Team Australia's Olympiad Wrap: 5 Things To Celebrate
Australia's Open and Women's teams concluded their Open and Women's campaigns on Sunday after 11 grueling rounds and I'd like to take this opportunity to showcase some of the key takeaways from the event... starting with an extraordinary individual performance...
1. Australia has a new master - WFM Zhiyuan Shen
A 7/10 score and 2205 rating performance by Zhiyuan (Flora) Shen was one of the greatest individual highlights for Australia in Budapest and her performance earned her the Women's FIDE Master title. Scoring 4/5 to kick off the tournament, Flora's form was never in doubt and I'm sure this will be the first of many Olympiad appearances for newly minted master.
WGM Jilin Zhang also had a standout individual performance with 6.5/9, making her the only Australian player to go undefeated in the event.
2. Bobby Cheng is points away from becoming Australia's 4th 2600
GM Bobby Cheng rises to the occasion when Olympiads come around and following his 2700+ performance in Chennai he backed it up with a 2600+ performance in Budapest.
Wins over the legendary GM Vasyl Ivanchuk and GM David Howell as well as over three dangerous IMs made Bobby's first-round blip against Saudi Arabia's board one a distant memory.
With these results, Bobby is rated 2594 and is a win or two away from crossing one of joining one of chess' most exclusive clubs, the 2600-zone.
3. The Open team veterans finished with simultaneous queen sacrifices
At dinner before the final round, GM Zong-Yuan Zhao unapologetically stated that he was "just going to go for it" regardless of color and that he did! Sitting next to his longtime teammate GM David Smerdon, Yuan felt nostalgic as he bombarded his opponent with tactical shot after shot.
Simultaneous queen sacrifices by the veterans were the perfect way to finish the Olympiad. Both players felt it might be their last for the country but I've been watching these guys play chess long enough to know that they've got the class to represent their country again if they choose to.
4. The women's team upset two top 30 countries
In my first blog, I said that I would focus primarily on the Open team due to me being their captain however the Women's team results made it impossible not to mention them several times here. 2.5-1.5 wins over Israel and Cuba in the second half of the event were landmark victories for Australia. I can't remember seeing a better performance by an Australian women's team at an Olympiad and neither can Yuan (who has attended nine himself).
5. Australia's team culture reached an all-time high
The Australian team came to Budapest as teammates and left as a family. We ate together, prepared and played chess together, and explored the city as a unit for two weeks. Living in close quarters is never easy but hacky-sack sessions (despite us being rubbish at it), spa adventures, and milk tea escapades made it all worth it.
It was a pleasure being a part of this Australian team. We have a lot of work to do to move the game forward back home but with top players like this driving interest in the game, we are in good hands...
