Winter Butterfly  -  16    2/11/02

Olympiad - Round 1

Annie gets her draw, but it's a bad day for Wales. 

Annie Powell prevented a complete whitewash of both Welsh Olympic teams by drawing against Shukurova Meihriban of Azerbaijan.  An excellent result for Annie against an opponent graded 225 points higher than her.  Elsewhere it was bad news all the way as, outgraded by an average of 280 points per board, all the other welsh players lost.   

The men's team (Williams L, Dineley, Jones R, and Zeidler) went down 4-0 to India while the ladies (Evans-Quek, Powell and Griffiths) lost by 2.5-1.5 to Azerbaijan.   

Next round results as soon as they are available. 

Below is Mark's report on the first round.  Please note there was an error on the original result which this corrects. It worked to our advantage as it gave the men's team an easier draw in the second round.

Round 1
India 3½-½ Wales. Leighton Williams drew with GM Harikrishna, 2551 - an excellent result. Richard Dineley turned down a draw from GM A.Kunte (2493) and went on to lose a very exiting game. Richard Jones thought attack was better than getting smashed, threw everything at his opponent, but it was not enough. Sven succumbed to a well prepared opponent who had booked up on his Ponziani line and played the best line.
The women were up against Azerbaijan who had one Gm and 2 IMs in their team. Debbie was clearly better in her game, but lost the thread. Annie Powell played a tremendous game against a good IM who was forced to repeat the position. Kathy fought a very good game but was eventually ground down.

Results:
Men
1 L.Williams (B) ½-½ P.Harikrishna GM 2551
2 R.Dineley 0-1 A.Kunte GM 2493
3 R.Jones 0-1 R.Ramesh IM 2475
4 S.Zeidler 0-1 P.Thipsay GM 2460
Women
1. D.Evans-Quek (B)  0-1 F.Velikhanli (WGM 2304)
2. A.Powell ½-½ M.Shukurova (WIM 2243)
3 K.Griffiths 0-1 Z.Mamedjarova (WIM 2259)

About the event....
the playing conditions are not good with far too many people allowed in the playing area. The indiviual pairings were not published at all. We will give them the chance to redeem themselves though as it is only the first round. The time limit of 90 minutes for all moves plus 30 seconds per move, is proving difficult to get used to. There is no time control, and you have to write your moves down even if you have less than 5 minutes.

Mark Adams.