St Albans Chess Congress

Photo courtesy of Brendan O’Gorman

And so to St Albans which has been something of a pilgrimage for this writer over the years. A combination of spring sunshine and lakeside walks in a city of historical significance forms an attractive background to a chess congress. ‘Pilgrimage’ is an appropriate word to use as part of the city’s importance is its religious history. St Alban was the first British martyr, executed in the 3rd or 4th century for sheltering a Christian priest from the Romans, and St Albans Cathedral now stands near the believed site of his execution.  The Romans had named the settlement Verulamium and its significance continued through Anglo-Saxon and medieval times. The Wars of the Roses began with the Battle of St Albans in 1455 and a second battle was fought there six years later.

The chess congress is in its 37th year. Its former home was St Albans School situated in the town centre – St Albans feels too small to be called a city – which was ideal for the shops, pubs and bookies (the congress invariably seems to coincide with the Grand National) but less convenient for car parking.  The current venue, St Columba’s College, is a longer walk from the centre but car parking is not a problem. The walk around the lake in Verulamium Park is a pleasant one where herons can be found nesting at this time of year and RSPB volunteers offer their ‘scopes’ for viewing.  The congress is always popular. Easy access from London and the timing of the congress during the Easter school holidays traditionally guarantees around 200 players of all ages. This year saw a record turnout of 250 and the online entry was closed a few days early. One of the unlucky ones who ‘missed the cut’ was Toby Stock, formally of this parish, who turned up nevertheless hoping in vain for a late withdrawal. Another former Broadstairs member, Oliver Finnegan, who did make the list probably wished he hadn’t bothered as despite being graded near the top of the Major, he lost two of his first three games and promptly withdrew.

The congress is run by St Albans Chess Club and it’s not clear who is in charge as there always seems to be an army of volunteers. Ray Claret and Terry Douse are two and Michael Flatt and Tony Corfe were the arbiters. Two is probably the minimum required in a hall with 250 players (see the above photo).  Fortunately for them, everything seemed to run smoothly this year with a couple of clock problems and a minor injury appearing to be the only hiccups. Prize money totalled £3,400 and this was increased on the day to take into account the strong turnout. Consequently, five extra prizes were awarded to the ‘lucky losers’ – those who just missed out on a prize in each of the five sections.

The Open had an impressive lineup, headed by GM Chris Ward and IMs Richard Pert, Richard Bates (last year’s winner), and the latest chess wunderkind, ten year old Shreyas Royal, who already has an ECF grade of 186. All were muscled out of the way by the eventual winner, John Merriman, of the Drunken Knights, who may not be quite so drunk in the immediate future as they have just been turfed out of the pub that has been their home for 29 years. Merriman defeated Bates in the last round to finish on 4½/5 while Ward and Pert drew. Full results can be found here and click here for more of Brendan O’Gorman’s photographs of the congress.

 

England win silver medal

Congratulations to the England team on achieving a silver medal in the World Team Championship which concluded in Astana today. With two rounds remaining, there were hopes of a gold medal but while Russia maintained their position in first place with a win over Sweden, England lost 3-1 to China so a silver was the best we could hope for. That still depended on results in the final round and what drama there was….England were in third place on board points going into their last match but faced potentially easier opponents in Sweden whereas India had to play Russia. A win for England would secure second place unless India beat the hitherto unbeaten Russians.

First to finish for England was David Howell who had an excellent tournament, winning and drawing four and losing only to our good friend Wei Yi in the penultimate round. Howell gained a small advantage early on and built on that. After 39…e4?, while the game was already lost, Howell now had mate in 7 but after 40. Bxg7 Kg8?? it was mate in one which I guess you don’t often see at the top level.

White:   David Howell (2693)     Black:  Axel Smith (2487)

World Team Championship 2019 

              GM Gawain Jones

Michael Adams finished on 3½/9, disappointing by his standards but he was after all on board 1 and therefore always playing the strongest opponents. His game was level for a long time but after 32…e5 he was ‘much better’ and six moves later he was ‘winning’ and he duly won after 47 moves. Gawain Jones on board 4, like Howell also had a very successful tournament with only one defeat in the match against India. He was ahead from an early stage in his game today and the way he converted a slight advantage of an extra pawn but with opposite coloured bishops into a winning position is a lesson to us all.

