Round 9

[Jonathan Berry]

Germany 2

Venezuela

[Bob Armstrong]

Rd. 9 - National Team - In Progress

Rd. 9 sees Canada's national team playing Germany-2 on Bd. 28.

GM Mark Bluvshtein ( 2557 ) is on first board ( 28.1 ) playing GM Georg Meier ( 2558 ).

I ( read Fritz ) will be doing live analysis of his game on the chess website, Chess5 ( www.chess5.com ). When you get to the homepage, click on " Public Games " to get the November list of games. Find the game, and then click on " View " and you will get a board and the score, with analysis ( it takes a few seconds for the game to load ). Hope you find it interesting.

Bob

[Jonathan Berry]

Re: Rd. 9 - National Team - In Progress

Against Venezuela, we have very nice games on boards 1 and 2. Nothing to complain about on 3 and 4.

Germany: boards 1 and 4 look drawish to me; 2 and 3 should decide the match.

[Tom O'Donnell]

Re: Round 9

That's interesting.

I would say 1 is a dead draw (I would be amazed if this went more than a few moves); 3 looks to me like the sort of position where the best plan is for both players to do nothing; and 4 looks a bit better for White. I would certainly play on with White's position.

Only 2 looks like it is likely to be decisive. I like Pascal's chances in that one, though if the clock times are right (Pascal is down 37-8) that's a lot of comp.

[Jonathan Berry]

Re: Round 9

Pascal won. Germany is at least equal on boards 1 and 4, but they still look drawish. So Bogner may have to force things in the fairly even position against Igor, if Germany 2 wants to save the match.

Against Venezuela, I must have been hallucinating about board 1 because Natalia lost. Yuanling won. Hazel allowed a breakthrough, and Irina has no winning chances. So it looks like a loss with 1 or 1.5 points.

[Tom O'Donnell]

Re: Round 9

This guy Meier on board one is having one amazing tournament. He must have foreseen way back when he sacrificed the b-pawn that not only was he not in trouble, but that he had winning chances (Rybka agreed with him the whole way).

I had never heard of this guy before, but the way he plays, I doubt that I will never hear of him again! ;-)

Off to the RA. I will post the summary when I get back, much later tonight.

[Gary Ruben]

Re: Round 9

Pascal won. Germany is at least equal on boards 1 and 4, but they still look drawish. So Bogner may have to force things in the fairly even position against Igor, if Germany 2 wants to save the match.

Against Venezuela, I must have been hallucinating about board 1 because Natalia lost. Yuanling won. Hazel allowed a breakthrough, and Irina has no winning chances. So it looks like a loss with 1 or 1.5 points.

Board 1 looks at least a draw for Germany. Board 3 still has a lot of material on the board. We'll have to see if someone can manufacture an attack or how the game simplifies when the "stuff" starts coming off. If we can win this match and the next one then the last match could be for a high placing.

Your assessment against Venezuala looks reasonable.

[Jonathan Berry]

Re: Round 9

Venezuela 2.5 Canada 1.5

[Jonathan Berry]

Re: Round 9

Regular readers will remember that three rounds ago, Canada had the same number of matchpoints as Georgia, and narrowly missed being paired against that classical land of women's chess. Since then, Georgia has scored (maybe scorched is a better word) 12-0 (I'm counting the resignable position on board 4 of their match today against Slovenia). They're now back in medal contention.

[Gordon Taylor]

Re: Round 9

As at about 1:35 EST it looks to me like Meier is winning against Mark on board 1. White has no counterplay and there are big weaknesses on h2 and b5. I expect slow squeeze to zugswang, then b-P falls, then a-P runs to Q. On the bright side Zugic's opponent has advanced his d-P which, IMHO, only weakens his position.

[Jonathan Berry]

Re: Round 9

In the Women's, veteran team Serbia defeats China!! Serbia, Ukraine, and Poland tied for the lead after 9 rounds. Who would have imagined that, even a couple of rounds ago?

[Jonathan Berry]

Re: Round 9

In the Open Olympiad, Ukraine takes down Russia! Israel will defeat Armenia! Serbia defeats Azerbaijan! These are all upsets, if not in terms of rating (Israel is ranked higher than Armenia), then in terms of the competitive predictions. Israel takes the lead in the Olympiad. Wow. Has Israel ever led the Olympiad at such a late stage?

[Gordon Taylor]

Re: Round 9

Well Igor drew another P down endgame and made it took easy. Match drawn. I must say I thoroughly enjoyed Pascal's final move, ...exf2 and the White R/e1 is trapped! Very cheeky! And such a win is usually worth several points--the other teams will give us new respect and Pascal gets a much needed injection of confidence.

Armenia may have lost but Sargissian scored yet another win. That guy is on such a tear!!

[Duncan Smith]

Re: Round 9

Another unfortunate loss by Hazel she was dead even way ahead on time then just took with the wrong piece. Good effort it just isn't her week.