2000 Chess Olympiad

Istanbul, Turkey

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This page is a diary of the Irish teams at the 34th Chess Olympiad, held in Istanbul, Turkey. Containing round-by-round summaries, results, pictures and games, it was updated during the Olympiad by one of the team members (Mark Orr). The Olympiad started 28th October and finished 12th November. For the complete games see the official Olympiad site. A small selection of games is available below.

The Irish teams were commercially sponsored [1] at an Olympiad for the first time in Istanbul. The sponsor was all-hotels.com, an internet company specialising in selling world-wide hotel accomodation.

Two other Irish players kept online diaries of events in Istanbul. Alex Baburin is, as always, informed and interesting. If you prefer a more idiosyncratic view of events, there is also Colm Daly's diary.

The tournament is being held in the International Convention and Exhibition Center (ICEC) near the plush Istanbul Hilton in Taksim, the modern center of Istanbul. The Irish are installed in the modest (well, compared to the Hilton) but pleasant Green Park Hotel, which is within walking distance of ICEC. From Taksim, which is on a bit of a hill, it's just a five minute walk down to the Bosphorus, the straits that separate Europe from Asia. The picture on the right was taken on the way down and features the minarets of a local mosque. The old part of the city, where the major tourist attractions (palaces, mosques and bazaars) are to be found, is less than an hour on foot from Taksim.

A mosque near Taksim.

It's mid-evening as I write and most of the Irish contingent are already here. Two (Elizabeth and Mark Quinn) have been separated from their luggage and two (Mairead and Suzannne) went to sleep as soon as they got here.

The opening ceremony will be tomorrow morning, followed by the first round in the afternoon. The Olympiad web site is promising live games and, with the current World Championship match also being covered live on the internet, chess fans around the world are in for a rare treat.

The opening ceremony was great for those who like it to be short and sweet but a disappointment for those who like a cultural display. The speeches made clear that the Turks regard the Chess Olympiad as a sort of dry run for the "real" Olympic Games in 2008 for which Istanbul is making a bid. The men are ranked 53rd, near the bottom of the top half of the 129 men's teams, and so have been drawn, as is customary in the first round, with their opposite number in the bottom half, which turns out to be Panama. The women, on the other hand, are near the top of the bottom half of the ladies rankings and thus have relatively strong oppostion in the form of India. A small technical problem concerning Turkish keyboards [2] prevented any uploads to the site yesterday. My apologies to those who were looking for something when it wasn't there.

Ireland - Panama Ireland - India

The men's match was one sided but the women were doing better at one stage than the scoreline suggests, Suzanne narrowly missing a draw against a strong opponent.

After their 4-0 win yesterday the men were expecting a tough team in this round and weren't disappointed - Cuba. The women were drawn against Finland. A couple of minutes after all the games started a most unusual thing happened. An announcement was made that a problem had developed with the computer systems monitoring the games for the live internet transmission and everybody in the playing hall was asked to return their pieces to the starting position and begin again. The players reacted with a mixture of astonishment and amusement but dutifully returned their pieces back to the start and waited for about twenty minutes until the technicians had resolved the problem. Some of the arbiters were looking uncomfortable, probably because they were worrying what they were going to do if anyone decided to change their moves after the restart - there are no rules to cover this situation. Apparently a dispute did in fact arise in one of the women's matches where there was much whispered discussion and pointing at score sheets. Some rested players went to the old city to see the famous Blue Mosque (see picture on right).

Cuba - Ireland starting. Cuba - Ireland restarting! Inside the Blue Mosque.

In the women's match Suzanne was doing fine until she blundered, Mairead was doing fine until she went for broke, and Elizabeth couldn't decide whether to force a draw or calculate a possibly winning combination and lost on time.

In the men's match Alex salvaged a draw from a theoretically lost ending (R+3 v B+3) where he knew, but his opponent couldn't find, the winning plan! Colm and Mark Quinn drew comfortably but Mark Heidenfeld essayed a line he usd to play as a child and found the theory had moved on somewhat. Losing to Cuba by such a small margin is not bad going.

In the Russia-Italy match, one of the Italians was brutally punished for a mistake in the opening.

Another strong team for the men today - Belarus, who surprisingly lost to Finland yesterday. Today didn't bring them much joy either as they had to concede a draw to us. Alex beat the mighty Fedorov and I won against young Azerov with an attack down the h-file. Unfortunately, Mark Quinn was doing fine but overpressed and Colm was ground down. Otherwise it would have been an historic win for Ireland. Even so, the Belarus captain was obviously not pleased with his team's performance!

The women were paired against Syria and were delighted to get their first points of the tournament by drawing all three games. The top two boards were over pretty quickly but Debbie was pressing for a win for some time before conceding the draw.

