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03-03 Contents_Chess mag - 21_6_10 13/12/2019 18:34 Page 3

Chess
Founding Editor: B.H. Wood, OBE. M.Sc †
Contents
Executive Editor: Malcolm Pein Editorial....................................................................................................................4
Editors: Richard Palliser, Matt Read Malcolm Pein on the latest developments in the game
Associate Editor: John Saunders
Subscriptions Manager: Paul Harrington 60 Seconds with...GM Mihail Marin ............................................................7
Twitter: @CHESS_Magazine The leading chess writer still loves to travel to tournaments
Twitter: @TelegraphChess - Malcolm Pein
Website: www.chess.co.uk How Good is Your Chess?..............................................................................12
The Petroff remains under attack, as shown by Daniel King
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1 year (12 issues) £49.95 Luke McShane outplayed the world no.2, and almost won
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James Essinger reports from the country where he wants to be
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Will you manage to solve our teasers over the festive period?
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Post Scriptum (UK only), Chess for Life......................................................................................................34
Unit G, OYO Business Park, Hindmans Way, BH Wood’s former opponent Eugene Salomon is still playing at 91
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The Wily Hendriks Experience.....................................................................36
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On the Comeback Trail ...................................................................................38
Views expressed in this publication are not Bernard Hare enjoyed his first Scarborough Congress in many a year
necessarily those of the Editors. Contributions to
the magazine will be published at the Editors’ The Kan Crushed................................................................................................39
discretion and may be shortened if space is limited. Carl Strugnell continues to enjoy facing the Sicilian
No parts of this publication may be reproduced Never Mind the Grandmasters...................................................................42
without the prior express permission of the publishers.
Carl continues to be rather annoyed by those who eat at the board
All rights reserved. © 2019
Chess Magazine (ISSN 0964-6221) is published by:
Find the Winning Moves.................................................................................44
Chess & Bridge Ltd, 44 Baker St, London, W1U 7RT Can you do as well as the players on the Isle of Man?
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Overseas News...................................................................................................48
Email: [email protected], Website: www.chess.co.uk
Magnus Carlsen was utterly dominant at the Tata Steel Rapid
FRONT COVER:
Home News ..........................................................................................................52
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Cover image: iStock
All the latest results and the ECF Book of the Year winner

US & Canadian Readers – You can contact us via our

Solutions ...............................................................................................................54
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You can even order Subscriber Special Offers online Ben Graff very much enjoyed Jonathan Rowson’s new work
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Saunders on Chess............................................................................................58
John rounds up the Classic and reflects on the London Conference
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04-06 Editorial (Richard Palliser's conflicted copy 2019-12-14)_Chess mag - 21_6_10 17/12/2019 19:08 Page 4

Chess Editorial
By Executive Editor, IM Malcolm Pein @TelegraphChess
Ding the Merciless pre-computer era, one English theoretician Ding runs his king in order to free his kingside
tried to convince us all it was good for White pawns from their task of defending the
Congratulations to world number two and he had a point: White does have easy play monarch.
Ding Liren who was a thoroughly deserving and chances to get in f2-f4 advantageously. 20 Ëf2
winner of the 2019 Grand Chess Tour. Ding Ding’s move order is noteworthy: Magnus 20 g3 Êe8 (20...Ìd4!?) 21 Ëg2 g5!?
overcame Maxime Vachier-Lagrave in the never manages to play f4 until it’s ineffective. would be quite unclear, but feels fine for
final of an event the Frenchman did not really 7 Îe1 Ìd7 8 d3 0-0 9 Ìbd2 f6 10 Ìf1 Black.
want to play, as he had the final leg of the Ìc5 11 Ìg3 g6 was Adams-Pein, Lloyds Bank 20...Êe8 21 Ëh4 Êd7
FIDE Grand Prix to look forward to the next Masters 1986 – get ’em when they’re young!
day. These mixed feelings did not stop MVL 7 d3 Ìd7 8 Ìbd2 0-0 9 a4 a5 10 b3 f6
from brilliantly outplaying Magnus at Blitz to 11 Ìh4 Ìc5 12 Ìf5 Ìe6 13 Ìc4 b6
eliminate him in their semi-final. 14 Ìxe7+ Ëxe7 15 Ìe3
I fervently hope MVL makes it to the After 15 f4 exf4 16 Íxf4 Ìxf4 17 Îxf4
Candidates and was hoping that Vishy Anand both 17...Ëc5+and 17...f5 are fine for Black.
would qualify for London instead. Anand 15...g6 16 Íb2 c5
ended seventh in the Tour, with a point less Ruling out d3-d4.
than he needed at the Tata Steel Rapid and 17 Ëd2 Íb7 18 Îae1 Îad8
Blitz. He was flirting with disaster for most of Threat: ...Íxe4.
the event, but even in the penultimate round 19 f3
he could have defeated Magnus Carlsen at
blitz, as you’ll see inside, and would then have
likely qualified for London. It was so close.
But let’s talk about Ding. He demonstrated
at Saint Louis that he is the coming man when
he played wonderfully to inflict on Carlsen his 22 f4!? Ìxf4 23 Îxf4?
first tie-break loss since 2007. He also 23 g3 Ìe6 24 Îf2 is assessed as level by
defeated him in this wonderfully creative the computer.
blitz(!) game. 23...exf4 24 Ìg4 g5 25 Ëh6 Ëe6 26
Ìxf6+ Êc8 27 Ëxg5
Opening the g-file allows Ding to activate
M.Carlsen-Ding Liren his pieces. 27 Îf1 first is given by the
Kolkata (blitz) 2019 computer which offers the intriguing line
Ruy Lopez 27...Íc6 28 Ëxg5 c4 29 bxc4 Íxa4.
27...f3! 28 Îf1 Îg8! 29 Ìxg8 Îxg8 30
Ëe5?
1 e4 e5 2 Ìf3 Ìc6 3 Íb5 a6 4 Ía4 Ìf6
30 Ëf6 was a better square.
19...Êf7
5 0-0 Íe7 6 Íxc6 dxc6
30...Îxg2+ 31 Êh1 Ëg6
Remarkable. Neither side has a
The Ruy Lopez Exchange Deferred. In the constructive pawn break for the moment, so

32 h4
Or if 32 Ëf4 f2 33 Îxf2 Îg1#.
32...Íc6
The safe move, defending e8 and creating
a bolt hole.
Having crushed Levon Aronian 19-9 in the semi-finals, Ding Liren then overcame Maxime 33 Ëf4 Îxc2 34 Îg1 Îg2 35 Ëe3 Ëg3
Vachier-Lagrave 16-12 in the final of the Grand Chess Tour at a thrilling London Chess Classic. 0-1

January 2020
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04-06 Editorial (Richard Palliser's conflicted copy 2019-12-14)_Chess mag - 21_6_10 17/12/2019 19:08 Page 5

After I handed Ding the cup, he was

interviewed by Maurice Ashley, the GCT
broadcast team’s on-site commentator. In his
mild-mannered way – one has to put the
volume up on the microphone to even hear
him – Ding said:
“I feel very happy after six days of
competition when I can completely focus on
the games. It shows that when I am in my
best shape, I can compete with anyone else.”

I was worried about having the Grand

Chess Tour as the elite component of the
11th London Chess Classic for a fifth time,
but encouraged by the certainty that Magnus
Carlsen would provide the star quality and
fighting chess that has been lacking in some
previous editions. In the end a great
tournament demonstrated yet again that
Classical chess is not dead – far from it.
You just need the right mix of players
who are motivated and also natural
entertainers. In this regard Magnus is
perfect, while the other three, Ding Liren, Hollywood star Woody Harrelson made the ceremonial opening move for Magnus Carlsen at the
Levon Aronian and Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, start of the final day of the London Chess Classic before retiring to play blitz in the VIP room.
can also be relied upon to provide great
fighting chess and so it proved, right to the
end, even after the destination of the titles
and prize money had been decided.
King and pawn endgames don’t get the
attention they deserve. This one between
Maxime Vachier-Lagrave and Ding Liren
arose in a ‘dead rubber’. White has the better
king and some spare tempi with his kingside
pawns which can also be used to engineer a
breakthrough.

M.Vachier-Lagrave-Ding Liren
London (blitz) 2019

1-1 draw for Maxime Vachier-Lagrave

against Veselin Topalov in the opening round,
MVL was unable to secure the bonus point for
winning without the need for a tie-break and
just that result was enough to send Grischuk
through. If MVL matches the performances of
Ian Nepomniachtchi and Shak Mamedyarov,
he gets to Ekaterinburg and, depending on
results, he can still become a Candidate even if
he is knocked out before his main rivals.
Many, including me, felt MVL should get
the wild card to the Candidates as he just
44 f4! Êe7 missed out on rating, but as the only bid
White breaks through after 44...Êd5 received for the Candidates was from
45 g5 Êd6 46 gxh6 gxh6 47 Êf6. Ekaterinburg, the wild card will go to a
45 Êe5 g6 48 Êf6 Êe8 49 Êg7 Êe7 50 Êxh6 Êf6 Russian, possibly after a qualifying match.
45...Êd7 46 Êd5 hoovers the queenside 51 Êh7 Êxf5 52 Êg7 Êg5 53 h6 1-0 During the FIDE elections I expressed my
pawns. concerns that despite what FIDE President
46 f5! Candidates Conundrum Arkady Dvorkovich has said about desiring
46 hxg6 fxg6 gives Black a passed western sponsorship, there was a danger that
h-pawn and not 46 g5 hxg5 47 h6 f6+! At time of writing Alexander Grischuk has all FIDE events would move to Russia at a
which wins for Black after 48 Êe4 Êf7 just been confirmed as a Candidate. The time when Russia was in danger of becoming
49 fxg5 fxg5 50 Êf3 Êg8 51 Êg4 Êh8!. amiable Muscovite was so far ahead in the a sporting pariah after the drugs scandal at
46...gxh5 Grand Prix standings that his rivals in the final the London Olympics in 2012 and the Winter
If 46...g5 47 Êd5. leg at Jerusalem would have needed to score Olympics at Sochi in 2014. If you are not
47 gxh5 Êd7 maximum points to overhaul him. Following a familiar with this colossal scandal, find the

www.chess.co.uk
5
04-06 Editorial (Richard Palliser's conflicted copy 2019-12-14)_Chess mag - 21_6_10 17/12/2019 19:08 Page 6

time to watch the utterly gripping Netflix to the WADA code. This means it is legally sign of instability, it’s already been moved
documentary Icarus. bound to follow the above directives. I from Khanty-Mansiysk to Moscow. Nobody
A few days ago WADA, the World Anti haven’t yet heard any opinions from the FIDE will complain about that. Will the sanctions
Doping Agency, ordered draconian sanctions legal team, but my instinct is that the above mean Russian officials cannot attend?
against Russia after it was shown that their Olympiad can take place in Russia. In a further Watch this space.
sports authorities had tried to mislead the
agency again on their process to supposedly
make Russian sport drugs free. WADA’s
Executive Committee (ExCo) unanimously
endorsed the recommendation made by the
independent Compliance Review Committee
(CRC) that the Russian Anti-Doping Agency
(RUSADA) be declared non-compliant with
the World Anti-Doping Code for a period of
four years.
The CRC’s recommendation outlined key
facts, which are mainly derived from forensic
experts, which conclude that the data from
RUSADA was intentionally altered prior to and
while it was being forensically copied by
WADA in January 2019.
The following sanctions have been
recommended:
Russian Government officials/rep-
resentatives may not be appointed to sit and
may not sit as members of the boards or
committees or any other bodies of any Code
Signatory (or its members) or association of
Signatories.
Russian Government officials/repre- Ravens: Fischer vs. Spassky is on at Hampstead Theatre until January 18th. Written by Tom
sentatives may not participate in or attend Morton-Smith, the play features Robert Emms (no relation we believe of GM John Emms) as
any of the following events held in the Four- Bobby Fischer and Ronan Raftery as Boris Spassky. The play takes viewers right back to the
Year Period: (a) the Youth Olympic Games Cold War and, of course, to Reykjavik in 1972. Ravens has already received a number of
(summer and winter); (b) the Olympic Games favourable reviews from the press, so why not pop along and enjoy it over the festive period?
and Paralympic Games (summer and winter);
(c) any other event organized by a Major
Event Organisation; and (d) any World
Championships organized or sanctioned by
any Signatory (together, the Major Events).
Russia may not host in the Four-Year
Period or bid for or be granted in the Four-
Year Period, the right to host (whether during
or after the Four-Year Period) any editions of
the Major Events.
Where the right to host a Major Event in
the Four-Year Period has already been
awarded to Russia, the Signatory must
withdraw that right and re-assign the event
to another country, unless it is legally or
practically impossible to do so.
Russia’s flag may not be flown at any
Major Event staged in the Four-Year Period.
Neither the President, the Secretary-
General, the CEO, nor any member of the
Executive Board/Governing Board of either
the Russian Olympic Committee or the
Russian Paralympic Committee may
participate in or attend any Major Event
staged in the Four-Year Period.
Russian athletes and their support
personnel may only participate in Major
Events staged in the Four-Year Period where
they are able to demonstrate that they are Initially thought to represent an altar, this archaeological discovery from the site of a Persian
not implicated in any way by the non- trading post in modern-day Jordan has now been recognised as a two-pronged rook. The piece
compliance. In this circumstance, they may has been dated to c.680-749 AD, making it the world’s oldest chess piece. Being carved from
not represent the Russian Federation. local sandstone, archaeologists suspect that the rook was not used by the social elite of the
What has this got to with chess? Well time. What it does demonstrate is just how quickly chess spread from its birth in India during
FIDE is an affiliate of the IOC and a signatory the 6th Century right across the Muslim world, something made possible by the silk roads.

January 2020
6
07-07 60secondsMarin_Chess mag - 21_6_10 13/12/2019 18:33 Page 7

R.Knaak-D.Bronstein
Keres Memorial, Tallinn 1979
Nimzo-Indian Defence

1 d4 Ìf6 2 c4 e6 3 Ìc3 Íb4 4 e3 b6

5 Ìge2 Ía6 6 Ìg3 h5 7 h4 Íb7 8 Ëd3
d5 9 cxd5 exd5 10 Ëc2 c5 11 a3 cxd4
12 axb4 dxc3 13 bxc3 Ìbd7 14 Ìf5
0-0 15 Íb2 Ìe5 16 c4 Îe8 17 c5 bxc5
18 bxc5 d4 19 Ìd6 dxe3 20 f4 Ìeg4
21 Íc4 Îe7 22 Ëg6

Born: 21st April 1965, Bucharest. What’s the best thing about playing chess?
The freedom to be yourself and to mould 22...Íe4 23 Ëg5 e2 24 Îh3 Îb8
Place of residence: Domnesti, near Bucharest. yourself and your destiny (whether in real life 25 Íc3 Íc2 26 Îg3 Êf8 27 Îxg4 hxg4
or in a game or tournament), as well as that 28 h5 Îe3 29 h6 g6 30 Ëxf6 Ëxf6
Occupation: Chess player, writer and trainer. search for beauty and truth. 31 Íxf6 Êg8 32 Ìxf7 Íb3 33 Ìg5+
Íxc4 34 h7+ 1-0
Enjoyable? Extremely. Chess implies other And the worst? Absolute truth and beauty
things I love: travelling together with my wife are beyond our reach. The best three chess books: ‘Best’ is hard
and speaking foreign languages, for instance. to define, so I will mention a few of my
Your best move? Asking Mariya Yugina to favourites, which have filled my life with
And home life? A fairy tale or better. marry me. divine music: Attack with Mikhail Tal (Tal and
Damsky), Akiba Rubinstein by Razuvaev and
But sometimes good to escape to: But less memorable than your worst Murahveri, and Korchnoi’s two volumes of My
Travelling with Mariya through Europe by car, move? Moves appear to be bad only Best Games, of 50 wins with White and
while I escape from writing by playing in retrospectively. In the moment we play them Black. By the way, the latter may be the best
tournaments and vice versa. they seem to us to be best, but this is how we chess book ever.
learn and progress.
Sports played or followed: I love swimming. Is FIDE doing a good job? Probably.
And a highly memorable opponent? There
A favourite novel? Conversación en La can be only one, Viktor Lvovich Korchnoi, Any advice for them? I believe that advice
Catedral by Mario Vargas had the greatest Including the post-mortem analysis, incidents is not what they really miss.
impact on me three decades ago. during the games and everything.
Can chess make one happy? The same as
Piece of music? Antonin Dvorak’s Cello Favourite game of all time? I guess that music and love, yes, to paraphrase the
concerto is a plausible candidate among many, nowadays they cannot play games like, for Nürnberg doctor.
as is Sway in Markus Haider’s interpretation instance, Rashkovsky-Suetin, USSR 1973,
(with the cigar, glass of whiskey and everything). and Knaak-Bronstein, Keres Memorial 1979. A tip please for the club player: Maybe
there will be no world title, maybe not even a

Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê
Film or TV series? From TV series, Jeeves GM title, but, by God, the pieces should
and Wooster. never stop dancing!

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08-11 World Seniors_Chess mag - 21_6_10 13/12/2019 18:31 Page 8

Seniors Shine
A sizeable British contingent travelled to Bucharest, including Nigel Povah

The 29th Individual World Seniors This allows White to embark on a king
Championships took place in the historic city hunt. Black had to play 12...0-0, but after 13
of Bucharest in November. It was the largest 0-0 White still enjoys a huge advantage.
and strongest Seniors Championships to date, 13 Íxf7+! Êxf7 14 e6+
with the Over-50s section having 138 14 Ìg5+! Êe8 15 0-0 was much
entrants, including 20 GMs and 18 IMs, stronger when the threats of Ìf7 and Ëf3
whilst the Over-65s had no less than 192 are overwhelming.
entrants, with 9 GMs and 33 IMs. There were 14...Êe8
also separate women’s sections, with 21 14...Íxe6 15 Ìg5+ is clearly hopeless,
entrants in the Over-50s and 15 in the Over- whilst 14...Êxe6?? leads to mate: 15 Ëb3+
65s, including legendary, former women’s c4 (or 15...Êf5 16 g4+ Êf6 17 Ìe4#) 16
world champion Nona Gaprindashvili. Ëxc4+ Êf6 17 Íg5+ Êf5 18 g4#.
The UK was well represented with 13 entrants 15 exd7+ Ëxd7 16 0-0 Ìd6 17 dxc5
in the Over-50s and 10 in the Over-65s, and 17 Ìe5 Ëe6 18 Ëa4+ Êd8 19 Îae1
we saw two English surprises in the former in was another way of staying in charge.
the very first round, with Peter Gayson and 17...Ìf5 18 Íf4 Íxc3 19 bxc3 Ëxd1 After 29 Îe2 White has a big advantage,
Kevin Goater both defeating GM opponents. 20 Îaxd1 but Peter was very short of time so offered
to repeat moves, which Black should have
Notes based on comments accepted.
by Peter Gayson 29...Êe6?
29...Êe8 30 Íd4 retains White’s clear
advantage.
P.Gayson-D.Lima 30 Îfe1 Îge8?
World Over-50 Ch., Bucharest 2019 Now Black is totally lost.
31 Íd4+ Êf7 32 Îe5 Îad8 33 Îf1+
Alekhine’s Defence
Êg7 34 Îe6+
34 Îxe7+ Êh6 35 Îxa7 was even
1 e4 Ìf6 2 e5 Ìd5 3 d4 d6 4 c4 Ìb6
5 f4 g6 6 Ìf3 Íg7 7 Ìc3 dxe5 8 fxe5
simpler.
34...Êh6 35 Îf7 Ìc7 36 Íg7+ Êh7 37
Íg4?!
Íe5+ Êg8 38 Îg7+ Êf8 39 Îexg6 1-0
Black should play 8...c5 9 d5 and only now
39...Ìd5 40.Îxg5 leaves White two
9...Íg4 when the e5-pawn comes under
pawns up with a strong attack.
pressure.
9 c5 Ìc8
9...Ìd5 10 Ëb3 is also good for White, as 20...Ìa6 21 g4 Another fascinating game between one of
is 10 Íc4. White’s bind and initiative after 21 Îd5 the British contingent and a well-known titled
10 Íe3 b6?! should add up to an almost decisive player was the following sixth round effort.
This is far too slow and neglects Black’s advantage.
21...Ìg7 22 Íe5 Îg8 23 Ìg5
development. 10...e6 was more prudent, but Y.Afek-K.Bowmer
White is still clearly better. 23 c6 was better.
11 h3 Íd7 12 Íc4 bxc5? 23...h6 24 Íxg7 hxg5 World Over-65 Ch., Bucharest 2019
24...Îxg7 25 Ìe6 Îf7 26 Îfe1 would
see White continue to dominate.
25 Íe5?!
25 Íd4! was correct, leaving the knight
badly placed on a6.
25...c6?!
25...Ìxc5 26 Íxc7 Îc8 sees Black back
in the game.
26 Îde1 Êd7 27 Îd1+ Êe8 28 Îde1
Êd7 29 Îd1+

January 2020
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08-11 World Seniors_Chess mag - 21_6_10 13/12/2019 18:31 Page 9

With both players short of time, Black

missed the opportunity to obtain a clear
advantage here, so the challenge is: Black to
play and find the best move.
27...Íb4?!
The unobvious move 27...Îe8!! is the
correct way to proceed, as it not only serves
to protect Black’s back rank against the threat
of Îd8+ leading to mate, but also leaves
White in trouble, due to his weak back rank
and the fact that his pieces are tied up.
Indeed, the threats of ...Îxd4 and ...Íb2
cannot be countered satisfactorily:
a) 28 Îab1 Íf5 29 Íe3 Îde7 wins the
exchange after 30 Îa1 Íb2.
b) 28 Íb6 Íb2 29 Îxd7 Íxd7, and if
30 Îd1 Íxc3 31 Îxd7 Îe1#;
c) 28 Íe3 Íb2 29 Ìa4 (or 29 Îxd7
Íxa1 30 Îd3 Íf5) 29...Íxa1 again wins
the exchange.
d) 28 h3 avoids a back rank problem of
his own, but after 28...Íf5! (even stronger
than 28...Îxd4 29 Îxd4 Íb2 30 Îad1
Íxc3 and now 31 Îd8 Êf8 as it picks up the
exchange or a couple of pawns) 29 Íe3 (or
29 Îd2 Îed8 30 Îad1 Íb4, intending ...c5,
and if 31 a3 Íxa3 32 Íe3 Îxd2 33 Îxd2
Îxd2 34 Íxd2 Íc2) 29...Íb2 30 Ìa4
Íxa1 31 Îxa1 Îed8 again leaves Black
clearly for choice.
However, it’s White who wins after
27...Îxd4? 28 Îxd4 Íb2 29 Îad1, while
27...h6 28 Íb6 Íb2 29 Îxd7 Íxa1 (if
29...Íxc3 30 Îad1) 30 Îd3 and 27...Íb2
28 Îab1 Îxd4 29 Îxb2 are only equal.
28 Îac1 Ía3 ½-½

The following game won the prize for the Famous Romanian GM Mihail Marin stays sane from too much writing by still playing a fair
most beautiful game of the whole World number of tournaments and continues to produce some fine games, as Milos Pavlovic discovered.
Seniors Chess Festival.
Îxf1+ was seen in S.Brunello-A.L’Ami,
Reykjavik 2015, when 25 Ëxf1! would have
Notes by Mihail Marin left White clearly for choice.
19 fxe5 Ìxe5 20 Íxc5
Simply netting a pawn. Black is already in
M.Marin-M.Pavlovic serious trouble.
World Over-50 Ch., Bucharest 2019 20...Ìe8 21 Íd4 f6 22 Ìb6 Îb7 23 Ëe1
English Opening Îe7 24 Ìf4 Ìg7 25 Ëxb4 g5 26 Ìe2

1 c4
Apparently, not all players know that I play
the English. My opponent thought for 10
minutes before moving. Could my five
tournaments in a row with 1 f4 have caused
some confusion about what I do?
1...Ìf6 2 g3 g6 I had briefly examined this position many
After another 3-4 minutes. years ago (after Quality Chess had published
3 Íg2 Íg7 4 Ìc3 0-0 5 e4 c5 6 Ìge2 my English repertoire), and decided that this
Ìc6 7 0-0 a6 8 d3 Îb8 9 a4 d6 10 h3 was the only move, leaving Black with the
Ìe8 11 Íe3 Ìc7 12 d4 b6 13 d5 Ìe5 challenge of what to do with his knights. I
In my book I examined only 13...Ìb4 as discussed it with my Italian friends and later I
played by Azmai and suggested 14 Ìa2 with saw that Sabino Brunello had tried my idea.
an edge. 16 Îa2 allows Black to activate his pieces
14 b3 b5 15 f4 Ìd7 with 16...bxc4 17 bxc4 a5 and now ...Ìa6-
He played this whole sequence quickly, b4, ...Ía6 and ...Ìb6 with pressure against c4. 26...g4
but after my next move sank into a very 16...b4 17 Ìa4 Íxa1 18 Ëxa1 e5? 26...f5 27 Ìxc8 Ëxc8 28 Ëxd6 reveals
long think. 18...f6 19 g4 Ìe8 20 Ìb2 Ìg7 21 Ìd3 why I forced him to play ...Ìg7. After
16 a5!! Ëc7 22 Ìg3 Íb7 23 e5 fxe5 24 fxe5 28...Ëe8 Black actually does not threaten

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08-11 World Seniors_Chess mag - 21_6_10 13/12/2019 18:31 Page 10

anything, as....fxe4 loses material to Îxf8+. I

was not sure what to play to keep him
paralysed, but rightly considered that White is
just winning.
27 Ìf4 gxh3 28 Ìxc8 hxg2
28...Ëxc8 29 Íxh3 is hopeless too.
29 Ìxe7+ Ëxe7 30 Êxg2 f5 31 Ëe1!
31 c5!? is also good.
31...fxe4
I spent some time on my previous move
finding a good answer to 31...Îb8. My final
decision was 32 exf5 Ìxf5 33 Ìe6 Ìxd4
34 Ìxd4.
32 Ëxe4 Ëg5 33 Íxe5 dxe5 34 Ìh3
Ëd2+ 35 Îf2 Îxf2+ 36 Ìxf2 1-0

Î Î Î Î Î Î Î Î Î Î Î Î
The Over-50s saw victory for the little-
known Ukrainian GM Vadim Shishkin, who led
the tournament throughout, finishing on
9/11. Half a point behind were Vladislav
Nevednichy and Ivan Morovic Fernandez,
with Karen Movsziszian fourth, a further
half-point adrift. No fewer than 13 players
came equal fifth, including well-known names
Mihail Marin, Kiril Georgiev, Zurab Sturua,
Milos Pavlovic, Alex Yermolinsky, Lev Psakhis
and Alexander Shabalov, amongst others.
Top British performances were: Stephen
Mannion 7; Peter Gayson 6½; Andrew Lewis,
Ian Robertson and Neil Farrell 6; Kevin Goater
and Peter Smith 5½.
Whilst the events on the chess board were
very entertaining as usual and many
interesting and exciting games were seen, I’m
afraid that the same cannot be said for the
location of the tournament, which was in a
rather isolated suburb of Bucharest called Vitan.
The hotel, which would struggle to be Nigel Povah was unable to build in Bucharest on a fine performance at Guernsey, partly due to
identified as a 3-star hotel in the UK (there the rather basic and sub-optimally located hotel chosen as the venue for the World Seniors.
were no tea and coffee making facilities in the
bedrooms and it had the smallest bar It is sad that although FIDE are keen to 7 Ìbd2?!
imaginable for a large hotel), was sited on an support the growth of Seniors Chess, they Vaganian must’ve been surprised by this,
industrial estate and there was nowhere to don’t seem to have recognised that they have as he chooses a rare and inferior line. 7 Ìc3
walk outside to get any fresh air or exercise, a ‘duty of care’ with these age groups and is the standard choice and after 7...d5 White
and this was a cause of much frustration particularly the Over-65s, where several has scored well with 8 Ìe5, 8 b3 and 8 Ìd2.
among many of the players. players are in their 80s, and the 7...d5
Internet connectivity was also a problem environmental conditions and local facilities 7...c5 is probably even better as White
in various parts of the hotel which made are essential to ensuring the tournament lacks control over d5: for example, 8 b3 0-0
preparation difficult and there were several participants are properly looked after. 9 Íb2 d6 10 Ëc2 cxd4 11 Ìxd4 Íxg2
nights where there were other events on in the In the Over-65s the in-form Italian GM 12 Êxg2 Ëc7 when Black has a very
hotel with loud music going on late into the Carlos Garcia Palermo won an impressive comfortable Hedgehog position, Hübner-Sax,
night. These conditions were so frustrating game against top seed Rafael Vaganian in Budapest 1991.
that two of the English contingent, Terry round 7, to maintain his sole lead with 6½/7. 8 Ëc2 Ìa6 9 a3 c5 10 dxc5
Chapman and Brian Hewson, decided to One imagines that Vaganian might have
withdraw, as they found it difficult to play been familiar with this position, as it had
decent chess under the circumstances.
R.Vaganian-C.Garcia Palermo previously been contested by two Soviet
Worse still, at least two players in the World Over-65 Ch., Bucharest 2019 legends, albeit many years ago.
Over-65s suffered serious illnesses and had Queen’s Indian Defence Instead, 10 cxd5 exd5 11 dxc5 would
to withdraw mid-tournament. One of the transpose in the event of 11...bxc5, whilst
casualties was Scotland’s Jim Webster, who 1 Ìf3 b6 2 g3 Íb7 3 Íg2 Ìf6 4 c4 e6 11...Ìxc5 12 b4 Ìe6 13 Íb2 gives White
unfortunately suffered a stroke and had the 5 0-0 Íe7 6 d4 c6!? an edge.
misfortune to end up in a local hospital, where A fairly rare choice in this standard 10...bxc5
he had to rely on fellow chess players taking fianchetto position. 6...0-0 is the most This appears to be a new move. 10...Ìxc5
food and toilet paper to the hospital as they common (7 Ìc3 Ìe4 is the old main line of 11 b4 Ìcd7 12 cxd5 Íxd5 13 Íb2 0–0
don’t supply such things in Romanian this variation which has come back into 14 Îad1 Îc8 15 Ëb1 Ëc7 16 e4 Íb7 17
hospitals – families have to look after their fashion recently), but 6...d5, 6...d6 and 6...c5 Îfe1 Îfd8 18 Ìd4 a6 19 e5 Ìd5 20 Íe4
sick relatives. are all also quite popular. Ìf8 21 Îc1 Ëb8 22 Ìc4 Îd7 was eventually

