Round 4: Turkey ‘Kocaeli’ vs England
1. Sergen ATAY 1685 0-1 James HOLLAND 2204
2. Oguzhan ERTEKIN 1599 0.5-0.5 Craig WHITFIELD 2010
3. Samet Burak CILDIR 0-1 Henrik STEPANYAN 1956
4. Mert Efe KILIC 1606 0.5-0.5 Peter BATCHELOR
Our second match against a Turkish team, and another 3-1 victory. This time we were playing the local ‘Kocaeli’ province side, and we were disappointed not to score the full 4 points.
Henrik was out first, having played a nice attacking game where his opponent went wrong straight out of the opening and Henrik capitalised nicely.
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James chalked up a second win soon afterwards. His young opponent also made a lot of passive moves in the middlegame, and our board 1 collected an exchange before finishing the game nicely.
Craig was really disappointed not to win. He played another strong attacking game against his opponents Pirc, but when on the brink of victory he hesitated with his attack and Mr Ertekin managed to survive, and possibly could have played on for the win.
Peter got nothing out of the opening with white. In fact for a lot of the game he was a bit worse. The advantage wasn’t significant however and the game was drawn.
Round 5: Kazakhstan vs England
1. Alibek IGAMBERGENOV 2259 0.5-0.5 James HOLLAND 2204
2. Ayan AKHMETOV 2158 0.5-0.5 Craig WHITFIELD 2010
3. Dinara SADUAKASSOVA 2193 1-0 Henrik STEPANYAN 1956
4. Adilet ZAURENBEK 1973 0.5-0.5 Peter BATCHELOR
Amongst the young chess talents here at the Olympiad you also find the stray grandmaster, helping to coach their side. There are at least three here this tournament (I suspect the Azeri coach is also quite useful). Legendary GM Artur Jussupow at his peak was number 3 in the world (behind Kasparov and Karpov). Also a legend of the game, GM Mikhail Gurevich is the national trainer of Turkey. The third super GM present, and the highest rated player at the event is GM Mikhail Kobalia (current elo 2674) who is training Russia.
The fifth round was a really good effort from the boys. James and his opponent blitzed out about 20 moves of Tarrasch theory, before arriving at an equal looking middlegame position. Fireworks then ensued, with James winning a pawn with a neat tactic. However the situation wasn’t as clear as first thought, and in the complications James’ opponent missed what looked like a winning move. The game ended in a perpetual.
Craig played an enterprising game on board 2, choosing the same line against the French which served his so well in round 1. His opponent snatched what looked like a hot pawn (actually it turned out to be a good decision), and Craig went ‘all in’ sacrificing a knight to open up the opponents king. In the end more fuel went on the fire in the shape of a rook, which ensured a perpetual check.
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Henrik got the opening he wanted, and managed to equalise fairly comfortably. However his opponent, an experienced WFM then started to outplay him. In the end Henrik got a knight trapped which finished the game.
Peter also got the opening he wanted, a Fianchetto Kings Indian, which we had looked at earlier. He played the position well, and it looked at one stage as though he had a clear advantage. His opponent managed to steer the game into an endgame with opposite coloured bishops a pawn down, which Peter couldn’t convert.
So blissfully, no double round day tomorrow! We have an important game however against Krygyzstan in the afternoon however, so stay tuned and watch the games live (2pm UK time) at http://wyco2011.tsf.org.tr/
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