| June 2001 | Newsletter of the British Chess Federation | Online Edition |
Beeson Gregory Win Championship4NCL Birmingham, 5-7 May 2001As widely predicted, Beeson Gregory I became worthy winners of this season's 4NCL Championship. In the first two rounds of the final weekend they consolidated their sizeable game point advantage over their two main rivals Slough and Wood Green. This, in effect, made the final round showpiece between Beeson Gregory I and Wood Green anything but a title-decider. In the strongest ever club match to be held in England, Wood Green required an unlikely score of 7½-½ to wrest the title away from Beeson Gregory. This was never going to happen against a team who boasted Michael Adams and three-time Russian Champion Peter Svidler on the top two boards, not to mention the strong grandmasters padding out the lower boards. In the end Wood Green could take some consolation from a hard earned 5-3 victory, which prevented Beeson Gregory from achieving a 100% 'Grand Slam'. All three teams ended with 20/22 match points, but Beeson Gregory took first place with 66 game points, ahead of Slough (63 game points) and Wood Green (61½ game points). Round 9Beeson Gregory I had carried a two-point advantage in match points and a six-point advantage in game points over both Slough and Wood Green into the final weekend. The only opportunity for the chasing pair was to regain some lost ground in the first two matches, but given Beeson Gregory's opposition, this seemed unlikely. Indeed, Beeson Gregory were keen to put things beyond doubt; just after the first time control they were 6-0 up against relegation candidates Barbican II. This wasn't, however, to be their second whitewash of the season. Slough's Rosalind Kieran played well to defeat Christine Flear, while Slough also found an unlikely hero in Andrew Mack, who somehow managed to overturn a lost ending against Neil McDonald. In the final analysis, these two points turned out to be far more important for Barbican II than they were for Beeson Gregory (see later).
Wood Green were facing Beeson Gregory's second team, who were also not safe from relegation worries. On top board Alexander Morozevich did the business once again when his kingside attack crashed through Luke McShane's defences. Nigel Short and Jon Speelman also produced quick wins as Wood Green racked up a 6½-1½ win, thereby making the tiniest of dents in Beeson Gregory I's overall lead. Slough kept themselves in the frame with a 6-2 win over Midland Monarchs, while Guildford retained 4th position with a 7½-½ drubbing over the doomed South Wales Dragons. The big relegation dogfight of this round was the clash between Poisoned Pawns and Thistle White Rose. Poisoned Pawns' hopes were raised when White Rose's Angus Dunnington blundered a piece in a winning position, but this proved to their only win in a tight match. Alexander Matros, Chris Dunworth and Paul Townsend won for the Yorkshire team to virtually condemn Poisoned Pawns back to division two chess next season. Richmond v Barbican I was another tight encounter, with Barbican winning the only two decisive games on boards seven and eight. Round 10Beeson Gregory I, bolstered by the debut of Michael Adams on top board, virtually assured themselves of the title after a solid 6-2 win over Richmond, who were now favourites for the third relegation spot. Slough gained insignificant ground with a 6½-1½ over South Wales Dragons, while Wood Green, without Morozevich and Short, could only beat Barbican II by a 5-3 scoreline. In fact Wood Green were quite relieved just to win; at one stage it looked like it could be a repeat of Wood Green's misery a season before, when they had been surprisingly defeated by Barbican I on the final weekend. On that occasion Short and Morozevich had once again been spectators. This time around, the turning point of the match was Wood Green's Alex Baburin holding an inferior endgame against Jon Rogers, and Barbican's Michael Twyble missing a win against Andy Martin. Beeson Gregory II made sure they were safe from relegation with a 5½-2½ win over Barbican I, but Poisoned Pawns were relegated after losing 6-2 to Guildford. Round 11Despite the fact that Wood Green were on 'mission impossible', the top match attracted a lot of interest in its own right. Predictably it was a very tight affair and was settled in Wood Green's favour by only two decisive results. Ketevan Arakhamia-Grant defeated Heather Richards on board eight, while Alexander Morozevich kept up his hundred percent record for Wood Green by beating Peter Svidler, who was making his debut for Beeson Gregory. Morozevich now has 4/4 in the 4NCL, against Rowson, Almasi, McShane and Svidler - some performance.