January 2020
10
08-11 World Seniors_Chess mag - 21_6_10 13/12/2019 18:31 Page 11

drawn in Romanishin-Karpov, Tilburg 1993. 22...a5! 23 Ìc2 (23 Ìa2 Ìd2 24 Ëf5 g6 of Luxembourg on 8½/11, and the Over-65s
11 cxd5 25 Ëg4 d4 26 Ìxd4 Íxg2 27 Êxg2 Ëb7+ also by the top seed, the ever-popular GM.
11 Îd1 0-0 12 cxd5 exd5 13 Ìc4 was 28 f3 Ìxd4 29 exd4 f5 also wins) 23...Ìd2 Nona Gaprindashvili with the same score.
the route to a small advantage. 24 Ëa2 Ìxf3+ 25 Íxf3 d4! 26 Íxb7
11...exd5 Ëxb7 27 Ìxd4 Ìxd4 28 exd4 Îxe1+ And to return to where we began, here is
29 Îxe1 c2 30 Íb2 h5 and White won’t Kevin Goater’s neat finish against Semen
survive. Dvoirys, which reached this unbalanced
23 axb4 Ëxb4 position with Black to play and win (after
Even stronger would have been 23...d4! White’s 28 Îd1-f1??).
24 exd4 Ìd2 25 Ëf5 Íxf3 26 Íxf3 g6
27 Ëd3 Ìxf3+ 28 Ëxf3 Ìxd4 29 Ëg4
Ëxe1+ 30 Îxe1 Îxe1+ 31 Êg2 Ìe6 and wins.
24 Ëc2 Îc7 25 Îed1 Îec8 26 Íf1
I also failed to find a defence after 26 Îd3:
for instance, 26...Ì6c5 27 Îdd1 Ìxb3
28 Îb1 Ìed2 29 Ìxd2 cxd2 30 Ëxb3
Ëxb3 31 Îxb3 Îc1 32 Íf3 Îxd1+ 33 Íxd1
Îc1, winning.
26...Ìd2 0-1

The Over-65s saw Rafael Vaganian

We have a classic hanging pawns position emerge victorious on 8½/11, but only by
with the standard question: Are they strong winning in the very last round, when he edged
or weak? ahead of the field on tie-break from Anatoli
12 Ìe5?! Vaisser and Yuri Balashov. Seven players were
This redeployment of the knight to d3 equal fourth on 8/11, including GMs Evgeny 28...Î2e3! 29 Ëd2 Îd3
doesn’t really help White’s position. 12 Îd1! Sveshnikov and last year’s winner, Vlastimil Winning the bishop.
was probably best, although White’s Jansa, along with Carlos Garcia Palermo, who 30 Îe1 Îed8 0-1
advantage is minimal after 12...Ëb6 (if was most unlucky not to win the tournament.
12...0-0 13 Ìc4, as before) 13 e4. Garcia Palermo led all the way until he lost in
12...0-0 13 b3 Îe8 14 Ìd3 round 10 to Vaisser and could only then draw
After 14 Íb2 Ìc7 15 e3 Ìe6 White has in the final round with Sveshnikov, when a win
an edge, but nothing more. would have given him the title on tie-break.
14...Íd6 15 e3 Ëe7 16 Íb2 Îac8 17 Îfe1 Top British performances were: Philip
Ìc7 18 Îac1 Ìe6 19 Ëb1 Ìe4 20 Ìf3? Giulian and Kevin Bowmer 6½; Nigel Povah
Presumably failing to appreciate the and Ivan Myall 6; David Bray, Raj Bhopal and
danger from Black’s c-pawn. Bill Ingham 5½.
20 Ìxe4 was correct when 20...dxe4 The Women’s Over-50 Championship was
21 Ìf4 Ìg5 22 Îed1 Ìf3+ 23 Êh1 Íxf4 won by number one seed WGM Elvira Berend
24 gxf4 Îed8 is equal. Here 24...Ëh4!?
25 Íxf3 Îc6! is a typical, bizarre engine
variation (not 25...exf3?! 26 Îg1 g6 27 Ëc2
with an edge), intending 26 Îg1 Îh6
27 Îxg7+ Êf8 28 Íh5! Ëxh5 29 Îg2 Îg6
30 Îxg6 hxg6 31 Ëc2 Ëf3+ with perpetual
check.
Hull 2020 Rapid Play
20...c4!
Sunday January 5th 2020
from 10.15am to 5.15pm

to be held at the Royal Hull Hotel

Three sections - all of five rounds:
FIDE-rated Open,
FIDE- rated U1900 (ECF 160),
ECF U120

21 Ìb4
Prize fund £540
21 Ìf4 c3 22 Ía1 Íxa3 23 Îc2 Íb4 is
no better.
21...c3 22 Ía1 Íxb4
www.hullchess.com/Rapid+Play+2020
The engines like the even more powerful

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 How Good is
12-14 HGIYCXmas_Chess mag - 21_6_10 13/12/2019 18:29 Page 12

You r Chess?
by Grandmaster Daniel King
I’m still going through the plethora of games 6...Ìc6 7 Ìc3 Ìxc3 8 bxc3 Íg4 9 Îb1 12 Ëb3 (five points) has also been tested.
from the FIDE Chess.com Grand Swiss in October Îb8 10 h3 Íh5 11 Íb5 (1-0, 29), Navara- Grischuk lost against Yu Yangyi in Norway
and discovering new gems. This game was won Janik, Katowice 2019, was the game I with it, but confidently repeated the move in
by 25-year-old Ray Robson from the USA. featured a couple of months ago. the last round of the Isle of Man, tweaking his
Robson was a prodigy, achieving the grand- 7 0-0 Íf5 strategy and winning a strategic masterpiece
master title at the age of 14 years and eleven Some of the leading Petroff players have against a Petroff stalwart: 12...Ìxe5 13 dxe5
months, and looked set to burst through to recently been playing this move, but it is less Îb8 14 f4 f5 15 a4 Ëd7 16 d4 (1-0, 36),
challenge the top players in the country. He common than 7...Ìc6 and 7...0-0. However, Grischuk-Gelfand, Isle of Man 2019. Worth a
came second in the Millionaire Open in 2014, the lines can often transpose. look if you have the time.
and second in the U.S. Championship in 2015, 8 Ìc3 0-0 9 Ìe5 I like the directness of 12 f4 (three points).
but after that hit a plateau around 2650 9 Îe1 is more common, and if 9...Ìxc3 It could lead to something similar to Grischuk’s
(admittedly not a bad place to land). In this 10 bxc3 Íxd3 11 Ëxd3 Ìd7 12 Íf4, but game, but could also be the start of a kingside
year’s U.S. Championship he came last. strong players understand how to neutralise assault: 12...f6 13 Ìg4 Ìb6 14 a4 a5 15 f5
Since then he has bounced back with 7/9 and White’s slight initiative. Ëd7 16 Ìe3 Îae8 17 Íd2 Íd6 18 Ëh5 and
first place in a strong round-robin tournament 9...Ìxc3 10 bxc3 Íxd3 perhaps a rook lift. Dangerous. By the way
in St. Louis; and had a decent result in the Grand imagine if White had tried the same strategy
Swiss, scoring a solid 6½/11 against strong oppo- with the queen on d3 and the pawn on c2.
sition. Time will tell whether he manages to break After the pawn move f2-f4 Black would be
through the 2700 barrier. He doesn’t play able to play the knight to f6 and then into e4,
many tournaments outside the USA, and that will with great counterplay. With the pawn on d3
have to change if he has serious ambitions. that manoeuvre is covered.
This game caught my eye as it features an 12 Ëg4 (two points) forces Black to make
unusual strategic idea at an early stage in the a decision about the knight and puts the
Petroff for White. Those who are regular queen on the right side of the board to
readers of this article will recognise that it attack: 12...Ìxe5 13 dxe5 Ëc8 13 Ëe2, for
wasn’t too long ago since we saw this opening example, with the more comfortable position.
getting duffed up with a spectacular attack. 12 Ëh5 (one point) isn’t as forcing. Black
Judging by some of the results in recent might play 12...c5 with counterplay.
tournaments, I wonder whether we have 12 Îe1 (one point) isn’t as good as after
reached peak Petroff after its annus mirabilis 12...Ìxe5 13 fxe5, White’s rook should really
in 2018, when Caruana used it to win the 11 cxd3 be on f1 to support the f2-f4-f5 push.
Candidates and to fight Carlsen to a standstill Three points. Right from the off you have White has a wide range of promising
in the subsequent world title match. to make a big decision: what is the best pawn moves, and that is indicative of the mobility
Vitiugov defeated So with a fine game in structure for your future plans? Having the and coordination of his pieces, but I don’t like
the World Cup using 1 e4 e5 2 Ìf3 Ìf6 3 d4 pawn on d3 might seem like a small change to 12 Ìxd7. Exchanging frees Black’s pieces.
Ìxe4 4 Íd3 d5 5 Ìxe5 Ìd7 6 Ìc3 Ìxe5 the position, but in fact it makes a big
7 dxe5 Ìxc3 8 bxc3, and Carlsen repeated difference: the c4- and e4-squares are 12...Îb8
this idea in the Isle of Man to defeat Shirov. covered, giving White more aggressive
The variation Robson tries is different to this, options.
but also dangerous, and has been played with 11 Ëxd3 (one point) is not a bad move as
success by several leading players. the queen stands on a good square, but
Begin after the first diagram. Whenever Black White’s attacking options are restricted
has moved, stop and try to guess White’s reply (more on this in a moment).
which will be on the next line. Try to analyse as 11 Ìxd3 Ìd7, followed by ...Ìb6, high-
much as you would in a game – it could earn you lights the defects in White’s pawn structure.
bonus points. The article will test your standard
of play or, if you prefer, just enjoy a fine game. 11...Ìd7

R.Robson-Y.Kuzubov 12 Îb1
Five points. A very crafty move. Black
Isle of Man 2019 can’t answer with 12...b6 as 13 Ìc6 Ëe8
Petroff Defence 14 Îe1 wins, so has to consign the rook to
defending the pawn. That means it might be Yu Yangyi has won two games after
1 e4 e5 2 Ìf3 Ìf6 3 Ìxe5 d6 4 Ìf3 more difficult for Black to challenge rooks on 12...Ìxe5 13 dxe5. Yu Yangyi-Ghaem Maghami,
Ìxe4 5 d4 d5 6 Íd3 Íe7 the e-file at a later stage (among other things). Khanty-Mansiysk (rapid) 2019, continued

January 2020
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12-14 HGIYCXmas_Chess mag - 21_6_10 13/12/2019 18:29 Page 13

17...gxh2+
It is difficult to criticise this move which
takes away another of the pawns in front of
White’s king, but with the benefit of
hindsight, it might have been better to
sacrifice the exchange with 17...Îxf4 18 Ìxf4
gxh2+ 19 Êh1 Ìf6. It’s hard for White to
break in as Black’s position is very compact.

18 Íxh2
One point. 18 Êh1 (one point) is also
possible. It could be useful for the king to
have a bit of cover. And we can forget
18 Êxh2 Îxf4 19 Ìxf4 Íd6.

18...Îa8
This is too obliging. Black should have been
bold with 18...Îf6 19 Íxb8 Ëxb8, and White
might stand better, but it is difficult to play.
The Petroff did not enjoy the happiest of times on the Isle of Man. Last month we saw
Magnus Carlsen outplaying Shirov in a Petroff and Ray Robson was even more brutal as White. 19 Îxb7
One point. Black has put himself under
13...b6 14 Íe3 f6 15 d4 Ëd7 16 f4 fxe5 15...Íd6 and starts to coordinate his pieces. pressure: compare the passive rook in the
17 dxe5 Îad8 18 Ëd3 Ëe6 19 Îbe1, and 15 Ìc2 Íd6 is also too slow for White. corner to White’s on b7, supported by the
White developed a potent initiative. 15 Îe1 (one point) is better motivated: at raking bishop on h2.
least the rook belongs on the e-file.
13 Ìg4 15 c4 f4 16 Ìg4 f3 is unnecessarily 19...Îf7
Two points. Following a very different complicated. Not only is White unstable on
strategy to the Grischuk/Yu model. the kingside, but in the centre as well: that’s 20 Ëg4
Nevertheless, the same score for 13 a4, 13 not practical. Two points. It is about time the queen
f4 and 13 Îe1. It’s pleasant to have options. entered the fray, and playing to the kingside
The game Van Foreest-Haba, Pardubice 15...f4 feels absolutely right: it helps to secure
2019, is certainly worth checking out as this White’s king against a counterattack and
also runs along a different path to the games 16 Ìg2 Black’s king is a little breezy with the f-pawn
above: 13 Îe1 f6 14 Ìg4 Ìb6 15 Ìe3 Three points. This forces the pawn to gone. If 20...Ìf6 then 21 Ëe6 is strong.
Ëd7 16 c4 dxc4 17 dxc4 c5 18 d5, and the move on again. Instead, 16 Ìg4 Íd6 allows 20 Ëe2 (one point) is also possible.
protected passed pawn was a definite asset. Black to maintain his aggressive stance. 20 Ëa4 attacks two pawns, but leaves
Although the pawn structure is different, this the kingside open to a counterattack:
game does have something in common with 16...fxg3 20...Îf6 21 Îxa7 Îxa7 22 Ëxa7 Íd6
the other approach: White enjoys a space 23 Íxd6 Îxd6, followed by ...Îg6 and
advantage, enabling him to manoeuvre and ...Ëg5. Having seen this variation, it is easy to
ultimately attack Black’s king. appreciate why White’s queen should be
posted on the kingside.
13...f5
I am sure that this move would have 20...Ìf8
discouraged many from playing 13 Ìg4, but
there is always a consequence to advancing 21 Îfb1
pawns in front of one’s king. Three points. Combined rooks versus split
The rapid game Yu Yangyi-Wei Yi, Tianjin rooks – enough said. Instead, 21 Îe1 would
2018, did indeed have a rapid dénouement: let Black off the hook as 21...Íd6 forces
13...Ìf6 14 Ìe3 g6 15 g4 c6 16 f4 h5 17 exchanges: 22 Îxf7 Íxh2+ 23 Êxh2 Êxf7,
f5 hxg4 18 Ìxg4 Ìh7 19 Íh6 Îe8 20 fxg6 and Black is safe enough.
fxg6 21 Ëf3 1-0. Another illustration of how
White can take the initiative with his space 21...Ëa5
advantage and lead in development.
Instead, 16...f3 allows White to win the
14 Ìe3 pawn with either 17 Ìe1 or 17 Ìf4.
Two points. As unlikely as it seems, the best
option. Returning with 14 Ìe5 wastes too 17 Íf4
much time: 14...Ìxe5 15 dxe5 Ëd7. This is Six points. This is a remarkable move,
roughly the same structure as the Gelfand/Yu allowing the kingside to be damaged, but
games, but Black is better coordinated. gaining elsewhere on the board. It’s
particularly admirable as White had a safe and
14...c6 sound alternative in 17 hxg3 (three points),
Black needs to take a time out to protect with some prospects of the advantage after
the d-pawn. 17...Íd6 18 Íf4 as Black is weak along the
e-file. The simple rule is: recapture towards
15 g3 the centre as it provides more control.
Three points. The first step in controlling 17 fxg3, on the other hand, is a bit dull:
Black’s kingside demonstration. 17...Îxf1+ 18 Ëxf1 Íd6 and the tension is
15 f4 is an over-reaction. Black plays dissipating from the position. Black’s pieces are very restricted, so he

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12-14 HGIYCXmas_Chess mag - 21_6_10 13/12/2019 18:30 Page 14

decides to make a break for it, attacking a 25...Íxd6 sacrifice the exchange on move 17 or 18, but
couple of pawns. I suspect it was too early in the game to
26 Ëxd6 appreciate that his position was already
22 Ìe3 One point. dropping into the danger zone. That’s not
Five points. No messing around. Instead of where a Petroff player imagines himself to be
checking his stride and defending the pawns 26...Îxb7 right out of the opening.
on the queenside, Robson ignores the threats
and moves his knight into the attack. 27 Îxb7 Now add up your points:
22 Ìh4 (three points) is also dangerous: One point. 0-13 Unlucky
22...g6 23 Ëe2, and if 23...Íxh4 24 Îxf7 14-28 Average Club Player
Êxf7 25 Îb7+ Êg8 26 Ëe5; so instead 27...Ëxd4
23...Îe8 24 Ìf3 keeps the initiative.
29-36 Strong Club Player
Black’s queen breaks through the middle
If 22 Ëe2 (one point), Black can defend and reconnects with the kingside. 37-42 FIDE Master
with 22...Îe8. 43-48 International Master
22 Î1b3 doesn’t help the cause. Black 28 Ëe7 49-56 Grandmaster
plays 22...Ëxa2, threatening f2 and there is Three points. By dominating the seventh
counterplay; likewise, after 22 c4 dxc4 23 rank, Robson ensures that the enemy knight Ed. – If you have any questions regarding
dxc4 Ëxa2. and queen are practically immobilised. this article, please contact Daniel directly
through his website www.danielking.biz.
22...h5 28...Îc8
If 22...Ëxc3 23 Ìf5 with the twin threats
of Ìh6+ and Ìxe7+ wins. And 22...Ìg6 29 Êg2
23 Ëe6 Ëxc3 24 Ìf5 is also too much for One point. A tidy move, ruling out a check The Trends in
Chess
Black to bear. on the back rank.

23 Ëxh5 29...c5

Openings
One point. Free stuff.

23...Ëxc3

24 Íd6 The top twenty openings as played

Three points. A good move, but not the
by International Masters and
strongest.
Five points for 24 Ìg4. There are some Grandmasters in November
very sneaky ideas associated with this. For 1  Reti Opening 210 games
example, 24...Ëxd3 25 Ëxf7+ and Ìe5+; or
24...Ëxd4 25 Êh1! followed by Îg1 and 2  Queen’s Gambit Declined 172 games
Ìh6+ with a decisive attack. 3  Caro-Kann Defence 161 games
Incidentally, 24 Ìf5 (no points) 24...Ëxd3!
4  King’s Indian Defence 137 games
5 
is Black’s idea. The b1-rook is unprotected so
25 Ìxe7+ Îxe7 saves Black; and with White’s 1 d4 Ìf6 sidelines 119 games
queen dragged to h5 by the pawn sacrifice, 6 
there is no Ìh6+. 30 f3 Sicilian Najdorf 108 games
Three points. Setting up the decisive blow. 7  English, 1...e5 98 games
8 
The same score for 30 f4 which also prepares
the key knight lift. 30 Ëg5, with the idea of
24...g6 Catalan Opening 97 games
Ìf5, wins too (three points). 9  Nimzo-Indian Defence 91 games
10  Slav Defence 90 games
11 
30...Êh8
Sicilian, 2 Ìf3 d6 sidelines 78 games
31 Ìg4 12  Ruy Lopez, Berlin Def. 78 games
13 
One point. There is no defence to White’s
English, 1...e6 71 games
14 
slow-motion attack.
English, 1...c5 71 games
31...Ëc3 15  Sicilian, 2 Ìf3 sidelines 70 games
32 Ëh4+ 1-0 16  English, 1...Ìf6 67 games
One point. If 32...Êg8 33 Ìf6+. 17  Sicilian Kan 67 games
18  Queen’s Indian Defence 58 games
19 
What an unusual strategy from Robson
and what a convincing victory. 13 Ìg4 was a 1 d4 d5 sidelines 56 games
25 Ëh2 provocative move, taking the game in a very 20  Grünfeld Def. Classical 51 games
Two points. It was necessary to protect different strategic direction to many of the
the bishop on d6. 25 Ëe5 (two points) was previous encounters in this line. 17 Íf4 was 3,378 games played between
also possible, which could transpose to the a brave move, allowing his own kingside to be 1-30 Novemberwhere both players
game, or 25...Íf6 26 Ëf4 Ëxd4 27 Îxf7 damaged, but it paid off handsomely as White were rated over 2400 Elo
Êxf7 28 Îb7+ Êg8 29 Ëf3, and White’s took control over the seventh rank and Source: TWIC - theweekinchess.com
domination of the seventh rank gives him a quickly arranged a winning attack. The only Compiled by HIARCS - hiarcs.com
winning attack. The threat is Ìg4. way for Kuzubov to avoid this fate was to

January 2020
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15-15 Thinkers Winter Advert_Layout 1 13/12/2019 18:28 Page 1
16-18 McShaneCaruana_Chess mag - 21_6_10 13/12/2019 17:25 Page 16

So Near, But Yet..

Luke McShane outplayed the world no.2, but ran into stiff resistance
One of the highlights of the FIDE
Chess.com Grand Swiss was the fifth round
epic battle between Luke McShane and
Fabiano Caruana, which we’re delighted to
bring you with notes from the player who
came tantalisingly close to success.

L.McShane-F.Caruana
Isle of Man 2019
Spanish Four Knights

1 e4 e5 2 Ìf3 Ìc6 3 Ìc3 Ìf6 4 Íb5

Íd6 5 d3 0-0 6 0-0
I started to daydream for a few minutes
about playing 6 g4!? Ìxg4 7 Îg1 Ìf6 8
Íh6 with an attack, before realising I had
better do something sober.
6...h6 7 Êh1 Îe8 8 Íxc6 bxc6 9 Ìg1
Íf8 10 f4 exf4 11 Íxf4
The position is unbalanced, but perhaps
Black is to be preferred.
11...d5 12 e5 Íg4
12...Ìd7 13 Ëh5 is an unclear alternative.
13 Ëd2 Ìh5 14 Îae1 Îb8 15 h3 Ìxf4
16 Ëxf4 Íh5 17 Ìd1 Îb4 18 Ëf2 c5
19 b3 Îb6 20 Ìf3 Îbe6 21 Ìe3 Ëd7?

Luke McShane now writes every week in The Spectator, but remains very much an active
player and made excellent use of the knight-pair to have Fabiano Caruana on the ropes.

d5 10 Îe1 0-0 11 Ëe2 b5 12 Íc2 Îc8 16...bxc4 17 Ìxc4 e5 18 f4 exf4

13 g4 Íg6 14 Ìh4 d4 15 c4 Ìd7 16 Ìg2 19 Ìxf4 Ìce5 20 Íb3 Ìxc4 21 Íxc4
Ìb6 22 b3 Ìxc4 23 bxc4 Îb8 24 Ìd5
Íd6 25 e5 Îe8 26 Íf4 Íf8 27 Íg3 Îb7
Suddenly, I noticed that this careless move 28 h4 h6 29 Îf1 Êh8 30 Îae1 Ëc8
allows me to pose serious issues. 21...f6 was 31 Ëf3 Íh7 32 g5 hxg5 33 hxg5 Îb2
the right move, with a small edge for Black. 34 Ëh5 Ëe6 35 Îxf7 Êg8 36 Ìf6+ 1-0,
22 g4 Íg6 23 Ìg2! McShane-Sasikiran, Hastings 2002/3.
Backwards knight moves are never easy to 23...c4
spot, particularly when there is a tempting move 23...Íh7 24 Ìf4 Îa6 25 e6! was my
forwards to f5. I vaguely remembered the con- idea, and if 25...fxe6 26 Ìe5 Ëd8 (26...Ëe7
tours of my game with Sasikiran from Hastings, is better, but still very awkward) 27 Ìh5
which perhaps helped me to notice this move. Îxa2 28 Ëf7+ Êh8 29 Îe2 followed by the
In that game the knight also occupied the g2- crude Îe2-f2 and Ëxf8+.
square, but later became a monster on d5: 24 Ìf4 cxd3 25 cxd3 Íb4
1 e4 c5 2 Ìf3 d6 3 Íc4 Ìf6 4 d3 Ìc6 5 0-0 25...Îa6 26 e6! wins an exchange in
Íg4 6 Ìbd2 e6 7 h3 Íh5 8 c3 Íe7 9 Íb3 favourable circumstances.

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26 Îd1 beginning to melt, and I did not play this

A passive square, chosen reluctantly calmly. It is a bad move, but not for the
(26 Îe2 c5 27 Ìxe6 fxe6 28 Îd1 Îf8 reason that worried me. 39 h4 required more
looked very active for Black), but it does composure than I could muster, but maintains
defend the d3-pawn. all White’s advantages.
26...Î6e7 27 Ëxa7 39...fxe6?
Why not? 39...Ëxg5! 40 exd7 Îe4!! forces a draw,
27...Íh7 28 Ëd4 c5 29 Ëxd5 Ëa7 though it’s extraordinary to leave the pawn
30 Ëc4 Ëxa2 31 g5 hxg5 32 Ìxg5 on d7 like this: for example, 41 Ëa6 Îxg4+
42 hxg4 Ëxg4+ 43 Êh2 Ëh4+ 44 Êg2
Íe4+ 45 Îf3 Ëg4+ 46 Êh2 Ëh4+ with
a perpetual.
40 Ìxe6 Ëb8
Not 40...Ëh4? 41 Ìf6+, while 40...Îxe6
is the move I had to calculate before pushing
39 e6, but it was making my head spin. After 48 Ëh4+!
41 dxe6 Îxd1 42 e7+ Ëd5 I hallucinated a
mate in two, with 43 Ëxd5+ and 44 Îf8
Another move I was pleased with, since
there was a tempting false path: 48 Îd7
mate, since in my mind’s eye the g4-knight Íc3! defends against both Ìf6+ and Ëh6+.
was on g5. Upon realising my mistake, 48...Êg8 49 Ëg3 Êh7 50 Ìf2!
I panicked, until I noticed that the prosaic
43 Îxd1 wins instantly, since Black’s queen
A further good retreat.
50...Ëc2
is pinned. 50...Ëf5 loses: 51 Ìd3 Ëe4 52 Îf4 Ëe3+
41 d6! 53 Ëxe3 Îxe3 54 Ìxb4 cxb4 55 Îh4+ and
Reaching the time control allowed for a wins.
White is a pawn up and the knights are long think. The first point of business is to 51 Ìd3 Íe4
very dangerous, so I felt things were heading prevent the check on g3, and after perhaps 51...Íxd3 52 Îxd3 offers Black very little
half an hour, I decided this looked very promising.
41...Îxd6 42 Ìc7+ Îde6 43 Îd7
in the right direction. I handled the following in the way of hope, as White can attack on
moves well, but navigating this weird position the light squares.
All as expected. White’s biggest threat 52 Ëg5
here is 44 Ìf6+ gxf6 45 Îxf6, when Black
put a strain on my nerves.
32...Ëa8+ 33 Êg1 Ëc6 Threatening Ëh5+.
will soon be mated.
43...Êh8 44 Ëf4
33...Ëb8! was a better defence. After 52...Ëe2!
34 Ìd5 Ëxe5 35 Ìxe7+ Îxe7 36 Ëf4 Ëxf4
37 Îxf4 Íg6 Black has reasonable chances A good move, as planned after the time
control.
44 Ìf6 was also strong in theory, but
to defend, as the bishop-pair is strong.
34 d4! Íf5
44...Îxf6 45 Îxf6 Îe4 didn’t look all that
simple to me. It turns out that 46 Ëa6! wins,
A clever defence, since this appears to
walk into my next move.
35 Ìd5 Îd7 due to the utterly cold-blooded 46...c4
Posing a tricky question to the knight. 47 Îxg6! Ëf8 48 Ëa8!.
36 Ìe3! 44...Ëb6!
44...Îe4 45 Ëg5 wins.
45 Ìxe6 Ëxe6
I was pleased to alight on this calm
response. 36 Ìxb4 Ëg6 37 h4 cxb4 is
exactly what Fabiano was hoping for. White’s
exposed king is a real problem here.
36...Íg6 37 d5 Ëc7 38 Ìg4
So far, so good. The central pawns are
ridiculously strong, so I have a decisive
advantage. Another only move, and I marvelled at the
38...Ëd8 tenacity. Instead, 52...Êg8 53 Îd8 Îxd8
54 Ëxd8+ Êh7 55 Ëh4+ picks up the bishop.
53 Ìxb4
Seduced by yet another false path, I
thought this was winning immediately.
53 Ìc1! was the way to do it. 53...Ëb5 is
the only way to defend the rook on e8, when
one more subtlety is required: 54 Îf4! Êg8
55 Îxe4 Îxe4 56 Ëd5+ and wins.
Here I realised, with surprise and 53...cxb4 54 Îd2 Ëa6
frustration, that my intended win by force Even though White can finally give the
actually leads to a draw: 46 Îxg7 falls short: check on h5, Black is still on the board, by a
46...Êxg7 47 Ëh6+ Êg8 48 Ìf6+ Êf7 miracle. By now, I was exasperated that the
49 Ìxe8+ Êxe8 50 Ëf8+ Êd7 51 Îd1+ game wasn't over.
Êc7 52 Ëd8+ Êc6 53 Ëa8+ Êb6 and there 55 Ëh5+ Ëh6 56 Ëxh6+
is no mate. 56 Ëxe8? would win, were it not for
46 Îd6 Ëe4 47 Ëg5 56...Ëg5+! and Black will take on d2 with
38...Îxe5 loses to 39 d6! Ëd8 40 Ìxf7! No matter. White is a clear exchange up, check. This is what I missed when I took on b4.
Íxf7 41 Îxf7. and I was sure that a few more good moves However, I still believed that trading queens
39 e6? should seal the deal. would win without much difficulty.
Just before move 40, my brain was 47...Êh7 56...Êxh6 57 Îe1 Îe5!

