Chess - The Scotsman 13/09/12 - News - Scotsman.com This is the lesson from the recently concluded 40th Istanbul Olympiad, where players battled for medals, but most of all for national honour. This means that games tended to go on right to the bitter end, even "to the kings," as it were. Several matches in Istanbul saw very draw-ish endings being played on where players would have perhaps shaken hands after 50 moves or so in a tournament. But because this was an Olympiad, matches saw handshakes coming at moves 108 and 121. The longest marathon in Istanbul involved a Scot, as John Shaw and Luc Winants, of Belgium, played out a rook-and-bishop ending, with bishops of opposite colour, to the 144th move as Shaw successfully held the draw against his fellow grandmaster. For the record, the longest-ever Olympiad game was in 1988 at Thessaloniki, with Yasser Seirawan versus Xu Jun, lasting 190 moves before ending in stalemate. Shaw was also Scotland's top performer in Istanbul with a score of 6.5/9 (72 per cent) on board three. Scotland finished just below their seeding in 76th place in the Open, with the other individual scores being: Colin McNab 5/9, Keti Arakhamia-Grant 3/9, Alan Tate 3.5/9, and Graham Morrison 4.5/8. L Valdes - J Shaw 40th Istanbul Olympiad, (9) Reti/Catalan Opening 1 Nf3 d5 2 g3 Bg4 3 Bg2 c6 4 c4 e6 5 0-0 Nf6 6 d4 Nbd7 7 Nbd2 Be7 8 b3 Bh5 9 Bb2 a5 10 a3 0-0 11 Re1 Qb6 12 e4 dxe4 13 Nxe4 Nxe4 14 Rxe4 Rfd8 15 Re3 Bf6 16 Qc1 Bxf3 17 c5 Qc7 18 Rxf3 Be7 19 Qe1 Nf6 20 Rc1 Nd5 21 Rc4 Ra7 22 Bf1 Bf8 23 Bd3 g6 24 h4 h5 25 Rc2 Qd7 26 Rc4 Bg7 27 Bb1 Re8 28 Rd3 Bf6 29 Rd2 Kg7 30 Re2 Rd8 31 Re4 Qc7 32 Qd2 Raa8 33 Bc1 Rh8 34 Qc2 Ne7 35 Bd2 Nf5 36 Bc3 Rhd8 37 Qb2 Rd5 38 Re2 Rad8 39 Rd2 Nxg3! 40 fxg3 Qxg3+ 41 Rg2 Qxh4 42 Qc2 Rxd4 43 Rxd4 Bxd4+ 44 Bxd4+ Qxd4+ 45 Kh2 Qh4+ 46 Kg1 Qe1+ 47 Kh2 Rd1 48 Rxg6+ Kf8 49 Rg8+ Kxg8 50 Qh7+ Kf8 51 Qh6+ Ke8 0-1