2014 Tromsø Chess Olympiad

[Jack Maguire]

Re: Re : Re: Tromso Olympiad 2014

We seem to have some explanation (misguided, imho) as to why Anand was the only top 10 player to forego playing in Tromso.

http://www.thehindu.com/sport/other-...cle6321797.ece

[Jack Maguire]

Re: Re : Re: Tromso Olympiad 2014

Getting back to the actual chess played in Tromso, Leonard Barden, writing for 'The Guardian', has a good wrap up article. I do like his comment about "hungry young stars on the lower boards". China, of course, had 15-year-old Wei Yei on their board 5. And the over-achieving Australians owe their success to their 13-year-old on board 5, Anton Smirnov. I'd love to see Canada follow suit 2 years hence in Baku for both the men's and women's teams (:

http://www.theguardian.com/sport/201...romso-olympiad

[Jack Maguire]

Re: Re : Re: Tromso Olympiad 2014

Brain Feldman is clearly a hack writer but some may find his musings on the 2 deaths in Tromso amusing. I do at least like the photo with blood on the chessboard (:

http://www.vocativ.com/culture/sport...orway/#!bDY3zo

[Vlad Rekhson]

Re: Re : Re: Tromso Olympiad 2014

There's still no word as yet on the identify of the dead (from "natural causes") Uzbekistan player but he has to be considerably younger than Kurt Meier. The 5 male members of the Uzbekistan team are (with age in parentheses):

Board 1: GM Rustam Kazimdzhanov (34)
Board 2: GM Anton Filippov (27)
Board 3: GM Marat Dzhumaev (38)
Board 4: IM Jahongir Vakhidov (19)
Baard 5: FM Ulugbek Tilyaev (21)

Rustam is the 2nd oldest there so I'm starting to get worried>

It was a member of the deaf team who is from Uzbekistan. His name was: Alisher Anarkulov.

http://chess-news.ru/en/node/16440

[Jack Maguire]

Re: Re : Re: Tromso Olympiad 2014

There's still no word as yet on the identify of the dead (from "natural causes") Uzbekistan player but he has to be considerably younger than Kurt Meier. The 5 male members of the Uzbekistan team are (with age in parentheses):

Board 1: GM Rustam Kazimdzhanov (34)
Board 2: GM Anton Filippov (27)
Board 3: GM Marat Dzhumaev (38)
Board 4: IM Jahongir Vakhidov (19)
Baard 5: FM Ulugbek Tilyaev (21)

Rustam is the 2nd oldest there so I'm starting to get worried>

[Vlad Drkulec]

Re: Re : Re: Tromso Olympiad 2014

I saw somewhere that Qiyu already had the WFM by two other ways (rating and NAYCC), but it's not listed on the FIDE website. Maybe she didn't pay the required amount.

The CFC policy and practice has been to pay for FM and WFM titles for kids. Titles from NAYCC are still in process.

[Jack Maguire]

Re: Tromso Olympiad 2014

Here's a confirmation of that 'Globe' story. I'm just hoping it wasn't Uzbekistan's top board, GM Rustam Kazimdzhanov, of whom my son, Zehn, is a big fan.

http://www.thelocal.no/20140815/seco...chess-olympics

[Jack Maguire]

Re: Tromso Olympiad 2014

'The Globe And Mail' is reporting a 2nd death in Tromso, an unnamed (at this point) player from Uzbekistan (who still had medal chances going into the final round).

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/...ticle20073544/

[Jack Maguire]

Re: Tromso Olympiad 2014

The dead Seychelles player has been identified as their #2 board, Kurt Meier. His son, Peter, played Seychelles #1 board, and his wife was also evidently playing for the Seychelles women's team albeit I don't see a Meier listed on their team. I'm assuming she played under her maiden name.

http://www.seychellesnewsagency.com/...hess+community

[Jack Maguire]

Re: Tromso Olympiad 2014

Susan Polgar has an "Exclusive 1st interview with the Chinese Olympiad Team after clinching Gold" that's a little more than a 1/2 hour long but about 1/2 of that is the translation from Chinese to English. I'm amused that China went with their so-called young team, leaving 3 of their top 5 players home, when those 3 are China's #2, Wang Hao (2730), 25 years old, #4, Li Chao (2711), also 25, and #5, Bu Xiangzhi (2707), really 'old' at 29 (:

http://susanpolgar.blogspot.ca/2014/...h-chinese.html

[Jack Maguire]

Re: Tromso Olympiad 2014

More details on that death. He was apparently a sextagenarian with a bad heart.

http://www.thelocal.no/20140815/ches...d-during-match

[John Coleman]

Re: Tromso Olympiad 2014

This is the story Jack linked to (didn't ask me for payment, probably knows I don't have no money, and I'm cheap anyway)

A member of the chess team from the Seychelles collapsed and died on the last day of the Chess Olympiad in Tromsø on Thursday. A moment of silence was held during the closing ceremonies that otherwise marked the first victory by a country outside Europe and the US.

The player from the Seychelles suddenly seemed to suffer a seizure and fell to the floor of the large hall where 650 chess matches have gone on simultaneously for the past 12 days. Two ambulances arrived quickly but they were unable to revive the Seychelles player.

“We have had the Red Cross inside the playing hall, and they immediately began resuscitation efforts,” Morgan Lillegård of the Chess Olympiad’s organizing committee told reporters “The ambulance team continued the emergency efforts.”

Most of the matches were over when the player collapsed while others interrupted their play. State broadcaster NRK reported that many people in the hall began to cry and several of the man’s teammates witnessed his collapse. The organizers said they were setting up a crisis team that would be available for anyone feeling a need for support.

The Chess Olympiad otherwise ended with China winning gold for the men in games against Poland, and Russia winning gold for the women against Bulgaria. Armenia had been favoured but ended up with its own star Levon Aronian describing the country’s performance in Tromsø as “dreadful.” Norway won its last matches on Thursday against Malaysia 4-0 but ended in 29th place, after a disappointing tournament that chess world champion Magnus Carlsen left early after losing two games in a row.

[Jack Maguire]

Re: Tromso Olympiad 2014

I can't access this story (requires payment) but apparently a player from the Seychelles team collapsed and died in Tromso today.

http://www.newsinenglish.no/2014/08/...players-death/

[Vlad Rekhson]

Re: Tromso Olympiad 2014

If one looks as the performance ratings, one gets an idea of how well we actually performed. I personally consider a player with a performance rating between ±50 points of their current rating as performing as expected, and outside those brackets better or worst than expected.

By this definition, all of our GMs performed as expected, while IMs Gerzhoy and Hambleton are likely disappointed with their results.

On the Women's team, Khoudgarian and Starr are most likely disappointed, while the rest of the team performed as expected.

I'm sure everyone hoped for more but the result is not too surprising. For the open team, the turning points were England and Brazil. The England match could have easily gone the other way, while the Brazil result was the worst of the event.

The games were hard fought. They were worthy teams. Let's all cheer for our players, and look forward to the next Olympiad.

The rating performance is a good indicator but in a team event it has some drawbacks. For example, I think that Bator Sambuev's result was really good. He brought the team some very important victories (like the one today) and on the other hand some of his losses came when the team needed him to win and he pushed too much.

[Jack Maguire]

Re: Tromso Olympiad 2014

Why does Giri, with a higher percentage, place 3rd?

Rp is all that counts, John.