The Aeroflot Open which has just finished in Moscow is traditionally a strong tournament and this year was no exception. Six players had ratings over 2700 and there were more than thirty above 2600 in the 100+ field. Incredibly, in such a strong tournament, first place went to a player seeded 62, the Estonian GM Kaido Kulaots. Today is his 43rd birthday so he and Vladimir Kramnik, who recently announced his retirement from competitive chess at the same age, must feel like ships passing in the night. Kaido’s victory has not gone unnoticed and one of the first to congratulate him was Magnus Carlsen:

“Congrats to Kaido Kulaots for an absolutely amazing underdog victory at the Aeroflot Open! 19 years ago, he shared a flat with my father and me at the Gausdal tournament, and inspired an unrated 9 year old by predicting that he would one day be rated 2650.”

The tournament got off to an extraordinary start when a bomb scare early in round one forced all the players and officials to vacate the venue and wait for hours outside in the freezing conditions while the organizers decided what to do. Eventually, once the players were allowed back in it was decided to begin round one again the next day with an adjusted time control. This proved to be a stroke of luck for Kaido for he admitted afterwards that ‘my position was not up to much at that point’ . The rearranged first game became the first of his five victories and he finished it in style. In the position below it is Black to play.

White:  Parham Maghsoodloo (2666)     Black:  Kaido Kulaots (2542)

Aeroflot Open 2019

  [FEN "1r4k1/5p2/3p3p/p2P2pP/4B1P1/1r3P2/KPR4Q/4q3 w - - 0 17"]  

36… Ra3+!

So, of the six players with ELO ratings above 2700, who was the top seed? Well, it’s our old – or not so old – friend, Wei Yi who, let’s not forget, is still only 19 although he seems to have been around forever. While it was no doubt disappointing not to win, he did manage to finish fifth with his only defeat to the eventual winner in round 7. He also played a couple of trademark sparkling games such as this one played in the final round.

White:  Wei Yi  (2733)     Black:  Daniil Yuffa (2578)

Aeroflot Open 2019

         1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nc3 Bb4 4.f3 d5 5.a3 Be7 6.e4 dxe4 7.fxe4 e5 8.d5 O-O 9.Nf3 Nbd7 10.Bd3 Nc5 11.Bc2 a5 12.O-O Bg4 13.Be3 Bh5 14.h3 Ra6 15.b3 Bg6 16.Nxe5 Bxe4 17.Nxe4 Ncxe4 18.Qf3 Nc5 19.Bd4 Ncd7 20.Nxd7 Nxd7 21.b4 axb4 22.axb4 Bf6 23.Rxa6 Bxd4+ 24.Kh1 bxa6 25.Qe4 Re8 26.Qxh7+ Kf8 27.Qh8+ Ke7 28.Qh4+ Bf6 29.Re1+ Kd6 30.c5+ Nxc5 31.Qf4+ Kd7 32.Bf5+ Ne6 33.dxe6+ Ke7 34.Qg4 Kf8 35.Rd1 Qb8 36.exf7 Re5 37.Bg6 Rg5 38.Re1   

                                                                                 Photo: Dave Ewart

In 1990 the British Chess Championships were held in Eastbourne in the middle of a heatwave. Stewart Reuben began an early question and answer session with the following greeting: “Welcome to the hottest British Championships on record!”  But it was August and heatwaves are more common then than in February when the Kidlington Congress is traditionally held. The 42nd Congress took place two weeks ago and a glance at the photo of the venue above shows that players faced very different conditions and challenges even before they sat down to play chess.

Kidlington has long been a regular feature of the chess tournament calendar on the first full weekend in February. The first Kidlington Chess Tournament was held in 1978. It had two sections and offered a guaranteed minimum prize fund of £130. In its second year Exeter Hall became the venue where it has remained ever since.  In 1981 an intermediate section was added and in 2012 a fourth section for Under-120 players. The Open section serves as the second leg of the Oxfordshire Individual Championship with the County Champion being the eligible player with the highest combined score in the Open sections of the two weekend tournaments held in Oxfordshire during the season, namely the relatively new autumn congress at Witney (2018 was its sixth year) and the Kidlington tournament.

The congress is very popular: for the past two years it has played to a full capacity (192) and the maximum was reached this year with ten days to go. A waiting list was established which proved to be a good idea as the weather took its toll and there were some withdrawals but fortunately fewer than expected according to Gerard O’Reilly, lead organizer since 2012, and the total of 180 on such a weekend is still impressive. The venue is unusual: all the chess is played in one room but there is a pit in the middle housing the U180 and U145 sections while the U120 and the Open take place on the surrounding raised section. Chess Direct provided the bookstall so it was good to have a chat with Andrew Butterworth who used to be a regular fixture at the Thanet Congress. An innovation that caught the eye of this writer was the team prize. Players were invited to form teams of four from any of the sections and their final scores were combined with the prize going to the highest-scoring team.

                       Photo: Brendan O’Gorman

The Open section was small (21) but competitive and it is always satisfying when the two players in contention for first place are drawn against each other in the final round and so it proved this time. Marcus Harvey (left) had already come first equal at the ‘sister’ tournament at Witney so he had an extra incentive to win at Kidlington. Unfortunately, in his way stood (or sat) the formidable weekend specialist, Mark Hebden. However, youth prevailed, and Marcus became the Oxfordshire Individual Champion for the first time.

