Following a terrific draw against the 7th seeds, CM Tim Harding has taken some time out to write a quick review of the first three rounds of the World Team Championship 65+ 2016.
Round 1: We lost 0-4 to Belgium (ouch); I fought for 5 hours with Black against an IM who was European senior champion last year. Ray played a pawn sac by accident but his attack nearly came off. Patrick took the day off to watch the Ireland match. Jim and Matt also lost.
Yesterday we beat a local senior team 2.5-1.5 (Jim resting) and it should have been more really as my opponent had an accident and couldn't play so I got a walkover. Matt won and Ray drew.
That gave us two match points and a pairing today against a German club team who are 7th seeds. They rested their octogenarian top board and we managed to draw all four games. Patrick was even a bit better for most of the game but his extra pawn was doubled.
So we are in the middle of the pack with 3 match points from a possible six.
Following Tim's initial report, the Irish team were to play Sachsen-Anhalt, a German team who are 27th seeds. Unfortunately, they lost that match and their subsequent match. Tim's next report picks up from there:
After a couple of tricky days where some good positions were spoilt in the last half hour of play, I am happy to report that today we scored today a win (Jim Murray) and three draws (Patrick, Matt and myself) against another German regional team, Saxone.
Appropriately this was on the 100th anniversary of the outbreak of the Battle of the Somme though I didn't mention the war and it was a very friendly affair.
Tomorrow's draw is not out yet,
I am learning a lot about how tricky it is to be a captain in these events, trying to balance the days off so that everyone gets their share of games and any particular days off they require, while trying to equalise the colours. The latter did not work out too well as Patrick had four Whites and Jim lots of Blacks but we reversed that today and the line up for the next two days is dictated by the need to get Ray and Jim more Whites.
Also Matt leaves early on Monday so cannot play the last round. So trying to optimise the team's chances of winning a match is not the highest priority, and it is much the same for most other teams that have a reserve. It would actually be easier to have a team of four as then everyone would know where they stand from the start - but a couple of teams have had to default games through illness/ unexpected events so there can be a downside to that also. It wasn't clear at first that the pairing system being used prioritises alternating colours on top board for all teams, a German peculiarity to which there have been some objections.
In the 50+ there were two teams on maximum match points after five rounds (Armenia and Germany 1) yet they did not play each other in round 6 and it's not clear when they will. Today Armenia drew with with England 1 (who are two match points behind) while Germany 1 and Iceland (also two points behind) are 1.5-1.5 with a game still in play as I write. Iceland will probably hold the final game but anything can happen on increments.
Tim's next report brought some more good news:
We won 3-1 today so are back on 50 per cent but hard match up tomorrow. Matt and I won; Ray and Patrick drew.
If you'd like to read more about Senior events, please see the below:
The World Team Championship 65+ 2016