World Under 16 Olympiad- Round 7 and 8

World Under 16 Chess Olympiad, Ismir, Turkey 24-31 October 2012

The scene of the mauling on the rest day :)

The team weren’t too keen on the idea of the organised trip on the rest day, which the majority of the teams went on so we spent the day instead preparing for the Czech Republic and playing in the games room. I am delighted to (smugly) inform you that England’s finest players were no match for England’s finest coach on the table tennis table where I held off the challenge from James Holland and Peter Batchelor convincingly.

Round 7: Czech Republic vs England
With the rest day behind us, the England team came alive in Round 7, outplaying the Czech Republic and scoring a convincing 3-1 victory. Perhaps they should have spent the day preparing too?!

1. Tadaes BALACEK 2245 0.5-0.5 James HOLLAND 2204
2. Tomas KRAUS 2197 0-1 Craig WHITFIELD 2010
3. Petr CIZINSKY 2178 0.5-0.5 Henrik STEPANYAN 1956
4. Stepan SEIDL 2144 0-1 Peter BATCHELOR

The Czech board one looking tired from his excursions on the rest day

Draw with black, win with white! Boards 1 and 3 amazingly followed each other for 15 moves after our players introduced a James Holland novelty in the Tarrasch defence on move 13. The Czech board three eventually erred and seemed to play the incorrect 16.Nfd4 which allowed Henrik the advantage. He always seemed in control of the position after that, but dropped his extra pawn and sensibly offered a draw with little time remaining.

James also comfortably held on board 1. His opponent played the stronger 16.g4, and seemed to obtain the slightly better chances. James though thought differently, turning down a draw only to offer one a couple of moves later with the position balanced.

Craig played the White side of a 6.g3 Sicilian Najdorf. A complex middlegame ensued, with a bad light squared bishop being compensated for by his pressure down the d-file. Somewhere under time pressure Craig’s position became really difficult, but yet again he was up to the task of defending well. In mutual time trouble black overpressed for the win, and Craig mopped up his opponents pawns and won the endgame.

Peter played a prepared line of the Anti-Grunfeld, which I had an unpleasant experience with recently at a tournament in Madrid. This idea seemed to work, as black used up a large amount of thinking time. Peter won a pawn in the early middlegame, before having to weather a little bit of black pressure. Eventually Peter traded down to a double rook and pawn ending a pawn up, which he converted expertly for his first win!

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Round 8: England vs Armenia
1. James HOLLAND 2204 0-1 Karen GRIGORYAN IM 2473
2. Craig WHITFIELD 2010 0-1 Hovhannes GABUZYAN FM 2404
3. Henrik STEPANYAN 1956 0-1 Arman MIKAELYAN 2214
4. Peter BATCHELOR 0-1 Zohrak APRESYAN 2185

The scene of the mauling from Round 8 :(

What to say about Round 8? Well, firstly that we were unfortunate to get a 4 point upfloat to play the Armenian team on board 2. But actually I was pleased with the draw, even if the players weren’t. Much better to test yourself against the best than not I told them. And test them we did.

Well, most of them! Craig, who was been playing absolutely tremendously, and before the round was leading the overall standings for board 2 went down quite easily to his nearest rival, the strong Armenian board 2. After being surprised in the opening, Craig gave away a pawn, and his position collapsed quite quickly after that.

The other three games were very tense, and at one stage it looked like we were going to win 2.5-1.5. James was surprised by his opponents ‘North Sea Defence’ (1.e4 g6 2.d4 Nf6 3.e5 Nh5?!) using up a fair bit of time, and getting a slightly worse position. However a clever pawn sacrifice turned the tables in his favour. At a critical moment in the middlegame James missed an opportunity (28.Bxe6!) to enter an endgame 1, or more likely 2 pawns up. Amazingly the Armenian player wriggled out of trouble, and with James running out of time won a king and pawn ending.

Peter played his Caro-Kann main line again, and got a perfectly acceptable position from the opening. His opponent played a neat tactic which seemed to win (24.Rxg4!). But as is the English way this tournament Peter defended superbly, finding a series of only moves up until a critical moment on move 30, where a slip allowed his opponent to consolidate his extra kingside passed pawn and convert the endgame.

Henrik was the last out, again losing but missing his chances during the game. Having chosen to surprise his opponent with 1.d4! his opponent responded in turn with 1…c5!?. Henrik closed the position, before launching an attack on his opponent’s king on the dark squares. He sacrificed an exchange and had his Armenian opponent on the ropes, missing a series of knockout blows. Mr Apresyan defended very well, managing to co-ordinate his rooks and with it the game.

So the team is a little deflated, but only because we had excellent chances to get something from the match. Tomorrow we face the young Slovakian team, which promises to be a close game.