As for other recent team tournaments (Elista, Batumi, Istanbul, Leon) a diary of the Irish teams' involvement will be periodically updated during the Bled Olympiad which is running from October 26 to November 11.

The Irish men's team is the strongest it has ever been and it will be interesting to see if they can better the previous best performance which was recorded in Luzern 82 (see stats). A running summary of the team and individual performances is at the bottom of the page and some selected games are available in PGN format.

The official Olympiad site is at 35chessolympiad.com. Daily reports are available at the BCM and Gerry Graham, Irish team captain, is keeping a diary. Information about Bled is available here.

Alex Baburin (men B1) [GG].		Suzanne Connolly (women B1) [GG].
Brian Kelly (men B2) [GG].		Debbie Quinn (women B2) [GG].
Mark Quinn (men B3) [GG].		Gearóidín Ui Laighleis (women B3) [GG].
Mark Heidenfeld (men B4) [GG].		Elizabeth Shaughnessy (women B4) [GG].
Mark Orr (men B5) [GG].		Sam Collins (men B6) [GG].

The Irish squad are residing at the Hotel Ribno, a pleasant and modern hotel about 2km from Bled surrounded by pine trees, mountains and valleys. Views were mixed on the opening ceremony held in the playing hall (see picture right). There was some discussion of whether the king and queen were the right way around on the human chess board, grumblings about the lack of any speeches in English (or Irish) and general sympathy for the white horse on stage which was frightenerd by flashing lights and dancers.

The playing hall.

The men are seeded 49th out of 134 which meant a fairly easy draw against Namibia in round 1 (when the top half play the bottom half). There were some Irish nerves, with nobody wanting to be responsible for not achieving the expected 4-0 win, but the result was pretty much inevitable.

We are currently ahead of Russia (Morozevich stuggled to draw against some teenager from Costa Rica) and fully intend to enjoy the feeling, at least for one night.

The ladies had much tougher opposition in the shape of Spain but achieved a creditable result with Suzanne and Debbie getting draws against much higher rated opponents.

To beat the previous best performance of the Irish team, Luzern 82, when they came 30th out of 92, the men will have to finish 44th or higher out of 134 (although you may see a figure of 141 teams quoted elsewhere, 6 of the originally registered teams failed to show and the Slovenian-C team, although they are playing, will not appear in the final standings). The women are up against the 1986 Dubai performance (20th out of 49) and will have to reach 36th out of 89 or higher.

Scene from shore of Lake Bled.		Baburin v. Azmaiparishvili.
It's a 2km walk from Bled to Ribno.		Kasparov can't believe Grishckuk's haircut.
Bled Island's picturesque church.		Alexandra Kosteniuk, (RUS, WGM 2455).

Not playing today, I spectated from the gallery overlooking the playing hall. At one point Nigel Short got up from his board and wandered over to the women's section where he stopped to ponder a game involving the seriously cute Venezuelan board 2. I could imagine him thinking "I'll pretend to be interested in her game, no one will know the difference". On her part, the young Venezuelan noticed the famous GM looking at her game and two or three times her eyes briefly darted in his direction. I imagined her thinking: "Goodness, Nigel Short is looking at my game. I'll pretend not to notice but I can't wait to tell my friends". Had she been older perhaps I would have imagined a more cynical reaction, such as "Here's another one pretending to study my position".

Alex sacrificed two pawns to free his position but then choose the wrong path (24...Rxe5). With 24...Re8 he could have forced White into a line ending in perpetual check (see games). Brian's GM opponent blundered and then played on two pieces down until mate was one move away ("Rather insulting" was Brian's verdict - see games). Mark Heidenfeld was a clear pawn up in an ending but ran into technical difficulties and in succumbed under time pressure.

(L to R) Gearóidín, Debbie, Suzanne [GG].

