Round #13 Report - Ian Wilkinson (Jamaica)

JAMAICA NEARING THE TAPE – HOPING TO FINISH WITH PANACHE

JAMAICA AT THE 35TH OLYMPIAD, BLED, SLOVENIA

ROUND THIRTEEN REPORT

Jamaica’s men’s and women’s teams had mixed results in round thirteen matches on Friday, 8th November, 2002 at the 35th Olympiad taking place in Bled, Slovenia. The men, like sharks, went in search of blood and fed off the gallant Japanese who went down 3-1 to a team growing in confidence. The women lost 0.5-2.5 to Iraq with the assured Maria Palmer on board one again holding up her end of the bargain.

WOMEN

JAMAICA

The Jamaican women foughtly bravely but were defeated by their more experienced Iraqi adversaries who were, patently, not distracted by the looming possibility of their country’s involvement in war. On board three Vanessa Thomas had the white pieces and faced Khatozen Muhamed’s Sicilian Dragon and obtained a strong position. Thomas, however, lost her way (missing, for example, 14.Nd5!) and had to resign after 34 moves.

On board two Hui Zhu returned to the team and had the Black pieces against the solid Worya Jannar Mohammed’s Queen’s gambit declined opening. A couple of inaccuracies cost Zhu two pawns and her passive rooks in the ensuing endgame resulted in her ultimate demise.

EXEMPLARY PALMER

On board one, Maria Palmer again demonstrated her worth and led by example. She had the white pieces and , ironically, faced the Petroff defence that she has been playing with utmost facility as Black. Her opponent, Raneen Moslem Sabah, played very well but in a drawish-looking knight-pawns endgame Palmer missed the possibly winning 40.Nf4 ! (winning a pawn and obtaining a passed pawn) and had to settle for a draw after moves were repeated.

Jamaica’s top board player has now gone undefeated in her last five games, the last half of the tournament being very productive for her ! It is a pity that she found her form so late.

The Jamaicans are now on 15 points and will face an unpredictable Zambian aggregation (13 points) in match 42 in the final round on Sunday 10th November, 2002. Tomorrow is the second rest day. Regardless of what happens in the last round, it is believed that the Jamaican women have had their best ever showing at an Olympiad.

BARBADOS

Barbados had an impressive 3-0 win over Japan in match 40, the women from the orient not knowing what hit them. Nathali Greenidge, Rashida Corbin and Rashaana Blenman, respectively, all registered good wins as the spirit in the Bajan camp soared. Captain Allan Herbert was beaming well into the night. The Bajan girls, leapfrogging Jamaica, now have an impressive 17 points and will do battle with ICSC (Intl.Comm. For Silent Chess - comprising deaf players ) in match 35 in the last round.

CHINA BACK IN FRONT…..BUT ONLY JUST

Georgia’s fall from grace continued when they were defeated yet again, this time by Bulgaria. GM Maia Chiburdanidze, a piece down, somehow managed to draw her game on board one against GM Antoaneta Stefanova. The game between Bulgarian WGM Maria Velcheva and WGM Ketevan Arakhamia-Grant on board three was also drawn but the women from the Balkans took home the honours after WGM Silvia Collas-Aleksieva defeated WGM Nino Khurtsidze on board two.

Georgia (their older players appearing tired) with only one round left have suddenly found themselves in third place behind China on 27 points and the resurgent Russians on 26.5, the same as the Georgians but ahead on tie-breaks. In the final round Georgia will face Yugoslavia (23.5 points) and will hope for some redemption.

Russia also had a tough time against the Vietnamese and drew 1.5-1.5 with all the games being drawn. The Muscovites will face Slovakia (23.5 points) in the final round.

China, resting world champion GM Zhu Chen, had a hard-fought 1.5-1.5draw with the Ukraine after exchanging wins on boards one and three, respectively, and drawing on board two. Back in the lead after having to look up at Georgia for several rounds, China will try to decide its own fate when it meets the tough Bulgarians (24 points) in the final round.

Other interesting top-rung matches are Poland (25 points) against Vietnam (24.5 points) and the USA (24 points) against Ukraine (23.5).

MEN

JAMAICA

Jamaica’s men continued on the victoy trail by defeating a game Japanese team 3-1. On board three, NM Jomo Pitterson, again took care of business early, dispatching Takeshi Kato with his Sicilian Sveshnikov. The man from Tokyo left his king in the center in kamikaze fashion and paid the price, surrendering after Pitterson’s 20.Bh3+, with mate just one move away from being delivered on a nice, shiny platter.

The game between FM Warren Elliott and Gentaro Gonda on board one was drawn after 26 moves, Elliott’s Sicilian Sveshnikov holding up well.

