MARK RUBERY CHESS

The 43rd Chess Olympiad took place in Batumi Georgia and attracted a record of 185 national chess teams.

Round 3

South Africa 1.5-2.5 Kazakhstan

IM D Cawdery (2416) 0,5-0,5 GM R Jumabayev (2605)

IM W Kobese (2344) 0-1 GM A Ismagambetov (2538)

FM C Classen (2262) 1-0 GM A Kostenko (2459) IM D Van den Heever (2227) 0-1 IM D Makhnev (2449)

A very decent result after the misfortunes of the previous round.

Cawdery went astray in an even middlegame yet he scrambled impressively to deny his GM opponent the point. Kobese missed a tactical shot that cost him a pawn from which there was to be no return. Claasen reached an equal bishop ending arising from the Catalan where his opponent tried to manoeuvre for forty moves without achieving anything and then erred in his desire to avoid a draw. The position was still tricky to realise and White had two wins-one particularly surprising-before allowing Black to reach the sanctuary of a draw. Fortunately for our man the grandmaster lost on time on move 95!

Van den Heever had a slight edge for most of the game before being slowly ground down.

Klaasen,Calvin John (2262) - Kostenko,Petr (2459) [E10]

43rd Olympiad 2018 Batumi GEO (3.3), 2018

1.d4 e6 2.c4 Nf6 3.Nf3 d5 4.g3 Bb4+ 5.Bd2 Bd6 6.Bg2 0–0 7.0–0 Nbd7 8.Qc2 c6 9.Bg5 h6 10.Bxf6 Qxf6 11.Nc3 Qe7 12.e4 dxc4 13.Nd2 e5 14.d5 Nb6 15.dxc6 bxc6 16.Nd1 Ba6 17.Re1 Rfd8 18.Ne3 Bb4 19.Red1 Qe6 20.Bf1 Rd4 21.Nf3 Rxd1 22.Rxd1 Bc5 23.Qc3 Bb5 24.Rc1 Na4 25.Qxe5 Qxe5 26.Nxe5 Bxe3 27.fxe3 Nxb2 28.Nxc4 Nxc4 29.Bxc4 Rb8 30.Bb3 a5 31.Kf2 a4 32.Bc2 Kf8 33.Ke1 Ke7 34.Kd2 Rd8+ 35.Kc3 Rd6 36.Rd1 Rxd1 37.Bxd1 c5 38.Kb2 Kd6 39.Ka3 Bc6 40.Bxa4 Bxe4 41.Bb3 f6 42.Kb2 Kc6 43.Kc3 Kb5 44.a4+ Kc6 45.Bc2 Bd5 46.Bd3 Kb6 47.Bc2 Be6 48.Bb3 Bh3 49.Bd5 Bd7 50.Bb3 Kc6 51.Bd1 g5 52.Be2 Kb6 53.Bd1 Bh3 54.Be2 Be6 55.Bb5 Ka5 56.Be8 Bd5 57.Bb5 Kb6 58.Be8 Kc7 59.a5 Kd6 60.Bb5 Ke5 61.Bd7 Bf3 62.Bc8 Kd6 63.Bf5 Kc6 64.Bd3 Bg4 65.Bf1 Be6 66.Bc4 Bc8 67.Be2 Kc7 68.Bb5 Be6 69.Bc4 Bd7 70.Be2 Be6 71.Bf3 Bf7 72.Ba8 Kb8 73.Bc6 Ka7? (This move Black cannot afford and now the outside passed pawn is most significant) 74.e4! Ka6 75.Bd5 Bg6 76.Kc4 Kxa5 77.Kxc5 f5

SEE DIAGAM

78.exf5 (78.Bf7!! a gorgeous move that our silicon almost casually friend flicks out... Bxf7 79.exf5 Ka6 80.Kd6 Kb6 81.f6 winning.Also the less spectacular

78 e5 looks effective too) 78...Bxf5 79.Bf7 Bg4 80.Kd4 Kb4 81.Ke5 h5? 82.Kf6? (82 Be6! Bd1 83

Kf6 h4 84 g4) …h4 83.Kxg5 hxg3 84.hxg3 Bh3 85.Kf6 Bg4 86.Kg5 Bh3 87.Bg6 Kc5 88.Bf5 Bf1 89.Kf4 Be2 90.Be4 Kd6 91.Bf3 Bd3 92.g4 Ke6 93.Kg5 Kf7 94.Kh6 Bc4 95.Be4 1–0 (Time)

‘Well-stocked up with popcorn and coke, I attended the first session of the Makro versus Dvorkovich Ethics Commission case. The Chairman, Francois Strydom, appears to know what he is doing.’ (Nigel Short on twitter giving praise to our very own head of the FIDE Ethics Commision)