More technical troubles today - the lights failed in the playing hall and the games had to be suspended for ten minutes while the problem was fixed. As far as I know, nobody tried to sneak an extra piece onto their board in the darkness.

The honeymoon came to an end for the Irish men's team today with our first heavy defeat, courtesy of Yugoslavia. Alex drew, Mark Heidenfeld survived a worse middle game but gave back the advantage with his 39th move, I blundered a pawn and Sam got squeezed in a Sicilian. The women also had a miserable result, Debbie gaining the only draw.

In the first battle amongst the home countries, the Irish men were today convincing 3-1 winners against the Welsh. On top board Mark Quinn was slightly worse in an ending but held on comfortably. Mark Heidenfeld played a smooth solid game where his opponent never got a look in ("the kind of game I really enjoy playing" was his comment). Colm looked worse out of the opening to me but according to him it was a tricky position in which he showed good technique. My game featured blocked pawns from the start and never really came to life.

Mosque and moon.

The women lost narrowly to Morocco, getting just two draws and are thus still without their first win. Debbie could have played on in a slightly better rook and pawn ending but decided not to risk anything.

At the start of the round it was announced that a compromise had been reached over the issue of bringing food and drink into the playing hall, which previously had been banned by the management of the convention center. After protracted negotiations, it had been agreed that food stuffs not actually for sale in the hall (such as bananas) would be permitted but anything else (including drinks and specifically water) was not allowed. Since the prices charged in the hall are somehwhat inflated, even for things like water, some people are annoyed by this.

The women got their first win in grand style. Two of their opponents self destructed within about 8 moves. Mairead's opponent played great chess for 30 moves, built up a good, possibly winning position, but then caved in as soon as Mairead started attacking. Meanwhile the men had a mixed result against Iraq. Alex won and was pleased with his game. Mark Quinn lost a R+P ending, while Mark Heidenfeld just drew one after missing the win of a piece in time trouble. Sam's game was drawn fairly early on. The first picture on the right is of the Golden Horn, the river that separates the two halves of the city. It was taken from a tower on the north side looking across to the old city, with its palaces, mosques and bazaars. The second picture is of one of the indoor streets of the Covered Bazaar, a huge labyrinthe of tiny shops [3] where Colm managed to do some successful haggling for carpets.

The Golden Horn. The Covered Bazaar.

Judit Polgar had a nice win in the match between Hungary and the Czech Republic.

Today is a rest day and the Irish squad decided to go for a cruise on the Bosphorus. Unfortunately the loud speaker on deck, through which the tour guide was telling us many interesting facts, was set a little high and this became too much for Sam Collins. He tried the effect of stuffing his jumper into it which men's team captain Gerry Graham, amongst others, found highly amusing (see picture). We were let ashore near Rumeli Fortress, built by Mehmet II in 1453 when his Ottoman forces finally overcame the last vestiges of the Byzantine Empire and took Istanbul (then named Constantinople). The fortress, together with another castle on the opposite bank, was used to choke the Byzantine supplies from the Black Sea. The Irish ladies team is shown on the ramparts in the picture on the right. From left to right: Suzanne Connolly, Mairead O'Siochru, Debbie Quinn and Elizabeth Shaughnessy.

Sam sabotaging the speaker. The Irish ladies.

After 6 rounds the Irish teams' standings are 52nd out of 130 (with 13 points out of 24) in the open and 76th out of 86 (6/18) in the women's. The Irish men can consider themselves unlucky not to have done better in the last round, which would have dramatically improved our place. An extra point, for example, would have brought us up to 40th, equal with Scotland. Tomorrow the men play Azerbaijan and the women play Zambia.

In the open competition, the leading teams are Germany (18½), Russia (17½) and Slovakia (17). England are in joint 8th position with 15½ points. The most significant results between the top teams, so far, have been Hungary beating Russia 2½-1½ but losing 1-3 to Germany and the 2-2 draw between Germany and Russia. In the women's section, China are in the lead (14 points), followed by Georgia and Moldova (both on 13). China and Georgia, the two favourites, have already drawn their match.

Mixed results for the Irish today as the men crashed 1-3 to Azerbaijan but the women beat Zambia 2½-½. Elizabeth got her first point when her opponent overstepped the time limit in a winning position, exactly what Elizabeth herself did in round 2. Pay back time!

The Irish squad pool champion is myself, having beaten Gerry 3-1 in the final (although he's demanding a rematch). Also rans included Alexander Baburin and special guest Alexander Morozevic (board 2 for Russia). Between you and me, they're not exactly grandmasters of pool.

