JAMAICA AT THE 2002 CHESS OLYMPIAD

ROUND TWO REPORT

" STRONG WEST INDIAN PERFORMANCES"

MEN

Jamaica's men's team rebounded from their first round loss to the strong Croatian team with a commanding performance against Channel Islanders, Guernsey, routing the opposition  4-0 in match 56.

On board one FM Warren Elliott, playing with the White pieces (1.e4 ), easily turned back Peter Rowe's Nimzowitsch defence. On board two NM Jomo Pitterson bowed into the tournament with a pretty win with the Sicilian defence over Fred Hamperl. Pitterson looks to be in good form. On board three NM Duane Rowe ruthlessly dispatched the hapless John Cummins whose Philidor defence was irreparably dismantled in only nineteen moves ! Rowe's was the first game to be finished and this doubtlessly encouraged his fellow Jamaicans. On board four the wily positional veteran NM Robert Wheeler, playing with the Black pieces, deployed the Grunfeld defence and gradually wore down his opponent, Paul Curtis, who cried "no mas no mas" when defeat was clearly inevitable.

The men were oozing confidence and very satisfied with their performance. In round three they have a tough encounter in match 38 against the Dominican Republic who will have the White pieces on boards one and three, respectively.

Jamaica's West Indian colleagues Barbados, playing match 57,  had an emphatic 3.5 - 0.5 win over Papua New Guinea with national champion Ricardo Szmetan leading the charge on board one. Trinidad and Tobago, with FM Ryan Harper winning on board one, also had a 3.5-0.5 win over the experience-seeking Aruba.  Interestingly, the victory by each team set up a Caribbean battle as both teams will face each other in Round three !

Jamaica's "next door neighbours" Cuba, with former junior world champion GM Lazaro Bruzon on board one, had  a convincing 3.5-0.5 win over a strong Bangladesh team.

Zambia, arguably the strongest African team at the tournament, had an exciting 2-2 draw with Brazil in match 35, the very strong IM Amon Simutowe drawing with Brazilian GM Giovanni Vescovi on board one. Simutowe, who was following up on his strong draw against  GM Atalik in round one, was allegedly recognised by Kasparov as the strongest ever player of African extraction. All four games were drawn, the last one being between Brazilian GM Rafael Leitao (coming off a tough loss in round one to GM Alberto David of Luxembourg - an exciting Caro-Kann) and the very promising Stanley Chumfwa  (who had the Black pieces) on board two, the draw being agreed on move 70 in an exciting Sicilian Najdorf.

In other games the world's highest-ranked player Garry Kasparov   surfaced on board one for the Russian team which defeated a strong grandmaster team from Belarus 3.5-0.5. Before the start of the game, Kasparov took off his watch and placed it to his left in his usual inimitable fashion. Smiling affably, and leaving the board after almost every move to greet and speak with officials and players, he effortlessly used the White pieces to dispatch Aleksej Alesandrov (a 2600 GM) on board one. On board two the rock-star-look-alike (a young David LeeRoth ??) GM Alexander Grischuk drew with GM Alexev Fedorov; on board three the 1999 Fide world champion GM Alexander Khalifman (who walks like a no-nonsense sergeant in the marines) beat GM Kovalev and on board four the ear-ringed GM Peter Svidler turned back GM Dydyshko.

The home team, Slovenia A, was upset 1.5-2.5 by Canada although GM Aleksander Beliavsky defeated Canada's top player GM Alexander Lesiege on board one.

Hungary, still resting the cool-looking super GM Peter Leko, defeated Vietnam 3-1 although the world's top female player GM Judit Polgar drew with Thien Hai Dao on board one.

VICTOR THE GREAT

The most exciting game of the day, however, was the encounter between the legendary Russian-born Swiss GM Viktor Korchnoi  (71 years old) who defeated the ultra-strong Israeli GM Ilya Smirin in eighty moves on board one as Switzerland and Israel drew 2-2. The game attracted huge crowds and was one of the last to finish. Both players, as time trouble loomed, moved quickly with Korchnoi making several interesting facial contortions. Smirin, accepting the inevitable, sought clemency and some rest for later rounds, when he realised that further material loss was imminent.

WOMEN

Jamaica's women had a bitter-sweet day losing to a very strong Iceland team 0.5-2.5. On board one Maria Palmer, playing her first game of the tournament, had the white pieces and steadily outplayed Lilja Gretarsdottir's Sicilian defence missing  a queen sacrifice (23.Qxh7 !) which would have led to mate in two !!!!!!! She eventually resigned after more than 50 moves. When the winning combination was shown to her after the game she was inconsolable. With the support of her colleagues, men and women, she is again in cheerful spirits and will return on board one for round three.

On board two national champion Deborah Richards, who was not at her physical best but had to (and wanted to !!) play as the team had been submitted before she began to feel ill, played a strong Accelerated Dragon against Harpa Ingolsdottir before the players repeated the moves and agreed to a draw in 32 moves.

On board three Vanessa Thomas, fresh from her historic win in round one, played super chess for most of the game against Aldis Run Larusdottir's Caro-Kann but missed several winning lines, blundered, lost a piece and was checkmated on move 56. Thomas was so dominant and gave her opponent so many problems that at move 28 she had thirty minutes left on her clock in a strong position to only three minutes for her adversary !!

In round three the women will face a determined Algerian team which will have white pieces on boards one and three. Ironically, this is on board 38, the same board number as the men's team !!!!!

Barbados' team lost 0-3 to Brazil.

Favourites Russia (with  losing Fide female world champion finalist WGM Alexandra Kosteniuk on board two) and China (with  champion GM Zhu Chen on board one) had convincing 3-0 wins over Croatia and Belarus, respectively.

All games will now start at 2:30 pm local time (six hours ahead of Jamaica). The time control is game in ninety (90) minutes with thirty seconds increment per move from the first move.

SLOVENIAN TIDBIT: The Slovenian currency is called the "TOLAR". Two hundred and thirty (230) tolars are exchanged for one (1) United States dollar.

IAN WILKINSON

TEAM CAPTAIN

Press Centre

Bled, Slovenia,

28th October, 2002.