At the end of round 5 of the 2022 Chess Olympiad, only 2 teams remain on a perfect score. India 2 defeated Spain 2.5-1.5, while Armenia beat England by a similar score*. So there is an Indian team leading the home Olympiad, just not the one that was expected. Tied for third are India 1, USA and a couple of surprises in Uzbekistan and Cuba. Norway bounced back form a couple of poor (and in one case lucky) rounds, to beat Zambia 3.5-0.5
Australia missed a chance to stay in the top 10, drawing with the lower seeded Belgium 2-2. GM Justin Tan suffered his first loss of the tournament, but this was balanced out by a win for GM Zong Yuan Zhao. As a result the Australians now face Norway in Round 6. The Women's team continue their good form with a win over Moldova 3-1. WGM Julia Ryjanova is playing particularly well for the team scoring 4/5 on board 1.
New Zealand picked up their third win in the Open, beating Hong Kong 3-1. This moves them back to the middle of the field, after an upset loss to Oman earlier in the event. The New Zealand Women's team is also on 6 points, having scored a 4-0 win over Malta
PNG scored its first win of the tournament, defeating Comoros 4-0. All the PNG players played will, but there was a bit of luck on Board 1 when the Comoros player hung a rook in the ending (and refused the subsequent draw offer!) The other Oceania teams found this round quite tough, with losses for all of them.
(* When running a full tournament simulation to test the TAP procedures before the event, Armenia ended up as the overall winner of the Olympiad!)
WCO (5), 2022.08.02
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Kevin Bonham is providing updates from some of the Commissions and some possible rule changes that might be coming.
Are you attending any of those meetings, or involved in those discussions in some form? And if you are, would you care to provide a blog post on some of the matters, especially given that today is the rest day.
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