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Iceland v Wales
1 IM Gunnarsson Jon Viktor 2462..- FM Jones Richard S 2321.. 0 - 1
2 IM Arngrimsson Dagur 2396......- FM Rees Ioan 2336........ 0 - 1
3 IM Thorfinnsson Bjorn 2395.....- Dineley Richard 2270..... ½ - ½
4 IM Thorfinnsson Bragi 2360.....- Bennett Alan 2108........ ½ - ½
Games
Iceland v Wales
1 IM Gunnarsson Jon Viktor 2462..- FM Jones Richard S 2321.. 0 - 1
2 IM Arngrimsson Dagur 2396......- FM Rees Ioan 2336........ 0 - 1
3 IM Thorfinnsson Bjorn 2395.....- Dineley Richard 2270..... ½ - ½
4 IM Thorfinnsson Bragi 2360.....- Bennett Alan 2108........ ½ - ½
Games
Tim's Report
Never mind "getting warmed up" today Wales were seriously hot ! Just got back from caning Iceland 3-1 and they were lucky to get 1 !!
Richard J's opponent reacted fairly passively to the KID and so our man just took over the initiative and advanced his K-side pawns. The Icelander panicked and tried to stop the flow by sac'ing a piece. He might have thought this would mean he would be attacking from now but Richard just kept on coming at him and smashed through on the K-side.
Ioan just played a beautifully controlled positional win on the White side of a Slav. Confidently rejecting the IM's early draw offer he pressed forward slowly but surely in the centre slowly squeezing the life out of Black's position. An exchange sac brought some temporary activity but not for long as Ioan just got his rooks coordinating neatly for a mating finish.
Richard D had a short but interesting game where White thought for ages in the opening about "winning" a pawn Richard was always happy to gambit. As soon as he got it though, rather than try to consolidate he launched an immediate attack on Richards king, leaving his own exposed to an easy perpetual in return. Richard should really have played on for a winning ending but with everything else going so well was happy to play it safe.
So thats the match won already, now for a bonus could Alan continue his fairytale and even go for an IM Norm ? Well, it didn't start too well and with a serious misjudgement (Bxb5 ?) his king was soon on the run. What followed though was a cool (if comical) escape from having castled queenside all the way back to a totally normal looking position on g1 !! After that he was at least equal but then tried a faulty combination (with the same errant Bishop ! - Bxf7+ ??) and should have been lost but in the time scramble he kept his cool and his opponent fell for one more trick allowing perpetual check. What a game ! I think he's still shaking now ....
So here we are on 6 points (or 3 out of 8 in old money). Its already Wales's best ever performace by a distance at the European Championship and (1) with a round to spare and (2) without having played the bottom seeded team (Monaco). The mood in the camp is ecstatic of course and we'll up for even more tomorrow.
Tim
Never mind "getting warmed up" today Wales were seriously hot ! Just got back from caning Iceland 3-1 and they were lucky to get 1 !!
Richard J's opponent reacted fairly passively to the KID and so our man just took over the initiative and advanced his K-side pawns. The Icelander panicked and tried to stop the flow by sac'ing a piece. He might have thought this would mean he would be attacking from now but Richard just kept on coming at him and smashed through on the K-side.
Ioan just played a beautifully controlled positional win on the White side of a Slav. Confidently rejecting the IM's early draw offer he pressed forward slowly but surely in the centre slowly squeezing the life out of Black's position. An exchange sac brought some temporary activity but not for long as Ioan just got his rooks coordinating neatly for a mating finish.
Richard D had a short but interesting game where White thought for ages in the opening about "winning" a pawn Richard was always happy to gambit. As soon as he got it though, rather than try to consolidate he launched an immediate attack on Richards king, leaving his own exposed to an easy perpetual in return. Richard should really have played on for a winning ending but with everything else going so well was happy to play it safe.
So thats the match won already, now for a bonus could Alan continue his fairytale and even go for an IM Norm ? Well, it didn't start too well and with a serious misjudgement (Bxb5 ?) his king was soon on the run. What followed though was a cool (if comical) escape from having castled queenside all the way back to a totally normal looking position on g1 !! After that he was at least equal but then tried a faulty combination (with the same errant Bishop ! - Bxf7+ ??) and should have been lost but in the time scramble he kept his cool and his opponent fell for one more trick allowing perpetual check. What a game ! I think he's still shaking now ....
So here we are on 6 points (or 3 out of 8 in old money). Its already Wales's best ever performace by a distance at the European Championship and (1) with a round to spare and (2) without having played the bottom seeded team (Monaco). The mood in the camp is ecstatic of course and we'll up for even more tomorrow.
Tim
Still waiting for games to see the comical king... I will upload as soon as they are available
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