World Under 16 Olympiad- Round 6

Round 5: England vs Kyrgyzstan

The view from my hotel room on most mornings

1. James HOLLAND 2204 0.5-0.5 Bakai Uulu ESENBEK
2. Craig WHITFIELD 2010 1-0 Talia TAILAIBEKOV
3. Henrik STEPANYAN 1956 0.5-0.5 Aidar KENENBAEV
4. Peter BATCHELOR 0.5-0.5 Kelsinbek ISAKZHANOV

The view from my hotel room today!!

By the teams admission we were lucky to beat Kyrgyzstan today, but will happily take the win! About halfway through the session, 3 of the 4 games looked like losses, with James seemingly coasting to the solitary point. What never ceases to surprise me about these events, no matter how many times you come to them is that trying to make predictions about the results based on the positions is completely pointless.

James was out first, but not with the result we had predicted. Having played another smooth attacking game with white against the Sicilian (this time a Scheveningen) his advantage at one stage was in the region of +11 on the computer (that’s a lot!!) However as he missed his opportunities, and his clock started running down things got more and more complicated and in the end had to sacrifice a rook for a perpetual check ‘Craig Whitfield style’.

The man himself was finding life tough going on board 2. Playing against another grand prix attack against his Sicilian, Craig gave himself a weakened queenside pawn structure, and was somewhere between worse and clearly worse for almost the entire game. What was very impressive was the way that he held on, refusing to panic and offering an exchange sacrifice for some compensation towards the end. Rather than take it, his opponent rather generously left a piece ‘en prise’ to a simple tactic and promptly resigned!

Henrik was out next, having been taught a lesson in how not to play the white side of the Kings Indian (he was white ). After allowing black to unleash his ‘Kings Indian’ bishop free of charge, and finding nowhere to put his king I feared for his position. Once again though our player showed his tenacity and somehow managed to push his opponent into a drawn opposite coloured bishop and rook ending a pawn down which Henrik held.

Peter’s game was the last to finish in the entire playing hall. He played down a well known line of the Queens Gambit declined. In fact the whole game was of a high quality, with White possessing a miniscule advantage for a lot of it. Seemingly having had enough of draws Peter bravely sacrificed a piece for some pawns (soundly), but a slip in concentration allowed his opponent a decisive advantage. The favour was returned later on in the endgame, and Peter secured a hard fought draw.

So, tomorrow is a rest day! The organised trip involves a visit to a local museum, followed by some shopping. Not quite as dramatic as the ‘journey to hell and paradise’ we were offered on my last visit to Turkey for this event. Plus it also involves getting down and up the mountain, which will cut into the trip by a good couple of hours. So we will see- it may be blitz with the Scottish (again) and some preparation for a difficult looking 7th round pairing against the Czech Republic.

Green Park resort Kartepe, from the outside