Blunder of the Week

Just when you thought it was safe to enter the chess club….once again, we shine the spotlight on someone’s misfortune, a player making the sort of move that makes us all think ‘There but for the grace of God go I’. This week’s example may make you feel even better because although it is a bit of a cheat in that it was not played recently, it does feature two top players, thereby proving that yes, even chess grandmasters appear human at times. The game was played in the World Senior Team Championships last year between Alexander Huzman and our own Nigel Short. Nigel was recently a candidate for presidency of FIDE but stood down at the last minute to support the successful candidate, Arkady Dvorkovich. Until recently, Nigel was the oldest player in the Top 100 but as he is currently 101 he can quite fairly claim to be the oldest player in the Top 101.  Here at Broadstairs Towers we are not entirely sure what Twitter is but we know that Nigel is a regular ‘tweeter’ or ‘twit’ or whatever the word is. After England’s fine performance at the Olympiad, he tweeted his congratulations, adding that it was a good thing he was not called upon.

The featured position is instructive because it is one where mere mortals like your correspondent would probably stare at the position for a long time watching the clock go down and eventually agree a draw even though it is clear that Black is on top. In the analysis that accompanied the position, it was suggested that White might have had a chance had he played 43. a4 b4 44. a5 Kc7 45. Ba4 Nfg5 46. Nf4. Instead he played 43. Kd1? How would you answer that? Perhaps it is obvious but if not, it is a lesson for us all not to take anything for granted. If you haven’t got it yet, try to work out Black’s reply which forced resignation before looking at the answer below.

White:   GM Alexander Huzman (2571)      Black:  GM Nigel Short  (2652)

World Senior Team Championships 2017

Black’s reply was 43…Bxd4! If 44. exd4 Nc3 is mate.

Walker Shield v Bridge (a)

                                         Broadstairs  1½         Bridge   2½                                        

1 Andy Flood (110) ½-½ William Peak (104)
2 Reg Pidduck (101) ½-½ James Smith (94)
3 Bob Cronin (101) ½-½ Graeme Boxall (93)
4 Michael Doyle (90) 0-1 Ian Redmond (80)

Reg Pidduck writes:

BOARD 2. DRAW NO 1.  James played an English which threw me from the start (I must gen up on it). We got through to a king and pawns endgame. James’s pawns were more advanced and my queenside pawns were a shambles so prudently I took the draw James offered.  Good play, James. I hope we play again. ½-½

BOARD 3.  DRAW NO 2. Bob played his Fried Liver and was in control for a while . Not sure what happened next but Graeme’s position was soon equal and although Bob was down to the sixth rank he could not break through and after many king moves each, neither could afford to back off. So a draw was agreed.  Score now 1-1

BOARD 1.  DRAW NO 3. Young William Peak looks a fine prospect as not many players in the Walker Shield can gain such an advantage over our board 1. Andy was on the ropes with only a rook against knight and bishop until he gained an advanced pawn and a draw was agreed with neither in an position to withdraw. 1½-1½

BOARD 4. NO DRAW IN THE LAST. Captain Michael could have had another draw.  He told me that had he taken a knight with a rook instead of with his king it would have been a different game. But in Michael’s words “Woe is the crestfallen as it was not to be”. So well done, Ian Redmond, and all the Bridge team for a 2½-1½ victory.

 

Where’s Alan?

This photograph was taken during or possibly after the Chess Olympiad and it shows all the tournament’s arbiters, the sheer number of which gives you an idea of what a vast event it must have been. Of particular interest to local readers is the presence of the former league chairman and Bridge Chess Club stalwart, Alan Atkinson, who was attending the Olympiad in an official capacity. But can you spot him? If you want a clearer picture before trying to work it out click here to download a higher resolution photo.   I’ll give you the answer under the photo. There was an interesting debate on the English Chess Forum as to the collective name for a group of arbiters and someone – to be fair, this was following some criticism of one or two – suggested the term ‘incompetence’! This brought about a reply from the former chairman himself who rightly described it as ‘harsh’ although he added that ‘there were the usual tales of some arbiters being useless/asleep/absent/etc’. 

Alan Atkinson is second from the left in the second main row from the bottom.

Website of the Year: the trophy (part 1)

In the summer we received the glad tidings that this site had been named Website of the Year by the ECF and in our naivete we assumed that that was that and with that we were satisfied: the kudos of winning was enough. Now imagine our surprise then when a further email was received last week asking to whom the award should be sent! And here it is….as Reg said, it is really, really nice: modern, stylish, distinctive and…er…slightly wrong.

The bad news is there is a minor error. The good news is it is not easy to spot. In fact, if I thought I’d get any takers, I might offer a year’s free membership of Broadstairs Chess Club to the first person to find it. It’s made even more difficult to see in this photo by the unintentionally cunning position of the award in relation to the lighting. Yes, if you look very closely, you will notice that the website address on the award is listed as www.broadstairschessclub.com and as all our regular visitors know, we are www.broadstairschessclub.co.uk.

A minor error like this might in some circumstances be overlooked. However, when the award is for Website of the Year and the website address listed is incorrect, it manages to be both amusing and embarrassing at the same time. Fortunately, the ECF saw the funny side, too. A replacement has been ordered and the offer to return the original was declined ‘in case you create a second, international site’. So we await the second coming and another presentation at the club. Like all awards ceremonies, this one promises to run and run.

Millar Cup v Margate (h)

                                            Broadstairs  5½         Margate 1½ 

1 David Faldon (175) 1-0    Peter McGill (149)
2 Trefor Owens (167) 1-0    John Thorley (140)
3 Shany Rezvany (163) 1-0    Colin Gregory (119)
4 Bob Page (144) ½-½    Clive Le Baigue (111)
5 Paul Carfrae (141) 1-0    Leon Garfield (101)
6 Richard Clement (128) 1-0    John Clarke (98)
7 Michael Doyle (90) 0-1    Roy McAloney (86)

David Faldon writes:

What seems a comfortable win actually wasn’t. We were 1-0 down for a long time, with several of the other games looking either dodgy or drawish. It was a relief when Shany converted his extra exchange into a win on board 3 and Bob secured a draw on board 4. All four of the remaining games went into the last half-hour when the time left on a player’s clock starts to be important. Richard was a couple of pawns up for not much compensation on board 6 and in the other three games the Margate players had much less time, so at last the situation began to look favourable. In the end we won all four games. Trefor’s game on board 2 looked the most interesting, a delicate knight versus bishop ending that is possibly a bit too long for a game of the week, with Shany’s tactical mess a close second. We’ll have to see what the webmaster decides. Well done to the team on our first Millar Cup win of the season, and congratulations to Margate on putting up such a tough fight despite the wide gap in ratings on most of the boards.