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Hi Andrew
Thanks for your comments - I know they were following the squad's performance and were very impressed by so many good results, especially so early on - not least by yourself.
Despite his grading performance I think J. was quite rusty and certainly his 'improvements' in the Lopez will not be widely adopted - see rd 8!
Good luck for the remaining games!
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Hi folks. Another rather difficult day today, I'm afraid. Ian was first finished with a comfortable victory, and Murad also made his return to winning ways to get back to a plus score. It was a good day for our two players in the main hall - there are three halls here: the main venue which contains the live boards from each section, plus the G12, G14 and B14 sections; another playing host to the remainder of the under-8s, under-10s and the boys under-12s; while a third hall houses the U16 and U18 events, all of which makes for a lot of walking for me - as Alexander got on the board with a solid draw as Black against an 1850+ opponent and Anna did very well to win her game.
Elsewhere results were a bit disappointing, but everyone is still fairly cheerful. The squad is currently following the usual routine of analysing the day's action sitting round a picnic table outside the hotel - the older players in particular are invaluable in the contribution they make to helping with the post-mortems of their teammates' games.
Two more rounds to go - everyone here is very much focused on ensuring that we score as many points as possible over the next two days.
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great results and a great learning experience for our intrepid explorers. well done and hopefully more to come. =)
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Prague calling... After a slightly disappointing start, with a couple of quick defeats, we ended up having some good results today. Liam did very well to outplay his opponent over the late middlegame and endgame,and was joined in the winners' enclosure by Kai, who somehow managed to garner a full point from what looked a very dodgy endgame. Andrew recovered from yesterday's defeat to post a solid draw against another highly-rated opponent, while Nihad was annoyed not to win his game but relieved to have salvaged a half-point after misplaying. The story of the round, however, was the impressive 3/3 posted by our squad's female contingent, with Ali, Alice and Anna harvesting a point each, and all so far as I could see doing so reasonably comfortably.
6/13 today - not quite up there with our R3 and R4 efforts, but a considerable improvement on recent days! The focus now is on ensuring that as many people as possible sign off with a win tomorrow...
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Good luck to everyone for the final round. They always have a different feel to the other rounds, as often there is much less pressure on. Hopefully that means everyone can play some good stuff and finish off positively.
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Good luck for the final round guys. Safe trip home too! =)
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Well done today to the A team- Ali, Alice and Anna! Scotland's spice girls. Not long Ali and AlIce to you head over to Istanbul to join up with Heather, Rosie and Joy...they are more old spice. (and you can bet that's going to come back to haunt me). Yes, a pretty good day in Prague, let's go all out for a cracking finish tomorrow,
Robin.
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We finished the tournament today with our best day yet. At one stage the players in the clubhouse had scored 5/5 between them, and the squad managed a total of 9 points (all wins) this round. Andrew finished off his excellent tournament with a good win, as he navigated through complications better than another higher-rated opponent, making him our top scorer on 5/9. Ali won her second game in a row to finish next highest on 4.5. Anna triumphed again to complete a barnstorming finish (wins in rounds 7, 8 and 9) for a score of 4/9, alongside Ian, who also won well today. Alexander got his first win - an extremely comprehensive one - in his last game to finish on a high, while Liam and Vagif also carded victories. Nihad recovered well from yesterday's disappointment to win, as did Hamish, who was finished in 20 moves after his opponent blundered in an already difficult position.
Thanks very much to everyone who's expressed support throughout this tournament. I'm now hoping that we all make it home tomorrow evening in one piece (well, except for those travelling on to Istanbul for the Olympiad and the attendant Under-16 event: spare a thought for Mahir and Murad, whose bus from the hotel to the airport is picking them up at 3.30am...)!
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The guys & girls involved in the Olympiad are going to be tired but I am sure its going to be great fun! Good luck.
