Round 5 went well for the SA teams. The men easily beated the only slightly lower ranked Luxembourg, while the women drew a team of physically disabled people, rated about 100 points higher in avarage.
Watu castled long in an open sicilian and got a winning position by just pushing pawns: f4, g4, f5, g5, g6 and after black took twice the Lion from Africa had a trick, winning an exchange and later the game. Kenny’s opponent also played agressively after a quiet opening, pushing pawns and taking his rook to h4. Kenny just exchanged queens, caught the off side rook and easily won. Henry placed a well known pawn sac in another open sicilian (Bb4 0-0 Bxc3 dxc3 Nxe4). Soon afterwards he sacrificed a piece to active all his pieces. The opponent resigned one move before being mated on f5. A game certainly worth to replay. Johannes had to play against the French exchange variation. After some pieces were exchanged the players settled for a draw.
The ladies had to play IPCA, which means “International Physically Disabled Chess Organisation.” Since the Olympiad is not a tournament for countries, but for organisations who are Fide members, this team can participate. They played with three Russians and an Indian lady and were favourite to win, but our ladies played well. Anzel didn’t start so well and had to go for a drawn double rook endgame with white. Her opponent mistakenly tried to play for a win after which Anzel was better. After some more mistakes by her veteran opponent Anzel won a rook and the game. Jenine played an offbeat opening (4.a4 in the Sicilian) badly and was left with a bad bishop and a hole on d5 against white’s knight, longing to get there. 17 moves later it did finally arrive at d5, after which white won in a few more moves. Carmen got a clear advantage in her favourite closed English opening. The opponent pushed her pawns on the king’s side, but the battery Qg6/Be4 would have been deadly for black. Carmen missed this, and also a trick by her opponent which won an exchange. The endgame of rook against bishop might still have been drawn, but another mistake helped black to win. Monique on 4 played against the English attack. With d5 she favourably opened the position, exchanged some pieces, won a pawn and got a winning endgame of knight against bishop, in which she showed good technique.
Congratulations! Baie geluk, mooi gespeel!
Very Nice…
I’m glad we are playing good chess. With all of you guys playing above your strength and within your styles.
Italy might be tricky, but they are beatable. You guys have proved to have the ‘Giant Killing’ capabilities. A similar or better performance to that vs USA will surely give us a win.
Goodluck!
Ek’s besig om rondte 5 se spelle met chess publisher op my ou skaakblog te sit, sal later vanaand nog plaas…en sal graag die manne se banner ook wil oplaai soos die dames s’n! Dankie!
Ongelukkig kon ek nie Watu se pgn-download nie, toe ek dit wou doen was die link reeds verwyder!
http://chessaleeinlondon.blogspot.com/2008/11/south-africa-at-dresden-2008.html