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61...Êg6 62 Êf2 Êf4 81 b4 Êf3 82 b5 Êf2 83 Êd2 g2

62 Êg4 Íf7 63 Îe5 Íxb3 64 Îxg5+ 84 b6 Íc8 85 Îe2+ ½-½
Êh6 would be winning if White could pick up
the b4-pawn, but the unfortunate position of
the white king allows 65 Îb5 Íd1+ and ...b3.
62...Êf5 63 Îg3 Íe6 64 Êe2 Íd5
65 Êd2 Íe6 66 Îf3+

One last roll of the dice. Black prepares to

meet 58 Îd4 with 58...Îg5+. So I just have
to avoid the check, and Black should resign,
shouldn’t he?
58 Êh2?
Simplest was 58 Îg2 Íxg2 59 Îxe5 Íxh3
60 Îe4 and White will win, with a little care.
58...Îd5!
A cold shower. Now Black is very close to Around here, I knew that we were bound
saving the game. for a draw. 66 Êc2 would win if White had
59 Îxd5?! time for Îg3-g4, but there is 66...Êf4!.
A reflex. 59 Îed1 was better, though 66...Êe5 67 Îe3+ Êf6 68 Êc2 Íf5+ 69
Black can keep fighting. Êc1 Íe6 70 Êd2 Íd5 71 Êc2 Íe6 72
59...Íxd5 Êb2 Íf5 73 Îg3 Íe6 74 Îd3 Êe5 75
If Black can eliminate both b-pawns, the Îe3+ Êf6 76 Îe4 Íxh3 77 Îxb4 Like most of the elite, Fabiano Caruana
position will be drawn. 77 Êc1! g4 78 Êd2 g3 79 Êe3 was is never easy to put away, no matter
60 Îe3 g5 61 Êg3? better, but it seems Black still draws fairly easily: how bad his position may appear, and
61 Îg3! prevents 61...Êg6, on account of 79...g2 80 Êf2 Íe6 81 Îxb4 Íd5, etc. Luke McShane was left to marvel at the
62 h4, so White probably wins eventually. 77...g4 78 Îe4 g3 79 Êc3 Êf5 80 Îe1 world no.2’s tenacity in their endgame.

Forthcoming January 12 Lothians Allegro, Edinburgh

www.chessscotland.com/events/ or call 0131 334 1062

Events January 17-19 4NCL Congress, Harrogate

www.4ncl.co.uk or call 01993 708645
January 18-19 Hampstead U2200 Congress
hampsteadchess.blogspot.com or call 07855 036537
Decr 26-28 London Christmas Congress & London Junior
www.ljcc.co.uk January 18-19 Williamson Shield, Belfast
www.ulsterchess.org/events
Dec 28 - Jan 5 Hastings International Congress
www.hastingschess.com or call 01424 445348 January 21 Muswell Hill Rapidplay
muswellhillchess.blogspot.com or call 07855 036537
December 28 Ulster Blitz, Belfast
www.ulsterchess.org/events January 24-26 Simon Bartlett Memorial Congress, Torquay
www.budechess.co.uk or call 07771 544721
January 3-5 Shropshire Congress, Telford
www.shropshirechesscongress.org.uk January 25 Kingston Rapidplay
www.kingstonchessrapidplay.co.uk
January 3-5 South Wales New Year Congress, Bridgend January 26 Stockport Rapidplay
www.welshchessunion.uk/calendar/ or call 01443 772750 www.stockportchessclub.org/rapidplay.html

January 4 Golders Green Rapidplay And for the Online Connoisseur:

goldersgreenchess.blogspot.com or call 07855 036537 January 10-26 Wijk aan Zee
www.tatasteelchess.com; Artemiev, Carlsen, Caruana, Dubov, So, etc.
January 5 Hull Rapidplay
www.hullchess.com/Rapid+Play+2020 January 20-31 Gibraltar Chess Festival
www.gibchess.com; Adams, Jones, Vachier-Lagrave, Vitiugov, etc.
January 11-12 4NCL, Daventry, Maidenhead & Blackrod
www.4ncl.co.uk or call 01993 708645
Congress organisers – Don’t forget to email [email protected] to
January 11-12 Somerset New Year U175 Congress, Clevedon ensure your event is listed, or if you really want to guarantee a good
somersetchesscongress.webs.com or call 01209 217210 entry, contact [email protected] to discuss having it advertised.

January 2020
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19-21 Terafinal_Chess mag - 21_6_10 13/12/2019 17:43 Page 19

Monster Mash
comes to Daventry
The Terafinal once again saw some epic battles, as Tim Wall demonstrates
In mathematics, “tera” means 2 to the
power of 40. In ancient Greek mythology, it’s
simpler but scarier: “tera” just means
“monster”.
For the 2019 Delancey UK Schools Chess
Challenge, a total of 185 qualifiers for the
Terafinals descended on the Mercure
Daventry Court Hotel for a monster chess
competition. Over the weekend of 21-22
September, the 24th edition of the world’s
biggest chess tournament concluded with an
exciting new rapidplay format.
In each of the five age groups (Under 8,
10, 12, 14 and 18), games were played at a
rapid time control of 20 minutes plus 10
seconds per move – a faster tempo than in
previous years. After six rounds of a Swiss
competition, the leading four players in each
group competed in a mini-knockout
tournament to determine the top standings.
The other players continued to compete in
the Swiss for the remaining prizes.
The knockout matches consisted of two
games of rapid and, if necessary, an
Armageddon game to break a tie (in
Armageddon, White has five minutes on the
clock, and must win; Black has four minutes,
but only has to draw to win the match). Many
of the games were broadcast live on the Denis Dupuis was delighted to overcome Shreyas Royal and collect his prize from Sarah Longson.
internet via the Chess24 and Chess.com
Ëg7 37 Ëe6+
websites, and the spectacle was enhanced by
expert commentary from GM David Howell
D.Dupuis-S.Kumar Oops! That backfired a bit.
37...Êh8 38 Îh3+ Ëh7 39 Ëf6+ Êg8
and IM Adam Hunt, streamed live.
Under-10 Terafinal (rapid)
40 Îxh7 Êxh7 41 Ëf7+ Êh8 42 g5 Îg8
For the final stages of the competition, on
43 g6 Îg7 44 Ëf8+ Îg8 45 Ëh6# 1-0
the Sunday a film crew from video agency
Coburn Communications attended to capture
the action live, and helped the Delancey UK
Schools Chess Challenge organisers, Sarah R.Chaban-S.Royal
and Alex Longson, create a promotional video.
The also event benefited from an extremely Under-10 Terafinal (rapid)
professionally control team, consisting of
Chief Arbiter Alex Holowczak, and Ravi
Sandhu, Rejean Dupuis, Dave Clayton and
Matt Carr as arbiters.
Some of the winners were relative
newcomers to the UK Chess Challenge, while
others were already household names in
junior chess circles. Not everything went the
way of the higher-rated players, with Denis
Dupuis scoring a famous victory in the
Under-10 final to defeat Shreyas Royal. Here Sanjit Kumar tries an enterprising combo
that wins material...but loses the king.
33...Îxf3?
33...Îf4! should lead to a win.
34 Îxf3 e4 35 Ëxe4 Ëxa1 36 Ëxg6+

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Here Shreyas channels his inner AlphaZero. 27 Ëf3 Îd3 28 Îad1 h5 29 Îxd3 Îxd3 And other finals were very closely
First, push the Thorn Pawn. Then dominate 30 Ëf4 Ëf5 31 Ëxf5 gxf5 32 Êf3 Îc3 contested, with Yichen Han winning the
the king with the Inverted Fianchetto. 33 Îc1 Îd3 34 Êe2 Îd6 35 Íxc5 Îa6 Under-12s against Rajat Makkar, but, again,
29...h3 30 g3 Íg2! 31 Îb2 Ëh7 32 Ëd3 36 a4 e5 37 Íe7 1-0 only after an Armageddon game, with Rajat
Ëh6 having done very well to bounce back from
Can you see which cheapo White is about Jonah was also involved in another their first game.
to fall for? Shreyas has. exciting tussle, this time emerging on the
33 Ëd2? Îxg3! victorious side.
Ouch! White thought the defences would Y.Han-R.Makkar
hold, but when you see the trick... It’s a Under-12 Terafinal (rapid)
humdinger. J.Willow-D.Klingher London System
34 Îxg2 Îxg2+ Under-18 Terafinal (rapid)
And White was checkmated in short order. French Defence 1 d4 d5 2 Íf4 Ìf6 3 e3 c5 4 c3 Ìc6
5 Ìd2 e6 6 Ìgf3 Íd6 7 Íg3 0-0 8 Íd3
In the Under-18s defending champion 1 e4 e6 2 d4 d5 3 Ìd2 Ìf6 4 e5 Ìfd7 b6 9 Ëe2 Ëc7 10 e4 e5!?
Koby Kalavannan defeated top seed Jonah 5 c3 c5 6 f4 Sharpening the play considerably, trying
Willow in an exciting Armageddon game. This sets up such an impressive White to catch Yichen’s king in the centre. 10...Ìh5
centre that Black’s only effective strategy is would be a reasonable alternative.
to try and blow it up – which is exactly what 11 exd5 exd4 12 Ìe4 Ìxe4 13 Íxe4 f5
K.Kalavannan-J.Willow
Dominic Klingher does. 13...Îe8 looks right here, as 14 dxc6 (not
Under-18 Terafinal (Armageddon) 6...Ìc6 7 Ìdf3 Ëb6 8 g3 f6 9 Íd3 Íe7 14 Íxh7+? Êf8) 14...Íf5 15 Íxf5 Îxe2+
Slav Defence 10 Êf1 0-0 11 Êg2 Êh8 12 Ìe2 cxd4 16 Êxe2 gives a hard-to-assess position,
13 cxd4 fxe5 14 fxe5 Îxf3! with White having rook, bishop and knight for
1 d4 d5 2 Ìf3 Ìf6 3 g3 Íg4 4 Íg2 e6 Boom! The exclamation mark is for the queen, but his king is exposed.
5 0-0 Ìbd7 6 c4 c6 7 Ëc2 Íd6 8 Ìbd2 bravery, and because nothing else makes 14 dxc6 Îe8?
0-0 9 e4 dxe4 10 Ìxe4 Ìxe4 11 Ëxe4 sense. Now we have a real fight on our hands.
Ìf6 12 Ëc2 Íf5 13 Ëe2 15 Êxf3 Ìxd4+ 16 Êg2 Ìxe5 17 Íe3
White has a typical Catalan-style edge
due to his space advantage in the centre.
13...Ëc7 14 b3 Îad8 15 Íb2 Îfe8
16 Ìe5
Now both sides make mistakes in
calculation – completely understandable for
an Armageddon game with so much at stake.
16...Íxe5 17 dxe5?
17 Ëxe5 retains White’s edge.
17...Íd3 18 Ëf3

Missing a tactical shot. 14...fxe4 15 Ëxe4

Êh8 16 0-0 Íf5 would still have been fine
17...Íc5?! for Black.
17...Ìxd3 18 Ëxd3 Ëb5! was the 15 Ìg5! Íe6
tactical way out of the pin, when Black has 15...fxe4 16 Ëc4+ Íe6 17 Ìxe6 Ëf7
two pawns for the exchange and is fine. 18 Íxd6 Îxe6 19 Ëd5 leaves White a
18 b4! Ìg4? piece up.
Taking the knight away from attacking the 16 Ìxe6 Îxe6 17 Íd5
bishop on d3. Winning the house as Yichen goes one up
18...Ëxb4 was the best alternative, in the final.
although after 19 Ìxd4 Íxd4 20 Îb1 Ëa3 17...Îae8 18 Íxe6+ Êf8 19 0-0 d3
21 Îf1 Íxe3 22 Ëh5 Ìg6 23 Íxg6 Íh6 20 Ëxd3 Îxe6 21 Ëxf5+ Îf6 22 Ëd7
18...Íe4?? 24 Íc2 Black does not have enough Ëxd7 23 cxd7 1-0
18...Íxf1 was correct, as after 19 Îxf1 compensation for the missing rook.
(19 exf6 Íxg2 20 Ëg4 g6 is also fine for 19 Íg1 Our next game also shows why juniors
Black) 19...Ìd7 Black is a safe exchange up. Now Black will go a rook down, and the love the London System. If Black isn’t careful,
19 Ëe3 pawns won’t be enough to compensate. the kingside attack virtually plays itself.
Having the queen on e3 makes a world of 19...Ëxb4 20 Îb1 Ëa5 21 Ìxd4 e5
difference, as her majesty is on the right 22 Îb5 Ëxa2+ 23 Ëc2 Ëxc2+ 24 Ìxc2
Íxg1 25 Îxg1 The dust has cleared.
diagonal to go to g5 or h6 and threaten mate
Y.Han-S.Dias
in one move. With the queens off, White’s king is safe and Under-12 Terafinal (rapid)
19...Îd3 the four pawns aren’t enough for the rook, London System
If 19...Íxg2 20 exf6 and there is no time due to White’s active pieces.
for 20...Íxf1 21 Ëg5. 25...e4 26 Íe2 Ìf6 27 Îd1 b6 28 Îa1 1 d4 Ìf6 2 Ìf3 e6 3 Íf4 b6 4 e3 Íb7
20 Ëe2 Íxg2 21 Êxg2 Íd7 29 Îxb6 Îc8 30 Îb2 h5 31 Îxa7 5 Ìbd2 c5 6 c3 Ìc6 7 Íd3 d5 8 Ëe2
It’s all over, as Black’s weakened kingside h4 32 gxh4 Îc3 33 Îa3 Íh3+ 34 Êf2 Íd6 9 Íg3 0-0 10 Îd1 cxd4 11 exd4
means he can’t regain the piece on b2. Îxa3 35 Ìxa3 d4 36 Êg3 Íf5 37 Êf4 Ëc7 12 Ìe5!
21...Îed8 22 exf6 Îd2 23 Ëg4 g6 g6 38 Êe5 e3 39 Êxf6 d3 40 Íxd3 White is totally in the driving seat here,
24 Íc1 Î2d4 25 Ëe2 c5 26 Íe3 Ëe5 Íxd3 41 Ìc2 1-0 and Black only has a desperate defence of the

January 2020
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kingside to look forward to. 24 Íxf8 Êxf8 25 Îac1

12...Íxe5 13 dxe5 Ìd7 14 Ìf3 h6 And White won easily.
15 Íc2 Îfd8 16 Íf4!
Yichen just points his pieces at Black’s
king, with all the subtlety of a sledgehammer, T.Cox-A.Balaji
and the defence is already very difficult. Under-14 Terafinal (rapid)
16...Ìf8 17 Ëe3 Ìe7 18 Ìd4 Ìeg6
19 Íg3 Ía6 20 h4!
And here comes Harry.
20...Îac8 21 h5 Ìe7 22 Íh4 Îe8 23 Îh3!

22...Êh7 23 Îef1 Íxf6 24 Îxf6 Êg7

25 Íxg6!
A not very subtle smash-and-grab raid.
Black’s kingside falls to pieces.
25...fxg6 26 Íxh6+! Êh8 27 Íxf8 Ëa5
28 Ìxg6+ Ìxg6 29 Ëh5+ Êg8 30 Ëxg6+
1-0
16...b3?
A standard pawn push to open up lines Organisers Sarah and Alex Longson
against a castled king – but what had both commented: “It was great to see some tough
sides missed? fighting chess at the Terafinal with the final
Closely followed by Reggie the rook. Who 17 cxb3? result hanging in the balance until the bitter
needs castling when you’ve got a devastating 17 Ìe6!! would have been a shock to the end. We switched to the rapid format this
rook lift instead? system, destroying Black’s position: 17...fxe6 year so we could introduce knockout matches
23...Ìc6 24 Ìxc6 Ëxc6 25 Îg3 Ëc7 (17...Íxd3 18 Ìxc5 bxc2+ 19 Êc1 on the Sunday which were exciting and added
26 Îxg7+! cxd1Ë+ 20 Îxd1 is winning for White, as to the atmosphere. As ever there are things
This rook sacrifice has been telegraphed although material is roughly level, Black’s king we could have done better and we hope to
to the world for some moves now, but it’s still is uncastled and a sitting target) 18 Íxg6+ make next year’s event better still. We’d like
impressive. hxg6 19 Ëxg6+ Êf8 20 Îd8+ and mates. to thank the many teachers, organisers and
26...Êxg7 27 Íf6+ Êg8 28 Ëxh6 1-0 17...axb3 18 a3? volunteers who contributed to running our
18 axb3 would still survive for White. events this year. Many thanks also to our
In terms of quality, the UK Chess 18...Íxd3+! 0-1 sponsors Delancey who continue to make
Challenge keeps going from strength to What a turnaround! White resigned, rather events like this possible.
strength. With its new Terafinals rapid format, than face the bone-crunching 19 Ìxd3 “We are taking school entries now for the
the event will surely continue to capture the Ëc2+ 20 Êa1 Îxa3+ 21 bxa3 Ëa2#. 2020 competition (the 25th Anniversary)
imagination of thousands of budding and interested chess teachers can register on
champions across the country. our website or email [email protected]”
R.Ratnesan-A.Balaji
Under-14 Terafinal (rapid) 2019 Terafinal Results
E.Ruzhansky-S.Kumar Modern Defence
Under-8 Terafinal (rapid) Under-8 Final
1 d4 Ìf6 2 Ìc3 g6 3 e4 d5 4 e5 Ìe4!? Aayush Dewangan 2-1 Soham Kumar
4...Ìh5 would be the North Sea Defence.
5 Ìxe4 dxe4 6 Íe3 Íg7 7 f4 exf3
Under-10 Final

8 Ìxf3 0-0 9 Íc4 Ìd7

Denis Dupuis 1½-½ Shreyas Royal

9...c5!? may be the way to go, to Under-12 Final

undermine White’s centre before it is too late. Rajat Makkar 1-2 Yichen Han
10 0-0 Ìb6 11 Íb3 Ìd5 12 Íd2 b5
Under-14 Final
Black is banking on the d5-knight to hold
Aaravamudhan Balaji ½-1½ Ranesh Ratnesan
his position together, but this allows White a
free hand on the kingside. Under-18 Semi-Finals
13 a4 c6 14 axb5 cxb5 15 Ëe2 a6 16 c3 Koby Kalavannan 2-0 Jacob Connor Boswell
h6 17 Íc2 Ëb6 18 Ìh4 Dominic Klingher ½-1½ Jonah Willow
18 Ëf2 planning Ëh4 looks good here.
18...Íb7 19 Êh1 Îac8 20 Îae1 e6
Under-18 Final
Koby Kalavannan 2-1 Jonah Willow
20...b4 should be played to obtain play
against White’s centre.
21 Ëg4 Ìe7 22 Îf6!
Top Girls:
Here Elias uncorks a cracking sacrifice:
23 Íxg7! Applying heavy pressure to Black’s Under-8: Elis Denele Dicen
The bishop is untouchable (if 23...Êxg7 kingside. Defending such a position is not fun
24 f6+ Êg8 25 Ëh5 and Black’s king will be
Under-10: Eugenia Karas
at any time, never mind in a rapidplay game.
mated). Black played... Under-12: Hiya Ray
23...f6
Under-14: Samia Zannat Sheikh
...but didn’t stand a chance after White
simply took the exchange: Under-18: Nadia Jaufarally

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23-25 Finland_Chess mag - 21_6_10 13/12/2019 18:26 Page 23

Finland, Finland, Finland

James Essinger reports from Helsinki and the country where he (often) wants to be
If you’re old or zany enough, or both, you
may know a song from 1980, ‘Finland’ from
the Monty Python team, written by Michael
Palin (“Finland, Finland, Finland, the country
where I want to be/Pony-trekking or camping,
or just watching TV”.) It has a racy, catchy tune
and while to some extent its praise of Finland is
sardonic, the truth is that it says more than it
probably intends to say about why this
charming and interesting northern republic is a
great place to (a) visit and (b) live in, at least if
you don’t mind harsh winters.
I first met Finnish people back in 1977
when I was working in Düsseldorf between
university terms. I found them fascinating,
with their weird language, their Viking-type
looks (they came from the west coast which
is near Sweden; Finns from further east can
sometimes look more oriental), and their
blond hair. Their women were beautiful and
their language deeply intrigued me; it was so
unlike English it sounded like the speech of
aliens, and indeed to some extent it is: for
example, “I love you” is minä rakastan sinua.
If you’re interested, the ‘sinua’ is the
partitive case of the word for ‘you’, sinä. You
use sinä when you’re talking to someone you
know, or a child, or an animal, or presumably
a chess piece if you’re following the advice of
Jonathan Rowson. Anyway, I remember
listening to two of the girls speaking Finnish
together and thinking how remarkable their
language sounded. That spurred a craving in
me to learn the language myself, which I
started doing that summer and when I went
back to Oxford I managed to find some Finns
who taught me. A colour-coordinated James Essinger pictured in his second favourite country - at Helsinki Station.
In 1981, after leaving university, by which
time I could speak Finnish to a very modest I learnt more Finnish in Jyväskylä, partly learning Finnish is probably about as difficult
extent, I went to live and work in Finland as a because while the third girlfriend did speak as learning to play chess well, it has the
teacher of England as a foreign language, first English, we conducted our liaison purely in advantage of letting you astonish beautiful
of all spending nine months in a west coast Finnish, which was quite an experience as it Finnish women (or men), without needing to
town called Pori and then two subsequent meant manipulating Finnish’s complex case demonstrate a spectacular checkmate, as
nine-month sessions – from the autumn to system during mutually enthusiastic most Finns like to think nobody but them can
the summer – in a city called Jyväskylä. Pori moments. Finnish is a deeply intriguing understand their language.
didn’t really suit me as a town, although I did language, being agglutinative, meaning that it When I lived in Pori I met an interesting
manage to learn more Finnish and make a few expresses many ideas by tacking suffixes and chap called Kimmo Välkesalmi, who was
friends. I had a wonderful time, though, in sometimes prefixes on to words. This means already a very strong chess player. I kept in
Jyväskylä, a splendid university city at the that Finnish has a large number of cases, of touch with Kimmo after I left Finland in 1983
heart of Finland with lots of culture, great which you need to master at least eight in (I’ve been back about ten times since).
energy and vibrancy. I actually managed to order to have a reasonable working Kimmo kept his chess up and in 1990 became
find three girlfriends in Jyväskylä knowledge of the language. an IM. Since May 1987 Kimmo has run an
(consecutively rather than a simultaneous To show a simple example, if you want to excellent antiquarian bookshop in Helsinki
display), which was a very pleasant change say “in my house” in Finnish you need to say (Pursimiehentie 11, 00150 Helsinki).
after the romantic drought of Oxford talossani which means literally ‘house-in-my’, I first visited his shop some years ago when
University. I also came fourth in the B-group with ‘talo’ meaning ‘house’, ‘ssa’ meaning ‘in’ in Helsinki. Then, this past summer, I was on
of a winter chess tournament there. and ‘ni’ meaning ‘my’. Altogether while I think holiday in Helsinki with two good friends,

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Briony, an arts charity sponsor and Romney

Marsh politician, and Maria, a Romanian body-
builder who is now a member of the
Canterbury Cathedral Constabulary. Helsinki
was splendid this summer, warm but not
excessively so, and as Briony had never been
there before (Maria had been to Helsinki once
on a day trip when she was visiting Tallinn), it
was great for me to introduce Briony to the
city’s considerable charm.
One of Europe’s smallest capital cities,
Helsinki has a comparatively pleasant climate
because it is so far south, at pretty much the
most southerly part of Finland and, like all
Finnish communities is blessed with excellent
municipal services, and amenities. As well as
this, Helsinki has wonderful architecture.
Even if your love of architecture is limited to
putting two castles on the seventh rank,
going to Helsinki is almost bound to make you
like architecture a whole lot more. Many of
Helsinki’s buildings are splendidly wrought
from stone and have a completely different
look from buildings elsewhere in Europe.
Unfortunately, when I was in Helsinki this
summer Kimmo was away, but his shop was
very much still there. As he says, “I specialise
in chess literature and I also collect chess
books. My main interests are tournament
books, biographies and the history of chess in
general.” Kimmo doesn’t only sell chess
books, but he does specialise in that area, and
he also sells via mail order.
While Kimmo doesn’t play chess
professionally any more, he still enjoys a game
from time to time and in his day he was a very
fine player indeed. Here is a short, wonderfully
violent and exciting game he played as Black
against Scottish Grandmaster Paul Motwani.

P.Motwani-K.Välkesalmi
World U-26 Team Ch., Chicago 1983 The multi-talented Kimmo Välkesalmi in front of a poster advertising the World Youth Team
Petroff Defence Championship of 1983, in which he defeated Scottish GM Paul Motwani - and in some style.

1 e4 e5 2 Ìf3 Ìf6 taste too early on, so I’ve become a King’s but I like this vigorous choice, supporting the
This move of course introduces the Bishop’s Gambit man. knight on e4 and heralding a kingside attack. I
famous Petroff Defence, which is also known 8 Îe1 Íg4 9 c3 f5! don’t know whether Black can in some lines
in Eastern Europe as the Yugoslav Defence. here even consider castling long, which seems
3 Ìxe5 d6 4 Ìf3 Ìxe4 5 d4 d5 6 Íd3 to me a perfectly reasonable idea.
Íe7 7 0-0 Ìc6 The problem with White’s set-up at the
So here we are with a typical Petroff moment is that while it’s tidy and coordinated,
position. On the surface it looks boring, but it it’s not very exciting or dynamic. After all, the
actually isn’t. I must admit that I always think whole point of chess is to try to create
that, psychologically, the Petroff offers Black excitement in your position and dynamism
a slight advantage because while of course amongst your pieces as soon as you can.
White is still operating with the principal 10 Ëb3 0-0
benefit of having the move, Black is in a way Kimmo castles, knowing perfectly well
saying to White: ‘OK, show me what you can that if 11 Íxe4 fxe4 12 Îxe4? then
do’, which puts White under pressure. One 12...Ìa5 wins material.
slip, one loss of tempo, and the advantage 11 Ìbd2 Ìa5 12 Ëc2 Ìc6
passes to Black. I wonder if Kimmo would have gone for a
In fact, as a 1 e4 player myself, the reason repetition now if Paul had proceeded with
why I don’t play 2 Ìf3 after 1...e5 is partly 13 Ëb3, but Paul didn’t try to repeat and
because I don’t want to get into the Petroff or A challenging follow-up to his aggressive instead played:
debate the many-analysed lines of the Ruy eighth move. Of course, Black could simply 13 Ìf1
Lopez. Also, Ruy Lopez and Petroff positions have castled and it may be that Black can castle Again, with no disrespect to Paul, who is a
tend to become too open and fluid for my first then play ...f5 on the next move anyway, very fine player, I think he was playing

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somewhat on autopilot in this game, getting famous game as Black against Jonathan ...which at least defends against the threat
his pieces on to OK squares, but not doing Hawkins at Torquay back in 2009, which on g2, but would be pretty hopeless after
anything very exciting. This rather Richard won in truly brilliant fashion. 22...fxe2. But in fact Kimmo found something
summarises the two players’ approach to this 19 Êxf2 even more beautiful and immediately decisive
interesting miniature: Black is striving – can you spot it?
confidently for the advantage, while White is While you’re seeing if you can find that
being more geometrical and neat in the move, I’ll tell you about a wonderful Russian
positioning of his pieces. Or, at least, that’s restaurant in Helsinki where I’ve eaten a
how it seems to me. couple of times in the fairly remote past and
13...Íd6 which I attended on two occasions on my trip
Obviously targeting h2, which although it’s to Finland last summer, the first with Briony
currently defended by a few pieces, might not and the second time by myself.
be forever. It’s called Shaslik, an allusion to the famous
14 Ì3d2? Russian dish and it’s situated on Neitsytpolku,
Being only a club player rather than a titled which means ‘virgin path’, and is a taxi ride
player, I’m hardly a chess maestro, but it seems costing about 10 Euros from the centre of
to me fairly obvious that in a position like this, town. Alternatively, you can take tram
this choice of move cannot be any good. It number three which stops only about 20
blocks in White’s dark-squared bishop, and yards before the restaurant, although of
retreats the knight from a perfectly good course you need to know where to get off.
defensive position. You can understand Paul So what has Black got for his piece? Well, What Briony and I did was go there by cab on
wanting to challenge the knight on e4, but it you are about to see. The answer is a the Wednesday and then catch the tram
seems to me that an immediate 14 Ìg3 would devastatingly aggressive, full-of-potential back. It’s a wonderful tram ride through the
have been the way to do so. attack against the white king who, apart from heart of Helsinki.
14...Ëh4 15 g3 Ëh5 a couple of horses near the edge of the The grub at Saslik (Shashlik in English), is
battlefield, hasn’t really got much going for classical Russian and includes caviar, Chicken
him. Now Kimmo unleashed: Kiev and, impressively all year round, even
19...f4! bear. The interior of the restaurant is utterly
Of course! The f-file is going to be opened wonderful: Saslik only dates in fact from
or else the f-pawn is going to go a long way, 1972, but the fabulous décor makes you
perhaps all the way, and there is also a threat think you’re just stepped into dining rooms
against the pawn on g3 too. White is probably (there are several in the restaurant) at the
lost already, but certainly Paul has to get the Tsar’s palace sometime in the late nineteenth
king off f2, which he does. century. Dinner at Saslik in Helsinki is the
20 Êg1 f3 most atmospheric dining experience I’ve ever
Considering that we’re only 20 moves into had. There is also live Russian music there on
the game, this is a pretty awesome many evenings.
illustration of how full of energy the Petroff So anyway, did you spot the wonderful
Defence can be for Black if the right person is winning move Kimmo played? Here it is:
directing the pieces. White’s position is 22...Ëxf1+! 0-1
completely horrible, being faced with the This finishes the game marvellously. Paul
Already White must be much worse and
immediate lethal threat of 21...f2+ and there now resigned as after 23 Êxf1 fxe2+ 24
possibly even already losing. The position is a
is very little he can do about it. Paul makes Êg1 e1Ë+ Black is a whole rook up with a
bit like a Marshall Gambit where Black hasn’t
what is perhaps the best try. devastating attack, while after 24 Êe1 Îf1+
even had to give up any material, and the
21 Ìe4 Ëh3 25 Êd2 e1Ë+ it’s mate in two.
white knights are very awkwardly placed. I
With the mate threat on g2. I suppose this
could be defended against by 22 Ìe3, but
believe it was Boris Spassky who once I think you’ll agree that was an extremely
remarked that knights of the same colour, beautiful game and a wonderful concoction
which are only a knight’s move away from then Black has a choice of deadly moves, such
as 22...Ìf5, which not only threatens the by Kimmo in only 22 moves from a position
each other, are badly placed. I think that’s which early on in the game really did seem
right because what they’re doing is occupying knight on e3, but also adds to the attack on
the pawn on g3. White’s position is in fact most innocuous.
a square that the other is already controlling, If ever you fancy some time away from
resignable here. Paul gamely tried...
22 Îe2
whereas two knights side by side or in front your daily routine in a city of great charm and
of each other are notorious for covering all where there’s also a super chess bookshop to
sorts of squares and giving the opponent lots visit, I can thoroughly recommend Helsinki.
to worry about. Oh, and before I forget, you also ought to visit
16 Ëb3 a marvellous restaurant and café called
Paul seems rather preoccupied with this Kappeli on the southern esplanade leading
square in this game, but it’s not really clear to down to the market place. The great Finnish
me what other plan he has anyway, as the composer Jean Sibelius (no piece of music is
light squares around his king are terribly weak. more Finnish than his masterpiece ‘Finlandia’)
Kimmo now avoids any problems with the pin. used to meet his friends at Kappeli for a
16...Êh8 coffee and cake, and no doubt something
Giving up the pawn on d5, but Kimmo has stronger on occasion.
aggressive ideas in mind. Finland is an unforgettable country and
17 Ëxd5 Ìe7 18 Ëc4 Ìxf2! Helsinki is its thoroughly delightful capital.
A move which the editor of this august And what’s more, they play chess there too...
journal must certainly approve of as it echoes,
at least to me, his favourite 11...Ìxf2 in his Ë Ë Ë Ë Ë Ë Ë Ë Ë Ë Ë Ë Ë

