22-11-2015, 10:44 PM
And so to the final round of the tournament, and lo and behold we are moved from our 'reserved' spots close to the exit, and into the centre of the hall surrounded by other games, spectators, cameras and all sorts of things new to us!
The reason? Well, we were playing the 'Iceland Legends' team! All GM's in the 2500's, but also all a fair bit older than us. Our team strategy was, if we hold on long enough....nature might takes its course (preferably culling the oldest before the weakest!)
Not to be unfortunately. Alan misplayed his position, as did Steve, as did I. Only Andy M. seemed to be comfortable, and although we hung on grimly it ended in a 3.5-0.5 win for the legends, who gaily skipped off to do whatever legends do after chess games.
The Open tournament was won by Russia (minus Kramnik). The Georgian team surprisingly dropped their board 2 Pantsulaia, who was performing at almost 2900 level and lost 3-1 to the Armenians, who thus took second head of Hungary.
In the women's section Russia, Ukraine, Georgia was the 1-2-3 and although the standard of chess was incredibly good, the ridiculous daily 'fashion contests' between many of the women was pitiful to watch. Hobbling on high-heels to the toilet in time-trouble? Invest in some Doc Martens for crying out loud!
All-in-all this was a fascinating event to attend. Being my first (and probably last given my horrible showing!) tournament of this calibre I was shocked each day to see guys I had only ever read about strolling past my board. Carlsen, Shirov, Ivanchuk, Aronian, Giri, Adams, Short.....real legends of the board!
Hopefully the 'Scottish chess public' won't be too harsh in their criticism of our own team's efforts - we didn't take the event lightly at all and prepared and worked hard at the board. Sometimes things just don't work out, and against the quality of opposition we were facing it was hard to find a hiding place!
Thanks for the messages of support!
The reason? Well, we were playing the 'Iceland Legends' team! All GM's in the 2500's, but also all a fair bit older than us. Our team strategy was, if we hold on long enough....nature might takes its course (preferably culling the oldest before the weakest!)
Not to be unfortunately. Alan misplayed his position, as did Steve, as did I. Only Andy M. seemed to be comfortable, and although we hung on grimly it ended in a 3.5-0.5 win for the legends, who gaily skipped off to do whatever legends do after chess games.
The Open tournament was won by Russia (minus Kramnik). The Georgian team surprisingly dropped their board 2 Pantsulaia, who was performing at almost 2900 level and lost 3-1 to the Armenians, who thus took second head of Hungary.
In the women's section Russia, Ukraine, Georgia was the 1-2-3 and although the standard of chess was incredibly good, the ridiculous daily 'fashion contests' between many of the women was pitiful to watch. Hobbling on high-heels to the toilet in time-trouble? Invest in some Doc Martens for crying out loud!
All-in-all this was a fascinating event to attend. Being my first (and probably last given my horrible showing!) tournament of this calibre I was shocked each day to see guys I had only ever read about strolling past my board. Carlsen, Shirov, Ivanchuk, Aronian, Giri, Adams, Short.....real legends of the board!
Hopefully the 'Scottish chess public' won't be too harsh in their criticism of our own team's efforts - we didn't take the event lightly at all and prepared and worked hard at the board. Sometimes things just don't work out, and against the quality of opposition we were facing it was hard to find a hiding place!
Thanks for the messages of support!