CHESS OLYMPIAD - 2022

Olympiad – In July/August 2022 the Olympiad having been switched from Moscow was held in Chennai, India and amazing organisation by them to put on in 4 months what most countries usually have 4 years to do.

Jersey for the first time entered two teams and both faced the usual joys of an Olympiad Swiss rollercoaster to finish with an extremely credible 9 points each, the Open team losing 3-1 to Wales in round 11 while the Women finished with a convincing 3.5-0.5 win v Ghana and pulled themselves up to 4th in Category E and an exceptional debut performance. The Open team finished 133rd out of 186 teams and importantly 2 points and 33 places above Guernsey while the Women finished 122nd out of 159 teams

Individually R Ruddy with 5.5/9, L Roberts with 4/10 and D Carpenter with 3.5/7 all secured conditional WCM titles which will be granted when a rating of 1800 is achieved.

In the open Krzysztof with 5/8 lost in last round when a win would have secured the FM title direct as rating requirement of 2100 had previously been achieved.

Paul Carpenter on Board one despite playing 2 GMs / 2 IMs one of which he drew with and 3 FMs and a CM scored an exceptional 4/9 and really unlucky to not have been at 50% at any stage to secure the CM title.

Jem Gurner was as usual exceptional and scored 6.5/10 which in normal circumstances would have been a conditional FM performance but unfortunately one of these being a default meant 5.5/9 was the deemed score and the well deserved conditional CM title which will follow once Jem hits a 2000 rating which is in line with this tournament performance rating and presumably only a matter of time.

Overall results of both competitions were –

Open –

1st Uzbekistan - 19/22 (on tiebreaker)

2nd Armenia – 19/22

3rd India 2 – 18/22

Women

1st Ukraine – 18/22 (on tiebreaker)

2nd Georgia – 18/22

3rd India – 17/22 (on tiebreaker)

A thanks to the whole squad for giving it their all and doing Jersey proud. It was a privilege to be one of the two Jersey Captains alongside GM Alonso Zapata a real opportunity to work alongside such a high profile trainer from the pre tournament training right throughout the competition and maybe Jersey will be lucky enough to have him again for the next one in Budapest 2024