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The Best of 2019

Following on from his Christmas suggestions, our review expert Sean Marsh
rounds up his favourite books from the year that has just passed
It is time to round up some of the chess match with Fischer, which did not in fact take 25...fxe6 26 Ìfg6+ Ëxg6 27 Ìxg6+
books I never managed to fit into the main place. I was therefore familiar with the World Êe8 28 Ìxh8
review columns over the course of 2019, Champion’s opening repertoire.” And White proceeded to victory.
starting with an extended look at one of my The new Quality Chess work prefers: “This
personal favourites followed by a briefer look game began with an interesting psychological If that had occurred in a tournament
at some more titles I have thoroughly enjoyed duel before we even sat down at the board. anywhere else other than Russia – or if Karpov
reading and can highly recommend. The point is that not long before, I had been had failed to win the tournament – then Geller
Anatoly Karpov’s second in his World would have suffered upon his return, but it seems
Championship Candidates final match with the risk was not so great when playing on home
Korchnoi, and had taken part in his soil, although it was the only time Geller stepped
preparation for the match with Fischer that out of line with the 12th world champion.
never was – so naturally I knew the World Geller’s reputation is usually based on two
Champion’s opening repertoire.” main aspects: his deep grasp of opening
There are some interesting nuances here, theory and his remarkable record against
one of which is both historical and political; world champions. He made (not counting
note that Korchnoi’s name was not mentioned draws) 4-1 against Botvinnik and 5-3 against
The Nemesis: Geller’s Greatest Games in the first example as was typical of the time Fischer, for example. His theoretical
Efim Geller, 480 pages due to his status as persona non grata. knowledge made him a very valuable
Quality Chess The game itself famously angered Karpov, assistant for Karpov (think of the champion’s
as Geller met his rare French Defence not repertoire during the 1970s and early 1980s,
with the expected 3 Ìd2, which was with 6 Íe2 against the Najdorf, 3 Ìd2
RRP £26.50 SUBSCRIBERS £23.85
Efim Geller is very much one of the chess presumably expected to lead to an easy draw, against the French and the sturdy
world’s forgotten men. The two English- but with 3 Ìc3, against which Karpov lacked Tar takower-Makogonov-Bondarevsk y
language books offering a selection of his experience and knowledge. Geller went on to System as Black against the Queen’s Gambit
games, namely Grandmaster Geller at the crush Karpov, even sacrificing his queen along – all Geller specialities). Even Kasparov took
Chessboard (Bernard Cafferty, The Chess the way. Geller’s advice on certain Ruy Lopez lines in
Player, 1969) and The Application of Chess his title match with Short in 1993.
Theory (Efim Geller, Pergamon, 1984) are However, on carefully studying Geller’s
still very good, but of course many years have E.Geller-A.Karpov notes, a definite pattern of a third aspect
passed since they were published. USSR Championship, Moscow 1976 emerges and this is how effective he was at
The Nemesis, a translation of a recent work the psychological aspect of the game. He
by the Russian Chess House, offers 135 games clearly thought very carefully about the
with Geller’s own very instructive notes. The character of his opponents and sharply
aim was to present a collection of all of the exploited any deficiencies he had spotted in
games annotated by Geller himself, which have their game. Here are his thoughts on Fischer:
been taken from various books and magazines “It was already clear to me that double-
to create a full set for the first time. edged, ‘cliff-hanging’, irrational positions
The Application of Chess Theory contained were the American grandmaster’s vulnerable
100 games, again with Geller’s notes and point. In that type of struggle, Fischer would
there is a natural overlap of material, albeit it often fail to find the win even in an
with various differences in the respective objectively won position. This prompted my
translations. There are, however, some games decision to offer him a very sharp game – in
that have not made it through from the his own favourite variation, too.’ This was at
earlier book and differences in the Monaco in 1967 where Geller smashed
translations make this by no means a Fischer in just 25 moves on the black side of
replacement; both books should sit proudly, a Najdorf, Poisoned Pawn Variation.
side by side, on the ‘special shelf’. Karpov has just played 24...Ëe8 and Geller was just half a point behind
One example: in the preamble to Geller’s Geller comments: “Black brings his queen Petrosian at Curacao in 1962, as the world’s
encounter with Karpov at the 1976 USSR across to defend the vulnerable points g6 and top players queued up to try and qualify for a
Championship, the earlier book has: “This e6, and at the same time seemingly forces a title match with an ageing Botvinnik. John
game began, before we sat down at the queen exchange.” Geller, who has already Shaw, in his introduction, allows himself a
board, with an interesting psychological duel. sacrificed the exchange, now lets rip with little speculation as to Geller’s chances in the
The point is that, not long before this, I was something even more spectacular. match. It is an interesting question, but Geller
Anatoly Karpov’s second in the Final 25 Ëxe6! did not excel at match play.
Candidates match, and participated in his “It turns out that defending with the What did keep Geller from achieving
preparations for the World Championship queen was insufficient after all!” greater success? How can a man who would

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confidently beat the best players in the world The King’s Indian According to This is an excellent book with wonderful
just fail to go a little further? I was able to Tigran Petrosian * and fully accessible annotations. It seems we
learn a little more about this issue when Igor Yanvarjov, 424 pages can still learn such a lot from the former
carefully studying The Nemesis. Russell Enterprises Soviet giants. As Aronian puts it, “No matter
Korchnoi, who knocked Geller out of the RRP £34.95 SUBSCRIBERS £31.45 how many years pass, the mark left by
Candidates matches in 1971, assessed his Petrosian will not disappear!”
rival as “Quite a good attacker, but he Igor Yanvarjov is an International Master
calculates variations badly – he wastes a lot and professional chess coach, who has worked * Stock of the Petrosian title may be limited
of time, and often does not believe in with numerous top players. He is currently active so do please contact Chess & Bridge before
himself” (Chess is My Life, Batsford, 1977). with the Anatoly Karpov School of Chess in placing an order.
Geller admits to his failings several times in Moscow and formerly worked at the chess
his own notes, which are surprisingly frank. schools of Petrosian, Geller and Kasparov.
The annotations to his game against Uwe A lot of work has gone into this very
Boensch, played at Sochi in 1984, reveal he interesting book, which bridges the worlds of
spent half an hour on the first nine moves on a famous world champion and a very popular
the white side of a Scheveningen Sicilian. chess opening. The premise is explained thus:
“I had indeed played this position very “The author’s objective was, first of all, to
many times, and without false modesty I may reveal the richness of Petrosian’s chess world
say that I have some ideas of my own here. and to follow the strategic development of
But the whole point is that my opponent was the King’s Indian Defence through the prism
Coaching Kasparov Volume 1:
practically unknown to me – and in situations of Petrosian’s creative work. He does this
The Whizz-Kid (1973-81)
like this I sometimes find it excruciating to with the presentation of almost 300 deeply
Alexander Nitikin, 200 pages
choose between the continuations, or more annotated, complete games.”
Elk and Ruby
exactly the systems, that can come about.” Most readers will be familiar with
RRP £20.95 SUBSCRIBERS £18.85
Yes, it becomes clear that Korchnoi’s Petrosian’s reputation as a King’s Indian
assessment was quite correct. If Geller had crusher (Fischer kept away from it during both Garry Kasparov may not play very much
enjoyed more self-belief against opponents the Russia versus Rest of the World match in chess these days, but his name is always going
he didn’t know as well as his major rivals then 1970 and also his 1971 Candidates match to catch the eye, especially with a promise of
he would have had every chance of making against Petrosian, which certainly says previously unreleased material. Nitikin was a
more progress in the quest for the crown. Any something), but it may not be quite so well very significant figure from the start of
weakness shown at match level is similar to known that the great champion frequently Kasparov’s career and is well placed to provide
showing blood to a shark; a predator such as adopted the sharp defence as Black too, a unique insight into Kasparov’s early years.
Korchnoi would exploit it without mercy. despite it appearing to be contrary to his style. Elk and Ruby have included 14 previously
Geller remained a potent player, even in his This book has a preface by Levon Aronian unpublished games and the major attraction
latter years, although popular opinion may and a foreword by Igor Zaitsev, both of which is that they are all from a 1978 blitz match
have convinced people otherwise. This very are well worth reading. Each variation of the against none other than Mikhail Tal. Honours
magazine, when reporting on the 1982 King’s Indian then receives significant coverage, ended even, but Kasparov had to fight back
Philips and Drew tournament, captioned a using Petrosian’s games from both sides of the in style after finding himself 3-0 down.
photograph of Geller with the words. “Geller, board. There is also a section on the Benoni plus Indeed, his play in the early games,
who came to Phillips and Drew (and drew and a general appreciation of Petrosian’s play and undoubtedly marked by nerves (can you
drew and drew).” It is a good gag, but it several other related items. imagine playing Tal at blitz?), looked way off
doesn’t show much respect for the man who It is a wonderful sight to see Petrosian the mark and in the first game he even
was just one point away from qualifying from strangling a King’s Indian Defence. This game allowed Tal to place one of his standard
the 1982 Moscow Interzonal to take part in has long been a favourite. ‘calling cards’ on the black position.
the next series of Candidates matches (the
cycle Kasparov eventually won). This was due
to a last-round loss to Sax; perhaps Geller’s T.Petrosian-M.Bertok M.Tal-G.Kasparov
self-belief was at fault again. The more I read Bled 1961 1st matchgame, Tbilisi (blitz) 1978
of this book, the more I understood Geller’s
character, strengths and weaknesses, all of
which joined together some significant dots
in my prior knowledge.
Jacob Aagaard, in his interesting essay at
the start of the book, claims that “Rarely have
we published such a rich book” – and I fully
agree. I strongly suspect books on the greats
don’t sell as many copies as those on openings,
but people who neglect the classics are
missing out on a great deal. We still need a
book to add more about Geller’s life. Just
imagine if he had written an autobiography,
detailing his thoughts of his great rivals and his
time spent inside Karpov’s world. The most we
currently have is a chapter in Sosonko’s Russian
Silhouettes (New in Chess, 2009), but there
must be so much more to say. This is the position after 18 Îhb1. Black is Kasparov’s 16...Íc5? was naive and it
The Nemesis is very fine collection of completely tied up all over the board and allowed the crushing rejoinder 17 Ìxe6!
great games with excellent, thought- White is ready to break open the queenside (and 1-0, 24). It is a testament to Kasparov’s
provoking and highly revealing annotations. with b2-b4. Petrosian’s iron grip led to strength of character that he was able to
Well played, Quality Chess. victory on move 62. He was never in a hurry. recover after such a bad start. Fans of the

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13th world champion will find plenty of new advocated by Len Pickett back in the 1970s out that 1 e3! is the best opening move and
stories in this book and once again we see Elk and is just as valid today. doesn’t lose, by force, to 1...b5 as was
and Ruby gamely producing fascinating previously believed in some circles. However,
volumes which are of immense value to the 1 e3! d6?? is apparently a forced loss...for
discerning chess historian. Black. The problem is that White can exploit
the predictable nature of the c8-bishop and
force it to capture nearly all of the white
army, starting with 2 Ëg4!.
The depth of this book is very impressive.
Standard openings, tactics and endgames are
all explained. There are even reciprocal
zugzwang positions, such as this one.

Side-stepping Mainline Theory

Gerard Welling & Steve Giddins, 272 pages
New in Chess
RRP £21.95 SUBSCRIBERS £19.75
Black plays 8...Ëe8, with ...Íd8 to follow,
The slightly clumsy strapline advises when the passive bishop can slip out to c7 or
readers to ‘Cut down on Opening Study and b6 to take a more active part in proceedings.
Get a Middlegame You Are Familiar With’. It’s the little twists and half-forgotten turns
More often than not, this means playing the such as this one that could help make a thorough
increasingly popular London System, but this understanding of the system extremely potent
book offers a different approach and one at club level. This book is expertly written and
which, furthermore, can be played with both should be of great use to club players who lack
colours. Time is pressing for non- the time to prepare deeply and who would like
professionals and it is an impossible task for to always play something fireproof that they
the busy club player to try to keep up with really understand. The side to play loses. Try it!
the latest opening theory. Adopting a Chess variants can be great fun, but they

24 4NCL
universal system could be the answer. are also very good for improving one’s
“The present book aims to equip such thinking skills. This is a very interesting book
amateur players with a sound, rock-solid which is unlikely to be surpassed.

TH
basic repertoire, which can be learned in the
least possible time and which once learned,

FIDE RATED
will require the bare minimum of ongoing
maintenance and updating.”
To this end, the system advocated is based

CONGRESS
on 1...d6 systems, which means the Old The Ultimate Guide to Antichess
Indian against 1 d4 and the Philidor against 1 Vladica Andrejic, 256 pages
e4. A similar set-up is given for White, using Sahovski Informator
1 e4 and an early d2-d3. Critics will accuse RRP £39.99 SUBSCRIBERS £35.99
the systems of being cramped and
unambitious, but they are very sound, And now for something completely
virtually immune to theoretical bombs and different. Antichess is the latest name given
offer steady plans of development. The to one of the most popular of all chess
authors are strong on prose explanations and variants. Take Me Chess, Losing Chess and, of Friday 17 January to
cover all the tactical and strategical matters course, the now non-PC Suicide Chess are
required to turn the system into a highly just some of the many names given to the Sunday 19 January
effective weapon at club level. game in which the aim is to lose one’s pieces
It is unlikely a player will become champion in order to win. Nomenclature can be difficult The Old Swan,
of the world using this repertoire, but it pays in chess, as some will know ‘Anti-Chess’ to be Harrogate, HG1 2SR.
to be realistic and to manage expectations. one of the titles of Viktor Korchnoi’s book on
And, yes, 1...d6 can be effective against the his extraordinary 1978 title match against 3 sections - all of 5 rounds
London System. In fact we go all the way Anatoly Karpov.
back to Ostend 1907 to see Nimzowitsch Children love Antichess – we call it Pirate FIDE Rated Open,
chase away Erich Cohn’s London bishop with Chess in our schools – and they can often
1 d4 Ìf6 2 Ìf3 d6 3 Íf4 Ìh5. see further ahead in this game than in FIDE Rated U2000,
Players of a certain age will become normal chess.
misty-eyed when they find the Pickett This book is a fabulous resource for players
ECF Under 135
Shuffle in Black’s armoury. This was wanting something a little different. It turns
Prize fund £3,000
For further information
and entry visit:

www.4ncl.co.uk
January 2020
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Six of the Best!

Unsure what to watch this Christmas? Let movie buff Michael Renouf
guide you with this rundown of his favourite chess films
6. Searching for Bobby Fischer

This 1993 movie centres on child prodigy

Josh Waitzkin (Max Pomeranc who in real life
was ranked as one of the top 100 chess
players in his age group in America), and the
inevitable comparisons with Bobby Fischer
that would be made when an American kid
stood out from the crowd at chess.
Based on the book Searching for Bobby
Fischer: The Father of a Prodigy Observes the
World Of Chess, written unsurprisingly by
Waitzkin’s father Fred, it stars Ben Kingsley as
his acerbic official chess teacher, Bruce
Pandolfini, and Laurence Fishburne as Vinnie,
who he informally learns from whilst playing
speed chess in the park.
In Steve Zaillian’s directorial debut, we not
only get to see Josh’s struggle with his talent, Unsurprisingly Director Steve Zaillian couldn’t resist filiming some of Searching for Bobby
but also witness his parent’s dilemma of Fischer in Washington Square, where chess hustlers still hang out ready to play for money.
wanting him to succeed, while wanting him to
be more than just a player and also be himself.
This movie features real life chess players Frazier battle for the heavyweight world such tale. Queen of Katwe is based on Tim
Kamran Shirazi, Joel Benjamin and Roman championship of boxing held in the same Crothers’ book with the rather elongated
Dzindzichashvili as themselves, while Asa country three years previously – and the two title, Queen of Katwe: A Story of Life, Chess
Hoffman is portrayed by Austin Pendleton. combatants give us chess’s version of the and One Extraordinary Girl’s Dream of
Also, the actual Josh and Bruce (who has one Thrilla in Manila. Becoming a Grandmaster, which is the
line) appear in small cameos in the The story of this match would have made remarkable true story of Phiona Mutesi,
background of scenes shot at Washington an excellent subplot in a James Bond movie played by Madina Nalwanga. The youngster is
Square Park, the famous New York location with characters such as the parapsychologist just one of a plethora of actors making their
where money games are readily available. Dr. Zhukar and the orange-robed Ananda acting debuts as the filmmakers took the
After this film was made Josh would go on Marga – who happened to be on bail for the brave decision to go with a largely unknown
twice to be U.S. Junior Chess Champion attempted murder of an Indian diplomat – cast.
before changing his allegiance to martial arts and also has plenty of input from big names in Phiona grew up in Katwe, dirt poor in a
where he excelled, just as well if not more the chess world, such as Garry Kasparov and slum in Kampala, Uganda, but thanks to her
than he did at the game where Fischer is the Vishy Anand, as well as some of those natural talent and the two guiding lights in her
benchmark for anybody born in the States. involved in the match itself. If you thought life, her mother (Lupita Nyong’o) and her
the Russians did not want to lose to Fischer, coach Robert Katende (David Oyelowo), she
well, that was just a minor irritation compared fulfils her potential. Although at times her
5. Closing Gambit:
to the thought of losing to a defector. mother seems to be an obstacle to her
1978 Korchnoi versus Karpov This was a contest of endurance (it lasted daughter, she is trying to give the only things
and the Kremlin 32 games), not only by today’s standard of she has to her give to her children – her
12 games, but even for the era. Normally the principals and morals.
This documentary centres its story around final would be played over 24 games, but in Robert coaches football and teaches
the 1978 world chess championship played in 1978 it was the first to six, so technically a chess, making this is as much a story about
the Philippines between Anatoly Karpov, match without limit. If you have any non- the mentor as it is about the pupil. One day a
defending champion, loyal party member and playing chess friends that do not believe smelly Phiona follows her brother through the
the poster boy for Russian chess, taking on there is intrigue or controversy within the door of the hut where Robert is teaching the
his countryman Viktor Korchnoi, the sport, then show them this documentary – game so dear to many of us and is
cantankerous defector who holds an you can change their minds in 85 minutes. immediately fascinated. Year by year we see
iconoclastic opinion of the land of his birth. Phiona’s progress and how the lessons and
The prolific documentary maker Alan 4. Queen of Katwe strategies learned on the board can help in
Byron, who normally concentrates his efforts real life situations as she works towards her
on the world of music, departs from his usual Chess is played all over the world and can goals and slowly realised dreams. A nice touch
subject matter with a fair degree of success. take you from the shoddiest of shacks to the from director Mira Nair was to have some of
He starts off comparing the match to the Ali- most grandiose glitzy venues – this is one the cast side by side with their real-life

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counterparts at the end of the film.

3. Pawn Sacrifice

A priest, a lawyer and a Jew visit Iceland –

the country, not the shop that purveys frozen
food feasts – and no this is not a joke from a
1970’s overweight comedian, but rather a
major plot point of Pawn Sacrifice.
The movie about the outstanding
American Bobby Fischer starts off with him in
Reykjavik in 1972 checking his phone for
bugs that he thinks that the Soviets have
planted, to help his opponent - Boris Spassky
(Liev Schreiber) - in the upcoming world
chess championship in the contest that
became know as ‘The Match of the Century’.
Played in the Cold War era this was far
more than a game, being a clash of ideologies
and a battleground for intellectual superiority
between the superpowers of America and the Tobey Maguire plays Bobby Fischer in Pawn Sacrifice and does a fine job, possibly in part
then USSR. because, like the 11th world champion, he is supposed to behave a little eccentrically.
We see Bobby as a youth and get a feel for
his background before Tobey Maguire (who, time about Eugene Brown who found redem- own two children. On the one hand, he needs
as rumour has it, is as difficult in real life as ption whilst helping others learn the game. to repair the damage he caused to his own
the character he is portraying here) looms Brown, who is played by the Oscar winning family and, on the other, he wants to make
into view as the adult Bobby and we follow his actor Cuba Gooding Jr. in a fine performance, sure his new charges rise above
journey – which is equal parts genius, has been in prison for nearly two decades for a circumstances – something he and his own
paranoia and madness – to his face off with crime he did commit where fellow inmate family have not always done. He tries to
Spassky, a match that had the world Searcy has taught him the game. He is released install lessons on the board that can be also
captivated and contributed to a boom in back on to the streets of his native Washington used in life, such as just because your options
interest in the game across the pond. D.C. and in a country where the system is not are limited it does not mean you have to make
set up to rehabilitate, but just to punish long a bad move.
2. The Dark Horse after people have served their time, struggles Everything is looking on the up until his
to find work. Through a friend, he does get a past comes back to bite him. Forced to leave
This New Zealand made and set true story job as janitor at a school and one day finds the school, he starts The Big Chair Chess Club
has less chess action than the others on this himself standing in for a teacher watching over in the community. The movie shows how
list and it may take you a little while to get troubled kids in detention. Brown has grown as a person whilst
used to the accents, but is well worth This goes better than expected and he mentoring the kids to play in tournaments – in
persevering with. starts a chess club within the school. The one of which the real life Eugene pops up as an
Genesis Potini – a powerhouse movie cleverly shines a spotlight on his official in his familiar black and white hat – and
performance from Cliff Curtis – is a well- relationship with three of the problematic encourages them to do something
known local chess player, but suffers from kids, Clifton, Peanut and Tahime, whilst also constructive in their spare time.
bipolar disorder and has just been released focusing on his shaky relationship with his Always Think B 4 U Move!
into his brother Ariki’s (another great turn,
this time from Wayne Hapi) care.
Unfortunately, Ariki lives in a squalid gang
house with his teenage son, so this is not a
great environment for anybody, let alone
somebody who is vulnerable. This was Hapi’s,
who in real life was an ex-gang member,
acting debut. Curtis won the Best Actor in
New Zealand Film and TV awards and Hapi
also received a nomination for Best
Supporting Actor.
Genesis needs something positive to focus
on and connects with an old friend who gives
him the chance to help coach at the local
chess club, The Eastern Knights. This proves
to be a lifeline not only for the kids, but
Genesis too, as his life revolves around the
chequered board and eventually his nephew.
This movie is a slow burner with plenty of
tense moments and a protagonist you really
care about.

1. Life of a King
Even those with little interest in the royal game should find Queen of Katwe an uplifting
Another chess tale, another true story, this watch as the film follows Phiona Mutesi from beginner to becoming a chess star in Uganda.

www.chess.co.uk
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CSample
hristmas
Chess Quiz
This article will need a sub-header and possibly the

After twenty years of compiling a Christmas quiz for Chorlton Chess Club, Graham
Phythian presents a compilation to tease your grey matter during this festive season

How it Began Christmas Quizzes in this very magazine, so punters can be awarded with – product
Irving Chernev’s marvellously addictive The placement alert! – bottles of Bishop’s Finger,
Some time towards the end of last century Chess Companion, and Assiac’s Adventure in King Goblin, or Master Brew. (Last year’s
a member of Chorlton Chess Club (est. 1946 Chess. Other rich sources of material were equivalent of the wooden spoon was an
– we think) thought it would be a good idea The Even More Complete Chess Addict by economy pack of prawn cocktail Doritos, with
for members to get together for a Christmas Mike Fox and Richard James, and Bruce the “r” of “prawn” tippexed out. I do get out
curry night. The obvious choice for venue was Pandolfini’s Treasure Chess. sometimes – honest.)
one of the many excellent restaurants on I also included word puzzles, Odd One In recent years the winner’s mantle has
Rusholme’s famed curry mile in south Out, True or False?, Complete the Quotation, been hogged by Daniel Lee (ECF 177), but in
Manchester, with of course a liquid overture picture posers, and one or two oddball 2018 he met his match when in a three-way
in a nearby pub. teasers, all, of course, with a chess theme. tie Richard Nurse (138), Andrew Sainsbury
For the 2000 social it was my wish to liven (As an example of the latter: what chess (157) and Austin Elliot (163) shared the
up the proceedings further by introducing a move is this? “A long wait at the customs.” honours. The spread of gradings reflects to
Christmas Quiz. The less said about this Answer at the end.*) some extent the ‘something for everyone’
fumbling prototype, the better. I should have rationale of the quiz.
taken the hint when the lady friend I had Recently we have shifted the venue to
invited (no mean chess player herself, having Chorlton itself, which has had the twin
represented Welsh Ladies in a Moscow benefits of saving many of us the journey to
Olympiad) kept on hiding the bits of paper Rusholme as well as adding to drinking time.
with the game positions on them every time I For those readers wishing to compile their
left the table. own club chess quiz, I would suggest allowing
It was suggested to me (in the nicest possible plenty of time for preparation. Use an engine
way) that the following year I should compile to analyse your chosen positions, maybe
something that was less in the nature of a several weeks beforehand. If possible, choose
busman’s holiday, putting the accent on FUN. game positions in which moves other than the
So, the general tone of the Chorlton Chess optimum ones may still be strong, and let your
Club Christmas Quiz was born: chess is so rich allocation of points give some credit to feasible
a phenomenon that finding the quirky, the moves which may not be the best. You could
witty, the diverting and the wildly also give bonus points for valid or interesting
unexpected was a lot easier than I’d variations from the main line. It may be a good
anticipated. And this was without visiting the idea to leave the reverse side of the quiz
outer limits of puzzledom, such as series sheets blank to cater for more intensive
helpmates or fairy chess concoctions. I know analyses, should anyone be in the mood.
these are meat and drink to the aficionados, Advertise the quiz evening – plus, if
but I just thought it would be unfair to throw there’s a demand for it, the accompanying
at the unsuspecting punter anything that was meal and social – well in advance, both at the
too distant from the traditional over the club and on the internet. Obviously, you will
board game. need to know numbers interested. Remind
In most of the twenty years’ worth of potential quizzers that a contribution of, say,
quizzes there has been a mixture of genuine The general aim has been “something for £2 each on the night would help defray the
game positions (either from a specific famous everyone”. This is reflected in the diversity of cost of photocopying and prizes. (Or if you’re
player or highlighting a useful theme or difficulty in the game puzzles themselves, and lucky, the club may foot the bill.) Finally,
motif), and the pure entertainment of quite in the inclusion of the non-game teasers. At the awarding a small trophy to the winner adds a
unfeasible, but magnetically intriguing piece beginning of the evening everyone gets a free touch of glitz to the proceedings.
arrangements. I made use of some well- “chess is cool” pen (just £1 each from Chess
known games, as well as lesser known and Bridge Ltd.), and at the end of it just about Happy quizzing!
brilliancies, by Fischer, the Polgar sisters, everybody takes home a prize: mostly alcoholic,
Zukertort, Alekhine, Tal, and other celebrities. although coffee mugs with the Chorlton Chess
For the wackier puzzles I was indebted to Club logo are popular too. The prizes usually
Hugh Courtney’s thirty-year long spree of have at least a spurious connection with chess,

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Six of the Best 5.

I asked club members to suggest their favourite puzzle from the last twenty years: a
difficult choice, especially for the more established punters. Fortunately I’ve kept all the
quizzes in ring binders, so after memories were jogged, the following made the cut. (Ed. -
solutions will be printed in the February issue.)
1. 3.

White has an easy win by Îa1-h1.

However...the challenge is to mate the black
king in three moves with the rook on a5 – but
without moving that rook!

It is possible (and legal), but you may need a

Follow the star! White to play and mate in 3 little detective work first...
A Christmas tree. White to play and mate in 2

2. 4. 6.

A Christmas box. Unwrap your present! “The Spirit of Sam Loyd”. The overall favourite (and mine).
White to play and mate in 4 White to play and mate in 3 White to play and mate in five.

A Christmas Tree
Working across, fill in the numbered answers to the clues given below. There is
an extra puzzle at the end.

