Monday 23 August 2021

2021 Online Chess Olympiad - Day 3

 The third an final day of 2021 Chess Olympiad Division 4 saw an exciting finish to some of the pools. With the top 3 in each pool qualifying for the next stage, it sometimes came down to the last few games, especially when competing teams were playing each other.

In Pool C (which I was working on), Jersey suffered at the hands of the pairing gods, playing their 3 closest challengers in the last 3 rounds. A narrow loss to Cyprus, and heavy losses to Ethiopia and Angola, saw them slip to 4th place behind these 3.

In Pool A, Fiji hoped to do the opposite, finishing with some easier pairings, but a round 9 loss to Lebanon left them 1 win short of qualifying, despite finishing with 3 victories. Hong Kong and Nepal qualify alongside Lebanon (NB All results are provisional until Fair Play checks are finished)

Pool B saw Kenya, Namibia and Palestine all get promoted, along with 4th placed Malawi, who took the extra spot set aside for the best 4th place finisher. Pool D had Suriname, Aruba and Ghana well ahead of the rest of the field, while Pool E promoted Puerto Rico, Trinidad and Tobago, and Haiti.

Division 3 starts on Friday 6pm (Canberra time). Each pool in this division contains 10 teams, with the top 3 teams moving up to Division 2. Of interest to reginal readers is the debut of New Zealand, who will most likely be in Pool A (based on their time zone)


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