1988 Thessaloniki Chess Olympiad
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 26 ส.ค. 2024
- The 28th Chess Olympiad organized by FIDE and comprising an open and a women's tournament, as well as several other events designed to promote the game of chess, took place between November 12 and November 30, 1988, in Thessaloniki, Greece.
Unlike 1984 and 1986 virtually all the strongest players came to Greece apart from Timman and Spraggett maybe, who were in preparation for WCh candidates matches. The seeding was 1. USSR, 2. England, 3. Hungary. The USSR team was lead by two K's (like in Dubai) making them fully-fledged favourites for gold. England, who took silver at last two Olympiads were seeded 2nd - exactly where they were expected to finish by anyone. Hungary were hoping to come back to their successes from earlier Olympiads and their ticket to heaven was a superb trio: Portisch, Sax, Ribli followed by another strong three. USA were lying in 4th according to ELO ranking.
In round 6, USSR met their closest rival England. This big fight turned into a big win when the super big K's beat Short and Speelman while Ehlvest and Ivanchuk drew the other two games. Hungary most unexpectedly lost to Sweden, who took 2nd position, and we had seen the newcomers from East Germany to climb into the medal zone after they had beaten Cuba. On the next day USSR hardly drew vs surprising Sweden, boosting Viking's morale so they became major favourites for silver. East Germany-USA and Yugoslavia-Bulgaria were both draws, yet not without fight. Hungary and England recovered (not fully though) defeating Asian duo, namely Indonesia and India. It was Soviet Union who were in clear lead in the halfway ahead of Sweden who had yet an extra one point advantage over the chasing group including set of major teams as Hungary, Yugoslavia or Holland.
Round 8, scheduled on November 21st brought USSR-Yugoslavia clash at top table and it was Kasparov who sealed Soviet's win. East Germany beat West Germany in an intestine fight of the day. USA earned clear 3 points from their match vs Norway. England murdered Switzerland 3½-½ - Short beat Korchnoi at board 1. Denmark hit the jackpot of the day wiping out Scotland 4-0 to move then up into tied 6th.
On the next day the dream "K" duo secured modest win over mighty Americans. England collapsed Swedish hopes for medals with an undisputed 3-1 paving their way to silver. Hungary beat East Germany and the rest of top matches were draws. On the next day Hungary extricated with 4 draws vs USSR while England killed off East Germany who dropped down to 8th. Yugoslavia entered the medal zone because of confident 3-1 win over Sweden; they tied on points with USA and the Netherlands, who ran over West Germany. Next round saw a quick 4-all draw in a USSR vs Netherlands match. England-USA were also four draws but at least it took full 5 hours of play. Hungary beat Yugoslavia convincingly. East Germany continued their downward plunge losing to Denmark by 3-1. On the next day the Soviets defeated Denmark and England virtually crunched desperate Hungarians earning clear advantage over the chasing group with two rounds to come. Standings: USSR 34, England 31, 1½ point ahead of the rest. In penultimate round Soviet Union sealed their gold medals beating 3-1 Bulgaria. England surprisingly drew Philippines (three brisk draws and Chandler's unsuccessful efforts to beat Barcenilla), Hungary destroyed China and USA hold their medal hopes defeating Yugoslavia.
The USSR won the championship in convincing style, with a total of 40½ points. In the last round they crushed Czechoslovakia 3½-½. The struggle for the silver medals, however, was extremely close. Going into the last round, England had 33 points, ahead of USA, Hungary and Holland, each with 32 points. The USA were to play Hungary while England faced Holland. The USA-Hungary match was 1½-1½ with one adjourned game (Csom-Christiansen). This was finally drawn and both Hungary and the USA ended up with 34 points each. The crunch came in the England-Holland match. If England could hold the draw 2-2 or do even better, the silver medals were their.
Speelman drew with Sosonko. Short was quite lucky to halve with Van der Wiel. Nunn seemed quite lost against Van der Sterren but managed to eke out a draw. Chandler however lost to Piket and thus the Dutch won the match 2½-1½. This put both teams at 34½ point line. Of four possible tie-break methods, three of them favoured the Dutch, but the Buchholz method used as major tie-break gave the Dutch only 455.0 compared to English 457.0. England won the silver and the Dutch had to be satisfied with the bronze. The USA stayed in tied 4th together with Hungary, disappointing for both teams.
It was USSR again to enjoy the power of play of the K's duo in their prime. England took second spot, not without problems though. Their experienced squad, based as usual on Short, Speelman, Nunn and Chandler seemed probable to threaten the Soviets, but they never looked like it. Nunn produced best individual performance