Pictures, games, PGN. The 1st part of this report (R1-R7) is by team captain Jonathan O'Connor.
Arrival Day August 1
As a lifelong chess fan, I was so excited to be going to my first olympiad. As they say: fail to prepare, prepare to fail; so I started packing all the essential items. In true Hitchhiker's guide to the Galaxy, I packed 2 towels, one for myself, and one for any of my players who might have forgotten their own. As the sun doesn't set here, I also packed a load of eye masks. Think of Zorro in pyjamas, and you'll get the picture (As this is for a wide audience no photos will be provided!). A coat and woolly hat were also stuffed into the case. Sadly there was no room for the traveller's friend, a pillow. Note to self: Don't bring so many clothes next time, so you can take your pillow.
After an uneventful flight to Tromsø via Oslo, which I spent pestering my neighbours on the grammar and pronunciation of Bokmal, the main dialect spoken in Tromsø, I arrived. Hotel Midnight Sun
Tromsø is a quiet seaport town surrounded by hills and mountains flecked with pockets of snow left over from last winter. There are very few cars on the streets, mainly due to the system of tunnels built underneath to avoid traffic chaos during the winter, and also to leave the town unpolluted. The only sound one hears is the cawing of seagulls, wheeling around the skies above the harbour. The photo on the right shows the view from my hotel room.
Round 1 - Chinese Taipei 3½-½
We were paired against a very young team from Chinese Taipei. Their oldest player couldn't have been more than 18. As soon as all my guys were seated and the gong rung for the start of play, I went off on my water-boy duties: a bottle of glacier water for each player. Coffee for Mark Heidenfeld (one milk, no sugar). After 90 minutes, a coffee for Sam Collins (one milk, one sugar) and one for Alex Lopez (two milk).
After about three hours of play, Colm won the first game as black, playing a nice positional crush using the Sicilian Paulsen. About an hour later, Alex won his game with a very nice bishop sacrifice. His opponent could have defended better, but the best would have been to get a position with Alex having 2 pawns for an exchange and some winning chances. As it was, his opponent gave back the piece, and then lost an exchange and resigned.
The remaining two games were much quieter affairs. Sam had won a pawn, and ended up in a rook and pawn ending, but his opponent's rook was very active, and it was going to take a major effort to win it. Mark (pictured right) had an equal looking game with Q+N against Q+B. I went off to get more water and coffee for my players, and when I came back Mark was up a piece. He forced his opponent to go passive with his remaining queen, and then won it with a fork.
So, Sam was left on his own, searching for a win, to sadly no avail. After 87 moves, his opponent offered a draw, and Sam accepted. With his opponent's pawn one square away from queening on a2, any attempt to make progress would backfire.
Dinner tonight was, surprise, fish! Hopefully we ate the salmon of knowledge.
Round 2 - Iceland 1-3
We got a reasonable draw. Both teams were approximately equal, apart from their board 4, Helgi Olafsson, who at 2555 is their highest rated player. We felt the match could go any way, and sadly in the end we lost 1-3.
Mark Heidenfeld got a difficult game with white. His opponent played very quickly, as he had a simple plan of attacking Mark's d-pawn. In an effort to get play, Mark sacrificed his d-pawn, but a mis-calculation somewhere meant he had no compensation at all.
On board 3, Alex Lopez played the black side of a Guioco Piano. He equalized effortlessly, but when he got into time trouble his position disintegrated.
Alex Baburin on board 1 wanted to play a grunfeld, but his opponent, who has a very similar white repertoire to Alex, decided on playing a King's Indian, which Alex plays very rarely. White allowed a cheapo with Nxe4, and instead of winning the e-pawn, Alex played for an ending with a position bind. Sadly, his advantage disappeared, and a draw it was.
On board 2, Sam played his Panov-Botvinnik against the Caro-Kann. He got nothing out of the opening, and around move 20 his opponent started playing very creatively for a win. Somehow Sam wriggled out with a perpetual using his rook and knight.
On the chess fan boy front, I went over to watch Levon Aronian's game, and I didn't notice when Magnus Carlsen, world champion, sidled up beside me to also take a look.
I've got to run, games begin in 45 minutes.
Round 3 - Sudan 1½-2½
We thought today would be much better than yesterday, but how wrong could we be. Those of you who were following the games live may have got a bigger shock, as according to the chess24 site Mark Heidenfeld was rested, as he had booked a ticket to the musical Chess, and couldn't be sure to make the 7pm starting time.
