Chess - The Scotsman 31/08/2012

THE symbolic start to the Olympic Games involves the lighting of the torch. With the Chess Olympiad, it seems our symbolic start involves a tradition of two rounds of unreliable live coverage that becomes impossible to follow, invariably accompanied by even more unreliable scores from the matches.

And the behemoth that is the 40th Istanbul Olympiad in Turkey – with 162 teams from 158 countries, and over 1,750 players playing each round – makes for a nightmare for your correspondent to accurately report what is going on. But thankfully, now we are at the end of round two, things are beginning to settle down with the live coverage and results are becoming more reliable and stable.

I was, though, mildly amused during the technical faux pas when the organiser, Ali Nihat Yazici, briefly apologised for all the glitches, adding: “It is not the mistake of the Turkish Chess Federation.” Excuse me, Ali, but if it is not the fault of the organisers, whose is it?

In the open section, after beating the US Virgin Islands in the opening round, Scotland were heavily beaten, 0.5-3.5, in round two by Iran. In the women’s section, Scotland beat Zimbabwe, 2.5-1.5. Our game of interest today comes from the Denmark vs Kazakhstan clash, as the reigning Scottish champion, Jacob Aagaard, ventured the Scotch Game only for his opponent to come up the nice finish of 41 ...Ng3! that leads to mate or a loss of material.

J Aagaard - A Ismagambetov

40th Istanbul Olympiad, (2.19)

Scotch Opening

1 e4 e5 2 Nf3 Nc6 3 d4 exd4 4 Nxd4 Nf6 5 Nxc6 bxc6 6 e5 Qe7 7 Qe2 Nd5 8 c4 Nb6 9 Nc3 a5 10 f4 Qe6 11 Qe4 g6 12 Bd2 Ba6 13 b3 Bc5 14 Qc2 0–0 15 Ne4 Be7 16 Be2 d5 17 cxd5 cxd5 18 Bxa6 Rxa6 19 Nc5 Bxc5 20 Qxc5 Rc8 21 0–0 Nd7 22 Qc2 Rc6 23 Qd1 Nc5 24 Bxa5 Ne4 25 Be1 Ra6 26 Qd3 c5 27 Rd1 Rxa2 28 Qxd5 Qxd5 29 Rxd5 c4 30 bxc4 Rxc4 31 Rf3 Rcc2 32 Kf1 Rxg2 33 h3 Rh2 34 Kg1 Rhe2 35 Kf1 Rh2 36 Kg1 Rhe2 37 Kf1 Kf8 38 Rd7 Rh2 39 Kg1 Rhe2 40 Bb4+ Ke8 41 Rdd3 Ng3! 0–1

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