1. The way you take a pawn after it’s gone. (1, 1)

2. In 1960 he was World number one. (3)
3. Name this Hungarian GM and former child prodigy (4)
4. And does this Bohemian rock group play chess? (5)
5. With Bronstein he played an ‘007’ role. (7)
6. This Frenchman once said “pawns are the soul”. (8)
7. A mate where the knight deprives you of breath. (9)
8. World Champ three times before his ‘95 death
9. Name the Sicilian with a pawn on b4. (4, 6)
10. Name the British-born Swiss GM that’s also a King’s Gambit expert

Rearrange the letters in the darker shaded squares to reveal the name of a
famous chess player. (7, 6)

*Ëb4+ (OK, suit yourselves)

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Chess for Life

Even at 91 years old, BH Wood’s former opponent from his trips to northern
Spain, Eugene Salomon, still likes to play not just chess, but also bridge
One year ago, the day before my 90th
birthday, I wrote: “90 Years of Coincidences,
that’s what life has been: 19 years in my
native Spain, 13 years in Cuba, and 58 years
in the good, old USA. A chess passion of 75
years and a 65-year career in business.
Reflecting about tomorrow, when I will
become 90 years old, I realize that I’m just a
drop of water in the large ocean of
immigrants that die any given day, proud of
their heritage and equally as proud of the
legacy they leave behind – in my case, four
children and seven grandchildren.”
A few weeks ago my friend Luis Mendez
Castedo sent me a copy of the September
CHESS, in which he and his brother Pedro,
co-authors of The Gijón International
Tournaments 1944-1965, wrote: “The book
has been enriched by a foreword from Eugene
Salomon, the living legend of Spanish chess and
the last survivor of the 1947 Gijón tournament.”
No, I do not pretend to be a legend; I just
had the fortune of having three true legends
as my chess teachers: my father (my first
teacher, my ‘hero’), my uncle and chess poet
Dr. Rugarcia, and the chess genius of all time,
Alexander Alekhine, who so much helped me
with his wise advise about chess and life.
A few weeks after returning from a
‘memory lane’ trip to Madrid and Gijón (the
birthplace of my chess career) this summer, I
gave a lecture at the Toms River Chess Club,
New Jersey, and as a follow-up, wrote an
article about what I had learnt from my three
chess teachers. Eugene Salomon is still going strong at the age of 91, pictured here at his local Tom Rivers
Then, reading in these pages about ‘Mr. Chess Club in New Jersey. Eugene is hoping to again play in the legendary U.S. Amateur Team
Chess’, BH Wood, brought a lot of memories Championship next month, an event which attracts well over a thousand players each year.
about the IV Gijón International in which we
both participated. Moreover, the last time I discovered in Duplicate Bridge a good way to 11 Êd1? f5 12 Ëxe5 Íf6 13 Ëf4 Íxc3
had seen this publication was exactly 72 continue cultivating my competitive spirit. 14 bxc3 Ìxd5 15 Ëd4 d6 16 Îe1 c5
years ago when the September 1947 issue Moreover, I realised at the same time, just as
contained an article with a photograph of BH you can find true poetry in chess combinations,
Wood, myself and the other 12 participants the same pleasurable sensation when you learn
from Gijón, which I read in Madrid just a how to exploit the ‘distributional value’ of the
month before leaving for Havana. hands you have been dealt.
I still conserve an original of that issue and Back to the main subject, chess at 17 and
reproduced the article in the Ebook I co- at 70, and here is one of my favourite games
wrote with Steve Pozarek and Wayne which I won as a teenager.
Conover: 40 Years of Friendship – 100
Games of Chess. That September 1947 issue J.M.Fuentes-E.Salomon
of Chess has travelled with me from Madrid
to Havana to New York, and it’s now here in Madrid 1946
my home in the company of the chess pieces Ruy Lopez
that Alekhine used at Gijón in 1944.
Nowadays I like to write and I settled on the 1 e4 e5 2 Ìf3 Ìc6 3 Íb5 a6 4 Ía4 Ìf6
above title because a few years after retiring 5 Ëe2 b5 6 Íb3 Íe7 7 Íd5 Ìxd5
from competitive chess, at the age of 70, I 8 exd5 Ìb4 9 Ëe4? Íb7 10 Ìc3 0-0 17 Ëh4 Ìxc3+! 0-1

January 2020
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Completing the powerplay. 18 dxc3 mental intensity I had never felt before or achieved a provisional rating of USCF Master
Íxf3+ picks up the white queen since. I entered the New Jersey State Open as a result (a title it took me over 10 more
and my first game was against one of the years to earn).”
This and plenty more games can be found strongest youngsters in the state, Steve
in the aforementioned Ebook, including the Pozarek, who recalls:
way I ground down John Watson at the 1996 “In 1968, I was an 18-year-old chess S.Pozarek-E.Salomon
World Open, as well as the following effort. player with an Expert rating and ambitions of New Jersey Open 1968
becoming a Master, and, just before the King’s Indian Defence
beginning of my sophomore year in college, I
E.Salomon-L.Murzin entered the New Jersey Open. My opponent in 1 c4 Ìf6 2 Ìc3 g6 3 e4 d6 4 d4 Íg7
World Open, Philadelphia 1998 the first round was Unrated, meaning that the 5 f3 0-0 6 Íe3 e5 7 d5 a5 8 Íd3 Ìa6
Catalan Opening player had not played in any rated tournaments 9 Ìge2 Ìd7 10 Ëd2 Ìb4 11 0-0 f5
(in the US!) and was usually very inexperienced 12 exf5 gxf5 13 f4 Ìxd3 14 Ëxd3 e4
1 d4 Ìf6 2 c4 e6 3 g3 d5 4 Ìf3 Íe7 at chess. It hardly seemed like a very fateful 15 Ëd2 Ìc5 16 Íd4 Ëe7 17 Íxg7 Ëxg7
5 Íg2 0-0 6 0-0 dxc4 7 Ëa4 a6 8 Ëxc4 moment, but as I recently read, ‘Fate would not 18 Ìb5 Îf7 19 Ìed4 Ìd3 20 b3 Íd7
b5 9 Ëc2 Íb7 10 Íf4 Íd6 11 Ìbd2 have the reputation it has if it simply did what 21 Ëe3 Îc8 22 a3 Îf6 23 b4?! c6 24 Ìc3
Ìbd7 12 Ìg5 Íxf4 13 gxf4 Íxg2 it seemed it would do.’ Îg6 25 Ìce2? cxd5 26 Ìg3 Îxc4! 0-1
14 Êxg2 c5 15 dxc5 Ìxc5 16 Îfd1 Ëe7 “In my youthful enthusiasm, I missed some
17 b4 Ìa4 18 Ìde4 g6 19 Îac1 Ìd5 of the indications that my opponent was no
0 e3 Ëxb4? ordinary Unrated player. First of all, he wasn’t
a young kid; he was a serious looking man in
his 30s or 40s. Second, he kept score of the
game, not in the usual American notation, but
in a language I did not quite understand.
Finally, he moved the pieces with a
confidence of someone who has done it
many, many times before.
“Ignoring these warning signs, I opened as
White with the Queen Pawn, something I
almost never did at the time. When he
defended with the King’s Indian Defense, I
countered with the Saemisch Variation, a line
that I had never played before (and have
never played since!). After all, what was the And the finish I had been hoping to
harm? He was Unrated. execute? The idea was 27 Ìdxf5 Íxf5
“As early as moves 8 through 10, my 28 Ìxf5 Îxg2+ 29 Êh1 Îcc2! 30 Ìxg7
opponent maneuvered his two Knights in a way Îxh2+ 31 Êg1 Îcg2#.
21 Îxd5! exd5 22 Ìf6+ Êg7 23 Ëc7 Ëb2 that seemed unusual to me. I think I took it as
24 Ìxd5 Îac8? 25 Ëe7 Îxc1 26 Ìe6+ further evidence of his inexperience, but in fact You might also be wondering how I
Êh6 27 Ëg5# 1-0 it was a clear indication of my unfamiliarity with thought sharing that game would serve as a
the nuances of the position. Very soon after homage to my father and to my love of
that I realized that I was getting into trouble. chess? I certainly have a debt of gratitude for
Flustered with the sudden change in events, I all the ways in which chess has enriched my
played several moves without purpose, while life, from bonding with my father to bonding
my opponent powerfully realigned his pieces. with my sons to precious friendships to
By move 26, I was two pawns down and my invaluable lessons about reasoning, so
position was collapsing on all fronts. My important in business and in life.
resignation at that point was probably the only I must mention too that my father was a
time in my life that it came as a disappointment volunteer who fought with the British forces
to the player on the other side of the board. My against Hitler. When he insisted in playing
‘inexperienced’ and unrated opponent had chess with me every night back in 1942, he
calculated a very pretty checkmate in 5 moves would talk to me between games about life
Eugene meets Garry Kasparov and impresses that I had not allowed him to demonstrate in and his experiences. I will never forget all
the great man by showing him a photo of the game. about his fighting the Nazis as a volunteer in
himself and one of his chess heroes, Alekhine. “And that is how I met my lifelong friend the British Army prior to Dunkirk, as well as his
Gene Salomon! As I pouted after the game, subsequent journey, escaping Hitler to return
Whether readers are curious enough to Gene consoled my father (also a very good to Spain. It is a story about how the winds of
check out my other games or not, I certainly chess player) with the information that life blow us from place to place – just a leaf in
want to share the most emotional game of although Unrated in the US, he had been a the storm, as Lin Yutang would say.
my life, which was analysed in depth by my strong Master both in Spain and in Cuba. The And, finally, in February I hope to play as
opponent. It was half a century ago when my only reason that he didn’t have a USCF rating part of a team of ‘super seniors’ in the U.S
first chess teacher and hero, my father, was that he had not played in any Amateur Team Tournament, which usually
passed away at the end of January 1968. I tournaments in the United States since his contains over 1,300 players and will again be
had been retired from chess for 16 years arrival in this country some 10 years earlier. run by my good friend Steve Doyle who has
(eight in Cuba while I enjoyed an exciting He had not played in any tournaments at all in now been at the helm for 30 years. Chess
professional career, and another eight in the over 15 years. However, in that NJ Open, truly does continue to enrich our lives.
U.S creating a new business career and, most Gene went on over the next 5 rounds to
importantly, starting a family). contend for the NJ State title, losing out only Ed. – If you would like to read more from
All of a sudden I felt the need to play chess in the final round when an unfortunate Eugene, do check out his articles at
again. Why? I will never know, but there was misunderstanding about the schedule forced www.historiadelajedrezespanol.es/articulos/s
a strong inspirational force and I played with a him to play without sufficient time. He alomon_eng.htm.

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The Willy Hendriks

Experience
Did you know that John Henderson is not just a Hendrix, but also a Hendriks fan?

Fifty years ago this past summer, Jimi

Hendrix stepped on to the stage of the
epoch-making Woodstock Music Festival in
upstate New York and embarked upon an
uninterrupted set lasting nearly two hours –
one of the longest performances of his all-
too brief career. He brought the festival
house down with his long melody that
included the solo performance of the Star
Spangled Banner that would itself become
emblematic not only of Woodstock, but of
the 1960s counterculture revolution.
Hendrix took to the stage in the early
morning light of 18th August, 1969, to close
out Woodstock – billed as “3 Days of Peace &
Music” – and the media most of the day
focused on that particular rendition of the
U.S. national anthem at the height of the
Vietnam protest-era. I also remember that
day very vividly, because I was gleefully
celebrating my eighth birthday! Despite the The famous statue of Jimi Hendrix in Seattle, ‘The Electric Lady Studio Guitar’, which John
young and innocent age (well, young Henderson passed every day for a decade, rarely failing to touch the statue of his hero for luck.
anyway), the news highlights of that
fascinating performance from the Seattle-
born and buried psychedelic rock legend Albert Hall on February 24th, 1969 – playing lots of personality, and he also has some
transfixed me. in the background as my ‘farewell tribute’, I serious teaching credentials. The book is a joy,
Not only did I go on to become a Hendrix sat down to the daily grind of writing a chess a tonic to read. And in it, I vividly remembered
fan, but one of his trademark typical poses column for The Scotsman. how he wrote about a stunning queen
with his Fender Stratocaster soon became an The main event going on at the time was sacrifice in a very old opening that he’d
almost daily ritual during my decade-long the FIDE World Cup in Baku, Azerbaijan. The discovered quite by chance after leaving his
sojourn in his hometown of Seattle. There are game that soon caught my attention was the engine running overnight – and that
many Hendrix memorials and tributes in the very entertaining all-Chinese fourth round serendipitous queen sacrifice, which Hendriks
Evergreen State, but the most iconic is tie-break playoff between teenage sensation described as “my most beautiful move”, soon
unquestionably ‘The Electric Lady Studio Wei Yi and rising star Ding Liren (whatever proved to be suitable column fodder as Wei Yi
Guitar’, commonly referred to as the Jimi happened to him, eh?), which fittingly made unleashed it against an unsuspecting Ding
Hendrix Statue, a life-size bronze sculpture by my day by being another sort of experience – Liren for what transpired to be a
local artist Daryl Smith, located on Broadway though not so much the Jimi Hendrix swashbuckling draw.
Avenue East in the oh-so bohemian-hip Capitol Experience as ‘the Willy Hendriks Experience’.
Hill neighbourhood of Seattle. For those that don’t know him, Dutch IM
Being close to where I lived, and with Jimi Willy Hendriks won the English Chess Wei Yi-Ding Liren
and I having that obvious Woodstock Federation’s Book of the Year award in 2012 with FIDE World Cup (rapid), Baku 2015
connection, most days I would pass by with a his first book, Move First, Think Later: Sense Bishop’s Opening
knowing nod and a lucky statue rub (a and Nonsense in Improving Your Chess (New in
tradition for all passing locals). There would Chess, 2012), that was hailed at the time as 1 e4 e5 2 Íc4
invariably also be a photo taken – hell, I lost being “One of the most original chess books the First studied in the 16th century by the
count of how many I took over the years (I judging panel had seen for a number of years.” likes of Greco and long-forgotten, it took
still receive Christmas cards to this day from Apart from having a degree in Philosophy, some 400 years and ‘Great Dane’ Bent Larsen
Kodak), but it just became my ritual to nod, Hendriks is also a chess trainer with many to once again revive the Bishop’s Opening at
rub and click on passing. On my last day in decades of practical experience. And inspired by the top level.
Seattle, back in mid-September 2015, after recent developments in the cognitive sciences, 2...Ìf6 3 d3 c6 4 Ìf3 d5 5 Íb3 Íb4+ 6
all of the above were duly observed, I then his award-winning tome challenged the Íd2 Íxd2+ 7 Ëxd2 dxe4 8 Ìxe5 0-0 9
headed home, and with The Last Experience conventional wisdom in chess instruction. dxe4 Ëe7 10 Ëf4 Ìh5 11 Íxf7+ Êh8
– Hendrix’s final live album from the Royal Hendriks is a good writer; he’s witty with This is the critical move, as now White

January 2020
36
36-37 HendriksExperience_Chess mag - 21_6_10 13/12/2019 18:17 Page 37

working together.
19 b3 Ía6 20 Êb1 h6
Always better to be safe than sorry.
21 f3 Ìf4
That Ding fella is not bad at coordinating
his pieces – I’m sure we’ll hear more about
him in the future!
22 Îd2 Êh7 23 Îed1 Îe6 24 Ëb8 Ëf6
25 Ìa4 Íe2 26 Îc1
The ‘joys’ of the blitz tie-break playoffs.
This is not the most obvious square for the
rook, but may well have seemed sensible with
little time left on the clock. Instead, after 26
Îe1 Íb5 27 Ìc5 Îe7 28 a4! (once again,
danger lurks; if 28 Ëxa7 Ìd5! and suddenly
Black has major mating threats with a
potential ...Ìc4) 28...Ía6 29 Ìxa6 bxa6 the
position is so murky all three results are still
possible – and not the sort of thing you want
to be thinking too much about in a critical
rapid playoff for a quarter-final spot in the
World Cup.
Dutch IM Willy Hendriks may not be as well known as his near-namesake, but both his play and 26...b6 27 Ìc3 Ía6
writing are pretty entertaining. Moreover, his thought-provoking book was an award-winner. This time the speculative 27...Ìc4 only
leads to a perpetual after the forcing line 28
bxc4 Ëxc3 29 Ëxf4 Ëb4+ 30 Êa1 Ëc3+
faces a multitude of attacked pieces and pins trying 15 Ìd2 Ìd7 16 0-0-0 Îe8 17 f3 31 Êb1 Ëb4+ etc.
– so how the hell is he going to solve all the and soon drifted into a difficult position after 28 Îcd1 Ìc4!
problems? It’s very ingenious, actually. 17...Ìf4!? 18 g3 Ìe2+ 19 Êb1 Íxa2+!?
12 Ëg3!! 20 Êa1 Îe5 21 b3?. It may not look so
obvious, but our hero had missed a cunning
cheapo. Now came 21...Îe6! 22 Ëa3 c5! 23
Ìc4 Îa6 and White soon resigned in
Hendriks-Kerigan, Hoogeveen 2013.
15...Ìd7 16 0-0-0 Îe8

Another variation on the same perpetual

check draw theme.
Boom! And this is what Hendriks describes 29 bxc4 Ëxc3 30 Ëxf4 Ëb4+ ½-½
as “my most beautiful move”. He discovered
this stunner quite by accident, while playing
through some positions back in those
innocent days of Fritz – and that would be
Herr Fritz I!
12...Îxf7!
17 Îhf1?!
There’s the obvious temptation to get your
KEVEREL
The only move for survival. The point of
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the black lady. But, hold on, I can hear you
asking, can’t Black simply play 12...g6, leaving
forces Black into 17...Ëf4+ 18 Ëxf4 Ìxf4
19 Îd6! Ìe5 (it’s too dangerous to snatch Bigger ¢ Brighter ¥ Better ¤
the g-pawn; after 19...Ìxg2? 20 Îhd1 Ìf6
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into 13...Ìf6 (if 13...Ëf6 14 f3 Êg7 15 Ìe4! Black is on a course to lose all of the
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file for the rook. Hendriks had reached this The trouble now is that ‘suddenly’ all of
position previously, but he erred here by Black’s pieces have come alive and are

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38-40 ComebackTrail and Kan Crush_Chess mag - 21_6_10 13/12/2019 18:15 Page 38

On the Comeback Trail

Bernard Hare enjoyed his first Scarborough Congress in many a year
I’ll always remember Mohammed Ali when
he won the BBC Sports Personality of the
Century Award in 1999. “I had a good time
boxing,” he mumbled, shaking so much with
Parkinson’s that he could hardly hold his
trophy. “I enjoyed it... and I might come back!”
By 2006, I was getting pretty shaky
myself and had to give the game up for the
good of my health (my mental health, it goes
without saying). A decade has passed since
then – three years went missing somewhere
– and through the miracles of modern
science I am now thankfully fully restored to
health. I had a good time playing chess, I
enjoyed it and at sixty years old I decided out
of the blue that it was time to hit the
comeback trail before it was too late.
I was a club player for a quarter of a
century. As a student in the early ’80s, I
The Scarborough Spa played host to the British Chess Championships in the summers of 1999,
played for Hilltop CC in the Hertfordshire
2001 and 2004. Sea conditions can be a little more turbulent when the Scarborough Congress
League. I was only in the fourth team, but we
is played there every October and action on the board can also become quite choppy at times.
won the fifth and the fourth divisions in
consecutive seasons and we had a great team
spirit. I returned north in 1986, joined Leeds contacted the grader who said, yes, he would scramble, but he just wanted it more than I
CC and played for them for the next 20 years. knock a few points off because I hadn’t did. He was there to play the game, not worry
Saturdays and Wednesdays, home and away, played for many years, but unfortunately he about his personal cleanliness, his empty
rain or shine, man and boy, I seldom missed a was putting them back on again as there had belly, or how unfairly the A64 and the world
game. When I quit, I was like the smoker who been “grading inflation” while I’d been away, in general was treating him. I offered him my
has convinced friends and family that he is which put me in the Major or the Open hand with about three seconds remaining on
free of his addiction, but secretly all he wants sections. Better to get battered by a 180 my clock, when I saw that it was hopeless.
to do is nip off down the garden shed for a than a 150, I mused, and signed on the On my way out of the venue, I got a punch
sneaky fag. I fell out with life, not chess, and I dotted line for the big one. in the back from an old mate of mine. “Hey
still missed the game dreadfully. Round one on Friday evening was a up, Bernie!” Fifteen years ago, when I last saw
The 43rd Scarborough Chess Congress nightmare. I allowed myself four hours to him, I wouldn’t have called it a punch, more of
had been tempting me for some time. I had drive from Leeds to Scarborough, check into a slap, but like I said, I’m sixty now. Carter is in
played the tournament several times in the my digs, grab something to eat, get to the his mid-forties and not the subtlest of men.
previous millennium and always considered it venue and press my clock. I should have He had taken a strong fancy to the prize
a holiday rather than serious work. The glossy allowed seven. The traffic on the A64 was money in the Minor section too.
leaflet had a glossy picture of a room full of gridlocked, start to finish. Then I had to park In the late ’90s, we had a five-minute
not so glossy chess players on the cover. I at the top of a cliff and catch a decrepit house we went to through the day as we
could almost hear the ticking of a hundred moving hut down a dangerous-looking were all on the dole like everyone else at the
clocks, which shows how long it was since I’d diagonal railway line to the venue at the cost time. Carter was just a kid, a young
played, because digital clocks don’t tick like of a quid, before finally arriving hungrily at my apprentice off the local estate plunged into
the old ones, of course. They just kind of sit board and shaking my opponent’s hand. the middle of a 150-plus bubbling cauldron
there, adding ten seconds to every move like I was never one for making excuses in the of chess. It took him about a year before he
mindless automatons. Still, £500 first prize in old days. Did you win, lose, or draw? started beating us all. Boy, was he sharp –
the under-135 Minor section looked like an Everything else is irrelevant. I played as well and like mustard on the clock. He couldn’t
attractive proposition. as I know how, actually. All I wanted was a really be arsed sitting there all night and
Only one problem. Could I get away with draw, so that I could get back to my hotel for playing serious games, so his official grade
claiming to be 134? My last grade, in 2006, a shower and something to eat. Fatal. B.J. topped out at 131, but at quickplay chess
was 138, but before that I was always in the Hymer, my opponent, wasn’t having it. He you could add thirty or forty points to that,
150s and 160s. However, then I hadn’t had a slight advantage from the off, which he no problem. He hadn’t played over the board
played for 13 years. Surely, they would take turned into a definite advantage, and then I for fifteen years either, but unlike me he had
that into account and knock a few points off? made my blunder. I offered him a draw. He been playing on the net. “That’s my five
‘Your last published grade’ the leaflet said, but shook his head nonchalantly and carried on hundred quid, Bern. Guaranteed.”
I thought I’d best be honest. I didn’t want to with the game. After that, it was downhill all “Maybe,” I said, “but only because they
get lumbered with an even worse reputation the way and his advantage soon became wouldn’t let me enter.”
than the one I had when I was playing. I clear. I took him into a five-minute time “Yarrgh!” he laughed, punching me in the

January 2020
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38-40 ComebackTrail and Kan Crush_Chess mag - 21_6_10 13/12/2019 18:15 Page 39

guts and seriously winding me. necessary in the pursuit of the royal art. time and took us out for fish and chips. Carter
Naturally, we had to have a couple of pints We’re here for the full four hours. We’re here (on four out of four) was pissed off, because
together to talk over old times; and naturally for the love of the game. Why else would we he felt that the organisers were on his case.
we ended up in the roughest pub in sit here? No good trying to get off early for a He’d been on his mobile in the foyer to co-
Scarborough at three o’clock in the morning spot of lunch. No good trying to sneak out for ordinate his wife’s visit when he was tackled
arguing with the locals over a game of pool. a crafty fag, because they’ll press their clock by one of the organisers and, as he saw it,
Naturally, I had a violent hangover the next as soon as you get up and you’ll probably end more or less accused of cheating. Carter had
the morning. up losing on time. Most important of all: no idea what they were talking about,
Round two didn’t go so well, as you might playing for a draw is certain death. Play for because the last time he had entered a chess
imagine. A very young Ms. Z. Varney opened the win! congress the iPhone had yet to be invented.
e4, so I offered her my French. When she I went for it against another young Round five, I was black against J.S.
played the Exchange variation, I figured a character in round four. J. Wagg of Leeds Garnett. I played a Queen’s Indian set-up
draw was in the bag. Fatal. She swapped a University played the Sicilian, obviously keen against his d4, to no avail. He nabbed a pawn,
rook for two pieces out of nowhere and to get some tactics going. I played the Closed but my rook on the seventh stopped his king
played with precision after that. “Thanks for and slowed it right down, but it burst open getting into the game. I went for the win.
the lesson,” I said, as I surrendered. anyway on the kingside. It was only move 30 Result: draw.
I got a one-point bye in round three, I’m and we were still in an unclear middlegame Naturally enough, Carter won the Minor
pleased to say, and headed for my hotel to position, but we were both out of time. on five out of five, but somebody put a
collapse in a heap. Some comeback. Neither of us wanted to spoil an excellent sticker up about carpetbaggers on the
After a good night’s sleep, I came to the game with a time scramble, I suspect, so noticeboard and not many people clapped
board for round four on Sunday morning draw agreed. Result. when he went up to collect his £500 cheque.
having remembered the mindset that is Carter’s wife turned up on Sunday lunch Ah, it’s good to be back where I belong.

The Kan Crushed!

Carl Strugnell is enjoying his chess in Belgrade, especially when facing the Sicilian

The Belgrade Premier League is played on 9...d6

the first floor of the Slavija hotel, smack in C.Strugnell-V.Podinic I knew this wasn’t principled, as well as
the heart of the hustle-bustle part of town. Belgrade Premier League 2019 that after 9...Ìxe5 10 Ìxe5 Ëxe5 11 Ëf3
This is an absolute treat. Not that the venue is Sicilian Kan Ëb8 12 Íf4 White always obtains a long-
particularly splendid as far as architecture is term plus: for example, 12...Íb7 13 Íe4
concerned, nor that there are any rare plants 1 e4 c5 2 Ìf3 e6 3 Ìc3 a6 4 d4 cxd4 5 Íxe4 14 Ìxe4 Ëd8 (if 14...Ëc8 15 a4!) 15
or exotic animals lounging around the playing Ìxd4 b5 a4 b4 16 Ìd6+ Íxd6 17 Íxd6 Ìe7 18
hall, but it is a five-minute walk from my 5...Ëc7 6 Íd3 Ìf6 7 f4 Íb4 was the Íxb4 0-0 19 c4 with an edge, or 12...d6 13
place of residence, and that is gold. a4 b4 14 Íe4! Îa7 15 Íc6+ Íd7 16 Ìb5!
Íxc6 (16...axb5 17 axb5 Ìe7 runs into 18
course of the aforementioned Strugnell-
The tournament is played with 11 rounds
Íxd7+ Êxd7 19 Íxd6!) 17 Ëxc6+ Îd7 18
Damljanovic.
over 12 days and for those of you who wish 6 Íd3 Ëb6
to participate in years to come, you could My opponent wasn’t the one I’d prepared Ëxa6 e5 19 Íd2 with a clear plus.
contact the Serbian Federation to find a club for, and as I sat down at the board I had no Instead, 9...Ìge7 is a more serious try: 10
that needs players. Why play in a foreign idea who he was, let alone an International Îe1 Íb7 11 Íe4 Ìg6 12 h4 d6 13 exd6
league rather than a tournament? Well, a Master. I dashed out the theory I knew and Ëxd6 (13...Íxd6 14 h5!? Ìge7 15 h6 gxh6
number of reasons. One of the perks is that planned to think when I ran out of moves. was seen in Strugnell-David, Malakoff 2011;
half of the hotel has had renovations and the 7 Ìf3! Ìc6 8 0-0 Ëb8 9 e5! there’s nothing wrong with this, but 14 Ìg5!
other half remained loyal to its communist restricts Black’s counterplay, and if 14...Ìge7
roots; so you can get a room for as cheap as 15 Ëf3! Ìe5 16 Ëh5 g6 17 Ëe2 with some
a tenner a night. Plus there is a direct bus advantage) 14 Íg5 Ëxd1 15 Îaxd1 Íb4
from the airport so you can even save on taxi 16 h5 Ìge7 17 h6! gxh6 18 Íxh6 left
expenses. Last but not least, the level is quite White clearly better in Meiners-Jenkins,
homogenous so you avoid playing much correspondence 2014.
lower-rated players as often happens in 10 exd6 Íxd6 11 Ìe4 Íe7 12 a4
Swiss events. A novelty, it transpires. After 12 c3 Ìf6
Playing on board one, I had a bit of a rough 13 Ëe2 Íb7 14 Îe1 Ìxe4 15 Íxe4 0-0
time at first, and lost to two GMs in the first 16 Ìg5! h6 (16...Íxg5 17 Íxg5 is excellent
two rounds, but I kept digging in and finished too for White) 17 Ìxe6! fxe6 18 Íxc6 Îf6
by gaining some rating points. The cherry on 19 Ëe4 Íxc6 20 Ëxc6 Ëc8 21 Ëxc8+
the cake was this game, which happens to be Îxc8 22 Íe3 I suspect a mistake in the
a nice sequel to my article in the September database as surely a draw was not agreed
CHESS where I also tackled the Sicilian Kan. here in Najer-Yagupov, Olginka 2011.

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38-40 ComebackTrail and Kan Crush_Chess mag - 21_6_10 13/12/2019 18:15 Page 40

A little bird
just told me
A round-up of what the top
players and chess personalities
have been saying on Twitter

Judit Polgar - @GMJuditPolgar

Even if women think and compete
differently, we can attain the same
achievements as men: be it in science, art
or chess. #ChessConnectsUs #TheGuardian
24 Íe4?!
There was nothing wrong with the simple London Chess Classic - @london_chess
24 g3 or even 24 Íf5 Íxg2 (24...Ëxe5 25 Carol Meyer, Executive Director of
Íxd7+ Êxd7 26 Îxe5 Îxg2+ 27 Êf1 Íf3 @USChess: ‘We have doubled the number of
28 Îf5 Îxh2 29 Îxf3 Îh1+ 30 Êe2 Îxa1 female members in the last 19 years.... But
31 Îxf7+ Êc6 32 Îxh7 also seems to be 14% female membership out of 100,000
winning) 25 Ëxd6 Íh3+ 26 Ëg3 Îxg3+ 27
Carl has an enjoyable sideline as a chessboxer
members is nowhere near enough.’
hxg3 Íxf5 28 Îe5 when the extra exchange
and competed for the Light Heavyweight World
title in London just before we went to press. @FIDE_chess @ECUonline @ecfchess
should decide.
24...Ëxe5 25 Íxb7+ Êxb7 26 Îxe5 Grand Chess Tour @GrandChessTour
12...b4 13 b3 Ìf6 14 Íb2 Íb7 15 Îe1 Îc8 27 Îe2 Îdc7 28 Îa2 Îd8 29 g3 a5 With a quick draw against @lachesisq,
Ëc7 After 29...Îd1+ 30 Êg2 a5 I likely would @MagnusCarlsen clinches first place at
have tried to improve my pieces with 31 Îe5 #TSChessIndia! Congratulations!
Êa6 32 Îh5 f6 33 h4.
30 Îa1 Îdc8 31 Îe5! Îc5 32 Îae1! @chessnotes - @chessnotes
An important resource. The rook endgame Very happy to see #VassilyIvanchuk back
should be a fairly easy win. where he belongs @2700chess!
32...Êb6 33 Îxc5 Îxc5 34 Îe2 Îc3 35
Êf1 Êc5 36 Îd2 h5 37 Êg2 Êb6 38
David Howell - @DavidHowellGM
Îd6+ Êc7
I resisted the temptation to tweet about
the standard of arbiters at the European
Team Champs, but today’s experience at
the Euro Club Cup was even worse. Being
shouted at aggressively, simply because I
asked him to stop breathing down my neck
(literally), was most unpleasant.

