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Back in the old days, when dinosaurs roamed the planet and I was on the National Team, there would occasionally be other teams which stacked their players, though I seem to recall some rating cap for the differential. For those who don't know, stacking is when you put your stronger players on the lower boards, normally in a hope of doing one or more of three things: scoring norms; winning board prizes; and/or making better scores in matches. Seems that today's opponent, Yemen, may have done exactly that. This isn't illegal, and modifying the "natural" board order does have some advantages. For example, back in Thessalonika '88 I got a bunch of Blacks so that Roman Pelts could get a bunch of Whites. He was very, very strong with White (I would say even 2600+ back in pre-inflationary times) and he really mopped up for us there. Stylistic reasons can also be a factor. You might put the machine-gunner types (e.g. Lawrence Day or Deen Hergott or in this Olympiad a certain A. Morozevich) on lower boards with the hope/expectation that they could make some really big score which boosts the team's chances.
Anyway, to today's match. On paper, the game Al-Subaihi-Bluvshtein looked to be a real mismatch. I don't really like White's opening. It looks to me like the manoeuvre B/f1-c5-b3xc4 is simply two tempi worse the the normal English Attack with B/f1xc4. Mark certainly didn't have any problems equalizing as White didn't even attempt to attack on the kingside. Instead, there was a bunch of action in the centre. Rybka didn't like 39.Nxb3, and that is quite understandable. The move does get rid of the dangerous b-pawn, but at the cost of opening the light squares for the B/d7. White's position collapsed surprisingly quickly thereafter. A nice controlled effort from Mark.
Charbonneau-Al-Zendani was another Najdorf, this one with the relatively quiet 6.Be2. To be honest, I am definitely not qualified to comment upon the early middlegame, but I will hazard to say that Black shouldn't be unhappy. Tossing the N into b2 looked unnecessarily risky, but Rybka seemed to think that everything was still okay for Black. It didn't like 26.Nd5, preferring either R to b1. As the game went, the position looked very drawish. It was hard for either player to do anything on the colour opposite their own B.
Ahmed-Roussel saw Black decline the Smith-Morra Gambit and head into the waters of the Sicilian Alapin. I happen to play the resulting positon from both sides on occasion, and experience leads me to believe that Black is quite okay here (though I choose the setup with the N on d7 instead of c6). Play became very complicated. I don't like the look of 14...Rf8; I assume Thomas considered ...0-0 and rejected it as too dangerous. White's response 15.Qh5!? (15.Qg4!?) set off a series of fireworks which I guess should have ended in perpetual after 24.Bxa7+. Maybe Ahmed was aiming for more but he should have gotten less if Thomas had found ...Qd5 (centralization!) on either moves 28 or 29. Instead Black soon made a perpetual. Exciting, action-packed game.
Noritsyn-Al-Qudaimi saw White make a gutsy positional pawn sacrifice. Though he had nothing concrete, Nikolay did have more active pieces. He couldn't make use of them, and Black methodically chopped wood until they reached a major piece middlegame where strangely White's K ultimately was more exposed. Rybka doesn't like many of the moves in the span 35-40 by both players, but that could be a result of time shortages and the general sharpness of the position.
Rest day tomorrow is a useful time to regroup and forget about chess for the day.
Anyway, to today's match. On paper, the game Al-Subaihi-Bluvshtein looked to be a real mismatch. I don't really like White's opening. It looks to me like the manoeuvre B/f1-c5-b3xc4 is simply two tempi worse the the normal English Attack with B/f1xc4. Mark certainly didn't have any problems equalizing as White didn't even attempt to attack on the kingside. Instead, there was a bunch of action in the centre. Rybka didn't like 39.Nxb3, and that is quite understandable. The move does get rid of the dangerous b-pawn, but at the cost of opening the light squares for the B/d7. White's position collapsed surprisingly quickly thereafter. A nice controlled effort from Mark.
Charbonneau-Al-Zendani was another Najdorf, this one with the relatively quiet 6.Be2. To be honest, I am definitely not qualified to comment upon the early middlegame, but I will hazard to say that Black shouldn't be unhappy. Tossing the N into b2 looked unnecessarily risky, but Rybka seemed to think that everything was still okay for Black. It didn't like 26.Nd5, preferring either R to b1. As the game went, the position looked very drawish. It was hard for either player to do anything on the colour opposite their own B.
Ahmed-Roussel saw Black decline the Smith-Morra Gambit and head into the waters of the Sicilian Alapin. I happen to play the resulting positon from both sides on occasion, and experience leads me to believe that Black is quite okay here (though I choose the setup with the N on d7 instead of c6). Play became very complicated. I don't like the look of 14...Rf8; I assume Thomas considered ...0-0 and rejected it as too dangerous. White's response 15.Qh5!? (15.Qg4!?) set off a series of fireworks which I guess should have ended in perpetual after 24.Bxa7+. Maybe Ahmed was aiming for more but he should have gotten less if Thomas had found ...Qd5 (centralization!) on either moves 28 or 29. Instead Black soon made a perpetual. Exciting, action-packed game.
Noritsyn-Al-Qudaimi saw White make a gutsy positional pawn sacrifice. Though he had nothing concrete, Nikolay did have more active pieces. He couldn't make use of them, and Black methodically chopped wood until they reached a major piece middlegame where strangely White's K ultimately was more exposed. Rybka doesn't like many of the moves in the span 35-40 by both players, but that could be a result of time shortages and the general sharpness of the position.
Rest day tomorrow is a useful time to regroup and forget about chess for the day.
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