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Sorry for the late report folks...
Canada faced Germany2, the first opponent in its snack bracket since Scotland in round four. A critical round, it seems to me, if Canada is hoping to meet another top-20 ranked team in this event. Germany2 is the second squad that the host Germans are allowed to field in this event. It is a team of young players (late teens and early 20s), so it is quite possible that they are under-rated. Not a great pairing for Canada.
Bluvshtein-Meier was an interesting pairing. The German GM has had an excellent event thus far: undefeated, with a win over Cheparinov and draws vs Carlsen and Dominguez, all with a performance rating of 2700+. Black made a temporary pawn sacrifice in exchange for piece activity. He won the pawn back, but ceded White the two Bs. From this tournament, it seems to me that: 1) Mark really likes Bs; and 2) he is excellent at massaging the positions he gets with them. Unfortunately, in this case he didn't have much to work with. True, he won a P, but the resulting activity of the Black pieces, coupled with the opposite-coloured Bs, was such that there was never much chance that he could convert. Note: interestingly, after White won the P/b7, Rybka thought that BLACK was always slightly better! Sure enough, Black agreed and the torture began... Truly an amazing game.
Bindrich-Charbonneau was by far the most interesting game of the round. In the early going Pascal made his opponent look like a guy that just didn't have a plan. Meanwhile, Pascal made inroads on both wings. According to Rybka, White seriously erred with 38.Qc1?, when 38.Qd6 (trying to trade Qs - abandon ship! - looks best). Black aimed all his pieces at the White K and just annihilated him with an awesome combo starting with the pretty 41...Ra2! I think I like this one even better than Pascal's win over Aagaard in the Canada v Scotland match.
Zugic-Bogner started off identically to the earlier encounter Charbonneau-Al-Zendani in the Canada-Yemen match from round five. Perhaps Igor and Pascal have been exchanging trade secrets? Anyway, in this game Black decided to play 12...b5 immediately, which can't be bad. A lot of back-and-forth manoeuvring took place, and it really seemed that neither player was going to try to do much - at least not until/if someone got into time trouble. Then came 46...d5!? I am not sure if this move was dictated by the position on the board or the position in the match, but after it came the fighting was renewed. Mass exchanges led to a double R ending where Black couldn't make his extra P count.
Huschenbeth-Roussel saw Black equalize pretty quickly in some Lopez line I had never seen before. The resulting position gave White a microscopic initiative. I was very impressed by the manoeuvre 18.Nd2 and 19.Nc4. Thomas liquidated off into an ending that was slightly better for White. Black defended doggedly (Black's plan to trade the h-pawns was very good as it shrunk the width of the necessary defense), and sure enough drew without too much trouble thereafter.
Canada faced Germany2, the first opponent in its snack bracket since Scotland in round four. A critical round, it seems to me, if Canada is hoping to meet another top-20 ranked team in this event. Germany2 is the second squad that the host Germans are allowed to field in this event. It is a team of young players (late teens and early 20s), so it is quite possible that they are under-rated. Not a great pairing for Canada.
Bluvshtein-Meier was an interesting pairing. The German GM has had an excellent event thus far: undefeated, with a win over Cheparinov and draws vs Carlsen and Dominguez, all with a performance rating of 2700+. Black made a temporary pawn sacrifice in exchange for piece activity. He won the pawn back, but ceded White the two Bs. From this tournament, it seems to me that: 1) Mark really likes Bs; and 2) he is excellent at massaging the positions he gets with them. Unfortunately, in this case he didn't have much to work with. True, he won a P, but the resulting activity of the Black pieces, coupled with the opposite-coloured Bs, was such that there was never much chance that he could convert. Note: interestingly, after White won the P/b7, Rybka thought that BLACK was always slightly better! Sure enough, Black agreed and the torture began... Truly an amazing game.
Bindrich-Charbonneau was by far the most interesting game of the round. In the early going Pascal made his opponent look like a guy that just didn't have a plan. Meanwhile, Pascal made inroads on both wings. According to Rybka, White seriously erred with 38.Qc1?, when 38.Qd6 (trying to trade Qs - abandon ship! - looks best). Black aimed all his pieces at the White K and just annihilated him with an awesome combo starting with the pretty 41...Ra2! I think I like this one even better than Pascal's win over Aagaard in the Canada v Scotland match.
Zugic-Bogner started off identically to the earlier encounter Charbonneau-Al-Zendani in the Canada-Yemen match from round five. Perhaps Igor and Pascal have been exchanging trade secrets? Anyway, in this game Black decided to play 12...b5 immediately, which can't be bad. A lot of back-and-forth manoeuvring took place, and it really seemed that neither player was going to try to do much - at least not until/if someone got into time trouble. Then came 46...d5!? I am not sure if this move was dictated by the position on the board or the position in the match, but after it came the fighting was renewed. Mass exchanges led to a double R ending where Black couldn't make his extra P count.
Huschenbeth-Roussel saw Black equalize pretty quickly in some Lopez line I had never seen before. The resulting position gave White a microscopic initiative. I was very impressed by the manoeuvre 18.Nd2 and 19.Nc4. Thomas liquidated off into an ending that was slightly better for White. Black defended doggedly (Black's plan to trade the h-pawns was very good as it shrunk the width of the necessary defense), and sure enough drew without too much trouble thereafter.