Round 12

Russia must still work hard to secure the gold medals in the last two rounds of the 35th Chess Olympiad at Bled despite a 2.5-1.5 victory over Croatia. Second seeds Hungary won by the same margin over Georgia thanks to a victory from Judit Polgar and Russia's lead remains at two points. The Croatians just surrendered in their two games with black and lost quickly but Robert Zelcic defeated Peter Svidler. England lost narrowly to China after three draws and a loss for Jon Speelman who has been out of sorts throughout. It was a typical Speelman game with a dubious opening, then huge complications but after some imaginative play Speelman missed a trick in a strange endgame where his two knights could have blocked his opponent's three passed pawns. Speelman's opponent Zhang Zhong eventually won on the ninety fifth move. England still need either Speelman, John Emms or Stuart Conquest to support the top three - who are all playing superbly - in the last two rounds. Perhaps this morning's arrival of team sponsor David Norwood will spur them to greater efforts. There were some surprising results with the Armenians defeating Ukraine 3-1. Vladimir Akopian, defeated Fide championship finalist in 1999 overcame reigning champion Ruslan Ponomariov. Canada continued their fine run by holding Poland to a 2-2 draw. The prodigy Mark Bluvshtein scored another win. Armenia jumped to third but the next eight teams including England are only a point or half a point behind and all are with a chance of the bronze medals. In round thirteen England play Germany who were silver medal winners at the last Olympiad at Istanbul.

Chess Olympiad round twelve leading results Russia 2.5-1.5 Croatia; Hungary 2.5-1.5 Georgia; China 2.5-1.5 England; Ukraine 1-3 Armenia; Canada 2-2 Poland Scores: 1 Russia 34½; 2 Hungary 32½; 3 Armenia 30; 4-6 Georgia China Israel 29½; 7-11 Poland England Croatia Yugoslavia Canada 29; 12-14 Netherlands Germany Greece 28½; 15-21 Bosnia Ukraine India France Lithuania Macedonia Sweden 28; Scotland Ireland 25; Scotland 24; Women's Olympiad 1-2 China Georgia 25½; 3 Russia 25; 4-5 Poland Vietnam 23; 6 Armenia 22½ 7-9 United States Bulgaria Ukraine 22; 10 India 21½ 11 Slovakia 21½ 12 Romania 21 13 Hungary 21 14 Yugoslavia 21 15 France 21 16 Greece 21 17 Azerbaijan 21 18 England 21;Wales Scotland 17; Ireland 14; England individual performances Michael Adams 7.5/11 Nigel Short 8/11 Jon Speelman 4/8 Luke McShane 6/10 Stuart Conquest 2½/5 John Emms 1/3

McShane,L (2546) - Ni Hua (2545) [A45]
Olympiad Bled SLO (12), 07.11.2002

1.d4 Nf6 2.Bg5 c5 3.d5 Qb6 4.Nc3 Qxb2 5.Bd2 Qb6 6.e4 d6 7.f4 e6! 8.Nf3 exd5 9.e5 dxe5 10.fxe5 Ne4 11.Nxd5 Qd8 12.c4 [ 12.Bb5+ Nc6 13.c4 a6 14.Qa4 Bd7 15.Bf4 Rc8 16.Bxc6 Bxc6 17.Qc2 Bxd5 18.0-0-0 Qa5 19.Rxd5 Nc3 20.Qf5 Qc7 21.Re1 g6 22.Qf6 Nxd5 23.cxd5 Qd8 24.Qxh8 Qxd5 25.Bh6 Qc4+ 26.Kd1 Rd8+ 27.Nd2 Qg4+ 28.Kc1 Kd7 29.Bxf8 Kc8 30.e6 Qxg2 31.Rd1 fxe6 32.Qf6 Qd5 33.Be7 Rd7 34.Qf8+ Kc7 35.Bh4 Qxa2 36.Bg3+ Kb6 37.Qf4 Kb5 38.Qf1+ c4 39.Qf6 Rd3 40.Qb2+ Qxb2+ 41.Kxb2 c3+ 42.Kc2 Rxd2+ 0-1 Sosa,L-Almeida,O/Havana CUB 1999 (42). ] 12...Bg4 13.Qb1! Nxd2 14.Qxb7 Nxf3+ 15.gxf3 Bxf3 16.Nc7+ Ke7 17.Nd5+ Ke8 18.Nc7+ Ke7 19.Nd5+ Ke8 20.Nc7+

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