the Women's section. Man of the tournament was Armenian number 1, Levon Aronian who led his team from the front, posting a 2848 rating performance and 70% on the top board against all the strongest opposition. Women's world champion, Yifan Hou starred in the women's section with a 2645 performance and 72%. One thing worth noting is the bi-polar tournament of the Netherlands. Obviously disturbed by the absence of board 1 Anish Giri, the 9th seeded team found themselves in lowly 74th place after 4 rounds. In round 5 Giri played his first game, arriving in Istanbul after visa problems, and from then Netherlands started their move, finishing eventually in 6th.

The tournament wrapped up with the closing ceremony, and almost as soon as the event closed, the tweets started about Tromso 2014. The big question regarding the next Olympiad is whether the host nation will be able to get their star player, World number 1 Magnus Carlsen, to play. Even with Carlsen Norway are unlikely to place near the medals, but they would probably do better than their 54th place starting from a ranking of 45. The venue for the 2016 Olympiad was decided at the FIDE council, and disappointingly, it was given to Baku in Azerbaijan. Personally I have no problem with Azerbaijan but the fact that Armenian's will not travel there means that we are likely to have a tournament without one of the big favourites. Really FIDE should insist on host nations who are not in conflict with others, so while I am not happy with Azerbaijan, I would be equally dissatisfied, for example, with Armenia.

Australians should be proud of the performance of their teams, who suffered at the start of the event from illnesses, but who pulled through. The Open team had a remarkable event, with young stars Moulton Ly and Max Illingworth having particularly notable tournaments. Moulton scored 70% on board 2 for a 2541 rating performance which shows that he is capable of playing at GM standard. Max also scored 70% as board 5, scoring an IM norm which means he will be an IM as soon as he reaches 2400 which surely cannot be too far away. Max also finished in the top 20 for his board. Australia's women had an indifferent start to the event but came through to finish in 50th, which is where they were originally ranked. All the women chipped in with performances, and Ariane's last round victory against Peng Zhaoqin rated 2411 was a real highlight.

Istanbul 2012 was a great media event, and a competitive success. There is a huge amount of material with thousands of games ready to download or view online. There are also pdf bulletins which can be downloaded with games and information about the event. There is enough raw material to keep most of us busy until the next Olympiad in 2014. One game that may have escaped your notice was from the round 1 match between Mozambique and Bangladesh. It isn't often you see 4 queens on the board by move 10.

Olympiad heating up

It's just my luck that on such a dramatic day at the Olympiad as yesterday, I should feel ill and not be able to follow any of the action. Saying that, with the time difference here in Australia, I'd have been in bed before all the main action really would have happened. While it's frustrating to have to go to bed half way through a game that you've become engrossed in, I suppose if I was still living in England, then I'd be working while the games were happening.

Australia at the Olympiad:

The Australian men's team have done us proud. Their starting position was 61, but they are currently in 47th place having had a string of good results. In round 8 they beat Ireland with nice wins from Solomon and Illingworth, while they drew with the team from Tajikistan in round 9, though this could have been an even better result had David Smerdon not lost on time in a good position. David's Facebook post says it all:

"Losing on time on move forty when your 2600+ opponent is about to resign...

Wine. Lots of wine." - D. Smerdon

The men should be pretty happy with the way things have gone though. Max Illingworth has been a star on board 4, while the rest of the team (except Alex Wohl who has been having a forgettable tournament and sounds as if he is feeling guilty about it to the team) have been playing respectably well. 

In my opinion, the women have had a tough time of it. They have had some tough pairings for their position, and have done well to stay around the 50th position in which they started. Tonight is another example where the women have a really tough draw against Argentina who are the second highest seeded team in that score group, while Australia are also in the top half of that score group according to seeding. Likewise they got a very tough draw against number 10 seeds Romania earlier in the tournament. Saying that, the women are doing ok, and have all had their moments.

The under 16's will be a little disappointed, though they shouldn't be. Our top team finished in 8th place from a starting rank of 5th. However, in the last round Australia lost to India by 2.5-1.5, while if they would have won 3-1 they would have gained the bronze medals, which shows how close the event was. Australia fielded 3 teams, the other 2 finishing 25th and 30th. It will have been great experience for these kids, and especially working with a Grandmaster coach like David Arutinian.

This amazing video from Chessvibes captures the drama at the end of the big match USA-Russia.

Of course, the main news of the Olympiad was Russia's loss to the American team. With the Russian's seemingly coasting they came up against a team that can be unpredictable. Obviously the USA are strong but they can sometimes disappoint and they can sometimes amaze. Yesterday they amazed, and all the talk on the social networks is of Nakamura's underpromotion. I've felt so ill today that I haven't actually checked it out yet! So USA pull level with Russia, and they are both joined by China and Armenia. The match up of USA-China is an intriguing one where I expect little compromise. These teams play to win, and if they lose it's usually because they push too hard! Meanwhile Russia drop down to play Argentina while Armenia face a resurgent Netherlands. Since Anish Giri arrived the Dutch have turned their Olympiad around and are on the verge on a great result. Giri-Aronian on board 1 is a mouth watering encounter!

In the women's tournament, China hold a 1 point lead from Russia, with a chasing pack a further point down. Having played many of their closest rivals already China face 22 seeds Kazakhstan, while the Russians have a much harder task against Armenia.

England-France

I am currently sat in my beanbag, writing this while waiting for the live coverage of round 4 of the Olympiad to begin. Tonight I have my English head on, as the classic battle between England and France is being played. Both these teams are outside chances for medals in this Olympiad with France ranked 8th and England ranked 11th at the start of the tournament. Both teams have won all their games, and both have had to overcome some pretty tough opposition. In the previous round, France played Bulgaria who were ranked 10th before the tournament and who fielded the dangerous duo of Topalov and Cheparinov on the top 2 boards. However, Topalov was beaten by French board 1 Maxime Vachier-Legrave and the rest of the games were drawn. England also had an impressive victory in the 3rd round against Cuba (ranked 15th) with 2700+ players Dominguez and Bruzon on the top 2 boards. England's board 1 Adams won against Dominguez, while England also won on board 3 where they have the hugely experienced Nigel Short. With the other games drawn, this was a decisive 3-1 victory. The match has just started, and if either side can pull out a victory, then they will put themselves in great position at the head of the field.

Most of the top teams are near the top, but the big exception is Holland. I'm not sure what is going on here. The Dutch team seem to be missing Anish Giri, but still have 4 players rated above 2600 with the hugely experienced van Wely and Ivan Sokolov on top boards. However, none of their team is currently performing and from a starting rank of 9th they have currently won only 1 of their 3 matches including losing to Venezuela who are ranked a lowly 58th.

However, besides Holland, the top nations are there or thereabouts and this is shown in the 4th round pairings. USA(5)-India(13), Russia(1)-China(6), Azerbaijan(7)-Germany(14), and of course France(8)-England(11). The rest of the top teams are just behind these.

Australia narrowly lost out to Mongolia yesterday and find themselves down the field playing Pakistan, where hopefully they will bounce back up the field. In the 2.5-1.5 loss there was a good win for Max Illingworth on board 4 against a higher rated opponent. Max grabbed some material early on, and held on. There were some nervous moments through the middle of the game, but I get the feeling that Max felt comfortable, and he finished the game off in style.