Everything started out well. Alex Baburin had a reasonable looking position against the stonewall dutch. Sam had a comfortable position as black. Alex Lopez was up against Clarendon Court opening and was very happy to be able to make good use of his preparation, his plan of h2-h4-h5 being a good way to get an advantage in this opening. Sadly, after his opponent went e7-e6, he missed d5xe6 Bxe6 and Rh6 which would have been very strong. Instead, after e3-e4, which also looked very good, maintaining the pawn on d5, according to the unrelenting perfection of the engines, the position is level. However, it wasn't after Alex missed ...Nd2. After that his opponent played very well to bring home the point.
I still had hopes of a match win, however, in time trouble, and heading towards a difficult position, Alex Baburin decided to sac a couple of pawns to make room for his bishop on b2. It wasn't enough and soon he resigned in an opposite colour bishop ending, 3 pawns down.
Still no panic. Sam's position was improving, and he had finally got an endgame with a pair of bishops against bishop and knight. Colm was up a pawn, although opposite colour bishops complicated the win. Unfortunately, Colm thought he was in major time trouble. The clocks only add the extra 30 minutes once all the first 90 minutes have run out. So instead of taking his time, of which he had plenty, he rushed his moves, and after a number of inaccuracies, the players agreed a draw.
Sam saved us further indignities by bringing home the point. He cleverly trapped his opponent's knight on d7, which had to sacrifice itself. The ending reached was one of 2B+P vs B+P. Sam put his extra bishop on g8, stopping the g7 pawn queening, and also preventing the white king from reaching h8. I wondered how long we would be there, and if Sam knew how to mate with 2B against king. I won't reveal the answer, but Sam had worked out that he could prevent his opponent from taking his last pawn.
As the match card was being signed, who should come up to congratulate the Sudanese on their great victory, but Garry Kasparov himself. Sam told him he had not witnessed our finest hour, to which he replied, that he had witnessed Sudan's finest hour!
We walked in shame back to the hotel.
In many ways the captain's job is harder than the players. The captain has to be at the playing hall for the duration of the match, and is always the last to leave. Apart from choosing the team each day, the captain has no influence on play. However, after such a dismal day, I was lucky to spot Larry Ebbin wandering into the restaurant. Larry organises the Bermuda party every year, and has a mine of stories. He sat with us, and by the end of dinner, everyone felt much better for his laughter and stories.
Round 4 - Uganda 3½-½
On paper Uganda are a far stronger team than Sudan, but today we succeeded in getting a good result. Alex Baburin won an easy game when his opponent went a bit crazy in the early middlegame.
Sam struggled a bit with black, eventually finding a nice combination, which unfortunately only equalized. He played on in a drawn rook and pawn ending for a long time, but could make no progress. It can be hard to win with black, as even Magnus Carlsen found out against Tomi Nyback.
The prettiest game of the day was Mark's win. He played a spanish exchange variation, and then went wild with a knight sacrifice on c6. Both players exchanged mistakes, and then Mark played beautifully to win.
Colm's game started slowly, but once queens came off, Colm had equalised and any chances in the position. He continued methodically, winning the e-pawn, and after some nice adventures he was able to queen the pawn.
Thus we won the match 3½-½. Tomorrow Jamaica and the Bermuda party.
Round 5 - Jamaica 3-1
When I arrived at the arena, I found we had the same match arbiter as we had when we played Sudan. He asked me if I was superstitious, which I categorically denied. Play began, and it soon became clear, that this arbiter was never going to bring us good luck. Alex Baburin had a horrible position out of his beloved Alekhine. Sam was being out-played by a 2100 player. Luckily Alex Lopez had got a very comfortable caro-kann ending, and Mark Heidenfeld was showing how ambidextrous he is by offering a knight on King's Bishop 6 (yesterday it was Queen's Bishop 6). He left the piece there for ages, and then won a pawn, and shortly after the game.
At about this time, Gary Kasparov wandered by to take a look at the games. I'm thinking of banning him from spectating our matches, because he always seems to pop up at bad times.
However, events turned out otherwise. Sam's game was looking very bad, but his opponent took his foot off the accelerator, and the game was drawn. So that left the 2 Alex's. Alex Baburin finally managed to get queens off, and swap down to a drawn B+P ending. In the final position, it would be completely drawn if white did not have a h-pawn, but with the h-pawn his opponent could lose if he played to win with h2-h4, because after ...g5xh4 Kxf4 Kh6! wins. So the game was drawn.
That left Alex Lopez still playing. He had to work hard for his win, avoiding a mating net, and even a piece up, his opponent made him prove the win. Final result 3-1. Very happy too!