Another day of mixed fortunes as the men went astray while the women all played well. Although seeded a good fifteen places below us, the UAE players looked OK from their games in the bulletin and so it proved. Alex's opponent played 1...a6, which is fair enough, but followed up with some strange moves and Alex was wondering if they'd just grabbed some guy off the streets of Dubai for their board 1. But the quick win never materialised and in the end it was Alex that had to play carefully for the draw. On second board Colm was a pawn up near the time control but concentrated too much on trying to psyche out his nervous opponent (who was short of time) instead of playing good moves. He then played on for ages trying to avoid a draw in a dead equal R+P ending and succeeded - he lost. In my game we reached a position in a Yugoslav King's Indian where I wasn't sure what I should be trying to do but thought at least Alex, an expert in these things, could tell me afterwards. Unfortunately, he didn't know either! Anyway, the game ended in a draw by repetition.

Sam went wrong in the opening and his opponent took advantage even though he didn't play the best move in a couple of positions. In the bar later Sam told me about his game by calling out the moves but he went too quickly (about 2 moves per second) for me to follow in my head. So he did it again, much more slowly and with explanations, so I could vaguely understand why his opponent should have played Rxe5 at one stage, and Bxe5 a bit later. Then Sam told me that earlier, while playing pool with Morozevich (the young and talented Russian board 2) he had called out his moves as quickly as the first time and Morozevich had followed without difficulty. When the critical positions were reached Morozevich had called out "he should play Rxe5" and then later "he should play Bxe5". Sam, who was a bit depressed about his game, asked Morozevich if he ever lost games as badly as that and Morozevich replied "yes, sometimes I am as awful as you".

The women all said they played well but modestly refused to allow their games to be published. I assume GM Babula would be equally bashful about having his game today published, but for different reasons.

At last both teams have won, the women for the fourth time in a row. On top board in the men's match Alex outplayed his opponent and correctly declined a draw offer but made a single tactical error in a complex position which allowed a clever winning combination. Mark Quinn played cautiously (not wanting to lose three times in a row) and a draw was soon agreed. Colm got a small advantage in an ending and nursed it home patiently. My opponent neglected his development and paid the usual price.

Alex and Sam in tournament B.

In the women's match Debbie crushed her opponent in 16 moves. There were a couple of nice games in the top men's matches: one by the young Russian Alexander Grischuk, who is tipped as a future world championship contender, and another by the experienced Armenian Rafael Vaganian, whom I once heard described as a high class cheapo artist.

The recent trend where the women were doing well and the men were doing badly was completely reversed today.

Alex was not feeling well and offered an early draw to see if his GM opponent wanted to play for a win with black. He didn't. Mark was pleased with his game, involving, as it did, a curious shuffling of his queen and rooks (Qb8, Rfd8, Rd7, Qf8, Rad8) and ended it by cheekily trapping his opponent's queen in mid-board. The rest of the Cyprus team were not much to speak about and were more or less eaten alive by our guys. Colm still has a mathematical chance of an IM norm and Gerry will keep playing him until he gets it or his chance evapourates.

The women were up against a stronger team. Suzanne's opponent won with a nice attack while Mairead had quite a good position until she dropped a pawn to a cheap tactic. Debbie was worse and grimly hung on in an ending a pawn down.

In the evening there was more pool and we were joined by a second top Russian, Peter Svidler. If Morozevich is shy and unassuming then Svidler is his exact opposite. The kind of guy who screws back the cue ball on every shot, just in case anyone hadn't noticed how well he can do it. He says he's pursuing a career as a professional billiards player (the Russian version, played with huge balls and very tight pockets). To be fair to him, he did actually win the pool competition. In the picture on the right, Morozevich takes a shot watched by Gerry Graham and the Irish ladies. The pool hall, which doubles as an internet cafe and restaurant, was full of Galatasaray supporters watching their team play Sturm Graz on TV. Although they only drew the game, the result allowed them to qualify for the final stages of the competition and later, in Taksim square, there were more flag waving supporters cheering for their team (see picture). It's easy for foreigners to be confused by all those zeros on the bank notes here (1,000,000 Turkish Lira is equal to about 1 British pound), a fact which some locals know only two well. Oisin, the women's team captain, handed over two 5 million notes for a taxi fare of 6 million. The driver then did a quick shuffle, held up one 5 million note and one 500,000 note and demanded the rest of his fare. Oisin refused to hand over any more but he didn't get his change back either. In many countries of the world chess is a respectable pursuit amongst women, even beautiful ones. Since Ireland and the UK are not amongst them, Olympiads can be a bit of a shock. However, camera shake ruined all but one of the pictures I tried to take today.

Alexander Morozevich, Russia. Galatasaray supporters. About 10 GBP. Lorena Osorio, El Salvador.

Mark Quinn has a friend on the Italian team who is clearly a man of great charm. When asked what was the secret of success with women he replied that you should talk about everything except sex and then, when they're not looking, you pounce. But sometimes, he warned, they move a little and then you miss and hit your head on the ground. Pointing to his forehead, he complained about the number of scars he's accumulated over the years.