In the ladies match both Suzanne and Debbie played a little too cautiously, perhaps underestimating the potential of their positions and agreed draws. Gearóidín unfortuantely put a rook en prise. I did that many years ago against Murray Chandler in a dead drawn ending whereupon Raymond Keene came over to congratulate Chandler and charmingly remarked: "Just shows: it's always worth playing on".

Alex played a variation he hoped would be a surprise for his opponent. The problem was that Alex himself wasn't really comfortable with the resulting position and soon went astray. Brian just seemed to keep winning pawns and eventually had an extra three in a R+P ending. I managed to deter my opponent's natural break (...f5 in a KID) and eventually crashed through on the f-line myself (see games). Sam outplayed his opponent on the queen side where he obtained a huge passed pawn (see games). We are now half a point ahead of England and will play Denmark in the next round. Suzanne and Debbie were outplayed by stronger opponents while Elizabeth failed to force through her attack.

The Australian team are sponsored by a condom manufacturer called Checkmate. Both their teams are wearing matching T-shirts with catch phrases such as "Pawn Star". I'm not making this up.

Beliavsky (SLO) v Kengis (LAT).		Ivanchuk and Ponomariov (UKR).
On the road from Ribno to Bled.		Mark Heidenfeld in unusual shirt.

Apart from a great draw with the strong Danish team (who yesterday beat Israel) today was dominated by disputes with arbiters for the Irish. During the men's match the Danish captain complained to chief arbiter Gijssen that Mark Heidenfeld was writing down moves before he played them and then sometimes changing his mind, scrubbing out the first choice and writing down something else. With two minutes left on his clock Mark was taken aside and warned not to continue this practice. Later, he checked with several other arbiters and they all agreed Gijssen was talking rubbish. In the womens match Elizabeth was scolded for not writing down all her moves and not pressing her clock with the hand that made the move.

Alex guided his opponent down a line which he knew 16 years ago that it gives white nothing and a draw was soon agreed. Brian, when asked for a sentence on his game, came out with: "Lots of theory, fizzled out". I'm not sure if that's a grammatically correct sentence but it'll have to do. Mark Quinn, who has recently taken up the Petrov defence, prepared all the wrong lines against his opponent but still managed to find a novel equalising plan before completely outplaying the guy (see games). The women gained their first match draw and first board win courtesy of Gearóidín. However, for undisclosed reasons, she declined to let me borrow her scoresheet so I could publish the game (they all count Gearóidín).

When people are woken from a deep sleep they sometimes say weird things, being only half conscious. Mark Quinn, my room mate, snores at night when he turns on his back. Every night I have to wake him up: "Mark! Mark! Wake up! You're snoring again. Turn on your side." The same thing happened last night but this time, after turning on his side, a skinny arm emerged from under the bed cloths and pointed at me and he said "You locked yourself in the bathroom so don't try and fool me", whereupon he fell straight back to sleep. In the morning I asked him what he meant but he hadn't a clue and couldn't even remember being woken up.

Turkmenistan ladies [GG].		Mona Salman Mahini (IRI) [GG].
Kasparov in aggressive mood [GG].		Speelman and Short (ENG) [GG].
Viktor Korchnoi (SWI) [GG].		Yasser Seirawan (USA) [GG].
Etienne Bacrot (FRA) [GG].		Morozevich, Svidler, Rublevsky (RUS) [GG].

The men were well beaten by Bulgaria today. I asked Brian for a one sentence summary of his game and he came up with: "It's unprintable". Mark Quinn misplayed the White side of a Stonewall Dutch and fell behind on time. My opponent played insipidly in the opening, especially for a young whippersnappper, but eventually managed to defend his worse position (see games). The ladies had another narrow loss and were unfortunate not to do better.

Ireland v Yemen.

Sign to our hotel.

Columbia are a team much like Ireland: one strong GM and a bunch of IMs, so a 2½-1½ victory for us was a good result.

Brian said he won a pawn after about 10 moves but then managed to effectively unwin it after another 30 by letting his opponent's pieces become too active. He thought the game was heading for a draw but then, for some reason, his opponent started swapping pieces off leaving Brian a pawn up in a N+P ending.

