Round 1 in brief by Malcolm Pein
Official Olympiad website: http://www.dresden2008.com/
The defending champions Armenia were convincing winners as nearly all the other top seeds struggled.
Only Azerbaijan matched Armenia’s 4-0 as Levon Aronian crushed Fabiano Caruana in the Anti-Moscow Gambit as Armenia defeated Italy 4-0.
Top seeds Russia needed Alexander Morozevich’s win to secure a narrow victory over Switzerland. On top board Viktor Korchnoi’s French Defence held the draw against Peter Svidler in an all St Petersburg tie.
England and France came unstuck playing their reserves in Round 1, France were held 2-2 by Montenegro but England did defeat Turkey 2.5-1.5 in the end.
Rising star Wesley So defeated Ni Hua but China prevailed in the end against the Philippines.
Magnus Carlsen turned out and won for Norway in their 3-1 win against Austria.
Major rule changes
1) Open teams are 5 players not 6 – preventing many fine players from participating
2) Women’s teams are 5 players not 4 – ensuring plenty more players around 2000 are there.
3) All matches are over four boards
4) Match points not game points will be counted so winning the match rather than running up big scores takes precedence
5) FIDE nonsense: All players must be seated by 15.00 or be defaulted irrespective of local traffic conditions, security checks, weather, acts of god or car crashes. Has this actually been enforced?
So is awesome!
A soccer player, tennis player, basketball player must be in the court at the exact time for the starting of the match.
Why chess must be different?
Let’s be respectful with sponsor, press media, …. If I go to the hall 3pm and I have 5-10 min to take pictures, why should are there so many absent players?
Also the respect for opponent and so.
When I started to play, 20 years ago, was something that really shocked me. I came from another sport, and we should be at stadium at least 30 min BEFORE start the match. And now people can arrive 30 min AFTER?
This was also applied in the World Youth in Vietnam. Result? 0 Walkovers by this, and 100% of games starting on time
Yes, I agree. In any serious competition players must be punctual. If chess wants to be recognized as a serious sport it was about time that this stupid “1 hour rule” was abolished.
Chess players still have the benefit to end games whenever they feel like. Something other sports men don’t have. In most other sports the game has to be played until the end, no matter how hopeless the situation might be for one of the players.
It seems Carlsen was lost against Ragger after 38…h3! (instead of 38…f3) and later it was a draw after 56…. Bxd5, or wrong notation!?
King Magnus will rule you!
Professional sport or commodified amateurs? What?? Amateur olympics?
Not paid? On TV? Your time is now our time!! Enjoy show.