Olympiad Home Nations Watch: England unbeaten at the halfway break

From here on, Inter Mezzo's Olympiad coverage is changing focus.

There are plenty of places covering the same medal contenders, the same top-board games and the same global storylines. Rather than repeat them, we are going to concentrate on the chess closer to home: England, Scotland, Wales and Ireland.

Six of the eleven rounds are now complete in Samarkand. There are 206 teams in the Open and 189 in the Women's section, and the four Home Nations have arrived at the rest day with very different tournaments behind them.

England's Open team are still unbeaten. Wales Women are substantially outperforming their starting rank. Ireland and Scotland have both had strong moments mixed with difficult matches.

And every single one of the eight teams started the Olympiad in exactly the same way: a 4-0 win in Round 1.

Six rounds later, the paths have separated.

Home Nations after Round 6

Starting rank against current position is useful context rather than a verdict. It does not account for the strength of opposition actually faced, Swiss pairings or tiebreaks.

Open section

England: unbeaten and still in the chasing pack

England reach the rest day 10th, one place above their starting rank, with four wins and two draws.

The latest point came from a 2-2 draw with France. Nikita Vitiugov drew Maxime Vachier-Lagrave on board one, Michael Adams beat Etienne Bacrot, Gawain Jones lost to Marc'Andria Maurizzi, and Luke McShane drew Jules Moussard.

There was a neat statistical quirk in there too: both decisive games qualified for the IMSC upset tracker. Adams, rated 2598, beat 2620-rated Bacrot for a +22 upset, while 2612-rated Maurizzi beat 2633-rated Jones for +21.

Vitiugov remains unbeaten on 4/6, but McShane has England's best score by percentage so far: 4/5, with three wins and two draws. Adams and Daniel Fernandez are both on 3/4.

• R1: beat Monaco 4-0
• R2: beat Tajikistan 3-1
• R3: drew Lithuania 2-2
• R4: beat Singapore 3-1
• R5: beat Georgia 2.5-1.5
• R6: drew France 2-2

Round 7 is rather less forgiving: India.

Scotland: work to do after three consecutive wins became three defeats

Scotland sit 83rd from a starting rank of 60.

They began with a 4-0 win over Oman, were heavily beaten by Armenia, then responded with convincing wins over Zimbabwe and Luxembourg. Since then the direction has reversed: Switzerland beat them 3-1 in Round 5 and El Salvador followed with a 2.5-1.5 win in Round 6.

Against El Salvador, Rishi Vijayakumar won and Konstantinos Megalios drew, but Andrew Greet and Murad Abdulla both lost.

Carlos Morales's win over Greet was also a significant rating upset: Morales was rated 2244 against Greet's 2416, a gap of 172 points.

Megalios leads Scotland's scoring with 3.5/5, with Vijayakumar and Abdulla both on 3/5.

• R1: beat Oman 4-0
• R2: lost 3.5-0.5 to Armenia
• R3: beat Zimbabwe 3.5-0.5
• R4: beat Luxembourg 3.5-0.5
• R5: lost 3-1 to Switzerland
• R6: lost 2.5-1.5 to El Salvador

They face Jamaica after the rest day.

Wales: right on their starting rank

Wales came in seeded 100th and currently sit 101st. You cannot get much closer than that.

Round 6 brought their third victory of the event, 3-1 against Guyana. Jose Camacho Collados, Ifan Rathbone-Jones and Iwan Cave all won, with Alex Bullen losing the remaining board.

Rathbone-Jones has been outstanding: 4.5/5, four wins, one draw and no defeats.

• R1: beat Saint Kitts and Nevis 4-0
• R2: lost 3-1 to Singapore
• R3: beat Qatar 3-1
• R4: lost 3-1 to Uruguay
• R5: lost 2.5-1.5 to Saudi Arabia
• R6: beat Guyana 3-1

Macau, China are next.

Ireland: O'Gorman leading the way

Ireland are 86th from a starting rank of 66, with two wins, two draws and two losses.

