Friday, May 26, 2006

Olympiad - Round 5 Results

A mixed day for the Aussies yesterday as the boys defeated South Africa 3.5-0.5 while the girls were blanked out by Slovenia 3-0.

Ian Rogers managed to only draw against Watu Kobese (2390) on board 1. His team-mates, however, played sparkling attacks with David Smerdon living up to a nickname we bestowed upon him early this year - "Atakador"! IM Zhao playing black relied on his Najdorf Sicilian and proceeded to give his opponent a lesson. A very nice game by Zhao. Wohl opened 1. b3. The big man sent Daniel Cawdery packing with 31. Rxe6.

Well, what happened to WIM Moylan? Looking at her game on the official site, it seems she just dropped that Bishop for nothing. Time trouble? I think she might need more shopping therapy after that.

And a bad day for Irina Berezina as she seemed completely outplayed from the opening phase. Muzychuk topped off her attack with the gorgeous 48. e7+. Caoili, on the other hand, resisted as much as she could but the material deficit permitted no tricks whatsoever.

Playing against Lithuania - Mark Paragua went down to GM Eduardas Rozentalis, on board 1, while both Torre and Antonio drew their games. The Philippines' was saved by Darwin Laylo who banged out his favourite Scandinavian Defence. The match finished 2-2.

Former AP chess journo Robert Huntington has some things to say about the venue and the "(dis)organisation" of the Olympiad. You can read the rest of his musings here.

Pairings for Round 6

Men
Australia - Albania
Ecuador - Philippines
NZ - ICSC

Women
Australia - Algeria
Belarus - Philippines
NZ - Costa Rica

More details from the WZ site and the Official site.

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