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British Championships in Scarborough
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John Henderson Reports on the British Championships in Scarborough Round 7 Monday 6th August 2001 YOUNG AT HEART
LET’S here it for that unbelievable septuagenarian Viktor Korchnoi, who single-handedly is doing his bit to show that playing chess can ward off Alzheimer’s. Madness, yes. Alzheimer’s, no. The venerable Viktor’s done it again. The oldest swinger in town has given himself a belated 70th birthday present as he notched-up his 47th major tournament win with a first place at Biel. Apparently he ascribes his continued strength to the ability to fight he developed in order to survive, the high quality of life in Switzerland, and his daily breakfast on caviar. In Scotland, we’ve got more of a chance of producing a Victor Meldrew rather than a Viktor Korchnoi: We’ve got a low quality of life (top of the world rankings for coronary care and cancer!), thanks mainly to the national daily breakfast of a full fry-up with chips. We need to go back to good old Manny Lasker in 1936 for the last time we really celebrated the achievements of a senior citizen. These days we’re more usually celebrating the chess achievements of some kiddie who can barely reach over to their own fourth rank let alone the other end of the board. Take my tip when playing them: use the Hedgehog – they don’t like that! Chess is like that. It’s one of those activities of humankind that does seem to lend itself to the child prodigy, rather like maths and music. Without getting my flipcharts and slide-rule out to give you a detailed statistical analysis, it seems that it is the rule rather than the exception for top players to develop great playing strength very early. In fact, if things keep on going at the pace they are, I’m sure we’re going to hear of a foetus that’s somehow managed to achieve a GM norm shortly – probably in Myanmar. As I said in one of the earlier reports (I forget which one – I think Alzheimer’s maybe setting in!), here in Britain we leave all the calculations of this sort to another sprightful (I do hope I got the correct spelling here) septuagenarian: Leonard Barden, the guy that can predict the Elo of a baby in the womb. He’s got a good track record, has our Len. This is the guy that was raving about a certain Garry Kasparov a year before the rest of the world “discovered” him in 1976. He’s talent-spotted just about all of the country’s best talents including the likes of Nigel Short and Mickey Adams before their respective parents had finished shopping in Mothercare. Len’s latest wunderkind (discovered at the age of six) is ten-year-old David Howell from Seaford, Sussex.
After hitting the headlines at the tender age of eight when he smashed up GM John Nunn in a Blitz game (the Doc just loves it when people like myself keep on pointing this out!), last year young master Howell became the youngest-ever player in the world to qualify for a national Championship. When I arrived in Scarborough almost ten-days ago I was searching high and low (well, low anyway) for young David, and was surprised to see he wasn’t playing this year in the British Championships. Turns out that he hoped to play in the tournament, but after he narrowly missed qualifying this year his parents opted instead to head for France for some chess. A few days after they had made all the travel arrangements, he was after all offered a place in the Championships. Wisely, the Howells decided to opt for the good life in France. And, according to the latest press release sent to me by Len, he’s not regretted one bit missing out in the British. Playing at the Creon Open near Bordeaux, it looks as if the mini maestro has scored probably the best international result for a ten-year-old with a Fide performance of nearly 2400. Howell defeated three unrated opponents and held his own with 3/6 against the others, who all hold Fide titles. Before heading for the Creon Open, he drew with GM Marc Santo-Roman at Montpellier and defeated IM Jean-Pierre Boudre at Saint-Affrique. The last game smashing Luke McShane’s 1994 UK record for the youngest win against an IM in a Fide competition. David Howell’s record run: Saint-Affrique Creon Open WGM G Olarasu (2312) – D Howell (2170) [D73] Creon Open (5) 1 d4 Nf6 2 Nf3 g6 3 c4 Bg7 4 Nc3 d5 5 g3 0–0 6 Bg2 c5 7 dxc5 dxc4 8 Qa4 Nd5 9 Qxc4 Nxc3 10 bxc3 Be6 11 Qb4 Nc6 12 Qa3 Qa5 13 Qxa5 Nxa5 14 Nd4 Rac8 15 Nxe6 fxe6 16 0–0 Bxc3 17 Bh6 Bxa1 18 Bxf8 Kxf8 19 Rxa1 Rxc5 20 Be4 Kf7 21 Rd1 Rc4
22 f3 Ra4 23 Rd2 Nc4 24 Rd4 b5 25 Bc6 a6 26 Rf4+ Kg7 27 Re4 Kf6 28 Rf4+ Kg7 29 Re4 e5 30 Bd5 Kf6 31 f4 Nb6 32 fxe5+ Kf5 33 Rxa4 Nxa4 34 Bg8 h6 35 Bb3 Nc3 36 Kf2 Kxe5 37 Ke3 Nd5+ 38 Kd3 g5 39 a3 Nf6 40 e3 Ng4 41 h4 Nf2+ 42 Ke2 Ne4 43 hxg5 hxg5 44 g4 a5 45 Bc2 b4 46 a4 Nc5 47 Kd2 b3 48 Bd1 Ke4 0–1 Thanks to some generous financial help from local Sussex computer firm Jeb Hove, Howell was able to employ the services of GM Glenn Flear as his trainer whilst in France. According to Barden, “David has made a quantum leap to near master strength. It’s realistic now for him to target the youngest ever IM norm record, achieved at age 11 by two Hungarians including Judit Polgar, and the youngest IM title at age 12.”