Their Round 6 match against Jamaica finished 2-2. Tom O'Gorman won on board one, Adam Collins and Kavin Venkatesan drew, while Alexander Baburin lost to Shreyas Smith.

O'Gorman has been Ireland's standout scorer with 4.5/6: four wins, one draw and one defeat.

• R1: beat Saint Lucia 4-0
• R2: lost 4-0 to Poland
• R3: beat Malawi 4-0
• R4: drew Denmark 2-2
• R5: lost 2.5-1.5 to Brazil
• R6: drew Jamaica 2-2

Hong Kong, China await in Round 7.

Upsets of the Olympiad: Open Round 6

Round 6 produced 62 qualifying rating upsets, the highest Open total of the tournament so far. Draws, forfeits and games involving an unrated player are excluded.

The IMSC test remains unchanged: a completed decisive game counts only when a player with a published numeric rating beats a higher-rated opponent.

None of the Home Nations results reached the Round 6 top ten, but several qualified. Alongside the two decisive games in France-England, El Salvador's Carlos Morales beat Scotland's Andrew Greet by 172 rating points, Anthony Drayton beat Wales's Alex Bullen by 93, and Jamaica's Shreyas Smith beat Ireland's Alexander Baburin by 72.

View every Open Round 6 game, sorted by rating upset → · View all Open upsets →

Open Top 10 after Round 6

The official Chess-Results order is retained. MP is match points, TB2 is the official tiebreak applied after match points, and GP is game points.

England therefore reach halfway in a group of seven teams on ten match points, with the official tiebreak placing them tenth.

View the full Open standings after Round 6 →

Women's section

England: Bodhana leads the story

England sit 28th from a starting rank of 20 after four wins and two losses.

Round 6 brought a narrow 2.5-1.5 defeat to sixth-seeded Ukraine. Bodhana Sivanandan drew Anastasiia Hnatyshyn on board one, Lan Yao drew Anna Ushenina, and Jovanka Houska drew Nataliya Buksa. The only decisive game was on board four, where Anastasiya Rakhmangulova beat Elmira Mirzoeva.

The headline for England is still Bodhana.

Four wins. Two draws. No losses.

She is 5/6 after six rounds and has played every match.

Mirzoeva has also had a strong event despite the Round 6 defeat, with 4/5. Harriet Hunt is unbeaten on 3.5/4. Houska has had the quieter tournament, scoring 1.5/4, although her only loss came back in Round 3.

• R1: beat Barbados 4-0
• R2: beat Nigeria 3.5-0.5
• R3: beat Brazil 3-1
• R4: lost 2.5-1.5 to Azerbaijan
• R5: beat Australia 4-0
• R6: lost 2.5-1.5 to Ukraine

They face Turkmenistan in Round 7.

Ireland: slightly ahead of seed

Ireland are 53rd after entering the event seeded 56th.

They bounced back from a heavy Round 5 defeat to Iran by beating Syria 3-1. Trisha Kanyamarala and Diana Mirza won, while Lara Putar and Antonina Gora drew.

Gora leads the Irish scoring with 3.5/5, while Mirza has 3/4.

• R1: beat Myanmar 4-0
• R2: lost 4-0 to Germany
• R3: beat Nicaragua 3.5-0.5
• R4: beat Jamaica 3.5-0.5
• R5: lost 3.5-0.5 to Iran
• R6: beat Syria 3-1

Latvia are next.

Scotland: three places above seed

Scotland sit 57th from a starting rank of 60.

They beat Jamaica 3-1 in Round 6. Ketevan Arakhamia-Grant, Alice Lampard and Eve Clark supplied the wins, while Kanishka Bhatia lost to Rachel Miller.

That defeat qualifies for the upset tracker: Miller was rated 1974, 119 points below Bhatia.

Bhatia still leads Scotland's scoring overall with 3.5/6.

• R1: beat Bermuda 4-0
• R2: lost 4-0 to Serbia
• R3: beat Hong Kong, China 3-1
• R4: lost 3-1 to Ukraine
• R5: beat Guatemala 2.5-1.5
• R6: beat Jamaica 3-1

Austria are their Round 7 opponents.