No doubt many of you have read reports of the Bermuda party. Well, highlights would include having the barman spilling a pint over yours truly and his best bud, Vesko Topalov. Luckily we were supplied with 2 free beers as compensation. It still does not help Topalov whose luggage had not arrived from Spain, and normally a very dapper dresser, he has been forced to wear jeans and casual shirt to his games.
Larry Ebbin, the organizer of the party, gave the Irish plenty of free drink tickets, and we all tried his famous Rum Swizzle. Sadly the recipe in the Driv, the student's union house in Tromsø, had not been allowed to ferment for three days, due to Norwegian alcohol laws ☺︎.
Rest Day
I gave up chaperoning the women back from the Bermuda party, leaving them to play on the bouncy stepping stones in the main square (see picture above). At 4am the sky was completely bright. 6 hours later I was up again, ready to spend my day at the FIDE training seminar, trying to get one of the 5 FIDE training titles. Only 4 are actually possible from the course given by FIDE Senior Trainer and GM Efstratios Grivas. He told many interesting stories, and gave advice not only on the principle of two weaknesses, but also what foods to eat to avoid a heart attack, which is a major problem for chess players. Women chess players can relax, because they naturally produce a healthy heart hormone.
For those of you who do want to eat more healthily, FIDE recommend garlic, salmon, red berries, quinoa, and cocoa.
Round 6 - Andorra 3½-½
A good day at the office. On paper we could expect to do well on the bottom 3 boards, but Alex Baburin (pictured right) had lost twice previously to GM De La Riva Aguado, so we weren't taking anything for granted. As it was, Alex crushed his opponent's Dutch defence. His opponent lost two tempi in the middle game with a mistaken idea of Bg7-h6. He thought Alex had to move his rook, but instead white played Bg2-h3 pinning the knight on g4. If black plays Bh6xd2, then white has Nxe5, and everything collapses. The e-pawn dropped shortly after that, although Alex had to walk into a pin, but with a bishop and queen on the long a1-h8 diagonal there were always going to be tricks to get out of the pin, and after another 'petit combinaison', black resigned 2 pawns down.
Sam won an easy game when his opponent blundered early on in the game.
Mark swapped off almost all the pieces, thinking he had a slight edge in the R+B endgame, but he had missed his opponent's rook manoeuvre, R-d8-b8-b7, swapping off into a completely drawn B+P ending.
In the final game of the day, Alex Lopez gave a beautiful example of taking advantage of two weaknesses. Instead of doubling on the c-file, when all the rooks would probably have come off, he played to force a second weakness on the kingside. His rook duly appeared on h8, and he slowly squeezed his opponent in the center by advancing his e and f-pawns to the fifth rank. This game is worth studying.
The women's team captain, Gary O'Grady left this evening to return home for the impending birth of his child, and the chairman of the ICU, Pete Morriss, arrived to take his place.
Round 7 - Scotland 1½-2½
The day started off very badly. I screwed up by forgetting to put in a team. Having spent a lot of time with Pete Morriss the night before, bringing him up to speed with the workings of the olympiad, I completely forgot to specify the players for today. I gave grovelling apologies to Mark who now had to play, and Colm who was forced to rest. Note for future captains: add a daily alarm to your phone to remind you to specify the team.
The match did not go well. We were worse on boards 3 and 4 out of the opening. Somehow, Alex Lopez (pictured right) managed to get a king's side attack without developing his pieces. His opponent defended well, and sadly Alex lost. In Mark's game, black had an ideal dragon, where white had no king's side attack to offset his opponent's advantage on the queen side. Mark ended up with a horrible knight on b1, which was blocked by black pawns on b4 and e3. Mark put up stiff resistance, but just as he was finally able to develop his knight, he had to allow a shot winning his h4 pawn and the game. So two down.
Alex Baburin's game was looking very good. He had equalised as black in the opening, and when he plonked his knight on to d4, his opponent played a very good exchange sacrifice for it. Even though white had an undeveloped rook and knight on a1 and b1, as Alex said after the game, it only takes two moves to bring them out. Alex seemed to be making some progress in controlling the advance of the white d-pawn, but in reality, he was just holding the position, and in the end he had to give back the exchange and play a very slightly worse B vs N ending, which he comfortably held.
So match to Scotland, but could Sam win his game against Andrew Greet, who had been having a 2650 performance? After some seemingly endless maneuvering, Sam won a pawn which was quickly blockaded, and it looked with my naive understanding that one weakness would not be enough for Sam to win. So, off Sam went on the kingside, advancing pawns there, trying to force a second weakness. In time trouble, black allowed Sam to win the h6 pawn, and about 10 moves later his opponent resigned. Sam explained that in this opening, white doesn't have to win, but black has to draw.
