The Russian Women's team has an average rating of 2500! Wow. Russia is the top seed with Georgia and Ukraine (former Soviet states) making up 3 out of the top 5. China and U.S.A. are the other two. Looks like the Russian girls may be hard to beat.
I haven't seen the men's teams yet.
Men's teams here
http://results.chessolympiadistanbul.com//tnr77681.aspx?art=0&lan=1&fed=WLS&flag=30
I've got some friends in the Welsh teams and have been ribbing them about the upcoming beatings for a while... hopefully they can finish above seeding, that'd be good.
The Russian Women's team has an average rating of 2500! Wow. Russia is the top seed with Georgia and Ukraine (former Soviet states) making up 3 out of the top 5. China and U.S.A. are the other two. Looks like the Russian girls may be hard to beat.
Not that big difference in the top three though, with Russia at 2500, China at 2494 and Georgia also at 2494.
In the link provided both Russia & China are indicated with av. rating >2500? (Women's section)
In the link provided both Russia & China are indicated with av. rating >2500? (Women's section)
That's true, I was just looking at the Chessbase preview, and it turns out that they give all kinds of incorrect Elo numbers. For example Ding Yixin is given as 2353 when she in fact is 2424, etc:
http://www.chessbase.com/newsdetail.asp?newsid=8440
that Russian team is like the Dream Team
Indeed, even if their team looked even stronger last time when Ukraine won. The difference this time is that Tomashevsky is playing instead of Svidler.
I've got a feeling it might be Russia and Russia. But we'll see.
I say Ukraine and China will be the winners.
If England had Luke McShane then I would have possibly put them as dark horses. Not without him though.
Are you kidding??? The dream team was back then, with Kasparov, Karpov, Tal, Botvinnik, Smyslov, Petrosian, Zaitzev, Polegaeveksy, etc.
Those were the good times...
Some big upsets in round 1.
Syria have beaten Romania 3-1.
Yemen are 2-1 up against Georgia.
Jamaica are 1.5-0.5 up against Slovenia.
Uganda are 1.5-0.5 up against Latvia.
Panama are 3-0 up against Belarus.
Less so in the women's, that's all going to form.
Lol what on earth.... when I was checking those scores there was something badly wrong with either 1) the website 2) my browser or 3) my brain, because most of them have changed.
International Comittee of Silent Chess, ICSC
the third one is Braille Chess, I believe
as for team upsets:
Netherlands scoring "only" 2,5 against Malaysia
Uganda 3-1 Latvia
Is the title a pun about the cost?
French team will win the Olympiads no?
I'm not really following this closely but I did watch the two shows on chess.com/tv. What's the format of the tournament is it swiss style?
Edit, wiki says it is
Norway could put out a strong side - Carlsen, Hammer and 2 other GMs, but for whatever reason they haven't. Either top players couldn't be bothered or they just decided to give someone else a chance.
Hammer said that he couldn't miss his studies, the other GMs had work they couldn't leave, one just became a father etc. Carlsen played the four previous Olympiads and will play the next, and considering this I'm surprised that he has been so criticised for being absent once. Other top players have been absent much more often, and for Carlsen being the only GM in the team and play opponents in the 2400s many of the rounds would probably not be all that interesting.
Doesn't look like there is a thread for the Istanbul Olympiad yet, and seeing as it starts tomorrow(?) I thought I better start one.