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The accelerated pairings decelerating for round three produced some rather large mismatches. Canada was a beneficiary, winning handily over the Jamaicans with the 4-0 sweeper. Olympiads are really weird tournaments. You basically have three types of teams: the powerhouses, consisting of active professional players, normally with team averages in the mid-2500s or higher (e.g. India); the "average" teams, normally consisting of one or two professional players and a bunch of strong amateurs (e.g. Canada); and the also-rans. Often the latter group consists of countries with small populations, not a lot of money, and probably no professional players. Despite their lack of theoretical knowledge (perhaps caused by having little access to computers and books), you just cannot go about underestimating these guys as their often strange opening choices are compensated by very creative middlegame play, especially in highly tactical positions.
Elliot-Charbonneau was a good example. This sort of game is right up Pascal's alley. After an unusual "anti-Sicilian", White started the action off with 15.Nd5!?, a piece sacrifice that Black cannot accept right away as after the e-file opens up the B/e7 is a goner. A couple of moves later Pascal did grab the piece, and that's when things got really hot. White had quite a bit of play, and Black's army was rather uncoordinated, but hey a piece is a piece. Things were messy until White erred with the tempting 21.Qxg7? Rybka's suggestion of 21.b3 Qb4 22.Qxg7 0-0-0 23.Bxe5 dxe5 24.c4! (the point: sealing off the B/b7 for now) Qc3 doesn't look all that attractive for White but does avoid what could have happened in the game. As it transpired, White went for the gusto by adding an Exchange to his donation of a piece but after 22.Rxe5!?, Pascal should have prepared his idea with 22...Rhg8 23.Qxf7 dxe5, because after 22...Qxf4 23.Re7! White is suddenly back in the game, I think. After missing that opportunity, White was totally dead and sure enough resigned a few moves later.
Zugic-Matthews saw Igor play 11.Nh2, which is not in my database, at least. He got a huge space advantage, and was allowed to manoeuvre his pieces onto good squares without any trouble. Rybka likes Bh4 from moves 19-21 to try and induce the weakening ...f6, but what Igor did seemed okay, too. Soon thereafter Matthews opted to snatch a pawn which just served to open up the lines for White's better developed army. This allowed Igor to play a combination, but Rybka notes that instead of 32.Rxc5, White should simply play 32.b4 with a dominating position. In turn Black blundered almost immediately with 34...g5? and Igor finished him off with a combination of the type you find in problem books.
Rowe-Roussel was pretty one-way. White played the opening very passively and Thomas got a bunch of queenside space basically for free. Both players missed that White's 25.Rf3? is a lemon, and that Black could win a clear pawn with 25...bxc3 26.bxc3 Bxd3! with a deadly pin on the B/d2. White was under pressure anyway, and later sacrificed/blundered a pawn with 33.Qf2. Instead 33.g5 at least tries to make something happen on the kingside. Later a short burst of activity looked like it could give White some chances. The resulting opposite B ending is really funny and I won't spoil what happened, you will just have to look yourself.
Finally Noritsyn-Wilson was a Stonewall without White playing d4. I haven't liked these positions for Black since I saw IM Leon Piasetski get crushed by GM Vaganian almost 20 years ago. The game featured some strange manoeuvring in the opening that I didn't understand, so can't really comment upon. When the situation finally clarified itself, White was up a pawn, but Black had decent compensation. Nikolay then sacrificed the pawn back to reach a NQE (Not Quite Endgame) where his pieces were a bit more active and his pawn structure better. Eventually he made all of Black's pieces passive and mopped up cleanly. Excellent technique!
Next round should see Canada paired with a team in their snack bracket, assuming that I understand how the pairings work, which now that I mention it actually isn't too likely...
Elliot-Charbonneau was a good example. This sort of game is right up Pascal's alley. After an unusual "anti-Sicilian", White started the action off with 15.Nd5!?, a piece sacrifice that Black cannot accept right away as after the e-file opens up the B/e7 is a goner. A couple of moves later Pascal did grab the piece, and that's when things got really hot. White had quite a bit of play, and Black's army was rather uncoordinated, but hey a piece is a piece. Things were messy until White erred with the tempting 21.Qxg7? Rybka's suggestion of 21.b3 Qb4 22.Qxg7 0-0-0 23.Bxe5 dxe5 24.c4! (the point: sealing off the B/b7 for now) Qc3 doesn't look all that attractive for White but does avoid what could have happened in the game. As it transpired, White went for the gusto by adding an Exchange to his donation of a piece but after 22.Rxe5!?, Pascal should have prepared his idea with 22...Rhg8 23.Qxf7 dxe5, because after 22...Qxf4 23.Re7! White is suddenly back in the game, I think. After missing that opportunity, White was totally dead and sure enough resigned a few moves later.
Zugic-Matthews saw Igor play 11.Nh2, which is not in my database, at least. He got a huge space advantage, and was allowed to manoeuvre his pieces onto good squares without any trouble. Rybka likes Bh4 from moves 19-21 to try and induce the weakening ...f6, but what Igor did seemed okay, too. Soon thereafter Matthews opted to snatch a pawn which just served to open up the lines for White's better developed army. This allowed Igor to play a combination, but Rybka notes that instead of 32.Rxc5, White should simply play 32.b4 with a dominating position. In turn Black blundered almost immediately with 34...g5? and Igor finished him off with a combination of the type you find in problem books.
Rowe-Roussel was pretty one-way. White played the opening very passively and Thomas got a bunch of queenside space basically for free. Both players missed that White's 25.Rf3? is a lemon, and that Black could win a clear pawn with 25...bxc3 26.bxc3 Bxd3! with a deadly pin on the B/d2. White was under pressure anyway, and later sacrificed/blundered a pawn with 33.Qf2. Instead 33.g5 at least tries to make something happen on the kingside. Later a short burst of activity looked like it could give White some chances. The resulting opposite B ending is really funny and I won't spoil what happened, you will just have to look yourself.
Finally Noritsyn-Wilson was a Stonewall without White playing d4. I haven't liked these positions for Black since I saw IM Leon Piasetski get crushed by GM Vaganian almost 20 years ago. The game featured some strange manoeuvring in the opening that I didn't understand, so can't really comment upon. When the situation finally clarified itself, White was up a pawn, but Black had decent compensation. Nikolay then sacrificed the pawn back to reach a NQE (Not Quite Endgame) where his pieces were a bit more active and his pawn structure better. Eventually he made all of Black's pieces passive and mopped up cleanly. Excellent technique!
Next round should see Canada paired with a team in their snack bracket, assuming that I understand how the pairings work, which now that I mention it actually isn't too likely...
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