So there you have it: catch them young if you want them to be good at chess. However, I know for a fact that that wasn't the case with the Scot who now finds himself out in the lead at the British Championships: Kilmarnock's one and only, John Shaw. Such has been his progress at the game since he took it up seriously, I shudder to think what would have happened had John learned how to play at six. Scotland may have had a world title contender. Unlike young Mr. Howell, John was a very late starter in the game, which gives us all hope. He was almost 15-years-old when he learned the game. Of course, when he got to university he soon discovered all this free time on his hands and suddenly found his game coming on in leaps and bounds. I well remember him telling me that he thought he’d finally made it in chess when he managed to get a rating of 2000 - when he was about nineteen! He’s what we’d most definitely call a “late starter”. He may be young at heart, but to make it to the top these days its practically unheard of if someone starts out in chess so late in life as John did. He struggled (boy did he struggle) to finally get his IM title just over two years ago. Achieving his first GM norm has proved just as hard. He missed out by a half point at the recent Istanbul Olympiad and Groningen 1999. He also missed out by a point in the last two Cappelle-la-Grande tournaments. Now, visually looking closer to Korchnoi’s age than Howell’s, it finally looks as if he’s going to get a GM norm in this tournament to set him on the road to becoming Scotland’s fourth grandmaster. I only hope he manages to achieve it before he’s issued with his senior citizen bus pass!
Shaw,J - Ward,C [B52] 1 e4 c5 2 Nf3 d6 3 Bb5+ The Moscow Variation: Kasparov used this in his match against The World. A decision I found at the time to be surprising: having lost to Ivanchuk a year or two earlier, Gazza stated, "White only plays 3 Bb5+ when he wants a draw." Little did we know that there was also a complicated side to this system shown in the aforementioned Kasparov vs. The World. 3 ..Bd7 The safe, but boring line. If black wants to live on the dangerous side, then 3 ..Nd7 is the choice. It also got the big thumbs up as the recommendation of Joe Gallagher in his excellent book Beating the Anti-Sicilians. 4 Bxd7+ Qxd7 5 c4 Nc6 Snatching the pawn is long-known to be risky: 5 ..Qg4?! 6 0–0 Qxe4 7 d4 cxd4 8 Nxd4 Nf6 9 Re1 Qg4 10 Qa4+ Qd7 11 Nb5 Nc6 12 N1c3 e5 13 Bg5 Be7 14 Rad1 0–0 15 Bxf6 gxf6 16 c5 a6 17 Nxd6 Qe6 18 Nxb7 Rfb8 19 Nd6 Nd8 20 Re3 Nb7 21 Qh4 f5 22 Qg3+ Kf8 23 Rxe5 1–0 Aagaard,J-Josephsen,N/DEN 1995. 6 Nc3 Ne5 Chris has played this a number of times now; I well recall an interesting struggle he had against Marusenko at the Isle of Man a few years ago. 7 d4 There's also an underrated sideline to this variation that's certainly worthy of further investigation: 7 Nxe5!? dxe5 8 0–0 e6 9 Qh5! Bd6 10 d3 0–0–0 11 Be3 g6 12 Qe2 f5 13 b4 cxb4 14 Nb5 Bb8 15 exf5 exf5 16 Bxa7 Qe6 17 d4 Bxa7 18 Nxa7+ Kb8 19 d5 Qf6 20 Nb5 Ne7 21 Qb2 f4 22 Qxb4 Nc8 23 Rab1 Qf7 24 Rb3 Qd7 25 Rfb1 e4 26 Nd4 Nd6 27 c5 1–0 Fuksik,J-Blazkova,P/CZE 1997. 