People talk about Carlsen being the first Western World Chess Champion since Fischer, but Chess Olympiads are also worth looking at (in "geographical" terms). America won the 1976 Chess Olympiad, but Soviets did not play there, so the last time a Western country won a "true" Chess Olympiad was either 1939 (Germany) or 1937 (U.S.), depending on whether or not you consider the Nazi regime Western.
2014 Chess Olympiad (Tromsø)
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Aronian is in bad form, he's gonna get wrecked.
I can't get over the 3-move mate .... How is that even possible at this kind of event 
Thats the one... true she was not rated, but makes you wonder why she is even there ... for the sights I assume....
Still, there was a 7-move mate yesterday too, so I guess mistakes are made
Alright! The U.S. is in 28th place, top 30 aint bad. Maybe if they play well from here on out they can make top 20. I'm second guessing my earlier estimate of top 10 is too much to ask of them.
The USA team is the sixth strongest going by rating, and only a couple of points behind Armenia and Hungary in fourth and fifth going by average Elo. I think they will finish top ten in the end.
rnunesmagalhaes wrote:
Probably got confused and thought she was playing the Dutch.
If Kasparov could refer to players like Movsesian and Akopian as chess tourists, I wonder what he might call some of the participants here.
tourists.
I looked at some of the lower tables in the women's event, and some players don't seem particularly engaged. Blitzing out the whole game, hanging a couple of pieces and then playing on until mate. Makes you wonder if they even think it's fun to play.
Well, if some countries do not have strong chess backing, how can they have strong women's chess backing? Most of these players aren't here for the chess, but for other things, whatever they may be.
One does get the impression that the Togo player just wanted to get it over with as soon as possible so she could do something else.
fabelhaft wrote:
I looked at some of the lower tables in the women's event, and some players don't seem particularly engaged. Blitzing out the whole game, hanging a couple of pieces and then playing on until mate. Makes you wonder if they even think it's fun to play.
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I think fide, in an effort to get more teams to participate really pleaded with some federations to put some teams together, just any ol player would do, just get them on a team. I'm sure there a quite a few players that just don't care. "Now you go play! & you better like it!! Just try not to embarrass us too much." So off they went to Norway.
varelse1 wrote:
Seriously?! Kamsky lost to a 2399? I mean, really?!
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Yep. Out-fuggin-rageous.
varelse1 wrote:
Seriously?! Kamsky lost to a 2399? I mean, really?!
This is why the top players only tend to play closed events against other top players . They cannot maintain their bloated ratings if they play in Opens .
I'm predicting Kamsky won't play tomorrow.
fabelhaft already mentioned it, but game to watch tomorrow will deffo be Aronian - Carlsen, even though Armenia are favorites for the team points