Press Release

34th WORLD CHESS OLYMPIAD
PRESS RELEASE 5: 2000/11/02

National Under-20 Champion Junior Taitt and
Mutual Open Junior Championship in action against Botswana

Mutual Open Junior Champion Askari Elson and National Under 20 Champion Junior Taitt continued to impress at the 34th World Chess Olympiad in Istanbul when they pulled off two fine victories to save the round four match against Botswana.

An unsound double sacrifice by Botswana's Boane Kealeboga gave Elson two pieces for two pawns and an easy win on board 3. Taitt on board 4 out played Polite Salani with a deadly King side attack which netted him Salani's queen and the game.

With Barbados leading 2-0 and Dirk Austin in a good position on board 2, it looked certain that the Bajans were on track for an easy victory. But as so often happens at this level, one inaccuracy can change the entire character of a match.

A terrible miscalculation on board 1 by FIDE Master Dr. Philip Corbin (2246) gave Ignatius Njobvu (2149) the exchange. Corbin's efforts to save the game proved futile and suddenly the Botswana were back in with a chance to draw the match.

On board 2, Austin in a good position fell into a tactic that gave Boipuso Samuel (2117) a pawn. Austin then had to endure a long endgame struggle that unfortunately ended with a win to tie the match for Botswana 2-2.

Day 5 also saw respectable results from the Jamaica who scored a 2-2 draw with 65th seed Albania.Trinidad & Tobago loss a hard fought match to hosts Turkey 1.5-2.0, but not with out the pleasure of a top board win by Yogendranath Ramsingh over Turkish International Master Can Arduman (2397).

Germany continued their fine run with a major 3-1 win over Isreal and now hold with 16.5 points.

The Germans used their bottom boards effectively to secure the match with Grandmasters Rustem Dautov (2606) and Klaus Bishoff (2556) winning against Grandmasters Boris Avrukh (2625) and Alexander Huzman (2574), while Grandmasters Artur Jussupow (2610) and Dr. Robert Huebner (2615) held Boris Gelfand (2681) and Ilia Smirin (2677) to draws on the top two boards.

Dr. Robert Huebner (2615),
German Grandmasters Rustem Dautov (2606) and Klaus Bishoff (2556)

The Russians, on table 2, crushed Brazil 3.5-05 to move into 2nd position on 15.5, while Slovakia score a big 4-0 win over Myanmar to take 3rd on 15 points.

On the Women's tables Georgia defeated Yugoslavia 2-1 and China won 2.5-0.5 against Kazakhstan to end up sharing the lead with 12 points. The Netherlands dispatched Moldova 2-1 to take 3rd position half a point behind the leaders.

Results from the top 10 boards Men:

1. Israel 1.0 - Germany 3.0
2. Brazil 0.5 - Russia 3.5
3. Switzerland 1.5 - Ukraine 2.5
4. Hungary 2.0 - India 2.0
5. Spain 2.0 - Netherlands 2.0
6. Yugoslavia 1.5 - England 2.5
7. Armenia 3.0 - Turkmenistan 1.0
8. Slovakia 4.0 - Myanmar 0.0
9. Sweden 2.0 - Poland 2.0
10. Kyrgyzstan 1.0 - China 3.0

Results from the top 10 boards Women:

1. Yugoslavia 1.0- Georgia 2.0
2. China 2.5 - Kazakhstan 0.5
3. Moldova 1.0 - Netherlands 2.0
4. Vietnam 1.0 - Ukraine 2.0
5. Romania 0.5 - Russia 2.5
6. Belarus 1.0 - Poland 2.0
7. Spain 1.5 - Israel 1.5
8. Greece 3.0 - Slovakia 0.0
9. Mongolia 0.5 - Hungary 2.5
10. England 3.0 - Uzbekistan 0.0