Tromsø Olympiad 2014 - Scottish Women

[Andy Howie]

Excellent report. Really enjoyed the games yesterday. Not a bad result at all against a stronger team!

[Duncan Grassie]

Great result and good reports! Keep up the good work...

[Andy Howie]

2-1 up V Turkey (18th seed). Fantastic result!!! Well done!! ^^ ^^ ^^ ^^

[Graham McKay]

Thanks for the reports, they make this event much more interesting to follow. It would be nice if there were reports on the men's event too.

Anyway, one small suggestion... it would make things a bit easier to follow if the games (and/or key positions) were actually embedded in the page.

[JonathanIMGrant]

Round 5 – attack, attack!

Br. 33 Turkey (TUR) Elo - 52 Scotland (SCO) Elo 2 : 2
22.1 WGM Yildiz, Betul Cemre 2296 - GM Arakhamia-Grant, Ketevan 2394 0 - 1
22.2 WGM Ozturk, Kubra 2291 - WFM Bamber, Elaine 2077 0 - 1
22.3 WIM Isgandarova, Khayala 2190 - Roy, Ali 1913 1 - 0
22.4 WIM Topel, Zehra 2156 - WFM Groves, Carey 2027 1 - 0

The Olympiad is a colourful event in so many ways. Despite a small number of no-shows there are still 172 open and 134 women’s teams from all over the world. FIDE requires participants to be suitably dressed which is interpreted widely and many countries have opted for a uniform approach. Tracksuits are popular amongst both established and developing countries: Bhutan’s open team have an eye catching yellow and orange number. Somewhat more refined examples can be found: Kuwaiti women accessorise with checked scarfs whilst Magnus looks rather corporate in a restrained suit with the sponsor’s name on the lapel of his crisp white shirt. Scotland, without a sponsor, wears whatever feels comfortable. Former Scottish team member Jacob Aagaard takes this a step further and is spotted playing in a top with Scotland emblazoned across the back provoking discussion back in Denmark. Today’s opponents from Turkey are clearly well funded with famous trainer GM Adrian Mikhalchishin as their coach. Each player wears a top with details of event, date and their name stitched in.

The popularity of chess in Turkey is rising and the standard at junior and senior level is rising. Turkey is our highest seeded opponents so far. I tell the players one massive effort and they can have the next day off. It is my generous side coming though...The match starts well as a number of promising opening positions appear. Elaine’s opponent has persisted in playing a passive line with ...c6 against the Bishop’s Opening, certainly not something to avoid. Over its brief life the game bore some resemblance to a Philidor and then a Ruy Lopez. Elaine initiated a flank attack with Qf3 which should have been met by central action with ...d5. Black chose continued passivity and was blown away on the kingside. [As an aside, there must have been something in the air today. A number of the Scots decided to really go for it. Terrific attacking play from Andrew Greet in the open event as he blasted apart Dizdarevic’s defences in just 25 moves against Bosnia]. Ali showed good understanding of which pieces to exchange to equalise easily in an Accelerated Dragon. Probably she should have expanded quickly on the queenside but she was still fighting until a miscalculation meant she left White’s e6 pawn alive and this decided the game.

Keti had previously beaten Turkey’s board 2 in a Vaganian Gambit so it was surprising when board 1 Yildiz allowed it and started to consume time in the opening. Although Black had free development and more space for a pawn the position required heavy calculation on each move to maintain the initiative. As so often happens when there is so much tension in the position, one slip proves fatal. For the second time today we crashed through to Black’s king. Carey looked to be doing fine against her opponent’s Leningrad Dutch set-up. Opposite side castling made it into a race which swung Black’s way when Carey missed ...c5 forcing the jettisoning of her black squared bishop. Identifying her king as the worst placed pieced she quickly ran back to the kingside with it. Despite her pawn deficit she had reasonable central control and even had chances of taking over the initiative. In a mutually difficult position Black set up some tricks which Carey fell for. Still 2-2 is a tremendous result against a much higher rated team. Going into the free day there are so many positives to take from the team’s play so far.

Bermuda Party and Seminar result
The Bermuda Party is where the chess world meets to dance, drink and chat. It’s a time to make new relationships and catch up with old friends. No doubt any scandals will reveal themselves soon enough. Upstairs in “Driv” the dance floor was heaving to the sounds of pounding beats. Topalov appeared to have already forgotten his loss to Kramnik (no handshake today but then you knew that already). Magnus may be World Champion but he also has to party. Downstairs in the cafe was more sedate, a hubbub of exchanged tales, much more suited to the likes of Keti and myself. It was still light when we left in the wee small hours to make the one minute stroll home.

I checked my e-mails on return as Grivas indicated he would send the results from the first Training Seminar which had finished earlier in the day. Three of us, two strong Icelandic players and myself, were awarded the FIDE Trainer Title whilst others would get the FI, NI or DI titles. Designed for a spread of abilities the seminars contained thought provoking material even for GM Jon Arnason the strongest of the attendees. Definitely worth doing especially as FIDE becomes stricter about only licensed trainers being allowed free accommodation and access to the playing hall at its events. Although the new regulations were announced over 3 years ago many of the nations’ trainers seem oblivious of the impact of the 1 July regulations. One for the IJD to be thinking about in advance of the World Youth et al.

[JonathanIMGrant]

Thanks to all the members who are following the women's team's progress and providing feedback. It makes a difference knowing that we are supported.

