Round Two Impressions

by Alejandro Ramirez
8/3/2014 – The second round is under way in Tromso. Danny King finishes the recap of round one with a review of Baramidze's positional crush from yesterday. In the playing hall Carlsen is playing his first Olympics game as World Champion, though he faces a strong opponent in Nyback. The Zero tolerance rule is in strict effect, and it even made an eleven-year-old cry.

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Play of the Day

Danny King chose Baramidze's fantastic positional victory yesterday as round one's Play of the Day

Second Round Early Impressions

I'ts a big day for Norwegian chess as it is Magnus Carlsen's first Olympic game as World Champion. He plays the strong Finnish player Tomi Nyback... who beat Magnus last time they played!

Carlsen played a pawn sacrifice, Nyback returned it and reached a near equal endgame

Armenians: Elina Danielian, Melikset Khachiyan (USA Women's Coach) and Levon Aronian

The Armenian women's team is spearheaded by Lilit Mrktchian when Danielian takes the day off

Evelyn Moncayo is always smiling! The Ecuadorian women face Norway and are in the second board for this reason

Sarai Sanchez is thrilled to have an opportunity to play GM Ju Wenjun

Some people forfeited by default today. In a bizarre scenario, the Burundi women yesterday won their match by forfeit while today they did not show up in time against Argentina and lost all their games by forfeit. Two rounds, zero games, fifty percent score.

The Argentinean girls are simply opponent-less

Strict: 4-0 for Argentina

Speaking of the zero tolerance rule, an eleven year old player from Rwanda did not show up to the game in time. She cried, but it was to no avail - zero tolerance is zero tolerance and very strictly adhered to in this tournament. Then finally Palestine lost their first three boards to zero tolerance, but their fourth board started playing. For some reason the game ended in the opening in a Zimbabwe win.

Asian Continental Champion Irene Sukandar

Romania's Irina Bulmaga

Gulishkan Nakhbayeva is no strange to elite events; she is a common guest at the Grand Prix

Parimarjan Negi already faces stiff competition: the India vs. Canada match promises to be a close one with two 2600s facing off on board one

Tune in for live interviews, including one with Ulf Andersson, chess legend and current coach of Argentina

Round Two Pairings

Open:

Round 2 on 2014/08/03 at 14:00
No. SNo     Team Pts. MP Res. : Res. MP Pts. Team     SNo
1 1     Russia 4 2   :   2 4 Qatar     57
2 58     Norway 2 4 2   :   2 4 Ukraine     2
3 56     Finland 4 2   :   2 Norway     14
4 3     France 4 2   :   2 4 Mongolia     59
5 60     Australia 4 2   :   2 4 Armenia     4
6 5     Hungary 4 2   :   2 4 Venezuela     61
7 63     Colombia 4 2   :   2 4 USA     6
8 7     China 4 2   :   2 4 Albania     65
9 66     Scotland 4 2   :   2 4 Azerbaijan     8
10 9     Israel 4 2   :   2 4 Tajikistan     67
11 68     Singapore 4 2   :   2 4 England     10
12 11     Netherlands 4 2   :   2 4 Ecuador     69
13 71     Norway 3 4 2   :   2 4 Germany     12
14 13     Cuba 4 2   :   2 4 Portugal     74
15 15     Poland 4 2   :   2 4 New Zealand     75
16 76     Morocco 4 2   :   2 4 Czech Republic     16
17 77     UAE 4 2   :   2 4 Bulgaria     18
18 78     South Africa 4 2   :   2 4 Italy     20
19 80     Luxembourg 4 2   :   2 4 Turkey     26
20 27     Belarus 4 2   :   2 4 Indonesia     81

Tomorrow's round should also heavily favor the top teams. However there will be many interesting games; for example Hungary will be playing Venezuela who fields the strong GM Eduardo Iturrizaga in their first board, only one more upset besides that and the match could be good for the latinamericans. That being said, it is expected that the top twenty teams move to 2-0.

Women:

Round 2 on 2014/08/03 at 14:00
No. SNo     Team Pts. MP Res. : Res. MP Pts. Team     SNo
1 1     China 4 2   :   2 4 Venezuela     49
2 48     Ecuador 4 2   :   2 3 Norway     38
3 50     Brazil 4 2   :   2 4 Russia     2
4 3     Ukraine 4 2   :   2 4 Australia     51
5 54     Montenegro 4 2   :   2 4 Georgia     4
6 5     India 4 2   :   2 4 Denmark     56
7 7     USA 4 2   :   2 4 Belgium     58
8 59     Bangladesh 4 2   :   2 4 Armenia     10
9 60     Egypt 4 2   :   2 4 Germany     12
10 13     Hungary 4 2   :   2 4 Lebanon     61
11 62     Norway 2 4 2   :   2 4 Bulgaria     14
12 63     Chile 4 2   :   2 4 Slovakia     18
13 19     Cuba 4 2   :   2 4 Iceland     64
14 21     Iran 4 2   :   2 4 FYROM     65
15 66     El Salvador 4 2   :   2 4 Azerbaijan     22
16 23     Indonesia 4 2   :   2 4 Wales     67
17 124     Burundi 4 2   :   2 4 Argentina     24
18 26     Israel 4 2   :   2 Romania     6
19 27     Czech Republic 4 2   :   2 Poland     8
20 9     France 2   :   2 4 Mongolia     28

The case is the same in the Women's section. None of the matches will be "easy" but it is hard to say that there will be more than one upset in the top twenty matches, if that. That being said - chess is all about surprises!

Photos by Alejandro Ramirez

All you need to know about the Olympiad

  • Full information on the games, the venue, the atmosphere and what's happening on and off the chessboard – 68 pages in PDF, 45 MB in size.
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All ChessBase reports on the 2014 Olympiad in Tromsø


Grandmaster Alejandro Ramirez has been playing tournament chess since 1998. His accomplishments include qualifying for the 2004 and 2013 World Cups as well as playing for Costa Rica in the 2002, 2004 and 2008 Olympiads. He currently has a rating of 2583 and is author of a number of popular and critically acclaimed ChessBase-DVDs.

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