Slough I made sure of second place with a 5½-2½ win over Guildford, who were already assured of finishing in fourth place. Barbican I took fifth place after sharing the spoils with Thistle White Rose; once again there were only two decisive results. Already-relegated Poisoned Pawns won narrowly against fellow strugglers South Wales Dragons, while Beeson Gregory II ended in mid-table after defeating Midland Monarchs. Leaving the most dramatic until last, the clash of the round was undoubtedly the battle to avoid the third relegation place between Barbican II and Richmond. Barbican could afford to lose by the score of 5½-2½ and still stay up, but they didn't have the best of starts when they were forced to default on board eight. Apparently they had only one out of their eleven female players available on that day - Ellen Walker, who was playing for the first team. According to Barbican player Richard Palliser, who achieved his second IM norm this season, everyone knew of the situation before the weekend, so they were not unprepared for the loss. Nevertheless, I imagine this still had an unsettling effect, and it soon became clear that this match would be going right to the wire. Richmond's Murugan Thiruchelvam won quickly against Andrew Lewis, while Stefan Shikerov, who had defeated Wood Green's Chris Ward a day earlier, declined a repetition of moves, only to lose a rook and pawn ending to Laurence Webb. Richmond continued to rack up points, but Barbican II got their first crucial break when Colin Crouch managed to win a king and pawn ending against Gavin Wall. Finally the match and the season boiled down to one game: Barbican's Jonathan Rogers (White) against Richmond's Richard Bates, with Barbican needing a win and Richmond a draw. Earlier on Rogers had missed several wins in a time scramble, but despite being two pawns ahead, Bates still had a very difficult position, his king being pushed around the board by Rogers' queen and knight. With continuous checking, Rogers picked off pawn after pawn until it was he who was two pawns ahead. After that Rogers managed to keep his nerve and convert his advantage into the decisive win. Wood Green will once again have two teams in the first division next year, after their second team, often boosted by players dropping down from their first, comfortably won the second division with 21/22 match points. They were followed in second place by Bristol 1 (17/21). The third promotion place was very much a tighter affair, with three teams (Wessex, North West Eagles, and Witney & Swindon) ending on 13 match points. Wessex secured the final spot on game points, but not before some controversy. In the final round match between Witney & Swindon v Bristol II, the promotion candidates could only draw 4-4. After the match was over, however, Witney & Swindon noticed that the Bristol II board 1 was rated 93 points higher than the Bristol I board 7, thus breaching the '80-point rule'. Consequently they appealed against the result, arguing that the top board game should be scored as a win for Witney & Swindon rather than the draw that had occurred. This would have given them a 4½-3½ victory and clear third place in the division and hence automatic promotion. Wessex argued that as the game was over and the result posted, no change should be allowed. Since the final promotion place was at stake and the League's rules gave no guidance as to the time by which a team must complain about the composition of the opposing team, the Board's preferred option was to allow the issue to be settled at the chess board by a play-off between the two teams. Unfortunately this proved impossible to arrange. The Board therefore decided, after lengthy deliberation, that the complaint by Witney & Swindon came too late and that the 4-4 result of the Witney & Swindon v Bristol II match should stand. GamesCrouch-Wall Hennigan-Short Morozevich-McShane European Women's ChampionshipWarsaw, 21st April - 5th May 2001by IM Harriet Hunt When David Anderton phoned to ask if I was interested in playing in this event, I leapt at the chance. I last went to Warsaw ten years ago for the World Under 14s; much has changed in the city since then, but not the memorable beauty of the Old Town. It was virtually obliterated during World War II, and a visit to the History Museum on the rest day brought home what an achievement its painstaking and authentic reconstruction represented. We had, in theory at least, plenty of time to explore this and other areas of Warsaw (though we never did find the elusive 'park with peacocks'). The average length of the games was just 2½-3 hours, the result of FIDE's controversial new time-control: 40 moves in 1 hour and 15 minutes, followed by a 15 minute quickplay finish, with an extra 30 seconds per move throughout the game. This, combined with the novel format for a World Championship qualifier (the old zonal system has been replaced by this enormous Swiss, with virtually unlimited places for each country, and 31 qualifying places, to be determined if necessary by quickplay tie-breaks), meant that players had much more to mull over than merely the moves on the board.
