Chess Olympiad

In July/August 2022 the Olympiad, having been switched from Moscow, was held in Chennai, India — amazing organisation by the hosts to put on in 4 months what most countries usually have 4 years to do.

Jersey for the first time entered two teams, and both faced the usual joys of an Olympiad Swiss rollercoaster to finish with an extremely credible 9 points each. The Open team lost 3–1 to Wales in round 11, while the Women finished with a convincing 3.5–0.5 win v Ghana and pulled themselves up to 4th in Category E — an exceptional debut performance. The Open team finished 133rd out of 186 teams, importantly 2 points and 33 places above Guernsey, while the Women finished 122nd out of 159 teams.

Individually, R Ruddy with 5.5/9, L Roberts with 4/10 and D Carpenter with 3.5/7 all secured conditional WCM titles, which will be granted when a rating of 1800 is achieved.

In the Open, Krzysztof (5/8) lost in the last round when a win would have secured the FM title direct, as the rating requirement of 2100 had previously been achieved. Paul Carpenter, on Board one, despite playing 2 GMs, 2 IMs (one of which he drew with), 3 FMs and a CM, scored an exceptional 4/9 — really unlucky not to have been at 50% at any stage to secure the CM title. Jem Gurner was as usual exceptional and scored 6.5/10, which in normal circumstances would have been a conditional FM performance, but one of these being a default meant 5.5/9 was the deemed score — still a well-deserved conditional CM title, which will follow once Jem hits a 2000 rating.

A thanks to the whole squad for giving it their all and doing Jersey proud. It was a privilege to be one of the two Jersey Captains alongside GM Alonso Zapata — a real opportunity to work alongside such a high-profile trainer from the pre-tournament training right throughout the competition, and hopefully Jersey will be lucky enough to have him again for the next one in Budapest 2024.