2014 Chess Olympiad (Tromsø)

Thanks guys!

Hmm, I'd like to play for Afghanistan. Last time they played I saw that me and my friend would be better players than they were. ;)

again Uganda and Colombia? great success

Yes, Uganda & Columbia have done well, they're great successes.

Edit: If you call gettin beat tha fugg up doing well & great successes. Columbia has done much better, we'll see how the rest of the rounds go.

Although I stream the whole round I don't know it is when you get to the final rounds you know

Very nice Fried Liver Attack from Shirov.

Wow!  Not often you see GMs playing that! 

Odd to see a 2600 player (Sulskis) heading into a line that has been considered more-or-less refuted for more than 300 years... especially when he's paired against a superGM.

I am looking forward to Norway2-Bosnia-Herzegovina. Rating tells me it must be a very close match. And I wonder if Urkedals real time strenght is more than 100 above his 2500 official rating?

There will be some classic, tight topbattles today.

Armenia - France

Germany - England

USA - Netherlands

Hungary - China

All of those match-ups look like good fighting chess.

What happened to Turkmenistan? They are not paired yet. Have they not shown up at all? Didnt they get visum? Stopped at the airport?

They lost all their games in round one with no moves, but I don't know what happened. Somewhat dissapointing, I was cheering for Turkmenistan .

Found a news report that says Timor Leste, Turkmenistan, Congo, and Mali did not turn up for the first round, but with no explanation of why not.

Probably visa problems.

I suspect visa-problems, and if so, it is  scandalous decisions from the Norwegian politicians and immigrantauthorities/police.

Some countries require exit visas for their own citizens... although you wouldn't expect to encounter problems there.

SUOMI !!

Here are some videos from when Carlsen last lost to Nybäck:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ImDbL-ONd7c

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GR1rO28MjtM

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0STKg7cTo7c

I don't have very good feelings about Hungary's match against China. This thing yesterday against Venezuela with Rapport losing and Judit winning a game with black which was valued +4 for white at some point, just for the 2300 Venezuelan FM to blunder it away in time trouble: this is not the way one is supposed to play against an opponent rated 300 points lower on average ( only Almasi had a clean win, Leko was OK to draw because Iturrizaga is a world class player to be reconed with ).

On the other hand China is rising, the 2700+ list is getting packed with chinese recently, there are almost as many chinese there as russians.

Why do players have to forfeit when they don't arrive  on time? Can't they just wait until the clock runs out and win on time?

Will there be a Germany Vs Brasil or Germany VS Argentina (jokes)