Alex learnt before the game that his opponent loves isolated QP positions so he decided to try to avoid that, even though he happens to have written a book about the subject. The trouble was, have you ever tried avoiding the isolated QP if you're black and your main defence to d4 is the QGA? Exactly, it's not an easy task. Kozul not only got his beloved isolani he also played a strong TN and Alex became a bit worried about his position. However, Kozul didn't play the best moves after that and the position turned against him. Then both players made mistakes before Alex wound up a solid pawn to the good in an ending, which he won with some nice play.

The other boards were not such good news. Mark Heidenfeld mistakenly allowed the queens to come off in time trouble and the resulting ending was very unfavourable, especially against a 2600+ GM. Colm managed to reach a levelish R+P ending but GM technique and patience overcame him also. Sam says that, like his last game, he was guilty of playing too fast in a theoretical opening which he didn't know and soon found himself forced into making a speculative piece sacrifice. As soon became evident, the compensation was nebulous but for several moves the position was unclear. Then, once again, insufficient thought in critical positons (just like the way he plays pool) dissipated his remaining chances of survival.

Suzanne's game was another success for the solid Caro-Kann. Debbie, as white, allowed the Marshall Attack. Fair enough, you might say, but there was one problem: she'd never seen or heard of it before. What happened next was not a pretty sight. Elizabeth says she chose the wrong plan in her game and then suddenly her position just collapsed.

Mel O'Cinneide, who happens to be on holiday in Itanbul, popped in to spectate and find out how the Irish were doing. He could have picked a better day!

Later in the evening Ireland crushed Russia in a series of quick play games. Gerry Graham (1800) beat Peter Svidler (2695) 16-3 and Mark Orr (2309) beat Alexander Grischuk (2601) 8-1. Unfortunately we're talking pool here, not chess.

Apologies for not being able to update the site tonight but it was my birthday and we all went out for a meal. By the time we'd finished, the internet cafes were closed. I got to blow out some candles and make a wish and my wish is that Paul Delaney would honour his long standing promise to write something for TICA [4].

A great day for the Irish men's team. Mark Quinn thought he'd gone wrong in the opening but somehow he still managed to build up an overwhelming positional advantage. Mark Heidenfeld's opponent, who had white, was out for a draw from the start but Mark kept the game unbalanced and won eventually. Colm reached a KID type position where he had some positional advantages but which was in danger of becoming totally blocked. However, he skillfully kept things fluid on the king's side and patiently manoevered until his advantage became overwhelming. In my game I played a wonderfully sneaky move (21...Kh7), of which I'm quite proud, and my opponent fell for it hook, line and sinker.

In the women's match Mairead had an impressive win based on a king's side attack which didn't end in mate but won an extra pawn for a winning ending. Both Debbie and Elizabeth admitted to playing bad games but Debbie heard today that, on the basis of her performance here, she'll be getting her first FIDE rating. By the way, on the subject of ratings, I hear there are plans afoot to extend the FIDE list down to 1000 and unify all the chess federations in the world.

What goes up must come down. So it proved for the men against Estonia. On board 1 Alex played a line as black that Tony Miles had used to beat him in a previous game. However, Ehlvest played much better against Alex than Alex had played against Miles. Then Alex took a few wrong turns and suddenly it was all over. Mark Quinn played a topical line in the Botvinnik system he hadn't tried before. After about half an hour, Korchnoi came over to look at Ehlvest-Baburin but his attention was caught by Mark's game and he stood there for a good five minutes totally engrossed. This inspired Mark and he played a really great game. As he said later, it was a bit different to the time in Yerevan when Kasparov came up to look at his game and burst out laughting (Mark had made an unsound sacrifice). By the way, Mark's opponent, Rytshagov, is notable not just for his name - he's also one of Shirov's coaches (which probably explains why he's started playing the Botvinnik system). I was saddled with a bad bishop early on and my opponent relentlessly exploited it. Sam's guy went for broke and sacrificed a piece for some pawns. In the ensuing chaos Sam came out worse. The women won 3-0. Suzanne's game lasted just 14 moves. Mairead won a pawn after 5 moves and held on to it.

The top board clash in the open was Russia-England. The picture shows the Russian team (left to right Alexander Morozevich, Peter Svidler, Sergei Rublevsky and Alexander Grischuk. The English GM John Emm's is on the left. The match ended in a 2-2 draw (all games drawn).

Russia-England.

In the evening, while most people were at the traditional Bermudan party (drinking, loud music, young people's stuff) Gerry and I had a rematch for the title of Irish pool champion. In the last game, with the score at 5-5, he went and cleared up from the break. There was absolutely nothing I could do. It felt just like my game earlier - the other guy was in control.

