Dresden round 11 pairings are up

[Jonathan Berry]

Re: Trudeau's language skills

Gary Ruben, when he seemed to be criticizing M. Trudeau's command of English, was in fact criticizing him as a politician. Trudeau said one thing; he did another. Therefore what he said wasn't said well. Even when he's not being a troll, Gary Ruben can be subtle.

In my recollection, Trudeau spoke perfect English. He spoke with a mild inflection, mannerism, I wouldn't call it an accent. His most famous words in English: "Just watch me" and "Fuddle duddle."

Trudeau was not a chess player. Roger Lemelin, in a La Presse Editorial, related how when both were a lot younger, they were on a journalistic junket in the Soviet Union. Lemelin played chess; Trudeau did not. Lemelin was smuggled delicacies such as oranges by his Russian chess buddies. Trudeau loved oranges but had none. He begged Lemelin for an orange. Lemelin relented, but only if Trudeau allowed Lemelin to teach him how to play chess. But that did not make Trudeau a player.

Among Trudeau's cabinet, I believe that Mitchell Sharp was the chess player. It didn't do the CFC any good.

[Frank Dixon]

Trudeau's language skills

Actually, Trudeau's English was perfectly fluent, as was his French. I heard him speak in Kingston, at a function at Queen's University, when he was nearly 80 years old; he spoke with clarity and purpose, and, for anyone who didn't know of him, could easily have come across as someone whose first language was English. His mother, Grace Elliott, was originally of English and Irish heritage, I believe, and Pierre and his siblings spoke both languages at home from an early age.:) He also apparently knew enough Spanish to be able to address certain foreign leaders whom he dealt with in that language.

[Jean-Pierre Rhéaume]

Re: Dresden round 11 pairings are up

What does this mean? That you speak French better than people for whom it is not a first language? Congratulations, I guess...

I understand your point, but...

My reaction was about this post :

Embassy of Canada to Colombia
Embajada de Canadá en Colombia
Ambassade du Canada à Colombie
http://geo.international.gc.ca/latin-america/colombia/menu-en.aspx

Especially this line :

Ambassade du Canada à Colombie

Although "Ambassage" is a French word, and "Ambassade du Canada" sounds very official, my guess is that in the staff, they are most likely English-speaking Canadians, with few exceptions. I mean NO French speaking person would have written "à Colombie".

Some Chesstalkers here do know some French (and some, much more than that).
I just did not want them being "exposed" to a spelling mistake.

I could have simply exposed the mistake and show the right spelling, but I thought many Chesstalkers would not have believed me. After all, who am I ? And how an official Canadian office could have make that huge mistake ? They must be right, so I must be wrong (as I am too often in English). This is why I provided many examples.

Also, I wanted to show that our government do not care about the quality of French. So yes, we do speak (too often) lousy French, but not to the extent of making the mistake I have shown.

Also, I think I said that in "la Belle Province" we speak better French than most English speaking Canadian. "Most", only most. This is because I know that some English speaking Canadians speak French much better than most French Canadian, INCLUDING ME (especially for the quality of their pronounciation).

Sorry for the numerous spelling mistakes I did in this post :(

JPR

[Ben Daswani]

Re: Dresden round 11 pairings are up

Ex PM Trudeau said that in "la Belle Province" we speak "lousy French" (français minable).
There was some truth to it :( ... but still, we speak better French than most English speaking Canadian.

What does this mean? That you speak French better than people for whom it is not a first language? Congratulations, I guess...

[Jean-Pierre Rhéaume]

Re: Dresden round 11 pairings are up

M. Trudeau used to speak lousy English. He said one thing before an election and did something else after he won. For example, no wage and price controls.

My French is not very good. I don't have an ear for languages.

I think I listened to too much Rap Music. :)

I did not know he spoke lousy English. he seemed to me to be so well educated.
But I do know he spoke French well. Very well.

I wonder if he played chess.

Maybe he did. The picture below seems to show him pondering his next move.

Beware, it could be (another) "sale coup" ;)



JPR

[Egidijus Zeromskis]

Re: Dresden round 11 pairings are up

You can't change your pairings.

5 r. Yemen 2 : 2 Canada
6 r. Canada 1½:2½ Iraq

These two round results influenced pairings.

[Jonathan Berry]

Re: Dresden round 11 pairings are up

Canada ranked in the 50s. Final placing: tied for 18th-28th; 28th on tiebreak. Just for laughs, had we beated Colombia 4-0, Canada would have finished 21st on tiebreaks (and #1 on game points).

For comparison with pre-1990: 10 of the 23 SU YU CS breakup countries finished ahead of us...although we finished ahead of both CS countries!

Canada played only one country in the top 41: India, a meritorious loss.

So a good result, achieved in a very particular way. The players might not have been satisfied with the opposition that the system dealt them, but what can you do? You can't change your pairings.

[Jonathan Berry]

Re: Dresden round 11 pairings are up

Shulman won, so USA defeats UKR 3.5 to 0.5. It's down to tiebreaks for the bronze medals, but based upon pre-match tiebreaks, this sort of victory would bring USA the bronze medals.... If it happens, USA will be the only country to get team medals in both Open and Women's Olympics

[Jonathan Berry]

Re: Dresden round 11 pairings are up

Portugal beat Canada; Canada beat Colombia, both with 2.5.

Looks to me like USA gets bronze in the Women's, as RUS can't get more than 2.5 against NLD.

[Jonathan Berry]

Re: Dresden round 11 pairings are up

Dzagnidze's only drawing, so Georgia defeats Serbia 3-1 and wins the silver unless there's waaaaaay too many coincidences. Gold to Ukraine in the Women's.

[Jonathan Berry]

Re: Dresden round 11 pairings are up

Armenia defeats China and wins the Olympiad. Israel has at least drawn its match with the Netherlands, so wins the Silver. USA still has a chance for Bronze.

On the other side, Ukraine beat Poland, Georgia is beating Serbia, but the fate of the remaining game (Dzagnidze vs. Bojkovic) could decide the gold medals. If Dzagnidze wins, the tiebreaks of Georgia and of Ukraine are close (in fact, based on pre-round tiebreaks, Georgia would be ahead by, is it 1.5 points? Something like that). Yes, some match on a low board could decide the gold medals.

[Jonathan Berry]

Re: Dresden round 11 pairings are up

Hikaru did draw. The MHO pawn he was going to lose would only have been temporary (Be2-d1xc2).

Tiebreaks, of course, do depend on what happens in other matches in the final round, of the teams played in Rds 1-10.

[Jonathan Berry]

Re: Dresden round 11 pairings are up

In the Portugal match, I'm going to assume that Portugal's last move Rf3-g3?? was one of those glitches of adding a random extra move that isn't played. Instead, Qxf7+ wins. So Portugal 2 - Canada 1, with Natalia having a superior R ending.

[Jonathan Berry]

Re: Dresden round 11 pairings are up

If Shulman can win with an extra pawn, and Hikaru can draw (he's about to lose a pawn, IMHO!) USA would get the 3.5 they needed to overtake Ukraine in the standings. Russia-Spain ended 2-2, which is a good result for USA, as it puts both RUS and ESP out of the running. If NLD beats ISR (say a win on board 4 and 2 more draws), and Armenia beats China (looks to me like it'll be 2.5 to 1.5), USA would have its "Hail Mary" bronze medal.

[Vlad Dobrich]

Re: Dresden round 11 pairings are up

Looks like Canada has at least 2 1/2 once R-R's opponent resigns since RR has an extra queen. The Colombian may have been distracted by R-R's bushy hat - or is that his hair?!?? Or is he standing in front of a small tree? :)