The BCF generously provided for Peter Wells to accompany me as a second, and our thorough preparation should have gone some way to alleviating the inevitable time pressure. To be honest, though, this wasn't really my problem. In round 1, I treated the game like a quickplay and only won when my opponent made an extraordinary series of errors in a completely winning position. Things did improve, though the lack of familiar points of reference (and it's very hard to sense how fast you're playing when your clock time goes both up and down) still had effect now and then – see my game from round 9 (below)! My advice to anyone faced with this time control is not to make too big an effort to play faster – you don't want to overcompensate. More generally, I think the BCF should do its utmost to press for a return to a six- or seven-hour session. There was a noticeable tendency for people to play obvious moves rather than thinking deeply about the position, and this was particularly the case after move 40, when we witnessed some very substandard endgame play. Top seed among the 157 players was Alisa Galliamova at 2556, but she didn't find real form until the last few rounds, and exemplified the general trend that there were no easy points for anyone. Former World Champion Nona Gaprindashvili, who celebrated her 60th birthday during the tournament and still has a rating close to 2400, went from 3½/6 to 3½/10 at one stage. I wouldn't blame the time-control for this; it signifies rather the ever-increasing strength in depth of women's chess. If FIDE had hoped the increased rate of play would make the games more attractive to spectators, they clearly hadn't thought things through; this effect was more than nullified by the desire of players in the qualifying zone to take no risks, and short draws started breaking out on the top boards as early as round 5. The result, after 11 rounds, was an artificial bunching of players - 7 on 8/11, including Edinburgh resident Ketevan Arakhamia-Grant, a further 7 on 7½/11, and I was among 24 on 7/11. All of these were condemned to an extensive series of rapidplay mini-matches for prizes, and, for the plus-3 score group, for the outstanding 17 qualifying places. Each match comprised 2 games at the rate of all in 15 minutes plus 10 seconds per move, with a sudden death game, Black having draw odds, at the rate of 5 minutes v 4 minutes, plus 10 seconds per move, in the event of a 1-1 tie. My feelings about the whole affair are undoubtedly coloured by events (I lost the first match by the Black-has-draw-odds rule, and went on to play very badly in the second, giving me a final placing of 35th), but even a more impartial observer would have felt there to be a certain degree of fiasco. This was by no means the fault of the organisers and arbiters, who, as throughout the event, acted admirably, but clearly no-one had foreseen play-offs on such a scale, nor calculated how long it was all going to take. Things got under way at 11 am, and some players were still fighting at 7pm (incidentally delaying the closing ceremony), having had only 10-minute breaks between games and thus no chance to eat or recuperate during this hugely stressful day. Interestingly, the post-tie-break placings among the top seven players were almost identical to those given by a Bucholz ranking, with the gold medal and first prize of 10,000 Deutschmarks taken by Almira Skripchenko-Lautier (Moldova). Ekaterina Kovalevskaya (Russia) won silver, and Ketevan Arakhamia-Grant (Georgia) bronze. There was barely time then for regret for what might have been. Less than 24 hours after the play-offs, Peter and I found ourselves in Birmingham, starting the first of three 4NCL games. Writing this now, my disappointment over not qualifying has been replaced by memories of a tough but extremely enjoyable tournament. My thanks go to Peter, for chessical and moral support, to St. John's College, Cambridge, for financial assistance, and to the BCF, for making my participation possible. GamesNotes by GM Peter Wells and IM Harriet Hunt Khukhashvili-Hunt Hunt-Umanskaya BCF COUNCIL: ANNUAL MEETING 29 SEPTEMBER 2001The BCF's Annual Meeting will be held in London on 29 September. The Meeting will deal with formal business, including the election of Officers, and such other business as may be proposed. Any BCF Officer or BCF member body wishing to place an item on the Agenda should submit it, with any support required, to the BCF office no later than Saturday 18 August. Such items require a specified degree of support to appear on the Agenda - advice on this may be obtained from the BCF office. A specified degree of support is also required to stand for election, and the BCF office can also advise on this. Nominations may be made at the meeting itself, but candidates nominated no later than 18 August will be listed on the Agenda and may have simple election addresses circulated with it. Robert McFarland British Land UK Chess Challenge Booming!
The British Land sponsored UK Chess Challenge is showing ever increasing numbers. In the May Megafinals, around 5,500 children took part in 23 events all over the UK, 1,500 more than last year. The Megafinals are the second stage in the World's largest tournament, which began in January with 48,000 children from over 1,400 schools, itself an increase of 8,000 players over the year 2000 total. The 23 Megafinals, with numbers of children taking part (ages 5 to
18), are as follows:
The next stage of the event, the National Gigafinal, was originally scheduled for 15th July at the Sheffield Octagon Centre. However, with a possible influx of 1,500 qualifiers, the event has been extended over two days: the Under 7, 8, 9 and 10 children playing on Saturday 14th July and the Under 11, 13, 15 and 18 children playing on the Sunday 15th July. The venue is the same. After that then winners move on to the last stage, the Terafinal, to take place in London on 25th and 26th August. There the overall winner from the original pool of 48,000 players will reveal himself (or herself), plus the destination of the £l,000 first prize! Many of the most brilliant young players in the UK take part in this event, including last year's winner Lorin d'Costa, 10 year old prodigy David Howell and Terence Chapman Grand Prix winner, Sarah Hegarty. Most of the contestants, however, are quite new to chess and, as the following game from the Megafinals demonstrates, show a startling degree of ferocity. White: Sarah Head
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11...Bf5+ 12 Kxe5 Qf2 13 d6 Bxd6+ 14 Kd5 Qxg2+ 15 Kd4 Qxh1? 16 Qxf7 mate! 1-0
Further details of the event can be obtained from Mike Basman on 0208 397 1826.
