Oh Capablanca

This photograph might at first glance appear to be a typical example of yet another lazy attempt to make chess more sexy. However, this is not so. The lady in the picture is Juga, a Chilean singer and keen chess player. Yes, I know what you’re thinking but read on.  She has written at least two songs on a chess theme, one of which is ‘Oh Capablanca’ which she performed at the closing ceremony of the recent Chess Olympiad. This is what she said about the song: “ ‘Oh Capablanca’ describes my emotional voyage through a twisted chess game, in which I suffered from over-optimism. Right after the game, I wrote this song to relieve my grief for losing a ‘winning’ position, which later I analyzed only to find out that it was not winning at all!  I have always been in love with chess. ‘Oh Capablanca’ was born in the middle of a classical tournament I played in Rome in December last year. It was the 5th round and I really liked my position. I was playing with White, an Exchange Variation against a Caro-Kann Defence.”  Now that must resonate with all chess players so check – excuse the pun – out her song on the link below and see what you think. There is a touch of the James Bond theme about it and personally I love the reference to consulting Stockfish after the game to learn that actually her analysis was flawed all along!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=21QpsK7LRM4

 

 

A Battle of Hastings

It’s December so what are you looking forward to? Here’s a clue – there are only 24 days to go until…..yes, you’ve got it. There are only 24 days until the Hastings Chess Congress begins. The view expressed here before is that Hastings is not quite what it was and the main reason for that is a five letter word beginning with ‘m’ and ending in ‘y’. The proximity in the chess calendar of the Tata Steel Tournament offering megabucks to all and sundry leaves Hastings with mere grandmasters while the super GMs head for Holland (Magnus Carlsen, Ding Liren and Anish Giri are already confirmed entrants). That is not to say Hastings lacks good games. One of my first visits was for the 1988/89 tournament and I arrived on the Friday afternoon ahead of the Weekend Congress to catch the final round of the Open Tournament. On the top board was 12-year old Judit Polgar playing white against GM Glenn Flear. So if you were 12, facing a grandmaster, what would you play after 1.e4 e5 ? Why, the King’s Gambit, of course!

White:  Judit Polgar      Black:  Glenn Flear

Hastings Open 1988/89

 

Walker Shield v Sheldwich P.S. (a)

                                       Broadstairs  4        Sheldwich P.S.   0                                       

1 Andy Flood (110) 1-0 Oli Garrett (76)
2 Bob Cronin (103) 1-0 Zeno Burns (58)
3 Michael Doyle (91) 1-0 Adam O’Meara (46)
4 Fredy Reber (58) 1-0 Will Horsford (44)

Michael Doyle writes:

It was a resounding success on Friday as Broadstairs won convincingly 4-0 over Sheldwich despite losing our first match at the start of the season to Bridge. It was Sheldwich’s first season in the Thanet and East Kent Chess League and although they had  four juniors they played well beyond their grades. On  board three our captain Mike was the first to finish. His opponent, Adam, had overlooked his queen en prise and was taken by the knight. A few moves later Mike checkmated with a rook and queen: 1-0. Next to win on board two was Bob C. He had his opponent’s queen trapped on move nineteen and it was all over in the few moves: 2-0.  On board four was Fredy, who won the George Stiggers Trophy for the most improved player last season. He was attacking with a knight fork and queen and it ended with a beautiful pawn mate on g5: 3-0 up.  The last game to finish on board one was Andy, our top player against ten-year-old Oli, who played like a seasoned pro. Andy was down to a rook and pawn ending and Oli was the same but in the end Andy forced his pawn to queen and we won 4-0. Well done lads and to Sheldwich juniors who put up a good fight.

      

Ju Wenjun strikes back

As I write, Game 10 in the World Championship is in progress. After nine draws, everyone is hoping for a decisive result in one of the three remaining games but at the moment the computer has the position as 0.00 which is as equal as you can get. Of course, with only three games left, an error by either player might be decisive not just in that particular game but in the contest overall. Is Carlsen prepared to wait until the tiebreaks where he may well have the edge?

So, if it is drama you are looking for, check out the Women’s World Championship instead. The other day we saw the challenger, Kateryna Lagno take a 1-0 lead in the second of the four-game final. The current World Champion, Ju Wenjun, therefore needed to win one of the two remaining games to take the match to a tiebreak. She tried desperately to win with the white pieces in Game 3 but was forced to accept a draw with an opposite colour bishop ending. That therefore left the last game played today when she would have to win with black to hold on to her crown. This is what happened.

White:  Kateryna Lagno (2556)      Black:  Ju Wenjun (2568)

 2018 FIDE Women’s World Championship Game 4

It’s worth playing through the game. To give you an idea of how games can fall apart even at the highest level, the computer had the position as dead equal after Black’s 27th move. After 28.Kh1? it had Black as winning and after 29.Qh5? it said that Black can mate in ten moves. There is a brief interview with Ju Wenjun recorded after today’s game on the official website here. The tiebreaks start tomorrow and consist of two 25 min + 10-sec increment rapid games, then if needed two additional 10+10 games, two 5+3 blitz games and finally a single Armageddon game, where White has 5 minutes to Black’s 4, but a draw counts as a win for Black.

The other World Championship

                                   Ju Wenjun

Those of you impatient for a first win for either player in the World Championship match between Carlsen and Caruana in London may be interested in the other World Championship final currently taking place in Siberia.

                               Kateryna Lagno

This is the women’s World Championship which follows a slightly different pattern to the men’s. It’s a knockout competition, initially with 64 players and we are now down to the final two: GM Ju Wenjun of China, the current World Champion, and GM Kateryna Lagno of Russia. (The world number 1, Hou Yifan, a favourite of Broadstairs Chess Club, is currently taking time out of chess to pursue a course at Oxford University.) Those people looking for gender equality in prize money should look away now – while the winner in the men’s competition will walk away with one million euros, the entire prize fund for the women’s tournament is $450,000 with the winner getting a mere $60,000. It must be worth an invite to the 50th Thanet Congress next August. Incidentally, the topic of women (or lack of) in chess is discussed in a Guardian article (click here.)   

One last difference between the finals is the length: while Carlsen and Caruana are battling it out for twelve games + the possibility of tie breaks (rapid plays, blitz games and eventually armageddon), the women will only have four classic games + tie breaks if necessary. In such a short final, there is little margin for error as Ju Wenjun found out in Game 2 played today. No rest days for the women – Game 3 is tomorrow and Game 4 if needed on Thursday.

White:  Kateryna Lagno (2556)      Black:  Ju Wenjun (2568)

 2018 FIDE Women’s World Championship Game 2