Thanks for the reports, they make this event much more interesting to follow. It would be nice if there were reports on the men's event too.

Anyway, one small suggestion... it would make things a bit easier to follow if the games (and/or key positions) were actually embedded in the page.

OK, I admit I haven't investigated how to embed games or positions. However the intention is to give impressions as they occur rather than any annotations. We need to save something for Scottish Chess magazine! Additionally normally (although clearly not for round 5) I'm writing before the pgn files are available.

Andy Muir has had some technical difficulties submitting reports on the Open team.

[Alex Gillies]

Also enjoying your reports Johnathan - keep it up. Must take ages. Great result against Turkey !

Any techies help with getting all Scottish games in pgn in one place. Official site is actually good but can be sluggish. you can view multi boards on each match. With download PGN section I can download each round at once and combine in one database but I cant then filter by Country (no country data entered)- I then have thousands of games in PGN. I can filter by player but that would take ages. If I knew answer it would be easy to upload them to forum for the - perhaps others have another way round this ~X(

[Alex Gillies]

Also enjoying your reports Johnathan - keep it up. Must take ages. Great result against Turkey !

Any techies help with getting all Scottish games in pgn in one place. Official site is actually good but can be sluggish. you can view multi boards on each match. With download PGN section I can download each round at once and combine in one database but I cant then filter by Country (no country data entered)- I then have thousands of games in PGN. I can filter by player but that would take ages. If I knew answer it would be easy to upload them to forum for the - perhaps others have another way round this ~X(

Dougie B has kindly pointed out there is a link on chess Scotland home page - I thought it was only one game but there is a drop down menu for all games - cool B-)

[JonathanIMGrant]

Thu Aug 7 - First free day

The break in the middle of the Olympiad will make it seem like a new tournament when we start again in round 6. As a comparison, it is well known that second week form in the British Championship (held over 11 rounds with a break after the first 6) determines success. Players respond in different ways to the break but all need to find the best way of recharging their batteries. Will those on fire stumble? Will those who have struggled regain their strength?

In the Scottish camp, Elaine decides on a 50 km bike ride whizzing around the island and beyond. Andrew Greet manfully tries to keeps pace. The rest of the women’s team follow a well-worn path of Olympiad participants up the cable car for the spectacular view over Tromso and to the mountains beyond. It is a re-invigorating sight. The Grant family walks up to the first cairn although there are tales from other camps of more adventurous souls who hike until they can photograph themselves lying in the snow!

We agree tonight is pizza night and the women’s team plus Andrew G head to Yonas’ pizzeria. Best in town according to the friendly folk who run our hotel. The local speciality is a “Taco” which involves Chinese cabbage and salad cream which tempts the rest of my family. However I’m unconvinced this is a “Scottish” option and insist on a pepperoni based choice for at least half of our “Maxi” sharing pizza. Sage Andrew G identifies that a large seafood pizza is guaranteed to avoid anyone pilfering from his plate whilst he proves adept at scavenging in the politest possible manner. Full and satisfied we head home ready for the battles ahead.

Fri Aug 8 - Round 6 – Nobody loses, everybody’s happy

Bo. 44 Moldova (MDA) Rtg - 52 Scotland (SCO) Rtg 1½:2½
25.1 WIM Baciu, Diana 2294 - GM Arakhamia-Grant, Ketevan 2394 ½ - ½
25.2 IM Petrenko, Svetlana 2205 - WFM Bamber, Elaine 2077 ½ - ½
25.3 WGM Partac, Elena 2127 - Roy, Ali 1913 ½ - ½
25.4 Hincu, Olga 2027 - WFM Groves, Carey 2027 0 – 1

Moldova looks a tough draw especially with an IM and WGM whose ratings are well of their highs. Ali adopts the Black side of a Closed Sicilian. I’m familiar with the colours reversed set-up (Botvinnik system in the English) and tempo down positions are fine as well. White’s attack down the f-file is going nowhere and Ali’s space advantage grows. White falls further and further behind in time but exchanges minor pieces and queens to bring some relief. 3-fold repetition in the double rook ending is a fair enough end. A great start for the team and for Ali against the WGM. Over to board 4 and Carey has “got her Mojo back”. A classic minority attack in the QGD exchange – weaken the pawn structure; exchange the right pieces and then win the under defended c6 and d5 pawns. Carey is delighted and rightly so: it is a tremendous feeling to win when you create a plan and follow through on it.

Elaine is having a themed tournament with the b-pawn. Sometimes she sacrifices it , today she pushed to b3 early (and later b4) to fianchetto the bishop in a Sicilian Moscow variation.. Perhaps Petrenko thought, from Elaine’s earlier games, that she had to exchange queens asap when she went for the unusual Qg4-h5. However Elaine identified that taking off queens would leave d6 weak and she built strong positional pressure. Black’s king started off on a suicidal walk. Breaking open the centre with f4 would show up this folly but after multiple exchanges the game petered out into an equal rook ending. Keti allowed White an early initiative in a 2...e6 3.b3 Sicilian through over ambition. She fought her way back into contention with some accurate calculation and the help of an advancing d-pawn. In time trouble it was a better idea to play ...g5 at some point rather than ...h5 but securing the draw was enough for an overall match win by 2.5-1.5 against the higher rated Moldovans.

[Clement Sreeves]

Great result, well done!