Wales: 16 places above seed

Of the eight Home Nations teams, Wales Women have made the biggest climb against their starting position.

They entered seeded 85th and sit 69th with seven match points.

Round 6 ended 2-2 against Lithuania, and both Welsh wins were rating upsets. Olivia Smith, rated 2039, beat 2101-rated Salomeja Zaksaite, while 1947-rated Imogen Camp beat Gabija Simkunaite, rated 2035.

Susanna Fraser and Syringa Camp lost the other two boards.

• R1: beat Chad 4-0
• R2: lost 4-0 to Canada
• R3: beat Kosovo 4-0
• R4: lost 4-0 to Colombia
• R5: beat Haiti 3.5-0.5
• R6: drew Lithuania 2-2

Luxembourg come next.

Upsets of the Olympiad: Women's Round 6

The Women's section produced 47 qualifying upsets, also a new high for this Olympiad.

Wales contributed two qualifying upsets to the full list through Smith and Imogen Camp, while Rachel Miller's win over Scotland's Bhatia also qualifies.

View every Women's Round 6 game, sorted by rating upset → · View all Women's upsets →

Women's Top 10 after Round 6

England are 28th on eight match points, Ireland 53rd on eight, Scotland 57th on eight, and Wales 69th on seven.

View the full Women's standings after Round 6 →

Round 7: Home Nations fixtures

The players now have the free day before Round 7 on Wednesday.

Open

• England v India
• Scotland v Jamaica
• Wales v Macau, China
• Hong Kong, China v Ireland

Women's

• England v Turkmenistan
• Austria v Scotland
• Wales v Luxembourg
• Latvia v Ireland

My take

Well, there we are. Six rounds down, five to go, and the Olympiad has reached its rest day.

Hanging queens, queen sacrifices, game-losing blunders, game-winning tactics. It has been a fantastic tournament to watch. But from this point on, this is where I want our attention to be: the Home Nations.

Start with England Women and Bodhana Sivanandan.

What a prospect.

Four wins, two draws, six games, still undefeated. She is setting this Olympiad alight. England as a team are a little below their 20th-place seed at 28th, but Bodhana's form is the story I keep coming back to.

Ireland Women are slightly ahead of seed in 53rd. There have been extremes: a 4-0 defeat to Germany, two 3.5-0.5 wins, another heavy loss to Iran, then a good 3-1 response against Syria. Plenty to enjoy there.

Scotland are also just ahead of their starting position, 57th from 60th, and have now won four of six matches.

Then Wales.

Seeded 85th. Sitting 69th.

That is a proper first half. Two 4-0 wins, two 4-0 defeats, a big win over Haiti and now a draw against a higher-seeded Lithuanian side in which both Welsh victories were rating upsets. They are genuinely shining.

Over in the Open, England remain unbeaten.

They came in 11th and sit 10th, and a Round 7 match with India is exactly the sort of fixture you want if you are trying to find out how serious a medal challenge might be.

Ireland and Scotland are both below their starting ranks and will want stronger second halves. Wales, meanwhile, are almost exactly where they started and arrive at the break on the back of a 3-1 win.

The stat I like most, though, goes all the way back to the opening day.

England. Scotland. Wales. Ireland.

Open and Women's.

All eight teams won 4-0 in Round 1.

You could not have asked for a better start.

And now they get a day off.

The official Olympiad invitation confirms that the Bermuda Party takes place before the free day, continuing one of the tournament's long-running traditions.

So enjoy the rest day.

And if a few Round 7 opponents enjoy the Bermuda Party just a little too much, I am sure nobody back home will complain.

Just kidding...

Probably.

Sources

• Chess-Results - Open Round 6 individual results
• Chess-Results - Open standings after Round 6
• Chess-Results - Women's Round 6 individual results
• Chess-Results - Women's standings after Round 6
• Chess-Results team composition, starting-rank and Round 7 pairing pages for the Open and Women's sections
• FIDE official 46th Chess Olympiad invitation and schedule - Bermuda Party and free-day confirmation