From left to right, Elizabeth Manuel, Menandro Manuel, Jamie Kenmure (team captain), Roberto Hernandez (Board 1) and Bernardo Garcia (Board 3)
(Photo by Brian Jones)
OPEN WINNER IN ISTANBUL
Armenia won the 40th Olympiad on tiebreak from Russia, with Ukraine in 3rd place. Gold Medalist Armenia and Silver Medalist Russia drew with each other and conceded only one match (to China and USA respectively). Both defeated the 2010 winner Ukraine.
Aronian lead on top board with only a single loss and a 2854 rating performance. Akopian went through unbeaten on board 3 with a 2821 rating performance. Movsesian, Sargissian and Petrosian completed the Armenia team, which repeated its success in 2008.
Russia were unlucky not to win the Gold Medal. After the drawn match with Armenia in round 6, they continued their winning ways until they lost against the USA team in round 9, when their top 2 boards (Kramnik and Grischuk) failed to score. (Armenia had lost to China in round 7 but the tiebreaks always favoured Armenia).
Jakovenko was unbeaten at board 5, scoring 7/9 for a 2801 rating performance. Karjakin was unbeaten on board 3, scoring 7/10 for a 2797 rating performance. Kramnik and Grischuk played respectably and Tomashevsky drew all his 5 games. In the end everything was lost with the shock defeat against the USA!
OCEANIA OPEN TEAMS
The Australian team finished 32nd, well ahead of the seedings of 61st. Moulthun Ly was the best performer, scoring 7/10 at board 2 for a rating performance of 2558. Max Illingworth scores 7/10 on board 5, with a rating performace of 2474 to confirm his IM title. Stephen Solomon scored an excellent 6/9 including an important last round swindle that salvaged a draw against Slovakia.
David Smerdon was doing well until he took his eye off the ball in the last 3 rounds. Aleks Wohl had another Olympiad he will want to forget!
The New Zealand team finished 97th, which was closed to their seedings of 91st. Nicolas Croad was the best performer scoring 6/10 at board 2 for an outstanding rating performance of 2418, Michael Steadman with 4.5/9 and Luke Lee with 4.5/8 performed satisfactorily and were close to their rating on boards 3 & 5.
Russell Dive struggled with 3.5/10 on board 1. Paul Garbett had a shocker. Overall a satisfactory result for New Zealand, who still missed their top players. Alas, Murray Chandler had retired and Puchen Wang appears lost to the USA. Maybe it's time to send a younger team to future Olympiads?
Three smaller Oceania federations played in the 2012 Open Olympiad in Istanbul. PNG, Fiji and Palau all played with commendable spirit but generally struggled.
The PNG top boards Stuart Fancy and Helmut Marko scored 50% and the new team captain, Bulgarian coach GM Dejan Bojkov, helped Craig Skelan to score his first full point ever in a Chess Olympiad.
Calvin Prasad, Sam Goundar and Gor Arvind helped the Fijian team to score three match wins but PNG finished better with draw, draw, win.
Roberto Hernandez, Bernardo Garcia and Menandro Manuel scored respectably for Palau and help avoid last place! But, as always, the Oceania teams missed their best players due to lack of financial support.
OPEN ROUND BY ROUND IN ISTANBUL
ROUND 1
Australia won 3-1 against the 137th seed Namibia. New Zealand lost to 14th seed Germany. (Nic Croad held GM Kenkin to a draw). PNG, Fiji and Palau were all outclassed.
ROUND 2
Australia drew 2-2 against 54th seed Norway (no Magnus Carlsen). New Zealand defeat the 123rd seed Nepal. Fiji scored their first win -- against the 120th seed Kenya. PNG and Palau both blanked.
ROUND 3
Australia lost narrowly to the 56th seed Mongolia. New Zealand were blanked by the 63rd seed Paraguay. PNG lost 1-3 to 131st seed South Korea. Fiji and Palau both blanked.
ROUND 4
Australia narrowly beat the 100th seed Pakistan. New Zealand outclass Kuwait. Fiji drew with South Korea. PNG lost narrowly to the 140th seed Chinese Taipe. Palau scored a half point against 128th seed Hong Kong.
ROUND 5
Australia narrowly beat the 83rd seed Zambia. New Zealand lost to the unsighted men. PNG blanked Burundi. Palau score first ever win -- against the US Virgin Isles.
ROUND 6
Australia lost narrowly to the 49th seed Macedonia. New Zealand narrowly beat the 74th seed Faroe Islands. PNG squeezed out a win against San Marino. Fiji and Palau both lost.
ROUND 7
Australia drew with 52nd seed Finland. New Zealand drew a tight match with Jordan. PNG were blanked by Faroe Islands. Fiji lost 1-3 to Mauritiana. Prasad won on top board. Palau lost 1-3 to Macau.
ROUND 8
Australia narrowly defeat 69th seed Ireland. New Zealand narrowly lost to 76th seed United Arab Emirates. PNG blanked again this time by Monaco. Fiji defeats Namibia with wins on boards 3 and 4. Palau drew 2-2 with Rwanda.
ROUND 9
Australia drew with 60th seed Tajikistan. New Zealand defeat 106th seed Angola. PNG shared the points with Ghana. (Fancy wins on top board). Fiji lost badly to Barbados. Palau lost 1-3 to Guernsey (Menandro Manuel wins on board 4).
ROUND 10
Australia win 3-1 against 55th seed Singapore. New Zealand lost 3-1 to 62nd seed Albania. PNG drew 2-2 with Haiti (wins for Fancy and Marko on the top 2 boards. Fiji lost to Ghana. Palau defeat Burundi 3-1.
ROUND 11
Australia drew with 42nd seed Slovakia. New Zealand drew with 85th seed Zimbabwe. PNG crushed Sao Tome. Fiji won 4-0 against Burundi. Palau lost 1-3 to San Marino (top board Hernandez scoring the only win).
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