Round 13

It appears that there are only the bronze medals left to fight for in the last round of 35th Chess Olympiad at Bled. The eight games in the top two matches; Russia against Israel and Hungary against Armenia were all drawn very quickly. This pretty well secured gold for Russia and silver for Hungary but lower down there was intense competition as the other teams scrambled for third. The Chinese team went all out against Croatia and were rewarded with a 3-1 win that pushed them up the table. Zhang Zhong won a very interesting rook and pawn endgame on the 100th move. The final phase was rook and four pawns against rook and three pawns all on the same side. This is often a draw but the Chinese player had a favourable pawn structure. The Netherlands also showed some determination and won 3.5-0.5 against Greece with Loek Van Wely grinding out a win in a queen and pawn endgame in ninety seven moves. Georgia were fortunate to face Canada who have been surprising a lot of teams but their luck ran out and Georgia's 3.5-0.5 win catapulted them into third. This match ended England's lingering chances of bronze because Georgia reached 33/52, with England in a group of teams two points behind.. England could not get going in their match against Germany. Nigel Short had to defend carefully against Rustem Dautov and Michael Adams tried to attack Christopher Lutz but ended up having to play accurately to maintain equality. The other two games were quick draws.

Chess Olympiad round thirteen results Russia 2-2 Israel; Hungary 2-2 Armenia; China 3-1 Croatia; Georgia 3.5-0.5 Canada; Poland 2-2 Yugoslavia; England draw Germany; Adams (w) draw Lutz; Short draw Dautov; Conquest draw Bischoff; Emms draw Luther; Scotland 3.5-0.5 Iraq; Ireland 4-0 Costa Rica; Wales 1-3 Indonesia; Scores with one match to play 1 Russia 36½; 2 Hungary 34½; 3 Georgia 33; 4 China 32.5; 5 Armenia 32; 6 Israel 31½; 7-10 Netherlands Poland England Yugoslavia 31; Ireland 29 Scotland 28.5; Scotland 25; England individual performances

Michael Adams 8/12; Nigel Short 8.5/12 Jon Speelman 4/8 Luke McShane 6/10 Stuart Conquest 3/6 John Emms 1.5/4

In the Women's Olympiad the Georgian collapse continued when they lost their third successive match and surrendered the lead to defending champions China. The competition is wide open going into the last round. Women's Olympiad 1 China 27; 2-3 Russia Georgia 26.5; 4 Poland 25.5; 5 Vietnam 24.5; 6 United States 24; England 22.5; Wales 18.5 Scotland 18; Ireland 16.5

Gary Kasparov's stellar performance of 7/8 on top board may not be enough for the individual gold medal. The Zimbabwean Robert Gwaze rated 2280 has a perfect 8/8 thanks mainly to the low place his team has occupied for most of the competition. Nevertheless it is still a great achievement.

Almannai Dafi,I - Gwaze,R (2280) [B21]
Olympiad Bled SLO (12), 07.11.2002

1.e4 c5 2.f4 Nc6 3.Nf3 g6 4.c3 d5! 5.e5 Bg7 6.d4 cxd4 7.Nxd4 Nh6 8.Bb5 Bd7 9.e6 fxe6 10.Bxc6 bxc6 11.Qe2 Qc8 12.Nd2 0-0 13.N2f3 Nf5 14.Nb3 c5 15.g4 Nd6 16.Be3 Bb5 17.Qg2 Ne4 18.Nfd2 Bd3 19.h4 Rb8 20.h5 c4 21.hxg6 hxg6 22.Bd4 e5 23.fxe5 Rf4 24.Qh2 Qxg4 25.e6 Bh6 26.Nc1 Nxd2 27.Qxh6 Nf3+

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