By a decisive victory in the Under 11 Team Final at Colfe School in Kent on 12th May 2001, the Richmond team became the winners of the first Audio Chess Grand Prix. Richmond won the Under 9 Zonal and the Final, plus the Under 11 Zonal and the Final, and thus can claim to be the most successful junior team in the country. The only minor blemish was their relative poor showing in the Girls team event. The Richmond Junior Chess Club meets every week on Saturday mornings and afternoons, and has regular training sessions with masters and Grandmasters; this is undoubtedly a good foundation for their successes.
Second place in the Grand Prix was taken by the Wey Valley/Surrey team, which produced consistently good results in the Zonals and Final events. The Wey Valley score was substantially boosted by their near stranglehold over the girls event, their victory this year being the sixth in a row.
Third place was occupied by Greater Manchester, who dominated their Zonal but were unable to reproduce the same results in the Finals. In fact, their ace was trumped in the Under 11 Final by the neighbouring team from Oldham, which unexpectedly captured 5th position. Manchester also has a strong girls side.
Essex took the 4th prize in the Grand Prix, qualifying for both the Under 11 and Under 9 finals and scoring well in each. The Nottinghamshire team would also have been expected to do well in the Grand Prix, but tragedy struck when the wheels fell of the coach taking the team to the Midland U11 Zonal, which of course meant that they could not take part in the Final. Somerset were equally unlucky in being unable to make the Under 9 Zonal.
| TEAM | Prix Points | Prize | TEAM | Prix Points | ||
| l | Richmond | 52 | £100 | 18= | Yorkshire | 15 |
| 2 | Wey Valley/Surrey | 42 | £65 | 20= | Beds | 14 |
| 3 | Gt. Manchester | 38 | £45 | 20= | Liverpool | 14 |
| 4 | Essex | 34 | £25 | 22= | Berkshire | 13 |
| 5 | Hants | 31 | 22= | Wirral | 13 | |
| 6 | Lincs | 29 | 24 | Suffolk | 10 | |
| 7 | Wilts | 28 | 25= | Solihull | 9 | |
| 8= | Devon | 23 | 25= | Kent | 9 | |
| 8= | Oldham | 23 | 27 | Shropshire | 8 | |
| 8= | Sussex | 23 | 28= | NW London | 5 | |
| 11 | Notts | 22 | 28= | Birmingham | 5 | |
| 12 | Northants | 20 | 28= | Cumbria | 5 | |
| 13 | Barnet | 19 | 31= | Cheltenham | 4 | |
| 14 | Somerset | 18 | 31= | S.London | 4 | |
| 15 | Ches & N Wales | 17 | 33= | Derbyshire | 3 | |
| 16= | Cambridgeshire | 16 | 33= | Thameside | 3 | |
| 16= | Herts | 16 | 35 | Lancs | 2 | |
| 18= | Bucks | 15 |
Downloadable GamesChessbase 6/7/8
Format (Zipped) 509 games: |
For the latest Book Reviews go to articles index |
EditorialCommitments elsewhere mean that this edition of ChessMoves will be my last as editor. Before I go I would like to thank all those who have helped and contributed towards ChessMoves in the past year, thereby making my job a lot easier and much more enjoyable! Special thanks go to Christine Higgins, John Littlewood, Susan Richards, Stewart Reuben, David Anderton, James Vigus, Gary Lane, Richard Palliser, Jonathan Rowson, John Sharp, Syringa Turvey, Grete White, Cynthia Gurney, Robert McFarland, Eddie Sturgeon and John Saunders. Many apologies to those I've forgotten to mention. I leave the magazine in the very capable hands of John Saunders and Helen Milligan at British Chess Magazine, and I wish them all the best for the future. I hope you enjoy this issue. John Emms |
Late NewsStuart Conquest qualified for the FIDE World Championship Finals after scoring an impressive 8/13 in the 2001 European Individual Championship, which was held over 13 rounds between 1st and 15th June in Ohrid, Macedonia. Other English scores: Nigel Short 7½/13, Tony Miles 6½/13, Peter Wells 6½/13. The championship was won by the Israeli Grandmaster Emil Sutovsky (a full report will follow in in the next issue). |
LEGEND
*
Terence Chapman Group Grand
Prix
@ FIDE Rated
#
Qualifying Tournament for the Smith & Williamson British
Championship
