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Due to Canada's favourable tiebreak, the team got a relatively weak opponent, Macau. The result was never in doubt and the team made sweeping look very easy.
Mak-Bluvshtein was some sort of Bird's. I am not a big fan of the setup that Black chose. Personally, it seems too easy to just let White play Bb5, plant his N on e5 and start charging. To that end, I would have chosen 4...a6, as suggested to me once by the Australian IM John-Paul Wallace, a move which sort of puts a crimp in that plan. Be that as it may, things seemed quite normal until 9.d4 (isn't this pawn supposed to be on d3 to keep the a1-h8 diagonal clear and facilitate c4?) then ...a6, which I found a strange move as it encourages White to play Bxc6, a move that I think he wants to play anyway! Black had the two bishops and quickly opened up the position (note that with the P on d3 that's not so easy to achieve). White's K was never safe, and while trying to trade off into a defensible endgame White lost first a P, then his N.
Charbonneau-Ssegirinya was a somewhat unusual opening, which gave Pascal a slight edge. Black, for some reason, went for the totally wild and insane 15...g5!?? I have no idea what the purpose of this move is; where is Black planning on parking his K? Well, it didn't really matter as he allowed a N fork which lost the Exchange and got blown up on the Kside anyway.
Punongbayan-Zugic took a funny move order to reach a Dragonish Sicilian. Black played the thematic sacrifice 12...Rxc3 13.bxc3 Nxe4 which Rybka thinks is a bit better for Black in this position. I think that, at least for humans, Black's position is much easier to play (plan: target week Qside pawns), and sure enough Igor feasted on the Qside until White hung pretty much everything.
Noritsyn-Celis was brutal. Nikolay played a nice, quiet opening and pounced when Black loosened his own Qside a bit too much in search of trading off pretty much ... anything and everything (shades of the strategy employed by White on board one). These openings with B/g2 vs B/b7 are very dangerous as I have found out (on the sad side) on more than one occasion.
This sort of round is a real confidence booster and allows the players to rest up a bit for the next one. Winning 4-0 is particularly good for the tiebreaks, and it seems likely that Canada is going to get paired down at least once more before facing off against a similarly ranked team.
Mak-Bluvshtein was some sort of Bird's. I am not a big fan of the setup that Black chose. Personally, it seems too easy to just let White play Bb5, plant his N on e5 and start charging. To that end, I would have chosen 4...a6, as suggested to me once by the Australian IM John-Paul Wallace, a move which sort of puts a crimp in that plan. Be that as it may, things seemed quite normal until 9.d4 (isn't this pawn supposed to be on d3 to keep the a1-h8 diagonal clear and facilitate c4?) then ...a6, which I found a strange move as it encourages White to play Bxc6, a move that I think he wants to play anyway! Black had the two bishops and quickly opened up the position (note that with the P on d3 that's not so easy to achieve). White's K was never safe, and while trying to trade off into a defensible endgame White lost first a P, then his N.
Charbonneau-Ssegirinya was a somewhat unusual opening, which gave Pascal a slight edge. Black, for some reason, went for the totally wild and insane 15...g5!?? I have no idea what the purpose of this move is; where is Black planning on parking his K? Well, it didn't really matter as he allowed a N fork which lost the Exchange and got blown up on the Kside anyway.
Punongbayan-Zugic took a funny move order to reach a Dragonish Sicilian. Black played the thematic sacrifice 12...Rxc3 13.bxc3 Nxe4 which Rybka thinks is a bit better for Black in this position. I think that, at least for humans, Black's position is much easier to play (plan: target week Qside pawns), and sure enough Igor feasted on the Qside until White hung pretty much everything.
Noritsyn-Celis was brutal. Nikolay played a nice, quiet opening and pounced when Black loosened his own Qside a bit too much in search of trading off pretty much ... anything and everything (shades of the strategy employed by White on board one). These openings with B/g2 vs B/b7 are very dangerous as I have found out (on the sad side) on more than one occasion.
This sort of round is a real confidence booster and allows the players to rest up a bit for the next one. Winning 4-0 is particularly good for the tiebreaks, and it seems likely that Canada is going to get paired down at least once more before facing off against a similarly ranked team.