When asked for a sentence about his game, Sam admitted his opponent had dropped a piece in 16 moves but suggested the following for the website: "It was a long technical game during which my opponent made no discernable mistakes yet somehow I still managed to thread the needle of victory" (see games). Sam's record is now played 3, won 3.

Ireland have 13½ (out of a possible 24) and are half a point ahead of Scotland who went down heavily to Spain in this round. Wales have been struggling and today had the ignominy of playing in the overspill annexe (the main hall is not quite large enough for all the matches) but have got back up to 12 points after a heavy win over the IBCA (blind) team. Russia went into the lead by beating Boznia-Herzegovina 3½-½ and have 18½ points. England are on 16 points.

The Irish women crunched Yemen 3-0 for their first win of the tournament thereby giving team captain Herbert Scarry just what he wanted on his birthday. Speaking of team captains, Gerry Graham also received good news today when he was notified that a certain web site had been taken down pending further investigations. You could not wipe the smile off his face.

Jana Krivec (SLO, WIM 2269).		Sarah Torbeh (LIB).
Anna Zatonskih (UKR, WGM 2421).		Almira Skripchenko (FRA, WGM 2497).

Today the men went down 1-3 to Norway but Sam won again and with 4/4 can begin to think about a board medal (except he's trying not to in case he jinks himself). He says it's great to see his opponents making the same mistakes he was making a couple of years ago (see games).

In the Russia-Poland match, Krasenkov found himself in a lost position against Kasparov but instead of just resigning, first he took a guarded pawn with his queen (i.e. he played a very silly move). Kasparov was not amused.

The Indonesian team has an interesting structure. Their top board is unrated while the other players are around the 2400 level. So far he's played just two games, both against very well known GMs and both bad losses. Apparently this guy is the team sponsor and his condition is that he plays board 1 against whoever he pleases.

Alexander Morozevich (RUS, GM 2707) [GG].

Rafael Leitao (BRA, GM 2548) [GG].

A black day indeed for Ireland. The men went down 1-3 to a strong Brazilian side while the women were wiped out by Scotland. Mark Quinn was out-played by a legend (Mecking was a child prodigy and a world championship candidate in the 70's then gave up chess for twenty years to become a priest). My game was tight but I lost the plot in the ending. Sam played a great game and was close to winning at the end but it petered out to a draw.

A possible future star is David Navara from the Czech Republic, already a GM at age 17. David is autistic and before each round you can see him nervously pacing up and down the hotel car park while waiting for the bus, apologising to anyone who comes near him and avoiding eye contact by always looking down at the ground. However, when he gets to the board his demeanor changes. Although his head remains bowed he stops looking nervous and plays confidently and fast. Some of his games are included in the PGN file. I watched him beat up an Armenian GM today: can you spot the winning move in the position below?

David Navara (CZE, GM 2567) [GG].

Black to play.

The answer is 1...Rh1! (1...b2? 2.Rg1) 2.Kg2 (2. Rb5 b2 3. Rxb2 Rh2+ 4.Kf3 Rxb2) b2 3.Kxh1 b1(Q)+ and wins.

The backgammon players.

A quiet night in at the Ribno.

Today is a rest day. Some went on a trek up a mountain, some went for a walk round lake bled, some went for a walk in the forrest surrounding the hotel and some played backgammon in the hotel foyer. Everyone had a quiet night in with definitely no alcohol. We are all a bit fragile after a late night last night which included a visit to the famous Okarina restaurant.

"Phew" was men's team captain Gerry Graham's reaction after the finish of our match against Nigeria. We were expecting a big win but half way through the match a narrow loss was looking distinctly possible. Alex and Mark H. could make no progress against their opponents. I had a small edge for most of the game which eventually paid off. Sam, who faced their strongest player, at least on paper (teams are not actually required to order their players in the normal order), was better for most of the game but had a bit of luck when his opponent missed the win of a piece (see games).

