Having accidentally put the wrong day on yesterdays post, I've labeled this one to reflect the correct day (but differently).
As expected, India wrapped up the 1st place, but they did it style, with a 3.5-0.5 demolition of Slovenia. They finished on 21 match points (out of a possible 22) a full 4 points ahead of USA (2nd on tie-break) and Uzbekistan (3rd on tie break). They also scored 35/44 in game points, losing only 1 game, and a full 4.5 game points ahead of the next team. In my time attending Olympiads, this is probably tho most dominant performance of any team I have seen.
Australia won their last match against Kosovo 3.5-0.5, to tie for 41st (45th on tie-break). I guess they would be disappointed with their performance this time round, as they were seeded a bit higher than that. The inability to score points against a couple of lower rated but quite solid teams (Ireland, Andorra, Faeroe Islands ) cost them when winning a single game could have turned a loss/draw into a win.
On the other hand New Zealand was probably pleased with how their tournament went. The beat Guatemala in the last round 3-1 to finish on 12 points (1 behind Australia) and tied for 57th (but 70th on tie break). This was ahead of their seeding, with IM Sravan Renjith having the best performance on the team.
PNG had a chance for a category medal if the could beat the Isle of Man, but starting the match one player down did not help. This did affect the mood/performance of the other players, and they went down 0.5-3.5. Still 4 match wins was a good performance for a team that had to draft 3 last minute replacements after the Hungarian organisers completely failed in the fundamental task of providing the correct information on visa applications.
Guam won their final match against Djibouti 3.5-0.5 to finish on 9 points, and once again finish at the top of the Pacific Island countries. Fiji went down to San Marino 0.5-3.5 to finish on 6 points, Palau narrowly lost to Cambodia 1.5-2.5, Vanuatu went down to Antigua 1-3, with both Palau and Vanuatu finishing on 4.
No comments:
Post a Comment