The first Game of the Week for the New Year features one of my better efforts. Unfortunately, it was not enough for us to beat a typically strong Bridge A side but there was no disgrace in our defeat. The game looks like a brief encounter but it took over three hours owing to the considerable thought given by my opponent throughout which may well have led to his losing on time anyway. After applying pressure, I was pleased that I finally managed to find a way through only for James Essinger to point out afterwards that I missed a mate in two a move earlier (29. Qxg8+)!
White: Bob Page (145) Black: Arnaud Wisman (173)
Millar Cup: Broadstairs v Bridge A
Black resigns
Broadstairs 2½ Bridge A 4½
| 1 | David Faldon (175) | 1-0 | Michael Green (179) |
| 2 | Bob Page (145) | 1-0 | Arnaud Wisman (173) |
| 3 | Paul Carfrae (131) | 0-1 | Alan Atkinson (173) |
| 4 | John Couzens (118) | 0-1 | David Shire (161) |
| 5 | Bob Cronin (112) | 0-1 | James Essinger (154) |
| 6 | Andy Flood (111) | 0-1 | Chris Stampe (139) |
| 7 | Reg Pidduck (106) | ½-½ | Shahid Sahi (115) |
David Faldon writes:
This was a very close-fought match despite the fact that we were outgraded all the way down, and heavily so on boards 2 to 6. After an hour and a half it would have been hard for an outsider to guess the higher-graded team, which is a big compliment to all of our guys on the middle boards. Eventually, though, things began to turn against us as the pieces got swapped off and the clocks ran down. The first game to finish was on board 5, where James got his king in amongst Bob C’s pawns and there was no defence. Reg on board 7 was close to equalizing the match but Shahid managed to find a neat perpetual check to force a draw. The next to finish was board 4. John pressed long and hard with the white pieces but a huge tactical scrummage swapped down to an ending with just kings and pawns. Unfortunately David S emerged from the scrum with one extra pawn which got home for a touchdown. This left the score Broadstairs ½ Bridge 2½ but all was not lost. Two wins and two draws would have levelled the match. For a time this looked quite possible but it wasn’t to be, despite Bob P crashing through for a great win on board 2 against a tremendously strong opponent. In the end Paul on board 3 and then Andy on board 6 both had to concede defeat after more than three hours of heroic defence and the match was lost. The final win for us on board 1 was a case of too little, too late, but it was great fun to play as both players sacrificed and counter-sacrificed while their clocks ran down to zero.
Congratulations to our new friend, GM Aleksander Mista, who has just finished joint first in the Hastings Masters. Not sure at time of writing if there is to be a play-off for outright winner but 7/9 is a fine achievement and one place better than last year. Well done, Mr Mista.
The annual Hastings International Chess Congress is under way and with a welcome injection of sponsorship from Tradewise Insurance, thirteen GMs have been tempted to enter the Masters Tournament. After four rounds the leader is the Polish GM Aleksander Mista (below), last year’s joint runner-up and the only one this time with a 100% score to date. His Round 4 win against Danny Gormally yesterday caught the eye, Black’s excellent endgame technique making your correspondent realise why these chaps are grandmasters and we are not.
White: Daniel Gormally (2506) Black: Aleksander Mista (2567)
Tradewise Hastings Masters 2015/16
White resigns
Once again, however, Hastings is overshadowed by the Tata Steel Tournament which begins on January 15th and has attracted the usual stellar cast of players. Five of the top ten players in the world are taking part and of the fourteen in the Masters Tournament, ten are in the world’s top twenty. As with last year, only the highest-graded Hastings entrant would have scraped into the Tata Steel Masters and that would only be at the expense of the local hero and regular participant, Dutch GM Loek Van Wely, who may be 132 in the world but still has an ELO grade of 2636. Naturally, we shall be following closely the fortunes of Wei Yi, who is also taking part, although he will be hoping he is in better form than he was at the Qatar Masters recently. Despite being seeded 12th, he finished in 69th position with a mere 4½/9. Magnus Carlsen was the winner but only after an admittedly easy play-off with another rising star of Chinese chess, Yu Yangyi, who won last year’s tournament. In order to force a play-off, Yu had to beat Wesley So in the final round which he did most impressively in the game featured below. Sadly, Yu will not be at the Tata Steel Masters but as well as Wei Yi there is his compatriot and world number 9, Ding Liren. Chess in China is clearly already a force to be reckoned with.
White: Yu Yangyi (2736) Black: Wesley So (2775)
Qatar Masters 2015
Black resigns
The wait is over – here are the answers to this year’s fiendishly difficult Christmas Quiz:
- Where was the 1972 World Chess Championship between Fischer and Spassky played? Reykjavik
- Who comes next in this sequence: Steinitz, Lasker, Capablanca…….? Alekhine
- Which journalist is the current President of the English Chess Federation? Dominic Lawson
- The musical ‘Chess’ was the result of an unlikely but successful partnership between which three men? Benny Andersson, Björn Ulvaeus and Tim Rice
- The recently-completed London Chess Classic was the third and final stage in the Chess Grand Tour. Where were the first two events held? Stavanger and St Louis
- Which former British chess champion has more recently been seen offering his views on television programmes in Gogglebox? Bill Hartston
- Who was the FIDE President who famously stopped the Karpov-Kasparov World Championship in 1984? Florencio Campomanes
- What German word is used to describe a situation where whatever move a player makes will by force weaken his position? zugzwang
- The Erasmus High School, Brooklyn included among its pupils at one point in the 1950s a future World Chess Champion and a future Oscar-winning actress and singer. Name them. Bobby Fischer and Barbra Streisand
- Which former world chess champion played 86 games unbeaten between July 15 1972 and April 26 1973? Mikhail Tal
What do you mean, you got them all right but forgot to send in your answers?
Happy New Year to all our visitors from Taiwan to the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia. For those closer to home, the club re-opens on Monday January 4th.