England will field its strongest available team in the 150-nation chess Olympiad which opens at Baku, Azerbaijan, on 1 September. Michael Adams, the world No30, will play top board followed by David Howell, Nigel Short, Luke McShane and Gawain Jones. All five rank in or close to the world top 100 grandmasters and England’s seeding is likely to be around 10-15.
Russia and the United States will be the favourites, challenged by the 2014 medallists China, Hungary and India. It would take a medium miracle for England to win a medal. For that a team needs either several elite GMs ranked in the top 20-25 or a fast-improving teenage talent for whom the Olympiad sparks a career breakthrough. The England quintet have plenty of experience but only Howell and Jones are aged under 32.
Adams’ track record in Olympiads includes several wins over the world’s top players and in 2014 he defeated the world champion, Magnus Carlsen. He also rarely loses. Second board has been a special problem in the last decade since Short, who used to be the automatic choice there, began to decline in strength from his peak years. Realistically England will do very well to finish in the top 10 teams.
Luke McShane, a City of London trader, is widely regarded as the world’s best amateur, though he has underperformed in Olympiads. On 9 July McShane will be one of the top seeds at the DeMontford Bell King’s Place festival, a one-day open event played at the home of the Guardian which anyone can enter. Details are online.
England’s Olympiad women, led by Jovanka Houska and Dagne Ciuksyte, will also be at full strength in Baku but the main interest for many will be to see how the 14-year-old British woman champion, Akshaya Kalaiyalahan, performs on third board. The Nonsuch School, Surrey teenager is improving fast and last month registered a career best performance when she drew a 94-move marathon against the highly ranked GM Mark Hebden in the e2e4 open at Gatwick. This forceful win is from the same event.
Akshaya Kalaiyalahan v Patryk Stanisz
1 d4 f5 2 Nc3 Nf6 3 Bg5 g6 4 h4 Bg7 5 h5 c5 6 h6 Bf8 7 dxc5 Nc6 8 a3 Ne5 9 Qd4 Nc6 10 Qd1 e6 11 b4 Be7 12 Nf3 b6 13 cxb6 Qxb6 14 Na4 Qb8 15 e3 O-O 16 Be2 Ng4 17 Bxe7 Nxe7 18 Qd4 e5 19 Qc4+ d5 20 Qc5 Qb7 21 Qc3 Qb8 22 Nc5 Qd6 23 Rd1 Qf6 24 Qb2 g5 25 c4 dxc4 26 Bxc4+ Kh8 27 Rd2 Rb8 28 Rh5 Ng8 29 Rxg5 N8xh6 30 Rh5 Nf7 31 Nd7 Bxd7 32 Rxd7 e4 33 Nd4 Ng5 34 Rxg5 Ne5 35 Rxf5 Nxc4 36 Rxf6 Nxb2 37 Rxf8+ Rxf8 38 Ne6 1-0
3446 1 Bc5 Qc7 2 Ng6! and if Qxf4 3 Nxe7+ wins.
