2014 Olympiad - PNG Team Day 1

The Olympiad would be a much poorer event without teams like PNG, and in fact much poorer without PNG itself. For wherever we go, excitement is not far behind. The team got off to a cracking start, with our fantastic captain GM Dejan Bojkov scrambling to make the start of the round, due to a missed flight the day before. So at one point we had either 0 captains, 1 captain or 2 captains, much to the confusion of the match arbiter. Fortunately the delayed start meant the Bojkov arrived moments before the clocks were started.
As for the match against Singapore, 0-4 was not a surprise. However Nigel Marko fought hard on debut, while FM Stuart Fancy made IM Kevin Goh Wei Ming work for is point. I fact he was equal for quite a long while, and even offered a draw around move 25. However the tournament rules allow no draw agreements before move 30, and by the time the players had reached this mark, Fancy's position had begun to deteriorate.
The PNG team have Puerto Rico today which is another tough pairing. Also, I am uploading lots if pics from the event to my chess photo collection. Just click the link on the left hand side of this blog.


Goh Wei Ming Kevin (2433) - Fancy Stuart (2036) [C23]
WCO2014 Tromso (1.13), 02.08.2014

1. e4 e5 2. Bc4 Bc5 3. Nc3 d6 4. d3 Nf6 5. Na4 Bg4 6. Qd2 Bb6 7. Nxb6 axb6 8. f4 Nc6 9. h3 Be6 10. Bb5 exf4 11. Qxf4 O-O 12. Bxc6 bxc6 13. Ne2 c5 14. O-O Nd7 15. Qg3 Ne5 16. b3 Ng6 17. Bb2 Qh4 18. Qxh4 Nxh4 19. Nf4 Ng6 20. Nh5 Ne5 21. a4 f6 22. g4 c6 23. Kh2 b5 24. Kg3 c4 25. d4 Ng6 26. axb5 cxb5 27. g5 Rxa1 28. Rxa1 fxg5 29. d5 Bd7 30. Ra7 Rf7 31. Bxg7 Bc8 32. Ra8 Rc7 33. b4 Kf7 34. Bh6 Ne5 35. Bxg5 Bb7 36. Ra7 Kg6 37. Nf4+ Kf7 38. Ne6 1-0