Monday 17 November 2008

Olympiad Day 4

Despite starting with 2 free points, PNG only managed to draw 2-2 with Uganda. Using the slightly dubious strategy of only playing on boards 3&4 (and apparently on 2&4 to give their 'No 1' White in every game), they faced Rupert Jones and Craig Skehan, while Stuart Fancy and I had the afternoon off. Once again Craig played a solid, unambitious opening, until he got overwhelmed in the centre and eventually mated. Rupert had prepared well for his game (the Scandanavian Portraguese Gambit), but at some point it went awry and he never recovered the pawn.
However it is our first match point, although we remain sufficiently low down to hopefully avoid anyone too scary. However, given the randomness of the draw we could end up against anyone, so a PNG v Russia clash may still be a possibility!

1 comment:

Unknown said...

Shaun,

If you get paired against Russia, I'd hope you at least get a draw on board 1 :)

Also, I sent you an email to your apex address.

Best Regards,

Alex