TERENCE
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| GRAND PRIX | ||
|---|---|---|
| 1 | K Arkell | 187.8 |
| 2 | M Turner | 168.1 |
| 3 | B Lalic | 139.9 |
| 4 | D Gormally | 139.7 |
| 5 | M Hebden | 125.0 |
| 6 | J Hodgson | 122.0 |
| JUNIOR PRIX | ||
| 1 | A Ghasi | 74.2 |
| 2 | R Palliser | 67.0 |
| 3 | T Khoo | 48.0 |
| 4 | T Nixon | 42.0 |
| 5 | S Hegarty | 33.0 |
| 6 | S Williams | 29.1 |
| PRIXETTE | ||
| 1 | T Khoo | 61.2 |
| 2 | H Hunt | 51.1 |
| 3 | S Chevannes | 43.8 |
| 4 | S Khoo | 38.0 |
| 5 | S Hegarty | 33.0 |
| 6 | A Partington | 32.1 |
| AMATEUR PRIX | ||
| 1 | D Jameson | 43.0 |
| 2 | M Kobylka | 33.3 |
| 3 | G Bisereko | 25.0 |
| 4 | A Duncan | 23.5 |
| 5 | D Hartley | 23.0 |
| 6 | R Clegg | 20.0 |
| SENIOR PRIX | ||
| 1 | J Sherwin | 42.4 |
| 2 | M Franklin | 23.0 |
| 3 | D Everitt | 16.0 |
| 4 | D Buckley | 10.0 |
| DISABLED PRIX | ||
| 1 | D Hartley | 34.8 |
| 2 | J Whitfield | 14.0 |
| 3 | C Kreuzer | 9.0 |
| 4 | D Hodgkins | 9.0 |
| For full details of the 2001 Terence Chapman Grand Prix, visit http://www.bcf.org.uk/grandprix | ||
Advertisement Cover: Nick Pert British Chess
Magazine |
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The National Chess Junior Squad took a group of 23 players to take part in the 22nd Tournament of Young Talents in Frydek-Mistek in the eastern part of the Czech Republic. Over 200 players from eleven countries took part in a nine-round tournament over five days. There were six sections for U10, U12 and U14 girls and boys. As well as the chess, the players had two days of cultural and sporting activities.
In a tournament of this strength there are no easy games, and it was very pleasing for the squad to come away with three medals. In the U14 girls, Jessie Gilbert, who was second seed, led from the start to finish to take gold. In the U12 girls, Naomi Miller, despite being seeded fifth, led for much of the tournament and ended up in silver medal position. In the U14 boys our most successful player was 18th seed Thomas Eggleston, who performed well above his grade to gain the bronze medal. In the team competition, England came second, just ½ point behind Belarus.
Dan Miller
Gilbert-Lisouskala (Notes by GM John Emms)
View Game in Java Window
Miller-Kulasalu (Notes by Naomi Miller)
View Game in Java Window
This year's competition ended on 17th February at Oakham School with a fourth resounding victory for GM Jonathan Mestel. He scored maximum points (60/60) to come ahead of Scottish GM Colin McNab (52), Michael McDowell (45) and Graham Lee (43).
The 2001/2 starter puzzle is as follows:
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White, playing up the board, is to play and force mate in two moves against any black defence.
The entry fee is £3.00 and the competition is open to British residents only. Competitors need only send in White's first move, known as the key-move. Postal entries should be sent to:
Brian Stephenson
9 Roydfield Drive
Waterthorpe
Sheffield S20 7ND
Entries should be accompanied by a self-addressed envelope (for receipt of the later postal round) and a cheque or postal order for £3.00 made payable to British Chess Problem Society. Entries by email are allowed and should be sent to bstephen@freeuk.com, but these will be accepted only if followed by a cheque or postal order for £3.00 All entries should be postmarked no later than 31st July 2001. Mark your entry 'BCF ChessMoves'.
Readers can find out more about chess problems at http://www.bstephen.freeuk.com.
14 June
Open: More points for Arkell at
Greater
Manchester and Rhyl, Turner wins Walsall
and Hodgson sweeps five at
Frome;
Prixette:
Hegarty wins in
Central
London;
Junior: Haslinger 2nd at
Greater Manchester;
Amateur:
Jameson wins at Rhyl and
Frodsham,
Kobylka at Walsall, Bisereko scores at
St
Leonards;
Disabled: Lilley moves up;
Senior:
Titleholder Franklin scores at
Frome and
Central
London.
Leonard Barden
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