England not mighty after all

39th Olympiad Khanty-Mansiysk 2010 Open tournament

2nd Round Results

Bosnia & Herzegovina (BIH)    England (ENG) 2½:1½

GM Sokolov Ivan 2641 - GM Adams Michael 2728 1 - 0

GM Predojevic Borki 2624 – GM Short Nigel D 2690 ½ - ½

GM Kurajica Bojan 2535 – GM McShane Luke J 2657 ½ - ½

IM  Stojanovic Dalibor 2496 – GM Howell David W L 2616 ½ - ½

 

Malaysian IM Jimmy Liew made an interesting observation earlier in his blog about a posting in First GM  blog

“I read First GM take on Mas game against Michael Adams. He thinks Mas had chances and should play on. I think he should stick to mind coaching and leave the chess to those who knows something about it. Does he even know who Michael Adams is? Adams did not want to waste energy chasing an extra half point which may or may not be useful in the final tie-breaks”

So many of us  were of opinion that England is a mighty team(comparable to Russia?) , may win all their games and a championship material . 

As England  teams are  perennially underachievers just like in World Cup football 2010  , its not surprising England players were brought down to earth when they were beaten by  Bosnia & Herzegovina 2.5-1.5 in the second round and the Mighty Michael Adams bit the dust against Ivan Sokolov who is 90 rating point below him . Man for man the rest of Bosnian Team are also 70 to 120  rating points below their opponents.May be England can only dazzle with fantastic sacrifices against very much  weaker teams   .

Vietnam also upset another fancied team Azerbaijan ( Land of Garry Kasparov) 2.5-1.5

GM Mamedyarov Shakhriyar 2756 – GM Le Quang Liem 2694 ½ - ½

GM Radjabov Teimour 2748 – GM Nguyen Ngoc Truong Son 2633 ½ - ½

GM Mamedov Rauf 2660 – GM Nguyen Anh Dung 2500 0 – 1

GM Guseinov Gadir 2611- GM Dao Thien Hai 2520 ½ - ½

 

So, Malaysians , forget about rating points and forget about mighty teams , and just play .What have you all got to lose??