Today is a rest day before the final round tomorrow. In the men's competion Russia are 1½ points ahead of Germany, their nearest rivals, and likely to take the gold. Ireland are lying roughly at their seeded position (54th) so everything depends, as it always does, on the last round where we face Chile. Their average rating is comparable to ours (they are seeded 52nd) but their strength is more evenly divided (rather than having one very strong player like we do). The good news is that, despite earlier calculations to the contrary, a recount [5] has revealed that if Colm wins in the last round he'll get his first IM norm.

In the women's competion China are well in the lead and Georgia are likely to get silver. The Irish ladies are a few places below their seeding so they'll be looking for a win against Sri Lanka tomorrow and they should have a good chance. Debbie has already achieved a FIDE rating this tournament and Mairead will get one too if she wins tomorrow.

Most people have experienced a Turkish hamami (bath) by now. My first was today in the Cemberlitas Hamami, a round building with a domed roof originally constructed by the Ottomans in 1584. Inside is a large heated marble platform. You start by lying on this for about 15 minutes, relaxing in the humid heat, listening to the echoing Turkish voices and staring up at the roof and its pattern of small round windows. Then a masseur rubs your body down with a coarse glove, gives you a vigorous massage (ouch!), covers you with soap bubbles, washes you down and finally dumps several buckets of water over your head. Then you sit around dumping more buckets of water on yourself or lying on the marble platform again. I thoroughly enjoyed the experience and if you're ever in Turkey, you should definitely try it.

After the bath.

The headlines: both teams won, Colm got his IM norm and then he lost it.

The men beat Chile 2½-1½ to finish with a score of +3 (29½ points out of 56), 1 better than Moscow or Dubai where we had two of our best previous results. We won't know until tomorrow what place we finished but we should comfortably beat our seeded position.

Alex's opponent got into a worse position and time trouble. Near move 30 he got down to 9 seconds before he moved (and got an extra 30 seconds on the clock - we're using Fischer rules). The next move he left himself 6 seconds, then it was 9 seconds and the next move never came - he lost on time. Mark Quinn was worse out of the opening and lost first one pawn and then another. Mark Heidenfeld won a pawn but his opponent was able to swap off into a drawn ending. Colm's opponent shouldn't have taken the pawn offered and got into a worse position where Colm was able to force the win of a piece or mate.

After his opponent resigned, we all congratulated Colm on his IM norm. Gerry then took a record of Colm's results to the arbiters to try to confirn the norm but was shocked to find out that, according to them, Colm was well short of the requirements. The problem seems to be that two of his wins came against unrated opponents. This is what we all thought a couple of days ago until Kevin O'Connell did his "recount" and claimed Colm could still make it.

Colm Daly.

Colm himself wasn't too disappointed for he had never quite believed his score was good enough and so he took the news philosophically. Nevertheless, Gerry will lodge a formal claim, just in case.

Suzanne and Mairead both won again and Debbie had a good position, with a possibly winning combination available, but with not enough time to calculate anything she wisely agreed a draw. The women finished on -4 (20/42) which is just 1 worse than Moscow and Novi Sad, their best results in recent years. So after their poor start they did OK and Mairead and Debbie both got FIDE ratings.

Suzanne Connolly.

In the men's competition Germany were the early leaders but were overhauled by Russia after the latter had heavy wins against Romania and Armenia. None of the top teams were unbeaten, including Russia (who lost to Hungary and Bulgaria). England (who came 7th) were unbeaten until the last round when they lost to Germany. The medal winners were: Russia (Khalifman, Morozevich, Svidler, Rublevsky, Sakaev, Grischuk), Germany (Jussupow, Huebner, Dautov, Lutz, Bischoff, Luther) and Ukraine (Ivanchuk, Ponomariov, Baklan, Eingorn, Romanishin, Malahatko). Some other notable performances were put in by India who, despite missing Anand, came 8th and Scotland, who had their strongest team ever (headed by 3 GMs) and finished 30th.

The women's section was dominated by China (Xie, Zhu, Xu, Wang) who were unbeaten. Next came Georgia (Chiburdanidze, Ioseliani, Khurtsidze, Gurieli) and Russia (Galliamova-Ivanchuk, Kovalevskaya, Matveeva, Stepovaia-Dianchenko), well ahead of the rest of the pack.

The closing ceremony in the evening was quite spectacular. After the speeches and prize giving there was about an hour of music, dance and spectacular costumes from Turkey's rich cultural heritage. The favourite piece, most agreed, was the swirling dervishes - about a dozen men, some young, some old, who came on stage dressed in lose fitting white robes. When the music started each dancer began rotating on the spot at a fairly fast rate. They extended their arms and tilted their heads to the side, and their robes billowed out. Somehow they managed to keep their center of gravity stationary and appeared to be in some kind of trance. They kept this up for quite some time, maybe as much as 5 minutes, and then suddenly the music stopped, they stopped rotating and walked off stage. Not one of them fell over or even looked dizzy. Amazing!