Sam is in the running for either a medal or an IM norm or both. However, different team selection stategies apply depending on which goal is considered the priority. If it's the medal, Sam should play against weak teams and then stop after he has played 7 games (the minimum required) in case he spoils his percentage score. On the hand, if the norm is more important, he needs to play against strong teams to increase his opponent's average rating. After a chat with captain Gerry Graham, Sam has decided the medal is what he wants most; the norms can wait for another tournament. I think most of us would do the same in his position.

The day started badly for the ladies when Gearóidín and Debbie were stuck in a malfunctioning lift. However, team captain Herbert Scarry's pep talk the previous evening ("No quick draws!") paid off when Suzanne recorded her first win.

Grischuk (RUS) v. Polgar (HUN) [GG].

The crunch match of the round was Russia-Hungary. All the games were drawn, including Grishchuk-Polgar (see photo), except the last board where Ruck beat Svidler (see games) giving Hungary a 2.5-1.5 win and reducing Russia's tournament lead to just half a point.

In the Georgia-Bosnia match GM Sturua rated 2536 lost as white in 14 moves after he overlooked a knight move forking his king and queen (see games). I wonder how he's going to explain that to his team mates?

Dana Aketaeva (KAZ, 2127).		Sofya Zigangirova (KAZ, 2241).
Iara Santana (BRA).		Maria Kouvatsu (GRE, 2212).
Ruslam Ponomariov (UKR, GM 2743) [GG].		Henrique Mecking (BRA, GM 2548) [GG].

You just can't stop this guy Sam Collins. He won again today and will now be rested for good unless anyone challenges his 92.8% score, in which case he may play again to try to improve it. Unfortunately, the other games did not go so smoothly and we could only manage a 2.5-1.5 match win. I guess we could claim we're marking time ready for the sprint finish in the last two rounds.

One of the viewing screens suspended above the playing hall. Kasparov-Ye is top left.

Random drug testing began yesterday. Can you guess which country the very first player to be drawn out of the hat was from? It was Columbian GM Alonso Zapata! Today, Paul Motwani from Scotland, was one of the chosen ones.

Today Russia beat China 3-1 while Hungary could only win 2.5-1.5, thus Russia have extended their tournament lead to 1 point. Germany and England are joint third 2.5 points behind the leaders.

Angola-Ireland.

Ireland-Brunei.

The bulletin for round 10 lists the top players on board 6 as:

It will be interesting to see whether anyone risks playing in order to try to get a ahead of the others. The Mongolian in second place must have an inferior avergage rating so he might chance it unless he settles for silver.

Drawing 2-2 with Austria was a fair result. After his game Alex said he felt back on form, though he actually should have lost. His opponent played well and got a winning position but Alex swindled a draw out of an ending with B+2P versus N. Brian's game got very messy in time trouble and his opponent managed to find better moves. Mark Quinn took his score with the Petroff Defence, which he recently started playing, to 3.5/4. My opponent tricked me into a drawing line which he knew rather well: after 25 moves he'd only used 2 minutes on his clock.

The ladies got their second win of the tournament and are as pleased as punch. However, they will need to pull out a couple more big wins in the last three rounds to do justice to their seeding.

Nadia Ortiz (COL).		Dina Kagramanov (CAN, 2088).
Jose Polanco (DOM).		Antoaneta Stefanova (BUL, GM 2541).
Autumn colours.		Snow capped peaks.

I asked Alex and Brian for one sentence summaries of their games. Alex said "Shit!" and Brian then said "Not shit!". Actually Alex's game wasn't bad, it was just that he was frustrated at not beating an opponent rated a good bit lower than himself. Mark Quinn had problems against the Stomewall Dutch again and missed a tactic. Mark Heidenfeld was a clear piece up but blundered it back. Team captain Gerry Graham had been hoping for a 4-0 win but it didn't quite materialise. If we are to beat the Luzern team we will need a couple of big wins in the last two rounds.