White:   FM Marcus Harvey (231)      Black:  GM Mark Hebden (238)

Kidlington Chess Congress 2019 

       1. Nf3 Nf6 2. b3 g6 3. Bb2 Bg7 4. e3 O-O 5. Be2 d6 6. d4 Nbd7 7. O-O e5 8. de5 Ng4 9. c4 de5 10. Nc3 f5 11. h3 Nh6 12. e4 c6 13. b4 Qe7 14. Qb3 Nf6 15. c5 Kh8 16. Bc4 Ne4 17. Ne4 fe4 18. Nd2 Bf5 19. Rae1 Qh4 20. Qg3 Qg3 21. fg3 Rad8 22. Ne4 Be4 23. Rf8 Rf8 24. Re4 Nf5 25. Be5 Be5 26. Re5 Ng3 27. Kh2 Nf5 28. g4 Nd4 29. Re7 b5 30. cb6 ab6 31. Rd7 Nf3 32. Kg2 Ne5 33. Rd4 b5 34. Bb3 g5 35. Rd6 Rf4 36. Re6 Ng6 37. Rc6 Rb4 38. Rc8 Kg7 39. Rc7 Kh6 40. Bg8 Rb2 41. Kf3 Nh4 42. Ke4 Kg6 43. Bh7 Kf6 44. Ra7 Rh2 45. Bg8 Rh3 46. Rf7 Kg6 47. Rb7 Rg3 48. Rb6 Kg7 49. Be6 Rg2 50. Ke3 Rb2 51. Kd4 Ng6 52. Rb7 Kf6 53. Bb3 Rd2 54. Ke3   

Broadstairs Chess Club is currently in a healthy position in many ways. Firstly, the club is financially sound with a secure venue that has been its home for the best part of seventy years. Secondly, results this season have been very encouraging. The club has already won the Mick Croft Cup and the Team Quickplay while all three league teams are well placed in their respective divisions: the Millar Cup team is second, the Hargreaves Shield team is top with a 100% record while the Walker Shield team is second in an increasingly tight league with several matches still to play. Finally, team spirit is good. The new players have been a magnificent addition to the club and appear to be enjoying their chess. All have made significant contributions to the club’s success as is evident from the latest ECF grades. To quote two examples, Paul Johnson’s grade has gone from 116 to 129 while Richard Clement has improved from 129 to 145. Amazing! One consequence of this influx of new players is that the internal club competitions have become extremely competitive and the end of the season promises to be very exciting. Wisely, the stronger players have largely avoided each other at this stage and appear to be circling like wild animals waiting for the other to make the first move.

The Goodall Cup, the club championship, is intriguingly poised at this half-way stage. The excellent ECFLMS site has all the results which can be viewed on a regular basis with weekly updates. A glance at the statistics (click here) shows that the leaders – if we go by highest percentage success rate and games played – at this stage are as follows:

1st        Richard Clement    100% (10 games played)

2nd=    David Faldon    100% (5)

             Arnaud Wisman 100% (5)

4th        Trefor Owens  81.82% (11)

5th        Paul Johnson  79.17% (12)

A lot can happen with 19 games to play altogether and much will depend on results when the mighty stags lock horns. In the meantime, Richard Clement is the early front-runner. Can he keep it up? Watch this space.

The situation in the knockout competition for the John Couzens Vase is similar. This is, of course, a time handicap and at the AGM it was agreed to tighten the rules this year so that the minimum time for the stronger player has now been reduced from 7½ minutes to five. This is in a two-hour game so that in such pairings the weaker player gets one hour and fifty-five minutes! The aim is to allow everyone a reasonable chance of winning the competition but it has not quite had the desired effect yet with most the big guns still firing. However, we shall see as sooner or later the stronger players may well play each other but will that allow one of the outsiders to sneak up on the inside?

There was an excellent turnout at the club last Monday with 18 of the 20 regular members playing which is another positive sign. Broadstairs has never been a large chess club and a glance at the archives bears this out.

Here we have a copy of the Goodall Cup sheet from thirty years ago. The first thing to notice is that only eight players took part – this season it is twenty – and the second is that it was an all-play-all twice competition. This was common in those days until increased membership meant that more than twenty games would have to be played. The handwriting is that of George Stiggers, long-time secretary and treasurer of the club. Note the entry fee of 10p ‘to provide funds for a prize for the winner’. Not sure when that was abolished but there is no financial reward today just the kudos of winning and your name on the trophy. Note also that ‘White in the first game to be decided by alphabetical order of names’. This was a permanent gripe of Alek Zielinski’s as he was destined forever to play all his games as Black before once playing as White. (At the time I tried to find if there was anyone on the ECF list with a name that would come after Alek’s alphabetically and there was only one, Malcolm Zukunft, who was a member of Herne Bay Chess Club, only a few miles away from Broadstairs.) Finally, look at the results: Mac Greaves won by half a point to record the eighth of his nine Goodall Cup victories, a total that was matched in 2018 by David Faldon. Will 2019 see David become the first player to win ten Goodall Cups? This could be his toughest test yet.