Gawain Jones - @GMGawain

A few days ago I was handed a silver medal
It seems that Black has got away from a just before the round (ETCC bd4). Yesterday
rough patch and is ready to complete managed to add two golds as Obiettivo
development. I decided to make my next Risarcimento Padova won the European Club
move before losing the initiative. Cup with 7/7. Luck definitely on my side
16 Ìfg5!? Ìe5? here, but very happy with my 5/6. Thanks to
16...Ìxe4! 17 Ìxe4 and now 17...Ìe5 grande capitano Cristiano!
was correct and would have been simply
unclear. Celtic Tigers 4NCL - @CelticTigersCC
17 Ìxf6+! Íxf6 He could also have gone forwards, but Not the best finish to a tournament that
17...gxf6 fails to 18 Ëh5!. after 38...Êc5 39 Îh6 Îxc2 40 Îxh5+ Êd4 started off so promising. We finished
18 Ìxe6 41 Îxa5 Îb2 42 h4 Îxb3 43 h5 Îc3 44 roughly at our starting rank. There were
I also looked at 18 Íxe5 Íxe5 19 Ìxe6, Îb5 b3 45 Îb8 the result wouldn’t have many matches where we ‘just’ didn’t make
hoping for 19...Íxh2+?? 20 Êh1 fxe6 21 changed. it, it’s been a great time. Congratulations to
Îxe6+ Êf8 22 Ëh5 Íd6 23 Îae1, and wins. 39 Îd5 Êb6 Ryszard Maciol who played best in the
18...Ëd6 White also maintains control after team - 2358 performance! #Chess
Black might grovel, but 18...fxe6 19 Íxe5 39...Îxc2 40 Îxa5 Îc3 41 Îxh5 Îxb3 42
Íxe5 20 Ëh5+ g6 21 Ëxe5 Ëxe5 22 Îxe5 Îb5. Simon Williams - @ginger_gm
Êf7 23 Íc4 leaves White with a large long- 40 Îb5+ Êa6 41 Îxh5 Îxc2 42 Îf5 Survived another #cryptblitz event. I am
term advantage. Îc3 43 Îf3 Êb6 44 h4 Êc5 45 h5 Êd4 not sure if everyone did though!?
19 Ìxg7+ 46 h6 Îc6 47 h7 Îc8
There were two superior options: 19 Ìg5! Of course, 47...Îh6 48 Îf4+ Êc3 49
Fiona Steil-Antoni - @fionchetta
and 19 Íb5+ Êe7 20 Ìc5! Ëxc5 21 Ëd7+ Îh4 Îxh7 50 Îxh7 Êxb3 51 Îxf7 Êxa4 52
I BEAT @DavidHowellGM!!! Admittedly

Êf8 22 Ëxb7. Îb7 is also more than good enough for

while he was on his phone and dealing with

19...Íxg7 20 Íxe5 Íxe5 21 Ëh5 0-0-0

a curry delivery, but who cares - highlight
White.
22 Ëf5+ Îd7 23 Ëxe5 Îg8 48 Îxf7 Êc3 49 Îf3+ Êb2 50 g4 1-0
of my chess career!

January 2020
40
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42-43 NMTGXmas_Chess mag - 21_6_10 13/12/2019 18:12 Page 42

Never Mind the

Grandmasters...
Here come the amateurs - by Carl Portman ([email protected])
I want to begin the first column of a new masticating like some wild beast was enough Anyway, I am done, I truly am. I just wanted
decade by apologising unreservedly to you all. I to make me wretch. Oh, yes, I watched it all to get the subject ‘out there’. Get this memo
am going to have a moan. I mean a real visceral and the lad with the crisps simply went chess players: stop eating at the board. It is rude,
moan. I am writing just after the first 4NCL crunch, crunch, crunch. I paid no attention to noisy and distracting. It is also not pleasant to
weekend of the season and have something on those bishops – because I was distracted. move chess pieces that have been smeared in
my mind. It cannot wait, so please indulge me You’ve got the picture, right? your grease and bits of your chocolate bar.
and let me get this off my chest. I admit, I tried glowering at both Further I am not alone in being extremely averse
We play chess fundamentally for enjoyment, munchers, but to no avail. It was akin to to shaking hands with someone who has half of
or at least I assume so. We appreciate that there trying to distract a hyena from a kill. Both his (I suppose I should say ‘her’ as well, though
are rules and regulations, but it seems they are males continued to devour their food noisily that has never happened to me) lunch stuck to
getting ever more complicated, perhaps and I was determined not to begin them. It’s disgusting.
necessarily so with more opportunity (and concentrating again until they had finished. And breathe! I have just taken the blue pill
means) to cheat than ever. At the 4NCL This ‘foodfest’ did put me off; it really broke and am now calm again.
weekend before the start of play the arbiter – my concentration in no different a way than a Back to chess and a pleasant change of
quite rightly – made his announcements which mobile phone or a beeping wristwatch would. direction, for no reason other than that I have
included some key rules. Why don’t we just do the decent thing and always been a fan of Wolfgang Uhlmann (I bet
We quickly arrived at the subject of mobile ban eating from the board altogether? you cannot find a single image of him eating
phones. Yes, we have to keep them in the Did Jimmy White lean over the snooker at the board; he is way too classy for that),
playing room. Yes, they should be turned off table at the Crucible munching a prawn and and the brilliant way he handles the ‘boring’
and, yes, they should be put inside one of mayo cob? Did Eric Bristow shove a sausage Französisch (French) Defence. I found a lovely
those little bags that the 4NCL (but not every roll into his mouth whilst at the oche? Did game whilst trawling through my database.
tournament) kindly provides. And, yes, the Olga Korbut wedge a cheeky cheese twist All you French aficionados, get your bag of
bag should be placed and kept on the table, behind her ear as she strutted her stuff on crisps open and, with the hand that isn’t
visible at all times. We all know the drill by the beam? No. greasy, move the pieces!
now and we all accept it. Before you say it, I realise that food is
The arbiter then announced that ingested at some events. Tennis players enjoy
electronic watches were forbidden. Again, we bananas, but not at the net – they have the W.Bialas-W.Uhlmann
know these are verboten so why anyone courtesy to eat away from the arena of play. German U-20 Ch., Leipzig 1951
would be wearing one is a mystery to me. Marathon runners clearly have to stay alive French Defence
Then, one player said that he had one of and eat something to maintain their energy,
those wrist watches that beeped on the hour. but noise is not a factor. Cyclists on the major 1 e4 e6 2 d4 d5 3 Ìd2 Ìf6
He enquired what would happen if that went tours also have a good feed on the go, but Nowadays it is almost the golden rule to
off. “You may lose” was the reply. ‘May lose?’ again the noise or mess does not affect their play 3...c5 against the Tarrasch, but in 1951
I thought. Does it or doesn’t it? Anyway, opponents. it wasn’t, so there.
that’s not the subject of my ire, but the beep The elite chess players even have a 4 e5 Ìfd7 5 Íd3
of this type of watch is enough to break ‘refreshment area’ away from the board for a I always get a little nervy at this point as
concentration, of course it is. Therefore if it good reason. How unedifying would it be to Black. You have to watch out for all sorts of
distracts an opponent (or those around have a picture of the world champion on your horrible Greek Gift type scenarios, so one
them), then it is even worse. wall with a mouth full of grub. No, I am sorry, must pay very careful attention to castling
There I was, part way through my game, it just isn’t on. short – or not. Very often I have left my king
head in hands, fighting hard to keep two very We’ve got to stop this madness. Anything in the centre in the French games and let the
active and determined bishops at bay when I that is likely to put people off or distract an flanks sort it out.
suddenly became aware of noise. It broke my opponent is not allowed within the rules. 5...c5
concentration. I looked up. A couple of rows in Arbiters, are you listening? Never mind Of course, the French is about
front of me some youngster (bless him) had patrolling the toilets for Fritz, get undermining White’s centre.
opened a bag of crisps at his board. Now the perambulating amongst the munchers and 6 c3 Ìc6 7 Ìe2 Ëb6 8 Ìf3 cxd4
sound of a bag of crisps opening in a silent the crunchers for crisp bags, sweet wrappers Now I do have to say that in my
room is significant. and tin foil. Admonish them. Publicly excoriate experience it really does matter at which
Suddenly, the player on the board next to them. Hold them to account. I will be point one exchanges on d4. Doing it now
me started unwrapping foiled paper which interested to see what happens if and when I gives the opportunity for a bishop check on
exposed some kind of gelatinous mess do approach an arbiter to complain that my b4, simultaneously clearing the space
vaguely resembling a flapjack. He managed to opponent or someone nearby was putting me between king and rook for possible castling –
noisily extricate it from its silver sleeping bag off by eating. I really wonder what they will but remember what I cautioned about above.
and proceeded to drop some of it on the do. As Victor Meldrew would say, “I’ve just 9 cxd4 f6
playing table. Yuck! This noise and that of him about had enough of it”. Yes, this is the undermining of the centre I

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up lines for his pieces, which seems sensible. go either way.

15 dxe5 Ìxe5 16 Ìxe5 Íxe5 22...Íg4+ 23 Êxe3 Ëe5+ 0-1
“An explosive position” according to Uhlmann. White resigned in view of 24 Íe4 Ëxe4#.
Well, I suppose with four bishops remaining in Uhlmann calls it “Ein erbaulicher Schluss”, or in
an open position, it is. I note that Black has an other words, an edifying end, and I quite agree.
isolated pawn –something I am often lumbered
with in the French. Is it useful or useless? If I really enjoyed playing through this game
White plays 17 Îc1 then Back has 17...Ìg4 and I am a third of the way through Französisch...
with a double attack on f2 and h2. Hence... Richtig Gespielt. Uhlmann pulls you unremittingly
17 Íc3 into his world and demonstrates the richness
of my favourite opening. I was totally
absorbed by the games, the move orders and
the tactics that came out of the blue.
In addition, it is affording me the oppor-
tunity to brush up on my German, and I am
making notes in the book to that effect. If
you can obtain a copy, dear reader, I
thoroughly recommend it. The brilliant thing
about chess (or just one of the brilliant
things) is that it is a universal language, so
although the text is in German, the games
Is our columnist ashamed to say he follow alpha-numeric principles. Once you are
loves the French Defence? clear about which piece is which in German,
the letters and numbers will follow.
In chess, many books have games that one
was referring to. just plays through. Not so here. You’ve really
10 exf6 Íb4+?! got to study the moves and, yes, I admit that
17...Íxh2+
This is what I love about Uhlmann’s French it is helpful if you have an idea what he is
games. He always seems to conjure up some saying in the annotations.
magic. He creates possibilities like some Uhlmann smashed Bronstein with the
Deutsch Dumbledore. I could not quite French at Tallinn in 1977 and he even once
understand all of his German annotation, but beat Bobby Fischer with it. I am astounded
I think he was saying that he had been aware that there isn’t some kind of variation or line
of this possibility for a very long time. named after him in the opening considering
18 Êxh2 Ìg4+ 19 Êg3 all the nuances he has found. Born in Dresden,
19 Êg1? Ëh6 20 Íe5 Ìxe5 is the end. he is one of the few leading grandmasters to
19...Îxf2 have adopted the French almost exclusively
This is gorgeous. Ausgezeichnet Wolfgang! against 1 e4. At the time of writing I am
This was the actual point of the bishop delighted to say Wolfgang Uhlmann is still
sacrifice on h2. with us at the age of 84.
20 Íd2
If 20 Ëc1 to counter ...Ëe3, Black has
20...Ëc7+ 21 Ìf4 Îxf1 22 Íxf1 g5!. Play Chess From the Comfort
20...Ìe3!? 21 Îxf2
I can reveal something very odd. Firstly the
And not 21 Íxe3?? Ëxe3+ 22 Êh2
annotation is Uhlmann’s, not mine. It just so of Your Own Home!
Ëh3+ 23 Êg1 Ëxg2# (or 23...Îxg2#).
happened, by sheer coincidence that the
game I selected from the database was the
very first game that appears in his book
21...Ëd6+ National
Französisch... Richtig Gespielt, written in
German, which I own. How strange folks. He
Correspondence
says that 10...Ìf6 was better straight away. Chess Club
For me, I find it difficult to see exactly why.
This is the kind of move I would play myself. Our philosophy: “To foster
11 Íd2 Ìxf6 12 0-0 0-0 13 a3
After 13 Íxb4 Ìxb4 14 a3 Ìxd3 15 Ëxd3
friendship between members”
Black simply must avoid 15...Ëxb2?? (oops!) For Beginners to Grandmasters
16 Îfb1.
13...Íd6 A wide variety of tournaments
The bishop does not capture its adversary FREE web server chess
on d2. This was interesting for me because I FREE bi-monthly magazine
almost certainly would have. Grandmasters
though are brilliant at keeping pieces on to
For application form and full details
continue the battle.
14 b4 visit our website: www.natcor.org.uk
14 Ìc3 heading for a4 was a suggestion 22 Êf3??
Contact: Des Green, 93 Eldmon Lane,
that Uhlmann made in his book. The losing move.
14...e5! 22 Ìf4 was correct and while after Birmingham, B37 7DN
His annotation, accompanied by “Schwarz 22...Ìxd1 23 Îxd1 g5 24 Îh1 Black seems or email: [email protected]
öffnet Linien für seine Figuren”. He’s opening to be a little better, the result could surely still

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Find the Winning Moves

24 puzzles to test your tactical ability, with, as ever, the positions grouped
in rough order of difficulty. The games come from many recent events, not
least some recent 4NCL Congresses, Guernsey and the European Team
Championship. Don’t forget that whilst sometimes the key move will force mate
or the win of material, other times it
will just win a pawn.

Solutions on page 54.

Warm-up Puzzles

(1) D.Ireland-D.Simpson (2) S.Vujovic-M.Van Wissen (3) R.Mounce-A.Brocklehurst

South Normanton 2019 European Club Cup, Budva 2019 Scarborough 2019
White to Play White to Play and Draw White to Play

(4) M.P.Townsend-P.Cloudsdale (5) M.Kelly-S.Scott (6) K.Alekseenko-K.Piorun

York 2019 Cork 2019 European Team Championship, Batumi 2019
White to Play White to Play White to Play

44 January 2020
44-46 FTWM_Chess mag - 21_6_10 13/12/2019 18:10 Page 45

Intermediate Puzzles for the Club Player - Solutions on page 54

(7) J.Van den Boogaart-D.Rosen (8) V.Plat-R.Haria (9) D.Gormally-J.Merriman

Guernsey 2019 Hull 2019 Hull 2019
White to Play White to Play White to Play

(10) S.Khademalsharieh-S.Nihal (11) N.Povah-M.Hebden (12) T.Brookfield-K.De Kruif

Cap d’Agde (rapid) 2019 Guernsey 2019 Guernsey 2019
Black to Play Black to Play White to Play

(13) S.Milson-Y.Han (14) E.Paehtz-V.Gunina (15) R.Palliser-M.Harvey

Hull 2019 Skolkovo 2019 Hull 2019
White to Play White to Play White to Play and Draw

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Harder Puzzles for the Club Player – Solutions on page 54

(16) N.Povah-V.Bianco (17) J.Salomon-Y.Pelletier (18) I.Storme-E.Abdrlauf

Guernsey 2019 European Team Championship, Batumi 2019 Uppsala 2019
White to Play White to Play and Draw Black to Play

(19) V.Bianco-J.Van den Boogaart (20) G.Nasuta-O.Korneev (21) R.Palliser-R.Haria

Guernsey 2019 Tegernsee 2019 Hull 2019
White to Play White to Play White to Play and Draw

(22) R.Svane-V.Onischuk (23) A.Giri-D.Anton Guijarro (24) L.Aronian-Wang Hao

European Team Championship, Batumi 2019 European Team Championship, Batumi 2019 Isle of Man 2019
White to Play White to Play Black to Play and Draw

46 January 2020
47-47 BeyerVerlagadvert_Layout 1 13/12/2019 18:09 Page 1
48-51 Overseas News_Chess mag - 21_6_10 13/12/2019 18:07 Page 48

Overseas News
CZECH REPUBLIC – Pavel Matocha’s Chess November), thereby giving himself an was to miss an important detail.
Train rolled once again this autumn (11-15 excellent chance of claiming one of the two 21 h5?! b5! 22 Ëa6? Îxe4! 23 h6+ Êf8
October), setting out from Prague with stops Candidates spots from the series. Grischuk 24 fxe4 Íxe4+ 25 Êa1 Íxh1 26 Ëf6
at Karlovy Vary, Cesky Krumlov, Brno and doesn’t play at the final leg in Jerusalem This fails to trouble the black king, but 26
Trencin before returning to the Czech capital. where two of Shakhriyar Mamedyarov, Ian Îxh1 Ëb6 27 Ëxb6 axb6 is but an
On board German Grandmaster Michael Nepomniachtchi and Maxime Vachier- extremely miserable endgame for White.
Prusikin won the rapid tournament with a Lagrave will need to at least reach the final for 26...Íc6 27 e4 b4! 28 axb4 Ëb5 29 b3 a5
commanding 10/11, which left him some him not to qualify. In Hamburg Grischuk Grischuk is relentless.
two points clear of the chasing pack. needed a rapid play-off to overcome 30 Êb2 axb4 31 Îd2 Ëc5 32 Îd3 Îe8
Amongst the 84 players, top Brits were John Radoslaw Wojtaszek in the opening round and 33 Ëg7+ Êe7 34 Îf3 Êd8 35 Îxf7
Wood (Norfolk) and Tal Wood (Beckenham), Jan-Krzysztof Duda in the final, while Íxe4 36 Ëf6+ Êc8 0-1
who finished on ‘+1’, with Justin Hadi eliminating David Navara and Maxime
(Nottingham) scoring 5 points followed by Vachier-Lagrave in normal time. The Muscovite certainly appeared to enjoy
Abu Hasan (Uxbridge) and Nigel White coming from behind on the final day to win
(Guildford) on 4. the final, commenting that he wanted to
D.Navara-A.Grischuk “Thank Jan-Krzysztof for an incredible match.
FRANCE – 19-year-old Russian Alexey Hamburg 2019 I was enjoying every moment of each game
Sarana won the annual Karpov Trophy in Cap all three days.” Meanwhile the rising Polish
d’Agde (25 October - 1 November). Once star admitted that he “Didn’t expect to get to
more the rapid tournament brought together the final. I didn’t even expect to get to third
four male and four female players, although round, because I found Ian Nepomniachtchi
this year unfortunately the 12th world and Yu Yangyi to be probably the most
champion himself did not compete. After a unpleasant players for me [...] But I was lucky
slow start Sarana could only finish fourth with they both blundered in one move.”
8/14 in the opening double-round all-play- A new Bundesliga season began over the
all, but that still qualified him for the knockout weekend of November 23rd and 24th. David
stages, as Hou Yifan (7/14), Elisabeth Howell was in action for Hockenheim while
Paehtz, Marie Sebag and Sarasadat Luke McShane was once again seen in Werder
Khademalsharieh were eliminated. The semi- Bremen colours as they defeated Solingen
finals both went to blitz play-offs in which who had been expected to at least challenge
Sarana defeated Etienne Bacrot and Bassem for second place. Clear favourites, as per
Amin overcame Nihal Sarin before Sarana won usual, are defending champions Baden-Baden,
both games of the final against the Egyptian who began with two comfortable wins, aided
no.1. by 1½/2 from both Michael Adams and
After 21 Îc1 Ëd5 22 Íxf5 Ëxf5+ Maxime Vachier-Lagrave. Meanwhile in the
GERMANY – Alexander Grischuk triumphed 23 Êa1 Ëxf3 24 h5 White would have Bundesliga Ost (East), there was an all-
at the FIDE Grand Prix in Hamburg (5-17 enjoyed sufficient play for a pawn, but Navara English top board clash as Gawain Jones won
a wild encounter against Nigel Short as
Munich 1836 crushed Zugzwang 7½-½.

GREECE – The FIDE Office in Athens has

announced that the 2018 FIDE Book of the
Year Award has gone to Alexei Kuzmin’s Together
with the Candidates. Our congratulations to
Alexei and publishers Thinkers Publishing.
Artur Yusupov chaired the judging panel, ably
assisted by Nigel Short and Yuri Averbakh,
with the two works that narrowly missed out
Konstantin Sakaev and Konstantin Landa’s The
Complete Manual of Positional Chess and
Applying Logic in Chess by Erik Kislik.
After the London Chess Classic, the top-
ten saw the world champion still well clear on
the live rating list: 1 Magnus Carlsen (NOR)
2872, 2 Fabiano Caruana (USA) 2822, 3
Ding Liren (CHN) 2805, 4 Maxime Vachier-
Lagrave (FRA) 2778, 5 Alexander Grischuk
(RUS) 2777, 6 Levon Aronian (ARM) 2773, 7
Shakhriyar Mamedyarov (AZE) 2772, 8 Anish
Alexander Grischuk in action at in the final at Hamburg, which he apparently greatly enjoyed. Giri (NED) 2769, 9 Ian Nepomniachtchi (RUS)
The Candidates tournament in March should be much the richer for his likely qualification. 2767, 10 Teimour Radjabov (AZE) 2765.

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Many of the same names also appear at

the top of the rapid and blitz rating lists, but
with some notable exceptions, such as Anton
Korobov, while his results at the London Chess
Classic have meant that Magnus Carlsen is no
longer the world no.1 at rapid chess.
Rapid Top-10: 1 Maxime Vachier-Lagrave
(FRA) 2871, 2 Magnus Carlsen (NOR) 2868,
3 Ding Liren (CHN) 2835, 4 Hikaru Nakamura
(USA) 2819, 5 Anton Korobov (UKR) 2818,
6 Alexander Grischuk (RUS) 2808, 7 Fabiano
Caruana (USA) 2773, 8 Levon Aronian (ARM)
2771, 9 Vladimir Fedoseev (RUS) 2768,
10 Teimour Radjabov (AZE) 2758.
Blitz Top-10: 1 Hikaru Nakamura (USA)
2885, 2 Magnus Carlsen (NOR) 2856,
3 Sergey Karjakin (RUS) 2836, 4 Ding Liren
(CHN) 2826, 5 Ian Nepomniachtchi (RUS)
2826, 6 Wesley So (USA) 2816, 7 Yu Yangyi
(CHN) 2807, 8 Peter Svidler (RUS) 2805,
9 Jan-Krzysztof Duda (POL) 2796, 10 Vladislav
Artemiev (RUS) 2793.

INDIA – Magnus Carlsen was determined to

put a tough time at the Fischer Random
knockout tournament, as we reported on last
month, behind him come the seventh leg of
the Grand Chess Tour, the Tata Steel Chess
India Rapid & Blitz in Kolkata (22-26
November). When the champ is in the mood,
few can cope with him and celebrating six Magnus Carlsen pictured at the London Chess Classic which he had already qualified for, but
years to the day since he defeated Vishy that didn’t stop him playing the seventh leg of the GCT in Kolkata where he decimated the field.
Anand to become world champion in Chennai,
57...Îxd3! 58 Êxd3 Êf3
Carlsen began with 2½/3.
Black’s king has broken in and White now M.Carlsen-L.Aronian
L.Aronian-M.Carlsen finds himself in a hopeless zugzwang. Kolkata (blitz) 2019
Kolkata (rapid) 2019 59 Êd2 Êxe4 60 Êe2 d5 61 Íg3 d4 62
Íh2 Êd5 63 Êd2 e4 64 Êe2 Êc4 65
Íe5 Êb3! 66 Êd2 d3 67 Êd1 e3 68
Êc1 Êc4 0-1

Carlsen didn’t let up, also making ‘+2’ on

the second and third days to win the rapid
section by some two points from Hikaru
Nakamura and for a whopping 3027
performance. The champ didn’t let up either
come the first day of blitz, top-scoring with
6½/9, with Nakamura again best of the rest
and this time managing to hold Carlsen to a
draw. Particularly notable was the smooth
manner in which Ding Liren was the only
player to defeat Carlsen and the way in which
the Norwegian saw through a diabolical trap. 34 Îc2!!

Tata Steel India Rapid - Kolkata, India, 22-26 November 2019 (Category 21, average rating = 2770 Elo)
Player Country Rating 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Pts TPR
1 Magnus Carlsen NOR 2870 * 1 ½ 1 1 1 ½ 1 1 ½ 7½ 3032
2 Hikaru Nakamura USA 2741 0 * 1 ½ 1 ½ 1 ½ ½ ½ 5½ 2853
3 Wesley So USA 2760 ½ 0 * ½ ½ 0 ½ 1 ½ 1 4½ 2771
4 Levon Aronian ARM 2772 0 ½ ½ * ½ 0 1 ½ ½ 1 4½ 2770
5 Anish Giri NED 2776 0 0 ½ ½ * 1 ½ ½ 1 ½ 4½ 2769
6 Viswanthan Anand IND 2757 0 ½ 1 1 0 * ½ ½ 0 ½ 4 2728
7 Pentala Harikrishna IND 2731 ½ 0 ½ 0 ½ ½ * ½ 1 ½ 4 2731
8 Ding Liren CHN 2801 0 ½ 0 ½ ½ ½ ½ * 1 ½ 4 2723
9 Ian Nepomniachtchi RUS 2773 0 ½ ½ ½ 0 1 0 0 * 1 3½ 2690
10 Vidit Santosh Gujrathi IND 2722 ½ ½ 0 0 ½ ½ ½ ½ 0 * 3 2650

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Did you spot that 34 a8Ë? Îxg2+ strong, and if 49 Êg1 (and not 49 gxh6? or even 13 Ìxe6!? fxe6 14 Îxe6+ Íe7 15
35 Êf1 Îbf2+ 36 Êe1 Îe2+ 37 Êd1 runs Ëh4+ 50 Êg1 Ëxe1+ 51 Êh2 Ëxe5+ 52 Ëe2 should perhaps be preferred.
into the vicious 37...Îef2! when White even Êg1 Ëe3+) 49...d3! 50 gxh6? Ëd4+. 13...Ìe4 14 Íh4?
loses if he allows 38 Ëe8? Îf1+ 39 Ëe1 48...Îg6? 49 e6?? This the real culprit though. After 14 Íf4
Îxe1+ 40 Êxe1 Îg1+ 41 Êf2 Îxa1? Returning the favour rather than seize Ìc5 (and not 14...g5? 15 Íe5 f6 16 Íxe6)
34...Îbxc2 35 a8Ë h5 36 Ëe4 Îce2 control of the position with 49 Ìe4 when 15 c3 Ìxb3 16 axb3 Íe7 17 Íe5
37 Ëd4+ Îf6 38 Îf1 Îe5 39 Îxf6 Êxf6 White’s extra pawns would have proved everything remains to be played for.
40 Ëxd6+ Îe6 41 Ëf8 Îe5 42 Êf2 Îf5+ decisive. 14...g5 15 Íg3 Ìxg3 16 hxg3 0-0-0
43 Êe3 49...Ëd6+? 17 c3 h5 18 Îe3?
It may appear that Black has a fortress, Missing 49...Îxg5! 50 e7 (50 Îxg5 Ëxg5 This doesn’t help, although 18 a4 h4
but Carlsen famously doesn’t believe in such leaves the white king hopelessly exposed too) 19 axb5 axb5 20 Ëg4? (20 Íc2 hxg3
constructions and now brings his king all the 50...Ëd6+ 51 Êg1 Îxg2+ 52 Êxg2 Ëg3+, 21 fxg3 Íc5 22 Íe4 absolutely had to be
way round to undermine the base of the forcing mate. tried) 20...hxg3 21 Ìxe6 gxf2+ 22 Êxf2
defence on f7. 50 Êg1 Îxg5?? Íc5+ and 0-1 was no less brutal in Ganguly-
43...Îe5+ 44 Êd4 Îe2 45 g4 hxg4 50...d3 would still have left everything to Peralta, Linares 2019.
46 hxg4 Îg2 play for. 18...h4 19 Ëg4 hxg3 20 fxg3 Íc5
Black also loses after 46...Îe6 47 Êd5 51 Ìe4 1-0
Îe5+ 48 Êd6 Îe6+ 49 Êd7! when his rook Whoops. 51...Îxg2+ 52 Êxg2 Ëf4
must give way and 49...Îe4 50 Ëc5 Îxg4 doesn’t save the rook and the game in view of
51 Êe8 Îe4+ 52 Êf8 g5 53 Ëd5 Îe6 54 53 Ëe8+ Êh7 54 Ëh5+.
Ëf3+ will see both remaining pawns fall.
47 Ëh8+ Êe7 IRELAND – Top seed Sebastien Maze tied for
Now the white king comes round to g7. first with fellow French GM Eloi Relange on
47...Êg5 48 Ëd8+ Êxg4 49 Ëf6 Îe2 4½/6 at the Kilkenny Congress (15-17
50 Ëxf7 g5 was a better try, if also lost. November), with Waterford IM Jurica Sbris
48 Ëh3 Îd2+ 49 Êe5 Îe2+ 50 Êf4 Îe6 and Croatian GM Bogdan Lalic half a point
51 Êg5! Îe5+ 52 Êh6 g5 53 Êg7 Îe6 adrift. Meanwhile the Major was won by
54 Ëa3+ Êe8 55 Ëa8+ Êe7 56 Ëb7+ Keegan O’Mahoney (Cork) and Gerard
1-0 MacElligott (Dublin) with 5/6, Paul Hehir,
Brian O’Gorman and John Curtis (all Dublin)
By his own high standards Carlsen was a
tied for first with the same score in the James
little off the pace the next day, only making
Mason, and Surour Alneyadi (UAE) won the
‘+2’ while again losing to Ding. That enabled By no means the only good move, but
Challengers with 5½/6, finishing half a point
an unbeaten Hikaru Nakamura to join him at once again the pressure down the g1-a7
ahead of Akshay Ranade (Cork), Kevin Fagan
the top of the blitz standings on 12/18, but diagonal will prove decisive.
(Leitrim) and Sean Beatty (Dublin).
not to catch up overall, with Carlsen picking 21 Îf1
up $37,500 for first. A clearly out-of-sorts
MONTENEGRO – Fourth seeds Obiettivo 21 Ëxg5 runs into 21...Ëc7 22 Îf1
Levon Aronian might have finished last, but
Risarcimento Padova triumphed at the Îxd4! 23 cxd4 Íxd4.
still did enough to qualify for the Grand Chess
European Club Cup in Ulcinj (10-16 21...Ëc6 22 Îe2 f5!
Tour finals in London along with Carlsen and White is completely overwhelmed and now
November). Their squad of Richard Rapport,
Ding. Vishy Anand would have joined them
Michael Adams, Peter Leko, Francisco Vallejo 23 Ëxg5? Îxd4! would be a decisive shot.
had he finished sixth, but could only come
Pons, Gawain Jones, Ivan Saric, Daniele 23 Ëf3 Ëb6 24 Íxe6+ Êb8 25 Ëxf5
seventh, thereby allowing Maxime Vachier-
Vocaturo and Sabino Brunello won all seven Îxd4! 26 cxd4 Íxd4+ 27 Îff2 Ëc6 0-1
Lagrave to claim the final berth. Tragically for Rarely does one see a 2674-rated
matches, defeating the top two seeds, Alkaloid
Anand and the thousands roaring him on at grandmaster so absolutely crushed.
and Mednyi Vsadnik, in the closing rounds.
India’s National Library, he lost on time
Michael Adams was rock-solid as ever, scoring
against Anish Giri and missed two wins That meant that Mednyi Vsadnik had to
an undefeated ‘+2’, whilst Gawain Jones’s
against his great successor. settle for third place behind Padova and perennial
slightly fortuitous 5/6 earned him double gold.
powerhouse Novy Bor. Meanwhile David
The Sheffield-based GM held tight in the final
Howell once again turned out for Norwegian
M.Carlsen-V.Anand round against Ernesto Inarkiev as the top five
side Valerenga, in the process playing the
Kolkata (blitz) 2019 boards of the Padova-Alkaloid match were
third longest recorded game of classical
drawn, leaving the title to be decided by the
chess, as he tried in vain for some 236 moves
following vigorous effort.
to overcome Pentala Harikrishna’s defences.
Despite fine performances from Chris
V.Kovalev-D.Vocaturo Skulte and Ryszard Maciol, 4NCL
representatives Celtic Tigers found the going
European Club Cup, Ulcinj 2019 tough and even suffered defeat at the hands
French Defence of White Knights of Llanelli as they finished on
3/14, a point behind the Welsh side for
1 e4 e6 2 d4 d5 3 Ìd2 c5 4 Ìgf3 cxd4 whom Alan Young made a highly respectable
5 exd5 Ëxd5 6 Íc4 Ëd7 3½/6 on board 3, while reserve Tomasz Miga
The fashionable retreat rather than the top scored with 5/7. Elsewhere third seeds
once de rigueur 6...Ëd6. Team Nona from Georgia (Nana Dzagnidze,
7 0-0 Ìc6 8 Ìb3 Ìf6 9 Ìbxd4 Ìxd4 Lela Javakhishvili, Nino Batsiashvili, Bela
10 Ìxd4 a6 11 Îe1 b5 12 Íb3 Íb7 Khotenashvili and Salome Melia) triumphed in
13 Íg5 the Women’s event, edging out Kyiv and
Surya Shekhar Ganguly has also got into Monte Carlo by a point after finishing with +4
Now 48...Îh6+! would have been very trouble with this natural move. 13 c3, 13 Íf4 =3 - 0.