In the battle for the board 6 gold medal, neither of the leaders (Sam and the Mongolian, both of whom have 6.5/7) played yesterday and Sam did not play today. Two more possible contenders have emerged, an Ethiopian and a Georgian, both half a point short of 100% but both still less than 7 games (the minimum required). Sam has decided to play tomorrow. He'll have a lower rated opponent, so it's probably a good decision.

Just when we needed it, both Irish teams did the business. The men won 4-0 against Costa Rica and catapulted themselves into 35th place and a last round pairing against Rumania, a team of wall to wall GMs. Brian beat the same snotty nosed kid that caused a minor sensation in R1 by drawning with Morozevich. Alex has at last won a game, which is great for him. The ladies also had a big win, beating New Zealand 2.5-0.5, and everyone is very happy especially Gearóidín who won her opponent's queen with a nice combination. One of the best days for the Irish in any Olympiad that I can recall.

Sam won again and has guarenteed his gold medal. We worked out that his main rival would need to win in the last round against a player rated 3800 in order to catch up (obviously impossible). We toasted his success during the evening meal at the hotel and later celebrated in style at the Bermuda party. Thanks to those who sent messages of congratulations.

Tomorrow is a rest day and then the crucial last round is on Sunday. The men are in a good position but need some points from the match with Rumania to stay above 45th and beat Luzern 82 (see stats).

Nothing to report except hangovers from the Bermudan party. It's going to be a take-it-easy day for most of us (zzz...).

We did it! Ireland 2 - Romania 2. Luzern 82 eat your heart out. A new standard has been set for Irish men's teams after Ireland came 36th, above 73% of the other teams. Indeed above strong teams like the USA, Latvia and Estonia and, most importantly, Scotland. It could have been even better because in two of our games today we agreed draws in winning positions!

First Alex, who had had a dodgy position, eventually got the better of his opponent but offered a draw as he was down to 40 seconds. Then, as his opponent was thinking about this, he checked the position again and realised that it was much better than he had thought and began hoping the offer would be refused. It wasn't.

Then in my game (and this is much worse) I reached Q against K on g1 and P on h3 with my K far away from his pawn. As anyone will tell you a P on h2 draws but a P on h3 loses. Check, check, check and my Q reaches g4 with his K on h2, he has to resign. But I was thinking, this is so embarressing playing on in a position everyone knows is drawn [sic] I should just offer a draw. So I did and he said "What?" and I said "I offer a draw" and his hand came out rather too quick. Every man and his dog came up to me and pointed out the simple winning manoever and I began to wish the ground would open up and swallow me. However, in my defence I did find one IM who admitted to also thinking it was a draw, so I'm not totally alone in my stupidity.

The class act, however, was Brian's game against Marin. It was a great game featuring an exchange sacrifice to open up routes to the black king (see games). This gave Brian his third win in a row and a tournament performance rating around 2580, just short of his second GM norm. Unfortunately Mark Quinn had a heavy cold as well as the black pieces. He did his best but could not stave off an impressive attack by his GM opponent.

Later, at the closing ceremony, Sam got the loudest cheer of all the board medal winners, thanks mainly to the Welsh and Irish contingent.

The team medals went to Russia (gold), Hungary (silver) and Armenia (bronze) in the mens and China (gold), Russia (silver) and Poland (bronze) in the womens. Gary Kasparov, top board for Russia, scored 7.5/9 and a performance rating of 2938.

Sam getting his medal [CW].

Girls dressed as chess pieces.

Many people had been following the team's (and Sam's) progress and sent messages of congratulations. This one, from former Irish champion and Olympiad team member Hugh MacGrillen, pretty much sums it up: Many congratulations to the Irish team for your performance in Bled. I have been following your reports with mounting excitement and I must say that things came to a most satisfying climax. One wonders what might have been achieved if all six players had been firing on all cylinders. There does seem to be room for further improvement and I am sure the result will give a boost to the game back home.

Below are breakdowns of the round-by-round scores. See the statistics pages (men, women) to compare the final standings with previous Olympiad teams.