Gorilla Fart #8 – Round 8 Review of the Budapest Olympiad

Report by – Mehul Gohil aka ‘Gorilla’

Team Kenya got wiped out 0-4 by Jordan. As mentioned in the last post, there is massive traffic jam in the points section thus large swings in position placement are going to happen in the finishing straight, which is where we are now.

Team Kenya tumbles to position 136 after rd 8. If that is the position we finish at the end the Olympiad campaign would be a borderline failure. Team Kenya is in a points pack that stretches all the way to the lowly no. 154 (where Senegal, our opponents today, are located). So every point, board point, match point, totally counts BIG.

On all but one board we were simply crushed by Jordan.

Malek Saif v Robert Mcligeyo board 2

McLigeyo had a golden chance to bag a win had he found the relatively simple intermezzo (Ng6). Instead he played for a dubious idea which involved an exchange sac and Rf5. This looked outwardly attractive and momentarily convincing until his opponent produced a nifty Queen shift (Qd6!) which extinguished any attack McLigeyo had.

McLigeyo ended up in a technically lost position. To his credit he put up a bitter fight. And gradually his opponent started to discombobulate under the salvo of precise and active defensive moves McLigeyo essayed. Alas, at the final moment, McLigeyo blundered, just when the position was probably just a drawn Queen and Pawn endgame.

What I noted was a pattern in McLigeyo’s mistakes which I alluded to in my very first Olympiad article. He fails to notice subtle of masked tactics by the opponent. In this case Qd6! and Qe1! in the Jordan game. And McLigeyo played his bad moves rather quickly.

Thus, so far, Team Kenya has still not done anything special compared to the previous outing. And today is totally a must win situation. Then in Rd 10 they have to beat a stronger team to come out with great chances to make the campaign a success. Otherwise it is looking like deja vu.

In the last few Olympiads we have started well then faded in the finishing straight.

Hopefully this team can change that narrative.

Team Kenya from left Robert Mcligeyo, Martin Njoroge, Ian Mutuge & Matthew Kanegeni. Photo credit Matthew Kanegeni. Gorilla Fart #8 — Team Kenya from left Robert Mcligeyo, Martin Njoroge, Ian Mutuge & Matthew Kanegeni. Photo credit Matthew Kanegeni.

Game Corner

About Mehul Gohil

Mehul Gohil is the a three times Kenya National Chess Champion (2014, 2019 & 2022. He has won several major events in the country including the 66th Nairobi Chess Club Championship.