Going home day (sigh). After several failed previous attempts, the men were all assembled in the same spot (the hotel bar) for a team photograph. Left to right: (standing) Gerry Graham (captain), Alexander Baburin, Mark Quinn, Mark Heidenfeld, (sitting) Mark Orr, Sam Collins, Colm Daly. We finished 51st, two places higher than our seeding and above several strongish chess nations such as Iceland, Norway, Italy and Austria.

The Irish men's team.

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

Sergei Rublevsky (Russia) - Carlo D'Amore (Italy) [R2]
1. e4 g6 2. d4 Bg7 3. Nc3 d6 4. Bg5 a6 5. Nf3 Nd7 6. a4 b6 7. Bc4 h6 8. Bh4 g5 9. Bxg5 hxg5 10. Bxf7+ Kxf7 11. Nxg5+ Kf6 12. Qg4 Ne5 13. Nd5+ Kg6 14. Nf4+ Kf6 15. dxe5+ dxe5 16. Nh7+ 1-0

Aleksander Fedorov (Belarus) - Alexander Baburin (Ireland) [R3]
1. e4 Nf6 2. e5 Nd5 3. d4 d6 4. c4 Nb6 5. f4 dxe5 6. fxe5 Nc6 7. Be3 Bf5 8. Nc3 e6 9. Nf3 Bg4 10. Qd2 Bb4 11. a3 Be7 12. Ne4 Qd7 13. b4 Bxf3 14. gxf3 O-O-O 15. Rd1 Bh4+ 16. Ng3 f6 17. b5 Ne7 18. Qa5 Kb8 19. Be2 Nf5 20. Bf2 Qf7 21. f4 g5 22. Nxf5 Bxf2+ 23. Kxf2 exf5 24. d5 fxe5 25. fxe5 g4 26. Qc3 h5 27. e6 Qe7 28. h3 Rhg8 29. hxg4 hxg4 30. Qd4 f4 31. Bd3 Qg5 32. Be4 f3 33. c5 Nc8 34. Rh7 g3+ 35. Kxf3 g2 36. Rg1 Rdf8+ 37. Ke2 Qg4+ 38. Kd3 Rf3+ 39. Bxf3 Qxf3+ 40. Kd2 Rg4 41. Qe3 Qxd5+ 42. Kc1 Re4 43. Qf2 Qc4+ 44. Qc2 Qf1+ 45. Qd1 Qf4+ 46. Kb1 Qf5 0-1

Mark Orr (Ireland) - Sergei Azarov (Belarus) [R3]
1. d4 d5 2. c4 e6 3. Nc3 Nf6 4. Bg5 Be7 5. e3 O-O 6. Nf3 h6 7. Bxf6 Bxf6 8. Qd2 c6 9. O-O-O Na6 10. h4 dxc4 11. g4 e5 (11... b5 12. g5 hxg5 13. hxg5 Bxg5 14. Nxg5 Qxg5 15. f4) 12. dxe5 Qxd2+? 13. Rxd2 Be7 14. Rg1 b5 15. g5 hxg5 16. hxg5 Rd8? 17. Nd4 Bb7 18. f4 b4 19. Na4 c3 20. Rh2 cxb2+ 21. Kxb2 c5 (21... Nc5 22. Rgh1 Nxa4+ 23. Kc1 f5 24. e6) 22. Bxa6 Be4 (22... Bxa6 23. Rgh1) 23. Bd3 (23... Bb7 24. Bh7+ Kf8 25. Be4) 1-0

Mark Heidenfeld (Ireland) - Richard Dineley (Wales) [R5]
1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 d6 3. d4 cxd4 4. Nxd4 Nf6 5. Nc3 e6 6. g3 Nc6 7. Bg2 Bd7 8. O-O Be7 9. Re1 O-O 10. Nce2 a6 11. c4 Rc8 12. Nxc6 Bxc6 13. Nd4 Bd7 14. Qe2 Qc7 15. b3 Rfe8 16. Bb2 Qb8 17. a4 Qc7 18. h3 a5 19. Qe3 Bc6? 20. e5! dxe5 21. Nb5 Bxb5 22. Bxe5 Bd6 23. Bxd6 Qxd6 24. axb5 b6 25. Bc6 Rxc6 26. Rad1 Qc5 27. bxc6 Qxc6 28. Qd4 h6 29. Re5 Rc8 30. Qd6 Qf3 31. Rd3 Qb7 32. Rb5 Rc6 33. Qd8+ Kh7 34. Rd6 Rxd6 35. Qxd6 Qe4 36. Qxb6 Qb1+ 37. Kg2 Ne4 38. Qe3 f5 39. Re5 Qd1 40. Rxe4 1-0

