The 176-nation Olympiad has just begun in Baku, Azerbaijan, where Russia, the United States and China are the favourites while England will hope to change a decade of under-performance. Games are live and free to watch online (starting at noon). England beat the International Braille team for blind players 4-0 in round one.
The hosts have organised a lavish event, whose venue is the 25,000-capacity Crystal Hall, which hosted the 2012 Eurovision song contest. They have also installed the strictest anti-cheating measures yet. All players will go through airport-style security checks, there will be frequent random testing, mobiles are barred from the hall and only official pens may be used. This arguably adds up to overkill but one of the rare cases of successful cheating occurred at the 2010 Olympiad involving a French player, his captain, a complex tic-tac system and a man with a powerful computer in Paris. France v England was one of the affected matches and David Howell was the victim.
China are the reigning Olympiad champions but Russia, headed by Vlad Kramnik, Sergey Karjakin and Alexander Grischuk, together with the United States, who field a trio of world top-10 elite grandmasters, will probably fight out the gold medals.
England are seeded sixth, with their strongest team of Michael Adams, Howell, Luke McShane, Gawain Jones and Nigel Short. If all are in their best form, a top-four finish is possible. Adams has just won the British championship with a record 10/11 and beat the world champion, Magnus Carlsen, at the 2010 Olympiad. Short, though now a veteran at 50 years old, was the top individual scorer for a recent world select against Iran. McShane, a City financial trader regarded as the world’s best amateur, has a fine record against the elite, while Howell and Jones are ambitious and successful GMs in their 20s.
Recent history is against them, however. The six Olympiads since 2004 have been a story of disappointment, with England’s finishing positions ranging from 15th to 30th. The problem has been that successful teams normally have three or four of their squad in good form and England have been unable to achieve that. Scotland, Ireland, Wales, Guernsey and Jersey have also sent teams to Baku.
Russia has won the last three women’s Olympiads, and will again have China, led by world champion Hou Yifan, as its main rival. England women have no chance of a high place, but Jovanka Houska on top board can contend for an individual medal.
You do not expect a 12-move Muzio Gambit in a game between elite GMs, but this miniature occurred in the chess.com online blitz knockout where eight players compete at a variety of fast time limits from five minutes plus two seconds per move increment down to one minute plus one second. Hikaru Nakamura already had the match won by the time they reached this bullet game, so was off guard.
Here 7 Qxf3 is normal, and White’s 7 Bxf7+ is just a bluff which works when Black missed the strong counter 8...Qg5!. Instead of 9...Nxd4?? Black could keep an edge by Kg7, but Nakamura, reckoned the world’s best bullet player, gets mated.
Maxime Vachier-Lagrave v Hikaru Nakamura
1 e4 e5 2 Nc3 Nc6 3 f4 exf4 4 Nf3 g5 5 Bc4 g4 6 0-0 gxf3 7 Bxf7+? Kxf7 8 Qf3 Bh6? 9 d4 Nxd4? 10 Qh5+ Kg7 11 Bxf4 h6 12 Be5+! 1-0
3458: 1 d7 e2 2 Kh5! e1Q 3 g6+ Kg8 4 d8Q+ Bf8 5 Nh6+ Kg7 6 Qd4+ Qe5 7 Qxe5 mate.
