CHESS

The 43rd Chess Olympiad takes place Batumi, Georgia next year, and it is of interest to note that Cape Town was a serious candidate to host this mammoth event. The 42nd Chess Olympiad took place in Baku last year and saw the USA win their first title since 1976 on tie-break from Ukraine after both scored 20 points. The American team was boosted by the heavyweight trio of Fabio Caruana, Hikaru Nakamura and Wesley So. Russia, who took clear 3rd on 18 points would have been disappointed in again not achieving top honours. India, without Anand as usual, were 4th while World Champion Magnus Carlsen’s team Norway finished a very creditable 5th. In the Women’s Olympiad China won on 20 points ahead of Poland and Ukraine on 17 points. Defending champions Russia finished fourth on 16 points level with India, USA, Vietnam, Azerbaijan and Israel. In the Open section South Africa finished in 97th position whilst Egypt 62nd and Zambia 64th finished the best out of the African teams. The South African Ladies team finished in 72nd bolstered by Anzel Laubscher’s superb score of 7/10 on board 2. The winner of the Gold Medal on Board 1 was the highly original Georgian GM, Baadur Jobava. Here we see him demolish Ponomariov in typical fashion. Jobava,Ba (2665) - Ponomariov,R (2709) [A45] 42nd Olympiad 2016 Baku AZE 2016

(Not one for mainline theory White essays a lesser known line of the Veresov)

(A tremendous shot taking advantage of the dark squares) (17...Nh5 18.Qg5 Nc6 19.Rxe6 fxe6 20.Be2 Qc7 21.Bxh5 Kh8 keeps White’s advantage to a minimum. Now it is carnage) (As Rxf7+ is threatened and if 21…Rb8 22 Re1 leaves Black helpless) “In life, unlike chess, the game continues after checkmate” (Isaac Asimov)