Alexander Baburin (Ireland) - A. Sarsam (Iraq) [R6]
1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 e6 3. Nc3 d5 4. cxd5 exd5 5. Bg5 Be7 6. e3 c6 7. Qc2 Bg4 8. Bd3 Bh5 9. Nge2 Bg6 10. f3 Na6 11. a3 Bxd3 12. Qxd3 Nh5 13. Bxe7 Qxe7 14. e4 Nf6 15. e5 Nd7 16. f4 Nc7 17. O-O f6 18. Ng3 fxe5 19. fxe5 g6 20. b4 O-O-O 21. Nge2 Kb8 22. Nf4 Nb6 23. b5 c5 24. a4 Nc4 25. a5 Nb2 26. Qg3 g5 27. b6 gxf4 28. bxc7+ Qxc7 29. Qxf4 a6 30. e6 Rhe8 31. Qxc7+ Kxc7 32. Rf7+ Kc6 33. Rb1 cxd4 34. Ne2 Nc4 35. Nxd4+ Kc5 36. e7 Rb8 37. Ne6+ Kc6 38. Ng7 Nd6 39. Rf6 Kd7 40. Nxe8 Rxe8 41. Rb6 1-0

Zbynek Hracek (Czech Republic) - Judit Polgar (Hungary) [R6]
1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 e6 3. d4 cxd4 4. Nxd4 Nc6 5. Nc3 Qc7 6. Be3 a6 7. Bd3 b5 8. Nxc6 Qxc6 9. O-O Bb7 10. a3 Nf6 11. Qe2 h5 12. f4 Ng4 13. Bd2 Bc5+ 14. Kh1 Bd4 15. Rae1 O-O-O 16. Nd1 f5 17. Ba5 Rdf8 18. c3 Ba7 19. e5 g5 20. c4 bxc4 21. Bxc4 gxf4 22. Rf3 Rhg8 23. b4 Nxe5 24. Qxe5 Qxc4 25. Nb2 (25. Rc3 Bxg2#) 25... Bxf3 26. gxf3 Qc2 0-1

Vlastimil Babula (Czech Republic) - Bojan Kurajica (Boznia) [R8]
1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 e6 3. Nc3 Bb4 4. e3 O-O 5. Bd3 d6 6. Nge2 c5 7. O-O Nc6 8. dxc5 Ne5!? 9. a3 Bxc5 10. b4 Bb6 11. Bb2 Nfg4! 12. Nf4 (12. h3 Nxd3 13. Qxd3 Ne5) 12... Qh4 13. h3 Nxf2 14. Qe1 Qxf4 (14... Qxf4 15. exf4 Nfxd3+ 16. c5 Nxe1 17.cxb6 Nc4) 0-1

Debbie Quinn (Ireland) - Denise Frick (South Africa) [R9]
1. e4 g6 2. d4 Bg7 3. f4 c6 4. Nf3 d5 5. e5 Nh6 6. h3 Bf5 7. g4 Be4 8. c3 Bxb1 9. Rxb1 f6 10. Bd3 fxe5 11. fxe5 O-O 12. Ng5 Qd7 13. Qc2 Na6 14. Bxg6! Nc7 15. Bxh7+ Kh8 16. Bg8 1-0

Alexander Grischuk (Russia) - Atanas Kolev (Bulgaria) [R9]
1. e4 e6 2. d4 d5 3. e5 c5 4. c3 Nc6 5. Nf3 Bd7 6. Be2 f6 7. O-O Qb6 8. Na3 fxe5 9. dxe5 Nh6 10. c4 d4 11. Bd3 Nf7 12. Re1 Be7 13. h4 O-O-O 14. Nc2 Rdg8 15. a3 g5 16. hxg5 Nxg5 17. Bxg5 Bxg5 18. b4 Be7 19. Be4 cxb4 20. axb4 Nxb4 21. Nxb4 Bxb4 22. c5 Bxc5 23. Rb1 Bb4 24. Qc2+ Bc6 25. Bxc6 bxc6 26. Rxb4 Qxb4 27. Qxc6+ Kd8 28. Rd1 Ke7 29. Qc7+ 1-0