In further Olympiad news, Gary O'Grady became a father to Anna. Congratulations to Gary and Marina.
The rest of this report has been compiled by board 2 player, Sam Collins (picture, below right).
Round 8 - FYROM 2-2
A decent result (four draws) against a team which, on balance, out-rated us. Both Alexes played complicated games which ended in draws. Colm patiently defended a passive position and also made a draw.
My own game involved a lot of suffering following the opening, after which a late mistake by my opponent turned the tables and left me with the better chances in a rook and pawn endgame. For the third time in this tournament, my rook and pawn technique was deeply unimpressive and, while Black would have had decent drawing propects in any event, I failed to make the most of my chances.
Round 9 - Iran 1½-2½
This was the first round in which I was rested. Iran were comfortably the strongest team we played in the Olympiad, with GMs on all boards (including 2600s on the top 2 boards). My first sight of the Irish games was from the Chess 24 studio, where I was being interviewed (Alex Baburin was interviewed after the game). Alex B played a good game on board 1 and may even have had some chances, although the game ended in a draw. Alex L lost a tough game. He had a rook against a knight and two pawns in a position where his opponent was pressing, but as Alex noted after the game, if he had found b4 (preventing his opponent's plan of ...c5 and ...Nb4) he should have made a comfortable draw.
Mark Heidenfeld lost a long and heartbreaking game where he failed to hold R v. R+B. At a recent Olympiad Grischuk failed to hold the same ending (and Kosteniuk blundered in the same ending in Tromsø) so Mark's in good company. Colm put his experience of French Defence positions to good use, outplaying his opponent with a dominant knight on d4 against a passive light squared bishop. A narrow defeat to Iran is a decent result, and is disappointing only because, given the positions we had, we could have done even better.
Round 10 - Zambia 2-2
Another bad day at the office. I was Black against their highest rated player and, when he hoovered off the pieces and offered a draw in an opposite coloured bishop endgame, I didn't object. Alex B was pressing out of the opening but a tactical error cost him most of his kingside and the game. Mark H bounced back from his previous game and won easily. Colm seemed to be doing well but the game ended in a draw.
Round 11 - Wales 2½-1½
At least we managed to finish with a (narrow) win. On top board, Alex B ran into some dangerous preparation and his position out of the opening, despite what the computers say, seems close to unplayable, with White having two bishops, more space and activity. White continued building strong pressure and by the time Alex blundered two pieces for a rook his position was dreadful anyway. Richard Jones can play like this sometimes and, when he does, he's tough to stop.
I was playing Tim Kett, a dangerous attacking player who almost mated Brian Kelly in a previous Ireland-Wales match. Using the same variation as in my last game against him, the queens were traded after 5 moves and, while Black had an excellent position out of the opening, once my opponent missed 22...f5 (when I was planning to sacrifice a pawn with 23.Bd4, which doesn't look convincing), Tim started losing the thread. I won a long endgame grind where my technique was just about good enough to convert an extra knight.
Alex L tried hard against David Sands but the game ended in a draw. Colm was doing badly out of the opening against Francis Rayner but managed to win. The round was overshadowed by the tragic death of a player from the Seychelles team, which was marked by a minute's silence at the closing ceremony.
General Impressions
The Olympiad itself was one of the better ones I've attended. Tromsø is a beautiful location and it was a privilege to play somewhere where chess was broadcast for 5 hours a day on the main TV channel. Carlsen is presiding over a real chess boom, unlike any I've personally experienced before.
My own performance wasn't great. Though I didn't lose any games, I wasn't sharp enough to make the most of my chances and conceded too many draws. It's never pleasant to play a poor tournament at an Olympiad which, for most players and certainly for me, is the highlight of the chess calendar.
Overall, the team performance was disappointing (finishing slightly below our seeding, but this flatters us since we didn't play many strong teams). Only Colm gained rating points, with everyone else struggling through a fairly bad tournament. For these events you need 1 or 2 players to be in great form, which can help the team through close matches. Colm was in excellent form but we had no one with a GM norm shot, such as in 2012 (Alex L) or 2010 (me). Norway 2 had 3 players in contention for GM norms and accordingly had a fairytale Olympiad. In 3 or 4 matches an extra half point, which was easily available, would have led to a different match result and pushed our tournament in a different. Our team spirit was excellent and everyone tried their best, but sometimes things don't quite work out.