7 ..Nxf3+ This capture perhaps gives white too much of an attack. More stable is first capturing on d4: 7 ..cxd4!? 8 Qxd4 Nc6 9 Qd2 Nf6 10 0–0 g6 11 b3 Bg7 12 Bb2 0–0 13 Rfe1 Qg4 (13 ..Ng4 14 Rad1 Rad8 15 h3 Nge5 16 Nh2 Nb4 17 Qe2 g5 18 Nd5 Nxd5 19 exd5 Rfe8 20 Bc1² Belikov,V-Golubev,M/Moscow 1996;CBM55 ) 14 h3 Qc8 15 Nd5 Nd7 16 Bxg7 Kxg7 17 Nd4 Re8 18 Rad1 Nxd4 19 Qxd4+ f6 20 Re3 Qc6 21 h4 Rac8 22 h5 Qc5 23 Qd2 Ne5 24 Rg3 g5 25 Kh1 Kf7 26 Qe2 Rg8 27 Ne3 e6 28 Kg1 Ke7 29 Ng4 Nxg4 30 Qxg4 Qe5 31 Re3 Qf4 32 Qe2 Rc6 33 Rd5 g4 34 g3 Qh6 35 Qd2 Rd8 36 Qb4 b6 37 Qa4 Rc7 38 Rb5 e5 39 Rd5 Qxh5 0–1 (74) Marusenko,P-Ward,C/Port Erin 1999. Again taking the pawn only leads to trouble: 7 ..Nxc4?! 8 dxc5 dxc5 9 Qe2! and black is seriously lagging in development. 8 gxf3 cxd4 9 Qxd4 e6 10 Be3 Ne7 11 0–0–0 Nc6 12 Qd2 Ne5
12 ..Rd8 13 Rhg1 Qc8 14 f4 g6 15 Kb1 Be7 16 Qe2 0–0 17 h4 Na5 18 h5 Bf6 19 Bd4 Bxd4 20 Rxd4 Qc5 21 Rdd1 Nxc4 22 Rg5 Qb4 23 Ka1 a6 24 f5 Rc8 25 hxg6 fxg6 26 fxg6 h6 27 Rg3 Kg7 28 Rh1 Qb6 29 Rg2 Qb4 30 Rh3 Rf6 31 Rxh6 Rc5 32 Rh7+ Kg8 33 Rf7 1–0 (62) Rublevsky,S-Becerra Rivero,J/Luzern 1997/CBM. 13 Qe2 Qc6 14 b3 Be7 15 Rhg1 0–0 16 f4 Nd7 17 f5! The doubled f-pawns shatter black's game. He'd really like to put the knight back on the superb outpost of e5, trouble is that white has a second bite at the cherry with another f4 to continue the attack. 17 ..Bf6 18 Bd4 e5 19 Be3 b5?! Black's in dire straits - this is the only way to generate activity. If he doesn't play it, white will have so many weak points to concentrate on: d6, g7 etc. 20 Nxb5 Qxe4 21 Nxd6 Qc6 22 Qg4!
Threatening to crash through with Bh6, a move that forces black to exchange queens. 22 ..e4 23 Nxe4 Ne5 24 Nxf6+ Qxf6 25 Qg5 Qxg5 26 Rxg5 f6 27 Rg3 Rf7 28 Bf4 Nc6 29 Rgd3 Not only is white two pawns up, he's also got an overwhelming position with the better pieces. 29 ..Re7 30 Re3 Kf7 31 Rd6 Rc8 32 Kb2 Rb7 33 Red3 Ke8 34 Rh3 Ne7 35 Kc3!
White doesn't want the specter of black activating his rooks with a Rxc4. The black a-pawn is doomed anyway. 35 ..Nxf5 36 Ra6 h6 37 Rd3 Kf7 38 Rd5 Ne7 39 Rda5 Nc6 40 Rc5 Ne7 41 Rxc8 Nxc8 42 c5 The rest is simply good, winning technique. 42 ..g5 43 Be3 Kg6 44 Bd4 Rf7 45 Kc4 g4 46 b4 Kg5 47 Be3+ Kg6 48 b5 h5 49 Rc6 Ne7 50 Rc7 Nf5 51 Rxf7 Kxf7 52 b6 axb6 53 cxb6 Ke6 54 Bc5 Kd7 55 Kb5 h4 56 b7 1–0
Gormally,D (2481) - Wells,P (2510) [E54] 1 d4 Nf6 2 c4 e6 3 Nc3 Bb4 4 e3 0–0 5 Bd3 d5 6 Nf3 c5 7 0–0 cxd4 8 exd4 dxc4 9 Bxc4 A standard IQP position that can be transposed to from three different openings: Caro-Kann, Queen's Gambit and Nimzo-Indian. 9 ..b6 10 Bg5 Bb7 11 Re1 Nbd7 12 Rc1 Rc8 13 Qb3 Bxc3! This is where Kasparov went disastrously wrong against Kramnik in their BGN match last year in London: 13 ..Be7?! 14 Bxf6 Nxf6 15 Bxe6 fxe6 16 Qxe6+ Kh8 17 Qxe7 Bxf3 18 gxf3 Qxd4 19 Nb5 Qxb2 20 Rxc8 Rxc8 21 Nd6 Rb8 22 Nf7+ Kg8 23 Qe6 Rf8 24 Nd8+ Kh8 25 Qe7 1–0 Kramnik,V-Kasparov,G/London ENG 2000/The Week in Chess 312. 14 Rxc3 h6 15 Bh4 Qe8!