Rafael Vaganian (Armenia) - Alexei Shirov (Spain) [R9]
1. Nf3 d5 2. d4 c6 3. c4 Nf6 4. Nc3 a6 5. a4 e6 6. Bg5 Nbd7 7. cxd5 cxd5 8. e3 Qa5 9. Bd3 Ne4 10. O-O Nxg5 11. Nxg5 Nf6 12. f4 Bb4 13. Rc1 O-O 14. Qe1 Bd7 15. Qh4 h6 16. Nf3 Rfc8 17. g4 Bxc3 18. bxc3 Rxc3 19. g5 Rxd3 20. gxf6 Rxe3 21. Qg4 g6 22. Qh4 h5 23. Qg5 Qb4 24. Rb1 Qa3 25. Nh4 Kh7 26. Rxb7 Rd8 27. f5 exf5 28. Rxd7 Rxd7 29. Nxf5 1-0

Paraskevas Clerides (Cyprus) - Mark Quinn (Ireland) [R10]
1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. d4 cxd4 4. Nxd4 g6 5. c4 Bg7 6. Be3 Nf6 7. Nc3 O-O 8. Be2 b6 9. O-O Bb7 10. f3 Qb8 11. Qd2 Rd8 12. Rac1 e6 13. Rfd1 d6 14. Nc2 Rd7 15. Qe1 Qf8 16. Qh4 h6 17. Rd2 Ne7 18. Rcd1 Rad8 19. g4 g5 20. Qg3 Ng6 21. Ne1 Ne8 22. Ng2 Be5 23. f4 gxf4 24. Nxf4 Qg7 25. Qf2 Nf6 26. Nh5 Nxh5 27. gxh5 Nf4+ 28. Kf1 Nxe2 29. Rxe2 Rc8 30. Qe1 Kh7 31. Rg2 Qf6+ 32. Rf2 Qh4 33. Qe2 Ba6 34. Qf3 Bxc4+ 35. Kg1 Rg8+ 36. Kh1 Rg3 0-1

Mark Quinn (Ireland) - Mikhail Rytshagov (Estonia) [R13]
1. c4 c6 2. d4 d5 3. Nf3 Nf6 4. Nc3 e6 5. Bg5 h6 6. Bh4 dxc4 7. e4 g5 8. Bg3 b5 9. Be2 Bb7 10. h4 g4 11. Ne5 Rg8 12. O-O Nbd7 13. Nxg4 b4 14. Na4 Nxe4 15. Bxc4 h5 16. Ne3 Ndf6 17. Be5 Be7 18. Qe2 Qa5 19. Bb3 Kf8 20. Rfc1 Qb5 21. Qc2 Rc8 22. f3 Nd6 23. Nc5 Ba8 24. a3 Nb7 25. Bc4 Qa5 26. axb4 Qxb4 27. Bxf6 Bxf6 28. Ra4 Bxd4 29. Rxb4 Bxe3+ 30. Kf1 Nxc5 31. Re1 a5 32. Rxe3 axb4 33. Qd2 Nb7 34. Qxb4+ c5 35. Qb6 Rd8 36. Rd3 Kg7 37. Rxd8 Rxd8 38. Ba6 Rd6 39. Qb5 Nd8 40. Qxc5 Rd5 41. Qc3+ Kg8 42. Bc4 Rd1+ 43. Ke2 Rd7 44. Qf6 Nc6 45. Qg5+ Kf8 46. Qxh5 Nd4+ 47. Kf2 Bc6 48. Qc5+ Kg7 49. h5 f6 50. Bxe6 Nxe6 51. Qxc6 Rd2+ 52. Kg3 1-0

[1] The total amount is modest, but hey, it's still very welcome. Each member of the 12 person delegation received 50 British pounds towards their travelling expenses. Note that this is only the first commercial sponsorship the team has received. In previous years, a certain private individual has assisted the team on more than one occasion.

[2] The problem was the letter "i". It's not in the usual place on a Turkish keyboard and instead is another letter which looks quite like it (the same but without the dot). Unfortunately I have an "i" in the password for my ISP at home and it took a while to understand why I wasn't able to logon.

[3] 61 streets, 4400 shops, 2195 workshops, 18 fountains, 12 warehouses, 12 mosques, one school and a Turkish bath.

[4] TICA has a section devoted to mini-biographies of top Irish players. Usually I ask contemporary players, like Paul, to write something about themselves. However, I have found that while it's easy to extract promises of contributions, it's another thing getting people to fulfil them. Paul, with all due respect, is probably the worst offender, having broken several promises over a period of a few years. The last time we spoke (which was at Bunratty) I was confident that he was going to produce something at last because we discussed how his contribution might spur on a few other shy people to contribute, such as his brother and sisters and friend David Dunne. However, as usual, I was disappointed. So Paul, if you're reading this, I'm asking you, for the benefit of Irish chess players now and in the future, to please come up with the goods.

[5] Recounts are a topical issue just now. In the US presidential elections the voting is so close between candidates Bush and Gore that one state, Florida, is having a recount and the winner is still not known several days after the vote.