January 2020
50
48-51 Overseas News_Chess mag - 21_6_10 13/12/2019 18:07 Page 51

Anton Korobov may only be ranked sixth in

Ukraine at the time of writing (behind
Ivanchuk, Kryvoruchko, Areshchenko, Eljanov
and Kuzubov, though he’s some way ahead
of former FIDE World Champion Ruslan
Ponomariov), but he has long been known as
a very dangerous player, particularly when
he has the initiative. An individual gold
medalist at the 2018 Batumi Olympiad,
Korobov has now crushed Vishy Anand not
once but twice as White, which is no mean
achievement. Their encounter in Bucharest
was perhaps a bad omen fot the legendary
Indian former world champion’s many fans as
in the following leg of the Grand Chess Tour
Anand narrowly missed out on qualification
for the Tour finals and one of his favourite
events, the London Chess Classic at
Olympia, at which he has, of course,
appeared on many an occasion.

ROMANIA – The Superbet Rapid & Blitz in 15...Ìd7 16 Îg1 Ìc5 17 Íb1 b5! tough position for the 14th world champion.
Budapest (6-10 November) formed the sixth Anand understands that he must open Black also finds himself under heavy pressure
leg of the Grand Chess Tour. The surprise lines to obtain some much-needed after 20...fxg6 21 Îxg6 Îf8 22 Ìg5 Íg4
winner of the rapid section was wildcard counterplay with which to deflect White from 23 Îd2!, so he likely had to try 20...Îf8,
Anton Korobov, although the Ukrainian GM his brutal kingside ambitions. although even here after the subtle 21 Îd2!
has long been known as something of a rapid 18 Ìxb5 a5? White is clearly in the driving seat.
expert, as well as a highly dangerous oppo- But this is the wrong follow-up. Black 21 Ìg5 Ëf6 22 Ìf7
nent to all when he is in the mood. In contrast prophylactically needed to go 18...g6, ready White wants to win h5. 22 Ëh4 Ëxg6
to Korobov’s ‘+3’, American stars Fabiano to keep lines closed with 19 g5 h5. Possibly 23 Ìf3 Ëe8 24 Ëg5 would also have been
Caruana and Wesley So had tournaments to Anand was worried by 19 b4, but after very strong.
forget as they propped up the standings, 19...Ìa4 20 Ìxd6 cxd6 21 Ëb3 Íd7 22...Ía6 23 Îg5 e4 24 Ëe2
which pretty much signified the end of their Black’s bishop will emerge on b5 (or even a4), This calm retreat seals the fate of the
chance of qualifying for the GCT finals in London. leaving him with excellent compensation. black king.
19 g5 h5 20 g6! f5? 24...Íxb5 25 Ëxh5! Êf8 26 Îxf5 Ëxb2
27 Ìe5+ 1-0
A.Korobov-V.Anand
Bucharest (rapid) 2019 So at least rallied to an extent in the
Ragozin Defence subsequent blitz, finishing third with
10½/18, whereas Korobov could only finish
1 d4 Ìf6 2 c4 e6 3 Ìf3 d5 4 Ìc3 Íb4 on ‘-5’, losing five games in a row at the start
5 Íg5 h6 6 Íxf6 Ëxf6 7 Ëa4+ Ìc6 8 of the final day. Sergey Karjakin tied for first
e3 0–0 9 Îd1 Îd8 10 Ëb3 Ëe7 11 a3!? in the blitz with Le Quang Liem who
dxc4 12 Ëxc4 Íd6 13 Íd3 e5 14 d5 continues to justify his 2700+ rating and
14 0-0 Íg4 15 Íe4 might be the way to invites away from the world of Opens in
follow up White’s 11th move novelty to claim which he has generally plied his trade. That all
an edge. meant that, in what was a very close and
14...Ìb8 15 g4!? hard-fought event, Karjakin and Levon
Visually shocking and undoubtedly a good Aronian tied for first with 20/36, the
practical choice from the then world no. 6 at Armenian superstar triumphing 1½-½ in a
rapid chess (in contrast, Korobov’s main play-off to dramatically boost his chance of
rating of 2665 makes him world no.76). A serious misjudgement in a suddenly qualifying for London.

Superbet Rapid 2019 - Bucharest, Romania, 6-10 November 2019 (Category 21, average rating = 2753)
Player Country Rating 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Pts TPR
1 Anton Korobov UKR 2670 * ½ ½ ½ ½ 1 ½ 1 ½ 1 6 2886
2 Shakhriyar Mamedyarov AZE 2772 ½ * ½ 1 ½ ½ ½ ½ 1 0 5 2793
3 Levon Aronian ARM 2772 ½ ½ * ½ ½ 0 ½ ½ 1 1 5 2793
4 Anish Giri NED 2776 ½ 0 ½ * 1 ½ 1 0 ½ 1 5 2793
5 Sergey Karjakin RUS 2754 ½ ½ ½ 0 * 1 ½ 1 0 ½ 4½ 2752
6 Viswanathan Anand IND 2757 0 ½ 1 ½ 0 * 0 1 1 ½ 4½ 2752
7 Le Quang Liem VIE 2713 ½ ½ ½ 0 ½ 1 * ½ 0 ½ 4 2714
8 Vladislav Artemiev RUS 2731 0 ½ ½ 1 0 0 ½ * 1 ½ 4 2712
9 Fabiano Caruana USA 2822 ½ 0 0 ½ 1 0 1 0 * 1 4 2702
10 Wesley So USA 2760 0 1 0 0 ½ ½ ½ ½ 0 * 3 2626

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52-53 HomeNews_Chess mag - 21_6_10 13/12/2019 18:06 Page 52

Home News
BELFAST – There was a three-way tie for
first at the Ulster Masters in Belfast (23-24
November).
Masters: 1-3 Gareth Annesley (Belfast
South), Calum Leitch (Strand), Danny
Roberts (Civil Service) 3½/5.
Intermediate: 1-3 Mathew Dougherty
(Queen’s University), James O’Fee (Bangor),
Aaron Wafflart (Strand) 4.

BOLTON – Paul Macklin won the Bolton

Rapidplay for a fourth consecutive occasion
on December 1st, although this time he had
to settle for a share of first.
Open: 1-3 Paul Macklin (Chorlton), Mike
Surtees (Great Lever), Yichen Han (Forest
Hall) 4½/6.
Major: 1 John Hall (Alwoodley) 5½, 2 Sam
Parry (Cheddleton) 5, 3-6 Reg Clucas
(Altrincham), Gerald Fletcher (Hillsborough),
Peter Garrett (Waterloo), Michael Barooah
(Formby) 4.
Knights: 1 David Aston (Pensby) 6, 2-5
Michal Osxczyk, Chagdarsuran Batbileg (both LONDON – This year’s ECF Book of the Year Award was presented at the Classic to
Eccles), Robert Owens (Formby), John Kelly Matthew Sadler (right) and Natasha Regan (left). Judges Ray Edwards, Julian Farrand and
(Stockport) 5. Sean Marsh (centre) commented that “Chess players will find a splendid collection of games
with many comparing AZ with players and games of the past. Very readable, there is nothing
BURY ST EDMUNDS – Two IMs tied for first in the book that cannot be understood or enjoyed. The book is beautifully presented by New
at the ever popular Bury St Edmunds in Chess and is excellent value. The ultimate accolade came from Carlsen who said that AZ
Congress (26-27 October). had influenced his approach to chess. Game Changer may also influence yours.”
Open: 1-2 Richard Pert (Brentwood),
Antanas Zapolskis (London) 4½/5, 3 Martin
Walker (Norwich) 4.
Major: 1-2 Paul Kenning (Braintree), GLASGOW – The Malawi Rapidplay raised LETCHWORTH – The indefatgable Adam
Vladimirs Bovtramovics (Woking) 4, 3-8 £1410 for the Malawi Charity on November Raoof’s latest venture is the Letchworth
Dominic Bartram (Milton Keynes), John 30th. Rapidplay, which takes place in the Grand
Daugman (Cambridge), Chris Levy (Hackney), Open: 1-3 Andrew Greet (Bearsden), Ballroom of the Broadway Hotel, just opposite
Chris Willoughby (Brentwood), Sarah Weersing Jonathan McKay (Musselburgh), Tommy the town’s station. Ian Thompson triumphed
(Linton), Gavith Dharmasena (Linton) 3½. Barrett (Castlehill) 4/5. on October 27th.
Intermediate: 1 R.K. Ranjith (Brentwood) Major: 1-4 Brian Teaz (Irvine), Stuart Open: 1 Ian Thompson (Crowthorne) 4½/6,
4½, 2-5 Marc Bryant (Hastings), Giovanni Lampard (Troon), Eric MacKinnon (Carrick), 2-4 Peter Hunt (Leighton Buzzard), Connor
Esuperanzi (Cambridge), Colin Payne Calum McGillivray (Edinburgh) 3½. Clarke (Barnet), Kennan Kesterson
(Norwich), Kenneth Hobson (Cowley) 4. Minor: 1 Jainill Vadalia 4½, 2-5 Ruairidh (Richmond) 4.
Minor: 1-5 David May (Norwich), John MacKay, Ibrahim Khan (all Glasgow), James Major: 1-3 Raghu Kamath (Richmond),
Duff-Cole (Colchester), Paul Buswell Keegan (Galston), Carolina Espinisa Cancino Haran Rasalingham (Dulwich), Matthew Ball
(Hastings), Rowan Kent (Bury St Edmunds), (Girvan) 4. (St Albans) 4½.
Kameron Grose (Barnet) 4. Minor: 1 Cecil Sloan (Watford) 5, 2 Dhruv
HEREFORD – The Hereford Congress saw Radhakrishnan (Hertfordshire) 4½, 3-4 Jean-
EXMOUTH – This year’s 20th Royal Beacon chess return to the Green Dragon Hotel (30 Claude Sartenaer (Hendon), Adam Tarling
Seniors Congress (4-8 November) was Bob November - 1 December). (Guildford) 4.
Jones’s last at the helm and we very much Major: 1 Joseph Turner (Malpas) 4/5, 2-3 It was then young Rajat Makkar’s turn to
hope that the event will continue in Exmouth. Richard George (Cirencester), Mark triumph on November 17th.
Seniors: 1-2 Alan Crombleholme (Walsall), Whitehead (Rochdale) 3½. Open: 1 Rajat Makkar (Reading) 6/6, 2
William Adaway (Dorchester) 4½/5, 3-4 Intermediate: 1 Kyle Pelling (Tameside) 4½, Ashley Stewart (Royston) 4.
Peter Halmkin (Dawlish), Bill Ingham 2-3 Rob McClatchey (Salisbury), David Major: 1 Peter Tart (Camberley) 5½, 2-3
(Teignmouth) 3½. Teague (Harrogate) 3½. Peter Brocklehurst (Civil Service), Julian
‘Juniors’: 1 Robin Moss (Carlisle) 4½, 2-3 Minor: 1 Patrick Sartain 4½, 2-3 Jennifer Llewellyn (Kings Head) 4.
Graham Bolt (Exeter), Mike Waddington Goldsmith (both Harrow), Paul Broderick Minor: 1 Hossain Mo (Bangladesh) 5½, 2-4
(Dorchester) 3½. (Newport) 3½. Cecil Sloan (Watford), Paul Walton (Royston),

January 2020
52
52-53 HomeNews_Chess mag - 21_6_10 13/12/2019 18:06 Page 53

Alison Bexfield (Letchworth) 4. Open: 1 Alan Merry (Bury St Edmunds) Minor: 1 Phil Ramsey (Southport) 4½, 2-3
5½/6, 2 John Merriman (Petts Wood) 5. Pavel Nefyodov (Stafford), Charalampos
Major: 1 Conor Gay (Battersea) 5, 2 Paul Patsos (Preston) 4.
LONDON – Ali Hill won the Open at the
Chantrell (Kings Head) 4½. Standard: 1-3 Alan Ruffle (Swadlincote),
Central London Congress, which was once
Minor: 1 Elliot Kalfon (Metropolitan) 5½, 2 Keith Wicks (Sheffield), Edward Pattern
again hosted by Imperial College (1-3
Sivastyan Balasundaram (Barnet) 4½. (Formby) 4.
November).
Amateur: 1 David Dunne (Nottingham) 6, 2
Open: 1 Alistair Hill (Battersea) 4½/5, 2-3
Guy Levy (Harrow) 5. SCARBOROUGH – Despite there only being
Sylvian Eche (Hammersmith), Christopher
Improvers: 1 Xavier Ensum (east London) 50 players in the Open at the Scarborough
Russell (Muswell Hill) 4.
5½, 2-3 David Clarkson (Hendon), Krrish Congress (25-27 October), there was a
Major: 1 Julian Llewellyn (Kings Head) 4½, 2-
Patel (Harrow) 5. three-way tie for first.
3 Kevin Millward (Athenaeum), Will Johnston
(Hammersmith) 4. Open: 1-3 Danny Gormally (Alnwick),
NEWPORT – Experienced FM Peter Varley Laurence Webb (Münster), James Moreby
Minor: 1 R.K. Ranjith (Brentwood) 4½, 2-3 triumphed with a perfect score at the South
Eduardo Caceres (Spain), Timothy Woods (Gosforth) 4½.
Wales Autumn Congress (15-17 November). Major: 1-6 Tim Turner (Driffield), Michael
(Sussex) 4.
Open: 1 Peter Varley (Newport) 5, 2 Daniel Round (Rose Forgrove), Martin Cutmore
Regular visitor Nicholas Tavoularis
Kosusek (Czech Republic) 4, 3-4 Joseph (Folkestone), David Williams (Derby), Paul
(Middlesbrough) racked up a perfect score at
the latest Hampstead Under-2200 Congress Turner (Malpas), Joe Fathallah (Cardiff) 3. Jackson (Coulsdon), Martin Gawne
(23-24 November), finishing a point ahead Premier: 1 David Pinch (Steynton) 4, 2-5 (Ulverston) 4.
of Marcus Osborne (Wimbledon). Robert Martin Jones, Peter Quinn (both Cardiff), Intermediate: 1-2 Gary White (Telford),
Cassen (Middlesex) and Lorenzo Fava Harrison Postans (Chepstow), Stephen Parin Suchak (Syston) 4½, 3-5 Stephen
(Cambridge) shared first place in the Under- Horrell (Abergavenny) 3½. Williams (Cwmbran), Richard Dowling
1900 with 4/5, the same score as made by Minor: 1-2 Oliver Sapsford (Chepstow), (Edinburgh), Roger Greatorex (Llangollen) 4.
Nuutti Karjalainen (Finland), Frank Gillespie Mark Summers (Newport) 4/5, 3 Harri Minor: 1 Stephen Carter (Richmond) 5, 2
(Beckenham) and Robert Lankester (London) Gilbert (Swansea) 3½. Gary Corcoran (Bradford) 4½, 3-4 Paul Kent
in the Under-1700. (Aigburth), Nikas Zaleskis (Battersea) 4.
Bogdan Lalic (Wood Green) proved far too OBAN – There was a three-way tie for first Foundation: 1 Bob Amos (Prescot) 4½, 2-5
strong at the Muswell Hill Rapidplay of at the popular Oban Congress (15-17 John Sugden (Withernsea), Michael Siddle
November 19th, his 5½/6 two points more November). (Bishop Auckland), Josephine Woollard
than Ben Keohane and Tom Quilter (both Open: 1-3 Neil Berry (Edinburgh), Richard (Sheffield), Daniel Hilditch-Love (Newport) 4.
London) could muster. Elsewhere, Oliver Birkett, Andrew Newton (both Inverness)
Finnegan (Loughton) and Raghu Kamath 4/5. TORQUAY – Many of the players at Exmouth
(Richmond) tied for first in the Major and Challengers: 1 Ralph Stirrat (Cumbernauld) went straight on to the Torbay Congress (8-
David Lewis (Hendon) won the Minor. 4½, 2-4 John Cawston (Selby), Lucasz 10 November), which was held at the
The latest Golders Green Rapidplay of Nowak (Oban), Jonathan McKay Livermead House Hotel and where Keith
November 9th saw a three-way tie for first in (Musselburgh) 4. Arkell was punished for grabbing a very hot
the Open. Major: 1-3 Martin Brejter (Edinburgh), Ross b-pawn by Gerald Moore.
Open: 1-3 Alexander Cherniaev (Hackney), Blackford (Dunbar), Tom Tait (Dalmuir) 4. Open: 1 Gerald Moore (Broadland) 4/5, 2-7
John Pigott (Kings Head), Jovica Radovanovic Minor: 1 Alex Keenan 4½, 2-5 Thor Keith Arkell (Paignton), William Claridge-
(Sandurst) 5/6. Saemundsson (both Hamilton), Christopher Hansen, Tim Paulden (both Exeter), Jonathan
Major: 1 Dave Cork (Coulsdon) 5½, 2-4 Sharp (Oban), Andrew McCulloch (Giffnock), Underwood (Seaton), John Edge (Halesowen),
Jonathan Rubeck (Hendon), John Bussman David Watson (Edinburgh) 4. Richard Webster (Worksop) 3½.
(Surbiton), Kenneth Hobson (Cowley) 4½. Major: 1 David Archer (South Hams) 4½, 2-
Minor: 1-3 Tim Shallice, George Hassabis OMAGH – Calum Leitch (Strand) triumphed 4 Max Walker (Clevedon), Giles Body
(both London), Claudio Oliveri (Hendon) 4½. with 5½/6 at the Omagh Rapidplay on (Exeter), Meyrick Shaw (Exmouth) 4.
Amateur: 1 Daniel Aserkoff (Barnet) 5, 2-4 November 30th, finishing a point and a half Intermediate: 1 Danilo Gouveia Wasques
Eduardo Caceres (Spain), Keith Wicks clear of both Robert Lavery (Ballynafeigh) (Newton Abbot) 4½, 2 Phil Foley (Upminster)
(Sheffield), Abeer Gogia (Maidenhead) 4½. and Samuel Moore (Bangor), while James 4, 3-6 Amanda Jones (Salisbury), Lynne
Improvers: 1 Jai Kothari (Coulsdon) 6, 2 White (Omagh) won the Junior with 5/6. Fursman (Tewkesbury), Jacquie Barber-Lafon
Reya Li (Oxford) 5. (Newton Abbot), Ian Abraham (Barry) 3½.
On October 12th Jovica Radovanovic had PLYMOUTH – Jos Haynes (Tiverton) and Foundation: 1-2 Michael Pope (Salisbury),
again come first, this time outright. Jonathan Underwood (Seaton) tied for first Ian Farrow (Dons) 4½, 3 Joy Fursman
Open: 1 Jovica Radovanovic (Sandhurst) on 5/6 at the Plymouth Rapidplay on (Clevedon) 4.
5½/6, 2-3 Roy Sagall (Barnet), Lorenzo December 1st, finishing half a point ahead of
Lucchi (Italy) 4½. Steven Levy (South Hams) and Michael WITNEY – Mihov Filip triumphed at the
Major: 1 Timur Kuzhelev 6, 2-5 Dominic Stinton-Brownbridge (Plymouth). Witney Congress (2-3 November).
Gibbs (both Coulsdon), Christopher Levy Open: 1 Mihov Filip 4½/5, 2-3 David
(Hackney), Ray Tarling (Guildford), Raghu PRESTON – IM Brandon Clarke won £300 Zakarian (both Oxford), Paul Girdlestone
Kamath (Richmond) 4½. for triumphing at the Preston Congress (15- (Witney) 3½.
Minor: 1 Claudio Oliveri (Hendon) 6, 2 Guy 17 November). Major: 1 Pawel Murawski (Oxford) 4½, 2-3
Levy (Harrow) 4½. Open: 1 Brandon Clarke (Oxford) 4½, 2-5 Michael Lucey (Bourne End), Carlos Ferrera
Amateur: 1-2 Eduardo Caceres (Spain), Paul Littlewood (St Albans), Dietmar Kolbus Gonzalez (Didcot) 4.
Charles Sturt (Hammersmith) 5. (Douglas), Yichen Han (Forest Hall), James Intermediate: 1-3 Adam Sieczkowski
Improvers: 1-2 Gul Kapur (Enfield), Krrish Moreby (Gosforth) 3½. (Witney), Darrell Watson (Bourne End),
Patel (Harrow) 5½. Major: 1 John Wareing (Halifax) 5, 2-4 Duncan MacArthur (Keynsham) 4.
And back on September 14th it had been Graham Ashcroft (Preston), Neil Coward Minor: 1-2 Patrick Sartain (Harrow), William
the turn of IM Alan Merry to triumph at (Blackpool), Michael Connor (Great Lever) Stock (Hastings) 4½, 3-4 Alexander Hertog
Golders Green. 3½. (Oxford), Freddie Beneat (Abingdon) 4.

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1 Îh8+! (it’s Black who mates after 1 Ëxf5??