On board two NM Shane Matthews’ launched the English attack against Tomohiko Yamagishi’s Sicilian Najdorf defence and eventually won in 52 moves after his monarch evaded the opposing queen’s checks.

On board four NM Duane Rowe, like Matthews, played the English attack against Yudai Iwasaki’s Sicilian Najdorf defence but the match arbiter ruled, after Rowe’s 60th move, that there was a draw after the Japanese player claimed that there was a threefold repetition of moves

With their second successive 3-1 win, the Jamaicans have moved to 23.5 points and will face tough opponents Kyrgyzstan (on 24 points) in match 49 in the final round on Sunday after tomorrow’s rest day. The Jamaicans will again have the white pieces on boards two and four, respectively, and will field an unchanged team (the top four) in a bid to surpass the country’s 24-point total in the last Olympiad in Istanbul, Turkey.

WEST INDIANS GO DOWN

RAVISHEN SINGH – STILL MEDAL-HUNTING

Trinidad and Tobago lost 1-3 to Monaco with FM Ryan Harper, Christo Cave and FM Mario Merritt all losing. The “Trinis’” bright-spark of the tounament continued to shine, however, as Ravishen Singh defeated WIM Julia Arias-Lebel (another female apart from Polgar !!!!!!!!) on board four to take his score to 7/8, the best by far of any West Indian player at the tournament!!! Singh has an 85.7 % performance record and is in third place in the medal standings for board five honours.

In the final round the “soca rooks”, on 22.5 points, will have a relatively comfortable outing against Honduras (22) in match 54.

Barbados lost to Sri Lanka 1-3 with the auspicious and precocious 16 year-old junior Askari Elson registering the Bajans’ sole victory on board three to continue his impressive showing at the Olympiad. FM Ricardo Szmetan, FM Delisle Warner and Kevin Greenidge lost on boards one, two and four respectively.

Greenidge (whose Venezuelan-born wife Nathali has performed well on board one for the Barbadian women) has had a wretched tournament with his performance being just above ten percent (10 %).

Barbados, with 22 points, will face Brunei (21.5) in match 56 in the final round.

CUBA CONTINUES TO MAKE CAPABLANCA PROUD

Cuba rested GM Lazaro Bruzon and won a battling encounter with Finland 2.5-1.5 after wins by GMs Lenier Dominguez and GM Reynaldo Vera on boards one and two, respectively. The Cubans are on 29.5 points and will face the legend GM Viktor Korchnoi’s Switzerland (30 points) in match 13 in the final round.

GWAZE RESTED

Zimbabwe, as expected, rested the 9-0 man IM Robert Gwaze and lost 0.5-3.5 to Uruguay. Zimbabwe will face Libya (both on 23 points) in match 52.

SIMUTOWE WINS AGAIN

Zambia beat Slovenia-B 2.5-1.5 with IM Amon Simutowe defeating FM Jure Borisek on board one to continue his quest for the grandmaster title. Zambia, with 26.5 points, will face Mexico, also on 26.5 points, in match 32 in the final round.

RUSSIA STILL LEADING

The 13th world champion, Garry Kasparov returned to the Russian line-up but the defending champions, after learning of Hungary’s four draws with Armenia, took the practical and understandable decision about fifteen minutes later and opted for an easy day at the office by agreeing to four draws with Israel (Kasparov/Gelfand, Grischuk/Smirin, Khalifman/Sutovsky and Morozevich/Avrukh on boards one to four, respectively) to criticism from some quarters.

KEY FINAL ROUND PAIRINGS

In Sunday’s final round, Russia (36.5 points) will face the unheralded Yugoslavians (31 points) in the top board match-up, while Hungary (34.5 points) will try to hold on to second place after meeting China (32.5) on the second board.

Zurab Azmaiparashvili’s third-placed Georgia (33 points) clashes with Vladimir Akopian’s Armenia (32 points) on board three, while on board four Israel (31.5) will face the Netherlands (31). England and Poland, both on 31 points, will do battle while Germany and Spain, both on 30.5 points, will be hoping to snatch the bronze medals.

CLOSING CEREMONY

The closing ceremony is scheduled to commence at 8 pm on Sunday the 10th November, 2002 in the same sports hall where the games have been played. Among other things, the respective Olympiad champions and various medal/prize winners will be formally announced and the 35th Olympiad brought to a close.

SLOVENIAN TIDBIT: The most recent, available statistics indicate that just over a year ago the Slovenian economy grew by approximately five percent (5%); inflation and unemployment were less than ten percent (10%) each and gross domestic product (GDP) per capita was US$9,105.00.

Ian Wilkinson
Jamaican team captain
35th Chess Olympiad
Press Centre
Festivalna Dvorana
Bled, Slovenia