2010 Olympiad - Day 5

Round 5 saw PNG end up on the bottom board of the Olympiad, and yet we still couldn't even manage a win there. Burundi, who had only scored a single draw over the previous 4 rounds picked up 2.5 points against us, to record their first match win of the tournament.

Board 1 was a battle between "hack"and "swindle", where "hack" emerged victorious. On board 2 I was up against what is becoming my least favourite opening as Black (1.e4 e4 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Nf6 4.Nc3 Nxe4) where Black is supposed to be fine, and yet I manage to score poorly. In this case my opponent played a Boden Kiseritzky Gambit (possibly by accident) and I was just a pawn up. However he "stodged" the position, and trying to break through in time trouble I completely lost control of the position. I was fortunate that he grew worried about my meager counter-threats and repeated the position when I think he was probably just winning.

The only ray of sunshine was on board 3 when Helmut Marko recorded his (and the teams) first win of the tournament. Even this was hard work and went all the way to an annoying queen ending which finished when his opponent allowed a cross check. On board 4 Rupert Jones looked to be easily winning, but missed his opponent creating 2 passers in the ending, and tragically he found his king unable to deal with both.

Today (as I am writing this the morning after the game) is a rest day, although for me it is tied up with meetings (including Rules and Tournament Regulations and possibly Swiss Pairings). The Bermuda Party happened last night, and my next post may or may not cover that.