Solutions
Îb2+) 1...Êf7 (if 1...Êxh8 2 Ëd4+ Êh7
3 Ëg7#) 2 Ëxf5+ Êe7 3 Îh7+ Êd6 4 Ëf4+!
Êxe6 (or 4...Êc6 5 Ëc7+ Êb5 6 Ìd4+
Êa4 7 Ëxa7#) 5 Ëf7+ 1-0 5...Êd6 6 Ëd7+
Êc5 7 Ëc7+ wins the black queen for starters. 5
to Find the Winning Moves (pages 44-46) Ëh6+ was even more clinical, and if 5...Êe5
6 f4+ Êf5 7 Îf7+ Êe4 8 Ëg6#.
1) Ireland-Simpson reveals White’s trick when he will reach rook
1 Ëxf7+! 1-0 1...Ëxf7 2 Îxe8+ wins the house. against rook and bishop after 12...Êb6 20) Nasuta-Korneev
13 Îxh7 Îxc3 14 Îh6) 7...c3 8 Ìe5 c2 1 Îf4! Êh7 (1...g5 2 Îh4! is also a killer)
2) Vujovic-Van Wissen 9 Ìd3 Îa3 10 Ìc1 Íb4 0-1 2 Îh4 Îh8 (2...Êg6 3 fxg7 is, of course,
Stalemate will save White: 1 Ëh3+! ½-½ quite hopeless too) 3 Ëg5! (forcing mate)
12) Brookfield-De Kruif 3...Îdg8 4 fxg7 1-0
3) Mounce-Brocklehurst 1 Îxg7+! Êxg7 (1...Êh8 2 Îg5 is of little
1 Ëf5! (much cleaner than 1 bxc3 Ëc6 2 c4; help to Black) 2 Ëg4+1-0 Mate follows 21) Palliser-Haria
the double threat wins material) 1...g6 2 Ëxc8+ after 2...Êh6 3 f5+ Êh7 4 Îg1. 1 Êe3? Îd8 was hopeless in the game, which
Êg7 3 Ëxc3 left White a rook to the good. concluded 2 Îc2 Ìf8 3 Îc7+ Ìd7 4 Êf4
13) Milson-Han Êe6 and 0-1. However, 1 Îa8! would have
4) Townsend-Cloudsdale 1 Ìxg6+! hxg6 2 Ëh4+ Êg8 3 Íxf6 prevented Black from untangling his pieces and
1 e5! Îed8 (if 1...Ìd5? 2 Íxh7+!) 2 exf6 gave White a winning attack, play concluding: drawn (note that 1 Îb8? doesn’t also work, in
Ëxd3 3 Îe8+! 1-0 The black queen is a goner. 3...Ëd7 4 Ëh8+ Êf7 5 Ìh4 Íh6 6 Ëxh6 view of 1...Ìd8 2 Êe3 Ìc6): 1...Ìd8 (Black
Êxf6 7 Ëxg6+ Êe7 8 Ëg5+ Êf7 9 Îe3 is unable to activate his king after 1...Ìf8
5) Kelly-Scott Îh8 10 Ëg6+ Êe7 11 Ëg7+ 1-0 2 Êe3, and 1...Îb7 2 Êe3 only helps the white
1 Ìxf7! Êxf7? (1...Íb4+ 2 c3 Êxf7 king get nearer to the connected passed
would have been excellent for White after 14) Paehtz-Gunina pawns) 2 Êe3 Êe6 3 Êe4 Ìb7 (and not
3 cxb4 or 3 Íxg6+!? Êe7 4 Íg5+ Ìf6 1 Îxb7+! (1 Ëxc6 Îb8 2 Ìc5 Íxc5 3 3...Ìf7?? 4 Îe8+) 4 Îe8+ Êf7 5 Îb8 and
5 Ëf3 Ìbd7 6 cxb4 hxg6 7 Ìc3, but had to Ëxc5+ Êa8 fights on) 1...Êxb7 2 Ìd6+ Black can do no more than return the piece for
be tried) 2 Íxg6+! (the black queen is a Ëxd6 (the queen must go as 2...Êa7 two pawns, in view of 5...Ìc5+? 6 Êd5 Ìe6
goner) 2...Êe7 3 Íg5+ Ìf6 4 Íxf6+ 3 Ëe7+ and 2...Êb8 3 Ëc8+ force mate) 7 Îb1! Ìf4+ 8 Êc6 Îd8 9 Îb7+! (9 Îf1?
Êxf6 5 Ëxd8+ Êxg6 6 Ëxc7! 1-0 3 Ëxd6 gave White a winning endgame. Êe6 10 Îxf4 Êxe5 is only a draw) 9...Êf8
10 h6 Ìe6 11 g3! Îa8 (or 11...gxh6 12 Îxh7
6) Alekseenko-Piorun 15) Palliser-Harvey Êg8 13 Îxh6 Ìd4+ 14 Êc5) 12 Êd5 Ìd8
After 1 Ëf8! hxg4 2 Îf7+ Ëxf7 3 Ëxf7+ 1 Ëxf4! gxf4 2 Íe2 Îh2 3 Íd3 f3 was 13 hxg7+ Êg8 14 Îc7 when the white pawns
the unopposed white queen simply proved hopeless in the game, so 1 Ëc5+! had to be prove far too strong.
too powerful: 3...Êh6 4 Êg1 Êh5 5 Êf2 tried, and if 1...Êb8 (1...Êd7 2 Ëa7 forces
Íc2 6 Ëd5+ Îe5 7 Ëxd6 Îb5 8 b4! the king back and 1...Êd8 2 Íe2 Îxd1+ 22) Svane-Onischuk
Íb3 9 Êg3 a4 10 c4 Îf5 11 Ëxb6 Êh6 3 Íxd1 Ëf1 4 Êc1 defends everything, just 1 Ëe3! Îh3+ 2 Êg2 Ëg3+ 3 Êf1 Íxe8
12 Ëe3+ Êh7 13 Ëe7+ Êh6 14 c5 1-0 as it does below) 2 Íe2! Îxd1+ 3 Íxd1 (3...Îh1+ 4 Ìg1 Íh3+ 5 Êe2 Ëh2+ 6 Ëf2
Ëd2 (3...Ëf1 4 Êc1 is calm, but also Êxe8 7 Ëxh2 Îxh2+ 8 Êe3 should also be
7) Van den Boogaart-Rosen effective; Black has nothing here) 4 Ëf8+ winning) 4 Êe2 Ëg2+ 5 Ëf2 leaves White
1 Ëb8+! (by no means the only way to win, Êa7 (or 4...Êc7 5 Ëe7+ Êb8 6 Ëd8+) 5 a piece to the good, whereas the game was
but by far the fastest – and most elegant) Ëc5+ Ìb6 when White can even force a to witness a sudden about-turn: 1 Îe2??
1...Ìxb8 2 Îd8# 1-0 draw with 6 Ëc7!? Ëxd1+ 7 Êa2 a5 8 Íg4! (1...Îxf3 2 Ëd2 Îh3+ 3 Êg1 only
Ìc6+ Êa6 9 Ìb8+ Êa7 10 Ìc6+. gives Black a draw) 2 Îf1 Íxf3+ 3 Îxf3
8) Plat-Haria Îxf3 4 Ëd2 Îf1+ 0-1.
1 Ìe8+! 1-0 The d-pawn decides after 1...Ëxe8 16) Povah-Bianco
2 Ëxe8 Ìxe8 3 d7 and, curiously, 1 Ëe5 1 Íxf5+! Íxf5 2 Ëxf5+! 1-0 2...Êh8 3 23) Giri-Anton Guijarro
and only then 2 Ìe8+! also does the trick. Ëc8+ Êh7 4 Îxb2 wins queen for rook and 1 Íxh6! (1 Ìg5 Îb6 2 Ìf5! also works)
2...Îxf5 is mated by 3 Îxg7+ Êh8 4 Îg8+ 1...g6 (1...gxh6 fails to 2 Ëxh6+ Ìh7 3
9) Gormally-Merriman Êh7 5 Î2g7#. Ìg5 Îxg5 4 Îxg5 Îg8 5 Îxg8+ Êxg8 6
1 Ëg8+! Îxg8 2 Îxg8+ Êxg8 3 d8Ë+ Îe3) 2 Ìxg6+! fxg6 3 Ëh4 1-0 3...Ìh7
Îf8 4 Ëd5+ 1-0 The loose piece on f5 falls. 17) Salomon-Pelletier 4 Ìg5 is clearly hopeless.
4 Îg1+ also does the business. 1 Êc7! (only this way will do; 1 Êa7? Êc6 2
b7 Êc7 3 Êa6 Êb8 is an easy win for Black) 24) Aronian-Wang Hao
10) Khademalsharieh-Nihal 1...Îf8 2 b7 Îxf7+ 3 Êb8! (heading for After 1...Îa3? 2 Îf6 Îa8 3 Îf5+! the
1...Îxf2! 2 Îxf2 Ëxe3 3 g4 Ìe4 4 Ëxe7 the corner is much easier to draw than 3 Êc8 connected passed pawns proved decisive,
(4 Îaf1 Ìdxf2 5 Îxf2 h6 wins material too) Êc6 4 b8Ì+) 3...Îf2 4 Êc7 Îf7+ 5 Êb8 Black resigning after 3...Êe4 4 h5, in view of
4...Ëxf2+ 5 Êh1 Ëe3 0–1 Êc6 (and after a repetition Black allows 4...Êe3 5 h6 Îa7 (or 5...f2 6 h7 Êe2 7 Êh6)
White to demonstrate his key defensive idea: 6 Êg6 Îa6+ 7 Êh5 f2 8 g5 Îa7 9 Êg4 Êe2
11) Povah-Hebden stalemate) 6 Êa8 Îxb7 ½-½ 10 g6. Instead, 1...Îd3! would have drawn,
1...Ìxc3! 2 bxc3 Íxc3 3 Ìxa6 (in view the crucial difference being 2 Îf6 Îd8
of 3 Ìc2 Îb2 there’s no safe square for the 18) Storme-Abdrlauf 3 Îf5+ (3 Îxf3 Îg8+ 4 Êh6 Îxg4 5 h5 Êe6
knight and even 3 Ìd3 cxd3 4 Îxd3 Íg7 White threatens g6 and saved himself with a 6 Êh7 Êe7 is an easy draw) 3...Êe4 4 h5
should be lost) 3...bxa6 (3...Îxa6 4 Îb5 h5 stalemate trick in the game: 1...Îb6? 2 g6! Îxg6 (4 Êg6 Îg8+ also draws, as does 4 Îf4+ Êe5
5 Ìf2 Îxa4 6 Îxb7 Íd2 was also strong) 4 3 h7 Îa6 ½-½. Instead, Black can win with 5 Îxf3 Îg8+) 4...Îd5! when the best White
Îc5 Îb4 5 a5 Îa4 6 Îc6 Íxa5 7 Îxa6? 1...Îb8 2 g6 Êe7+, but by far the simplest has is 5 Îxd5 Êxd5 6 h6 f2 7 h7 f1Ë
(7 Ìf6+! Êd8 8 Îxa6 had to be tried when win is 1...Êf7! 2 Êh7 Îb6! when White will 8 h8Ë, but after 8...Ëc1+ the only way to
8...Êc7 is clearly better for Black, but not be mated, as with 3 Êh8 Êg6 4 h7 Îb8#. escape the checks is 9 Êg6 Ëb1+ 10 Êh6
definitely winning; instead, 8...c3? 9 Îa8+ Ëh1+ 11 Êg7 which allows 11...Ëxh8+
Êc7 10 Ìd5+ Êb7 11 Ìxc3! Îa3 12 Îa7+! 19) Bianco-Van den Boogaart 12 Êxh8 Êe5 and the final pawn will fall.

January 2020
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This Month’s
New Releases
Navigating the Ruy Lopez: Volumes 1-3
Fabiano Caruana & Oliver Reeh;
running time: 16 hours, 20 minutes
(total for all three volumes)
ChessBase PC-DVD
SPECIAL PRICE £75.00
SUBSCRIBERS £67.50

It is impressive that ChessBase have

managed to bring Caruana on board,
especially as the subject is by no means a
trivial one to tackle. The Ruy Lopez – or
Spanish Game, to the teenagers – has a
substantial history and has never been
replaced as the number one choice of 1 e4
aficionados. Of course, the Italian Game (1 e4
e5 2 Ìf3 Ìc6 3 Íc4) is all the rage at the
moment, but pushing the bishop one square
further along the diagonal is likely to keep on
testing the second player’s resources for the Archangel, Open, Berlin and Averbakh variations; useful later on if Black tries to free himself
foreseeable future. The intention across the volume 3 shows how to handle the Schliemann with f7-f5 at some point.” It also gives the
three DVDs is to provide the first player with variation and the Smyslov, Cozio, Bird’s, Steinitz, queenside pieces new developing squares.
a complete repertoire after 1 e4 e5 2 Ìf3 Modern Steinitz and Norwegian defences [Ed. – There is certainly a lot of material here and
Ìc6 3 Íb5. the three volumes are also available individually the DVD includes a bonus database of
I was interested in two main things when I from Chess & Bridge, retailing at £26.95 or Caruana’s own games, as well as an
investigated this series: how deep is the £24.25 for Subscribers]. opportunity for students to test their Ruy
material and is Caruana an effective presenter? The Ruy Lopez, despite its antiquity, is still Lopez knowledge and understanding online,
A previous ChessBase pairing of Wesley So a rich ground for new discoveries. Sometimes against Fritz.
and Oliver Reeh didn’t hit the mark for me as the novelties are so obvious it is a wonder This is a set for serious students of chess.
So was too camera-conscious. On this set of they had not been played much earlier. It is definitely not a quick starter guide to the
DVDs, Reeh is fine in the role of host and Ruy Lopez, but rather an in-depth
Caruana appears very relaxed, in a presentation which will appeal to seasoned
professional kind of way. His voice carries a V.Topalov-A.Shirov tournament players who are keen to put in
quiet authority, everything he says is on point the time and discover some of the secrets of
Linares 2004
and focused, and, as the most recent one of the most testing of all openings.
challenger for Carlsen’s title, he clearly has a Sean Marsh
tremendous amount of top-level experience.
That includes extremely deep preparation, of Planning Move by Move
course – and as a very active participant at Zenon Franco, 414 pages
the highest level it is remarkable that he is Everyman Chess
happy to share his knowledge of such a key RRP £19.99 SUBSCRIBERS £17.99
part of his repertoire with the masses.
It is made clear in the introduction that some This interesting book deals with a subject
of the lines will be covered in much greater somewhat neglected in chess literature. As the
depth than others, partly due to their relevance back-cover blurb puts it: “Planning is of crucial
and partly due to the fact that some variations importance in chess and yet this is an area that
lead to very similar positions, with common has not been well discussed or explained to
middlegame structures and plans. I like this ambitious players who wish to improve.”
approach; it flies in the face of the modern Miguel Najdorf is quoted as having said,
trend to try and shoehorn in huge amounts of “First the idea and then the move!” and the
material for every line and variation, which is far author stresses the point: “It is essential to
too much for the club player. White played 16 c4 in this position which have some kind of idea of what you are trying
Presumably most fans of 1 e4 will want to arose from the Chigorin variation. Caruana to achieve and how to go about it.” Franco,
buy all three volumes, but it may be useful to comments: “Remarkably a novelty. Garry the who represented Paraguay in seven
break down the coverage in case prospective Great has played b4 at this point. I guess one Olympiads, presents a thoughtful study on
viewers are particularly interested in some reason for preferring b4 over c4 is to protect the art of planning and splits the material into
lines more than others. Volume 1 covers the a5, thereby freeing the rook on a1 for action five main sections: Typical Structures, Space
Anti-Marshall, Chigorin, Breyer and Zaitsev on the queenside; c4, on the other hand, Advantage, The Manoeuvring Game,
variations; volume 2 provides coverage of the gives added support to d5, which can be Simplification, and Attack and Defence.

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In instructional books such as these there is match, accosts Kasparov after game seven,
a danger of merely assembling the ‘usual which has ended in a draw following a mere 11
suspects’ in terms of examples and then moves. Kasparov apparently tells Keene: “You
grouping them together as loosely as possible, have your problems with the match, Ray, and I
resulting in a grab bag of snippets with tenuous have mine.”
connecting threads. This one rises above the As well as his personal story and many
norm thanks to the excellent selection of broader insights into the chess world,
material and thoughtful presentation. Rowson draws on a wide range of thinkers,
There is a massive difference between the The Moves That Matter writers and other sources to address the
amount of time professionals and amateurs Jonathan Rowson, 352 pages challenges that go to the heart of how we
have to spend on chess study, which is why Bloomsbury live, both at and away from the chess board.
club players benefit from a well-structured RRP £20.00 SUBSCRIBERS £18.00 Always accessible and engaging, The Moves
book such as this. Magnus Carlsen makes it That Matter deserves to rank as the ‘go to’
clear there is no easy route to mastering the In this thought-provoking, inspirational work on chess and life. It is impossible to read
art of planning. “The good players find the book, Jonathan Rowson explores what chess without feeling the better for it. If Malcolm
right plans most of the time because they has taught him about life and shares a Gladwell was a chess player, this is the sort of
have studied these patterns over hundreds perspective likely to better equip all of us to book he might have tried to write. I do not
and thousands of hours.” Indeed, the games reflect on our own. Beautifully written, warm think he would have written it as well as
of the world champion are utilised many and candid, The Moves That Matter is wise Jonathan Rowson.
times in this book, but plenty of space is also and funny and will enrich the inner life of Ben Graff
given to the great players of former times. chess and non-chess players alike.
The following position is taken from a real At one level, The Moves That Matter, is
heavyweight encounter. structured around the big questions all of us
inevitably grapple with, including thinking and
feeling, winning and losing, truth and beauty,
V.Korchnoi-L.Polugaevsky life and death. At another, this is the deeply
7th matchgame, Evian 1977 personal story of a Type 1 diabetic growing
up mainly in Scotland, within a family where
both his father and brother face mental health
challenges. Rowson goes on to win the British
Chess Endgame Workbook for Kids
Championship three times and peaks at
John Nunn, 128 pages, hardback
number 139 in the world. He marries, has
RRP £12.50 SUBSCRIBERS £11.25
children and finds new meaning and
Nunn follows up his Chess Tactics
opportunities, away from the competitive
Workbook for Kids by presenting a large
chess arena. As he eloquently puts it, chess
number of endgame positions to solve. Each
ultimately becomes more like his anchor and
chapter is devoted to a particular type of
less like his sail.
endgame, with the puzzles frequently building
In part, Rowson wrote this book as a
on a motif found in solving an earlier one.
means of “atonement”, as he addresses the
Young players or those wanting to
fact that for all chess gave him, his sense of
improve their opening play may also enjoy
achievement and fulfilment was less than
Chess Opening Workbook for Kids by Graham
total. Rowson trained with Yusupov and came
Burgess, which contains 128 pages and is
to appreciate how precisely Super
available for £12.50 (Subscribers – £11.25).
Grandmasters calculate concrete variations.
Korchnoi has being manoeuvring for some Yusupov gets Rowson to watch a video of
time to get his pieces into position for the Mozart and Mozart’s less gifted rival. Rowson
attack. It seems, at first glance, as if takes the hint, noting that there were
Polugaevsky is doing fine. His centralised positions at a chess board he might strain to
bishops look great and it is not exactly clear understand which Magnus Carlsen could fully
why Korchnoi would have wanted to reach assess in the blink of the eye.
this position. However, the next move sees Whoever we are, whatever we do, there
Korchnoi bring together the various strands will always be something that feels as if it is
of his magnificent manoeuvring: just out of reach. Still more so given that even
30 Îd6! in victory, such moments are too short to live Fritz 17
Franco explains what is going on, calling for to the exclusion of all else. Rowson is ChessBase, PC-DVD
this: “A neat invasion as if 30...Íxd6 then extremely insightful as to how to better RRP £69.95 SUBSCRIBERS £62.95
31 Ìg5 wins. One idea now is 31 e6, since understand our feelings and to seek new Billed as ‘The Giant PC Chess Program’,
31...Íxd6 still loses to 32 Ìg5. There is also ways of seeing and making sense of the life Fritz has come a very long way and now
a threat of 31 Îf6, followed by e6.” we happen to find ourselves in. enters the AI revolution by containing Fat
Polugaevsky defended gamely, but couldn’t Rowson’s story about working with Anand Fritz, ChessBase’s neural net engine based on
hold Korchnoi back indefinitely (1-0, 43). to help him prepare for his 2008 world LCZero. The program also contains all the
championship match with Kramnik is usual playing functions, both against an
Not many readers will be able to plan in the fascinating. Rowson gets to see “The grind engine and online, as well as enough database
style of Korchnoi (especially of 1977 vintage), behind the glory”, and gives an insider account and repertoire-building tools to keep most
but by using the fine material presented in this both on working with the very best and the role club players more than happy.
book it should be possible to make small and of computers in preparing for matches at this
steady improvements in one of the toughest level. There are many other terrific chess Mega Database 2020
aspects of the game. The material is fully anecdotes throughout this book. One of my ChessBase PC-DVD
accessible to all players from the experienced favourites comes from Kasparov’s earlier world RRP £169.99 SUBSCRIBERS £152.99
club player upwards. New Year, new plans! title match with Kramnik in 2000. Raymond It’s that time of year when ChessBase
Sean Marsh Keene, one of the leading organisers of the release new versions of all their databases, of

January 2020
56
54-57 Solutions&Books_Chess mag - 21_6_10 13/12/2019 18:04 Page 57

which the Rolls Royce continues to be the and the third-rank defence. The Anand Files: The World
‘Megabase’, as it’s often known. This now Both volumes can be ordered together Championship Story 2008-2012
contains a whopping eight million games, up from Chess & Bridge for the special price of Michiel Abeln, 512 pages, hardback
to October 2019, of which some 85,000 are £46.00 or just £41.40 for Subscribers, but RRP £27.99 SUBSCRIBERS £25.19
annotated. Buyers also receive a year’s ‘update do please check in advance on stock levels If you’re looking for a late Christmas present
service’, which enables them to keep their Mega when ordering. for yourself, Quality Chess’ latest work may be
Database 2020 up to date by downloading an ideal gripping read for those slow festive
5,000 or so new games to it every week. days. Belgian FM Abeln conducted a number of
Readers who own Mega Database 2019 may detailed interviews with Team Anand and
upgrade for £69.95 (Subscribers – £62.95), presents their side of the 14th world
by returning the DVD or quoting the serial champion’s matches with Kramnik, Topalov and
number when ordering from Chess & Bridge, Gelfand. He reveals how the very top players
while owners of older versions of Mega prepare, come up with match strategies, and
Database can do so for £110.00 (Subscribers cope with the stress of such high-profile
– £99.00). Finally, if you simply want the contests, while the book is lavishly illustrated
games and none of the annotations, Big Opening Repertoire: The Ruy Lopez with some 100 photographs and contains too
Database 2020 should be for you, retailing at Joshua Doknjas, 288 pages, paperback some excellent games.
just £64.99 or £58.49 for Subscribers. RRP £18.99 SUBSCRIBERS £17.09
Also just out from ChessBase is Corr FM Doknjas follows up his earlier work on
Database 2020, which contains some 1.6 the Najdorf by tackling another of the most
million correspondence games, retails at important of all openings. Just like Caruana,
£169.99 (Subscribers – £152.99), and Doknjas is fully aware of the need to ensure
contains 10 games from the 29th readers understand a number of key middle-
Correspondence Chess World Championship game motifs. As such, he has opted for the
annotated in video format. Those who own complete games approach, along with some
Corr Database 2018 can upgrade for £89.95 useful summaries, while mapping out a fairly
(Subscribers – £80.95), once again by theoretical repertoire based largely on the The Modernized Scotch Game
returning the disk or quoting the serial number. main lines, but with 4 d3 advocated against Milos Pavlovic, 280 pages, paperback
All those very serious about their theory the Berlin and the Marshall avoided with 8 a4. RRP £26.95 SUBSCRIBERS £24.25
should want to keep an eye on the latest Also just out from Everyman Chess is 1 e4 e5 2 Ìf3 Ìc6 3 d4 exd4 4 Ìxd4
correspondence games and may also find the Counterattacking Lines for Black Against the remains an important weapon and one in which
Fritz Powerbook 2020 of use, which contains Ruy Lopez, which packages together Glenn theory continues to evolve after both 4...Ìf6
some 25 million opening positions, derived Flear’s work on the Open Lopez along with and 4...Íc5. As such, those who play the Scotch
from 1.7 million high-class tournament Milos Pavlovic’s Marshall-based repertoire, or regularly face it may welcome Pavlovic’s
games. As such, users get a good snapshot of while running to 324 pages and retailing at thorough coverage. The Serbian Grandmaster
the latest state of theory in both the main £17.99 or £16.19 for Subscribers. and noted theoretician covers all the key
and most topical opening lines. Fritz lines, along the way presenting plenty of new
Powerbook 2020 is compatible with both discoveries, while highlighting both the key
Fritz 17 and ChessBase 15 and retails at strategical ideas and which sidelines he feels
£64.99, or £58.49 for Subscribers. have been unfairly neglected for both sides.

Small Steps 2 Success

Sam Shankland, 360 pages, hardback
RRP £27.99 SUBSCRIBERS £25.19
After writing his highly-acclaimed Small
Monster Your Endgame Planning Steps to Giant Improvement, Shankland made The Richter Rauzer Reborn:
- Volume 1 giant leaps in his own game. Working on this The Kozul Variation
Efstratios Grivas, 288 pages, paperback follow-up book was also designed to improve Zdenko Kozul & Alozije Jankovic,
C&B Price £23.95 SUBSCRIBERS £21.55 his own game, with Shankland’s focus now on 398 pages, paperback
Following on from the success of Monster passed pawns. We witness just about every RRP £29.95 SUBSCRIBERS £26.95
Your Middlegame Planning, Chess Evolution facet of them, in both the middlegame and As Sean Marsh has remarked before,
commissioned the highly-experienced author endgame, from motoring down the board to Thinkers Publishing do not let the grass grow
and trainer to tackle the endgame. In this first being blockaded and weak. Pawns are, of under their feet. Only four years have passed
volume Grivas begins by examining pawn course, the soul of chess and once again since the two leading experts on the Classical
endings and covers the most common types studying some very important structures and Sicilian mapped out a repertoire for Black with
of endgame. Each chapter contains some strategies in the company of Shankland should 1 e4 c5 2 Ìf3 d6 3 d4 cxd4 4 Ìxd4 Ìf6
useful general advice and key tips before the but improve the play of the stronger club player. 5 Ìc3 Ìc6 6 Íg5 e6 7 Ëd2 a6 8 0-0-0
reader has to solve a number of exercises, Íd7, but in view of some new discoveries
selecting the right plan from three options. and the improvement in engine strength in
Monster Your Endgame Planning Volume 2 recent years, Kozul and Jankovic decided that
is also out and available from Chess & Bridge an update was required. The amount of
for £23.95 or £21.55 for Subscribers, while updated material varies somewhat from
running to 248 pages. This time Grivas chapter to chapter, but certainly if you’re
tackles both queen and rook against an array looking for an exciting Sicilian line which may
of different pieces, as well as opposite- catch white players out, the Kozul line of the
coloured bishop endings, the Lucena position Classical remains a decent fit.

www.chess.co.uk
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58-58 JSXmas_Chess mag - 21_6_10 13/12/2019 18:03 Page 58

Saunders on Chess
Follow me on Twitter: @johnchess or email: [email protected]
I’m writing this column a couple of days
after the London Chess Classic and the
cornucopia of chess in the country’s capital has
given me plenty to think and write about. For
example, there was the final of the Grand Tour,
with four elite players battling it out for the big
money. Ding Liren emerged as the winner with
his ice-cool brand of precision-calculating
chess, ahead of Maxime Vachier-Lagrave who
had to be content with second place despite
despatching the world champion in a semi-
final play-off. Carlsen was gracious in defeat
and complimentary to both players who
finished above him, but his chess looked
careworn, perhaps as the result of the sheer
quantity of chess he has played in the last year.
Then there was the FIDE Open, where the
young overseas stars dominated, with the older
British contingent trailing in their wake. Ramesh-
babu Praggnanandhaa, still only 14, garnered
most of the headlines, particularly in the Indian
press, as he took his rating past the 2600
mark for the first time, sharing top spot with defeat Armenian GM Tigran Gharamian in the engendered by such conferences, the
the 18-year-old Australian GM Anton Smirnov, final, having called the coin toss correctly and pyramid may not ultimately prove wide and
who is well on his way to overtaking fellow chosen Black in an Armageddon game. strong enough to support the elite chess that
countryman Ian Rogers’ peak rating of 2618. Though all the above competitions cited we know and love.
The British Knockout Championship was above were tremendously entertaining, my Another thing typical of competition
won by the oldest player in the field, Mickey personal highlight of the week was the London players is that we like to talk about how we
Adams. That was hardly a surprise, but the Chess Conference. This was the seventh in the got into the game in the first place and then
perennial English number one’s journey to the series, but the first I have attended myself as suggest ways our route to the game could be
first prize was nearly derailed at the quarter- I’ve usually been involved in a photo-reporting replicated. For example, I could tell you (and
final stage when he was taken to an capacity at the Classic proper. Conference probably already have, many times
Armageddon game by 23-year-old FM organiser John Foley roped me in at the last previously) how I was taught the rules by my
Marcus Harvey after their previous four minute as photographer, and it was while I was brother aged about eight, and then became
games had all been drawn. Adams went on to discharging this function that I had the chance strong playing endless skittles games against
defeat David Howell in a combined rapid/blitz to sample the various plenary sessions, round other boys during the school lunch hour in a
final. Alongside, the third/fourth finishers, table discussions and workshops that make up chess club at a grammar school. If only we
Luke McShane and Gawain Jones, used their the conference. I was mightily impressed with could replicate that scenario... but the trouble
play-off match to trial yet another new chess what I saw and heard. is, we can’t. The world has changed, and it is
variant suggested by a champion. Vladimir It is difficult to encapsulate what never going to change back again. To cite just
Kramnik had suggested ‘no-castling chess’ in happened at the conference in a short article one factor (there are many others): single-
a recent article online, and this variant, where such as this, but it made me realise that, sex selective state secondary schools are
castling is not allowed but all the other rules despite the manifold chess activities I have now quite rare in the UK, and I for one don’t
are the same, has been tried by the AlphaZero been involved in over the past 50 years mourn their passing, for various reasons not
program, but this was the first time it had (playing, organising, editing, writing, related to chess. The modern world presents
been played by grandmasters. photographing, researching, retailing, new challenges for chess which will only be
The last day of the Classic featured the advising, etc), I have barely scratched the met by modern ideas.
Super-Blitz which culminated in a 32-player surface. What I have previously thought of as One major lesson I took away from the
knock-out with four players qualifying from ‘the chess world’ is in truth just a small conference is that being an expert
each of eight 11-round preliminary sections. section of a much larger chess universe. competition player doesn’t make you an
Competition was tough, with three GMs Perhaps I am typical of competition expert chess educator. Well, OK, I think I
(Rowson, Nunn and Mazé) failing to qualify players of a certain age and level. We have already knew that intuitively, but some of the
for the knock-out stage. Praggnanandhaa long since turned our back on the educational presentations helped underline the fact that if
reached the round of 32, but was eliminated process that first leads us into the game, and basic chess tuition is to be done successfully,
by Scottish GM Matthew Turner. Marcus have our attention firmly focused on the top it requires a high level of professionalism. I
Harvey gave further evidence of his growing of the pyramid (if we pay any attention to think it is useful for competition players and
strength, scoring 10½/11 in the preliminary other people’s chess at all). However, most of organisers to dip their toe into the field of
section and then knocking out Glenn Flear, the London conference delegates, who came chess education even if they have no
Tom Rendle and David Howell before losing to from all over the world, were focused on the intention of becoming a chess teacher. More
Gawain Jones in the semi-final. Jones, having base of the pyramid and the complex task of generally, it is an opportunity to meet some
already beaten Stephen Gordon, Mickey involving youngsters in chess. And without amazing people. And I met a lot of them at
Adams and Danny Gormally, went on to their expert work, and the exchange of ideas the London Chess Conference.

January 2020
58
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1: The Anand Files: The World Championship Story

2008-2012 Michiel Abeln, 512 pages, hardback
RRP £27.99 SUBSCRIBERS £25.19
2: The Ultimate Guide to AntiChess
Vladica Andrejic, 256 pages, hardback
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3: Planning: Move by Move
Zenon Franco, 416 pages, paperback
RRP £19.99 SUBSCRIBERS £17.99
1 2 3 4
4: Opening Repertoire: The Ruy Lopez
Joshua Doknjas, 288 pages, paperback
RRP £18.99 SUBSCRIBERS £17.09
5: Side-Stepping Mainline Theory
Gerard Welling & Steve Giddins, 272 pages,
paperback RRP £21.95 SUBSCRIBERS £19.75
6: The Richter-Rauzer Reborn: The Kozul Variation
Zdenko Kozul & Alozije Jankovic, 400 pages, paperback
RRP £29.95 SUBSCRIBERS £26.95
7: Small Steps 2 Success

POST FREE FOR UK CUSTOMERS

Sam Shankland, 360 pages, hardback
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8: The Nemesis: Geller's Greatest Games
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9: Chess Tests
Mark Dvoretsky, 208 pages, paperback
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10: Monster Your Endgame Planning Volume 1
Efstratios Grivas, 288 pages, paperback
RRP £23.95 SUBSCRIBERS £21.55
11: Keep it Simple 1.d4
Christof Sielecki , 432 pages, paperback
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9 10 11 12
12: The Moves that Matter
Jonathan Rowson, 352 pages, hardback
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13: The Modernized Berlin Wall Defense
Pridyadharshan Kannappan, 216 pages, paperback
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14: The Modernized Delayed Benoni
Ivan Ivanisevic, 240 pages, paperback
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15: The Modernized Scotch Game
13 14 15 16 Milos Pavlovic, 280 pages, paperback
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16: Bobby Fischer Against the World (DVD)
Award-winning documentary, Running time: 1 hr, 34 mins
SPECIAL PRICE £9.95 SUBSCRIBERS £8.95
17: Big Database 2020 (PC-DVD)
8 million game database of the highest quality
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18: Mega Database 2020 (PC-DVD)
For further details and upgrade prices - see page 56
RRP £169.95 SUBSCRIBERS £152.95
17 18 19 20 19: Corr Database 2020 (PC-DVD)
For further details and upgrade prices - see page 56
ONLY subscribers to CHESS MAGAZINE may order items at the prices and conditions shown on this page. RRP £169.95 SUBSCRIBERS £152.95
All offers expire 31/1/2020. These offers are POST FREE in the UK only. Please add 20% 20: Fritz 17 (PC-DVD) The world’s most popular
(of the undiscounted price) for EU countries and 30% (of the undiscounted price) Rest of the World. chess playing engine, now featuring Fat Fritz
RRP £69.95 SUBSCRIBERS £62.95