An important move in a critical position. The idea is simple: exchange of part of the bishop pair. Subsidiary ideas include the control of the square in front of the 'isolani' and the possibility that the h4 bishop is not so great. In other words, there are scenarios in which black can have ambitions too. 16 Qa3N Planning tricks with an eventual Be7 picking up the exchange. Wells now has to play very, very precisely. Luckily this is a Wells trait: 16 Bb5 Rxc3 17 bxc3 a6 18 Bf1 Qa8 19 Ne5 Nxe5 20 Rxe5 Nd5 21 c4 Nf4 22 Bg3 Ng6 23 Re1 b5 24 c5 Bd5 25 Qc3 Ne7 26 Bd6 Re8 27 Bxe7 Rxe7 28 Qa5 Bc6 29 f3 Rd7 30 Rd1 e5 (50) 0-1 Aagaard,J-Kumaran,D/London 1997/CBM 60; 16 Ne5 Nxe5 17 dxe5 Ne4 18 Rc2 Qc6 19 f3 ½–½ Rowson,J-Wells,P/York ENG 2000. 16 ..a6 White has too many active pieces to even consider taking on f3: 16 ..Bxf3? 17 gxf3 a5 18 d5! 17 Ne5 Nxe5 18 dxe5 Ne4 19 Rxe4! Bxe4 20 Be7 Qd7! 21 Qd6 21 Bd6? b5 22 Bxf8 Rxc4 23 Bd6 b4!! wins due to the back-rank mate. 21 ..Qa4! 22 Bb3 Qb5! 23 Bxf8 Rxc3 24 bxc3 Qe2!
A highly unusual way to force the draw. White may be a piece up, but he does have to defend his own back-rank. A very interesting draw from both players. 25 Qd1 25 Bc4 Qxc4 26 Qd8 Bd5 and any discovered check is harmless: black simply wins the ending as the a2, c3 and e5 pawns are all weak; 25 h3?? Qe1+ 26 Kh2 Qxf2 mates. 25 ..Qxd1+ 26 Bxd1 Kxf8 27 Be2 a5 ½–½
Palliser,R (2337) - Miles,T (2565) [B03] 1 e4 Nf6 Again Miles changes defences to e4 by returning to the Alekhine. 2 e5 Nd5 3 c4 Nb6 4 d4 d6 5 exd6 exd6 6 Nc3 Nc6 7 Nf3 7 Be3 Be7 8 b3 0–0 9 Be2 Re8 10 Nf3 Bg4 11 0–0 d5 12 c5 Nc8 13 h3 Bf5 14 a3 Bf6 15 b4 h6 16 Qb3 N8e7 17 Rad1 a6 18 Rfe1 Qd7 19 Bf4 Be6 20 b5 Na5 21 Qb4 axb5 22 Bxb5 c6 23 Bf1 Nc4 24 Na4 Ng6 25 Bg3 Bd8 26 Bxc4 Ba5 27 Nb6 Bxb4 28 Nxd7 Bxe1 29 Nb6 Rxa3 30 Rxe1 dxc4 31 Nxc4 Rb3 32 Nd6 Ra8 33 Nd2 Rb4 34 f4 Ne7 35 Bf2 Nf5 36 Nxf5 Bxf5 0–1 Trent,L-Miles,T/Scarborough 2001. 7 ..Be7 There is an alternative: 7 ..Bg4 8 Be3 (8 Be2 Be7 9 d5 Bxf3 10 Bxf3 Ne5 11 Be2 0–0 12 b3 Bf6 13 Bb2 a5 14 0–0 Re8 15 Qd2 Ned7 16 Rad1 Nc5 17 Qc2 g6 18 Rfe1 Bg7 19 Bf1 Qd7 20 Nb5 f5 21 g3 Qf7 22 a3 Re7 23 Rxe7 Qxe7 24 Bxg7 Qxg7 25 Re1 Kh8 26 Bg2 Rc8 27 b4 axb4 28 axb4 Na6 29 Qb3 Nd7= Emms-Baburin, Isle of Man 1997.) 