Hibernation is defined as a period when mammals spend the winter moving very little and sleeping a lot in order to save energy. Substitute ‘estivation’ for ‘hibernation’ and ‘chess players’ for ‘mammals’ and you get the general picture for most chess clubs after Easter. Not so here at Broadstairs where we have another two and a half months to go which involves several remaining matches in the club championship, three more rounds of the Summer Swiss, the semi-finals and finals of the knockout competition and the Broadstairs Blitz on July 2. If that is not enough, there is also the 49th Thanet Chess Congress to look forward to in August to which everyone is invited. Details and online booking can be found at http://www.thanetchesscongress.co.uk. Entry is free for GMs and IMs, and only £5 for U16s.
No such rest for the world’s top players who have descended upon Stavanger for the Altibox Norway Chess tournament, an all-play-all competition featuring ten of the top players in the world. Rather than list those attending, it is easier to name those of the leading thirteen who are not (Kramnik, Giri, Grischuk). To give you an idea of the standard of the tournament, Vishy Anand is the weakest player with a pathetic FIDE rating of 2760. Round 1 featured an intriguing rehearsal for November’s World Championship match between Magnus Carlsen and Fabiano Caruana, and it was the only game with a positive result.
White: Magnus Carlsen (2843) Black: Fabiano Caruana (2822)
Altibox Norway 2018 Round 1
Stavanger i
s described as the oil capital of Norway and is an attractive city well worth a visit. If your idea of a fun evening is watching Scandi noir serials on tv, you might be forgiven for thinking that Norwegians lack a sense of humour but don’t you believe it. On a visit there last year, your correspondent came across a Mexican restaurant outside which there was a sign displaying the following recommendation in perfect English: “Mexican food so authentic that Donald Trump would build a wall around it.” If a visit to the oil museum is not your cup of tea, try tracking down the dozen or so Antony Gormley statues liberally scattered around the city in the most unlikely places including one inside a shop. Meanwhile, as none of the ten stars currently appearing at the Altibox tournament has yet replied to my request for them to opt in to my updated post-GDPR privacy notice enabling me to display their photographs, here is a picture of Stavanger instead.
This week’s Game of the Week, nominated by Michael Doyle, is his demolition of Richard Bowles in the second round of the Summer Swiss. Michael is proud of the win and says of the game, ‘I haven’t seen a black blitzkrieg like that since I first played chess when Bobby Fischer torpedoed Spassky’.
White: Richard Bowles (52) Black: Michael Doyle (81)
Summer Swiss Round 2
Congratulations to the Broadstairs team that has retained the Team Buzzer shield won last year. David Faldon reports: ‘Only two teams turned up for the 2017/18 Thanet Team Buzzer Tournament so we made the best of it and played an eight-round match with each of the four Broadstairs players taking on each of the Margate players twice. The outcome was a 13-3 win for Broadstairs using a scoring system of two points for each round won. Broadstairs were represented by Nick McBride (6/8), David Faldon (6/8), Paul Carfrae (6½/8) and Richard Clement (4/8). The Margate players were Peter McGill, Colin Gregory, Leon Garfield and Cameron Plater.’
Most players would be happy to have one game included in Game of the Week but John ‘the Gullbuster’ Couzens has played two cracking games recently against strong opponents so for those who were not lucky enough to be there on the night it is only fair to share them with a wider public. First up is a tremendous win in Broadstairs’ 3½-3½ draw with Folkestone in March. The fact that John Atherton was playing on Board 5 with a grade of 163 only goes to emphasise what an impressive result this was for us and how important was JC’s victory. In the final position White resigned but was about to lose on time.
White: John Atherton (163) Black: John Couzens (116)
Millar Cup v Folkestone
This second game features our only individual win in a 4½-2½ defeat by Bridge A. John modestly dismisses this win as a consequence of 7. gxf3? when recapture with the Queen seemed a better idea. However, this ignores the skilful way he maintains and builds on his advantage and the ending is neat, White resigning as he is about to lose a rook.
White: Patrick Burns (156) Black: John Couzens (116)
Millar Cup v Bridge A
Broadstairs 3 Woodnesborough A 1
| 1 | Reg Pidduck (107) | 0-1 | Mark Towlson (90) |
| 2 | Bob Cronin(104) | 1-0 | James Gill (24) |
| 3 | Gary Hilleard (e100) | 1-0 | Daniel Watkins (23) |
| 4 | Michael Doyle (81) | 1-0 | Jacob Henderson (20) |
Reg Pidduck writes:
The real victors of this match were not Broadstairs but Ramsgate who as a result win the Walker Shield for 2018. Broadstairs needed to win 4-0 to pip Ramsgate or 3½-½ to tie on points and games won to force a play off. Ramsgate have Mark to thank for his steady and persistent play on Board 1 where twice it could have ended in repetitive moves for a draw. But Mark is not a draw player and each time carried on after finding another move without losing ground. Finally after 70 moves he found the correct ones to win. Well done, Mark, and I look forward to many more encounters with you. Because I was so wrapped up with my own game, I cannot report on the three games that we won but congratulations to Bob, Gary and Captain Michael on a great season and sorry I could not go out with a win for you. Once again, well done Ramsgate.
Editor’s note: In this typically generous report Reg’s disappointment is tangible but let’s not forget that without his marvellous win last week, even a 4-0 victory in this match would not have been enough.