Wednesday 7 September 2016

2016 Chess Olympiad - Round 5

The last round before the rest day saw some tricky (if not down right evil) pairings for Oceania teams. Having narrowly lost to Norway in the previous round, the Australian Open team faced Albania, which were not a weak team by any measure. Wins to Zhao and Ly, plus draws to Smerdon and Illingworth gave the team a very good 3-1 win, leaving them on 6 points and tied for 40th place.
New Zealand had another narrow loss 1.5-2.5 against Nicaragua, Guam continued to impress with a big win (3.5-0.5) over Aruba, and Fiji won against Haiti 2.5-1.5.
Papua New Guinea continued to feel the effects of their 4-0 walkover against Uganda, being paired with Kosovo in the 5th round. Once again heavily outrated, the team went down to another 4-0 defeat. Palau also suffered a heavy loss, managing only a single draw against Somalia.
The pairings bounce for the Australian Women's team stopped, but not in a good way. They copped another strong team for the second round in a row, and only Heather Richard's heroics salvaged a single half point against Colombia. The New Zealand team jumped ahead of them on tie break after blanking Fiji 4-0, while Guam emulated their Open team, with a 3-1 win over Swaziland.
Today is a rest day for the players (although still a working day for some), with the final run of 6 rounds starting tomorrow.

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