8 ..Be7 9 h3 Bh5 10 Rc1 0–0 11 b3 Re8 12 g4 Bh4 13 Qd2 Bg6 14 Bg2 Bf6 15 0–0 h6 16 Ne2 d5 17 c5 Nd7 18 b4 a6 19 Ng3 Nf8 20 Qc3 Ne6 ½–½ Zhang Zhong-Miles,A/Szeged 1997/CBM 62. 8 d5 Ne5 9 Nxe5 dxe5 10 Be2 10 Be3 Nd7 11 Bd3 0–0 12 Qc2 g6 13 0–0 f5 14 f3 c5 15 dxc6 bxc6 16 Rad1 Bc5 17 Bxc5 Nxc5 18 Rfe1 Qc7 19 b4 Nxd3 20 Qxd3 Qb6+ 21 c5 Qxb4 22 Rxe5 a5 23 Rb1 Ba6 24 Rxb4 Bxd3 25 Rb6 Ra6 26 Re7 Rf7 27 Rxf7 Kxf7 28 Rxa6 Bxa6 29 f4 g5 30 g3 Kg6 31 Nd1 gxf4 32 gxf4 Kh5 33 h3 Kh4 34 Kg2 Bc4 35 a3 Bd5+ 36 Kh2 Bf3 37 Ne3 Be4 38 Nc4 a4 39 Ne3 h6 40 Nc4 Bd3 41 Ne5 Be4 42 Nf7 Kh5 43 Kg3 Kg6 44 Nd6 Kh5 45 Kf2 Bc2 46 Kg3 Be4 47 Nc8 Bd3 48 Ne7 Be4 49 h4 Bh1 50 Nxf5 Kg6 51 Nd4 Be4 52 Kg4 1–0 Petrosian,S-Pajeken,W/Hamburg 1999/CBM 68 ext. 10 ..0–0 11 0–0 f5 12 Be3!? f4 13 Bxb6 axb6 14 Ne4 Bc5! 15 Nxc5 bxc5 16 Bg4 Bxg4 17 Qxg4 f3
A big decision for Miles, which took him about 50 minutes on the clock. Black has to decide if he can press on without risking defeat. 18 Rfe1 Ra6! Nicely traversing the rook into the fray across to either g6 or h6. Taking on g2 gives white the advantage: 18 ..fxg2 19 Rxe5 Ra6 20 Re6! Rxe6 21 Qxe6+ Kh8 22 Re1 Qh4 23 Qf7!! 19 g3! Rg6 20 Qh3 White has to be careful: 20 Qe4?! Qd7 21 Re3 Rf4! 22 Qd3 Rd4 23 Qf1 (23 Qa3 Ra6! 24 Qxc5 e4 25 Kf1 Rxa2!!) 23 ..e4 24 Rae1 Qf5 and white's in a knot: there's no way to unravel from this. 20 ..Qg5 20 ..Rh6! 21 Qg4! (21 Qf1 Qg5 with strong pressure against the white king.) 21 ..Rf4 22 gxf4 Rg6 23 Qxg6 hxg6 24 Re3 e4! 25 Kh1 Qh4 26 Rf1 Qxf4 winning. 21 Re4 Qd2 22 Rae1 Qxb2 23 Rxe5 h6 24 Qd7 Qxa2
25 Re8 Understandably, white wants to avoid any cheapos, so finds a way to exchange queens - but in the process he missed a golden opportunity: 25 Qxc7! Qxc4 26 d6 Qd4 27 d7 Rd6 28 Re7! and the deadly threat of Rxg7 is unstoppable. 25 ..Rgf6 26 R8e7 R6f7 27 Qe6 Qd2 28 h4 28 Rxc7 Qxe1+ 29 Qxe1 Rxc7 30 Qe6+ Rff7 31 d6 Rcd7 32 Qd5 Kh7= eventually black will round up the d-pawn. 28 ..Kh7! 29 Qe4+ Kh8 30 Rxf7 Rxf7 31 Re3 Qd1+ 32 Re1 Qa4 33 Re3 Qa1+ 34 Kh2 Qf6 35 Qe6 Kg8 36 Qxf6 Rxf6 37 g4 Rf4 38 Kg3 Rxc4 39 Re7 b5 40 Rxc7 Kf8 41 d6 Ke8 42 Rxg7 b4 43 Rb7 Rd4 44 g5 Rxd6 ½–½ You can contact John Henderson at: jbhthescots@cableinet.co.uk The views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of TWIC, Chess & Bridge Ltd or the London Chess Center. |