White:   Linus Johansson (2479)     Black:  Gawain Jones (2681)

World Team Championship 2019 

        GM Luke McShane: unbeaten

On board 2 Luke McShane had an excellent tournament, finishing unbeaten with three wins and six draws. His final game was equal for a long time, especially after most of the major pieces were exchanged. In the final position he was ahead but a draw was sufficient once a 3-0 lead was established and a win for England confirmed. What was especially impressive was that McShane had made the long journey to Kazakhstan from Germany where he had recently been playing in the Bundesliga. After Round 4 he gave an interview to the tournament organisers in which he explained how much he was looking forward to the rest day!

McShane’s draw gave England a convincing 3½-½ victory but second place was not yet confirmed. After draws on boards 1,2 and 4, India needed to win their last game to beat Russia. No doubt it would be doubly satisfying for Jones if Alexander Grischuk could hold out for at least a draw because his opponent was S.P.Sethuraman, who beat Jones in the England-India match. Having won a pawn early on, Grischuk appeared to be in a strong position. As the clock ticked away, however, he seemed to be making little progress but a draw would be enough for England. He then sacrificed his extra pawn and after 60…Re7 he was winning.  As with the other games, converting a winning position into victory was a masterclass in endgame play and Sethuraman resigned after 85 moves. Defeat for India was doubly disappointing as a win for China enabled them to overtake India and so the team which had hopes of a silver medal with one board to go could only finish fourth. One suspects that the entire English team must have queued up to shake Grischuk by the hand.

White:   Alexander Grischuk (2771)     Black:  S.P.Sethuraman (2637)

World Team Championship 2019 

A silver medal in the World Team Championship is a tremendous achievement for England and it is to be hoped that it is given the acknowledgement it deserves. Apart from the players – and that includes Jon Speelman as reserve – Malcolm Pein, who has done so much for British chess in recent years with the emergence of the London Chess Classic and the Chess in Schools and Communities initiative, deserves enormous credit for managing to raise so strong a team in such a short space of time. During the tournament he gave an interview to the organisers in which he touched on the difficulties England faced.

Once again, congratulations to all involved and it will be interesting to see what publicity England’s performance receives and whether it has any effect on promoting chess in this country and, most important of all, gaining financial support.

Stop Press: England also won three individual medals – McShane Gold, Howell Silver and Jones Bronze. Well done, indeed!

 

World Team Championship

The FIDE World Team Championship which began on Tuesday is a 10-team round-robin tournament that takes place every two years. This time it is being held in Astana, the capital of Kazakhstan. The teams participating represent – as I understand it – ‘the ten countries whose chess federations dominate their continent’. However, as this information was gleaned from Wikipedia, I am in no position to guarantee its accuracy, especially as there does not appear to be a representative from South America. It is possible that a team was invited and declined to take part as top players may already be contracted to play elsewhere. This was the case with Poland, bronze medallists in 2017, who chose not to play as the date was confirmed too late for some of their players. Other teams who agreed to take part are not at full strength for the same reason e.g. India are without Anand and the US team is at best a B team with no Caruana, Nakamura, So or Shankland. The English representation is a strong one: Adams, McShane, Howell, Jones and Speelman with Malcolm Pein as captain. Matches take place on four boards, with two match points for a win and one for a draw.

After five rounds England are handily placed in third behind Russia and India, both of whom they have played and drawn 2-2 as they did with the USA who are in fifth place.  Russia, who are now the favourites to win, still have to play India (in the final round) and the USA while England’s toughest match is against China in Round 8. China, who won the tournament in 2015 and 2017, were probable pre-tournament favourites, especially with a team featuring Ding Liren, Yu Yangyi and Wei Yi, but defeats to Russia and the USA leave them in sixth place.  English scores at the half-way stage are Adams 1½/5, McShane 3½/5, Howell 3/5 and Jones 3/5. Today is a rest day and the tournament resumes tomorrow (Monday) and finishes on Thursday.

The American victory over China was a major surprise considering the relative strength of the two teams and with three of the four boards drawn, the match-winning result was the victory for Aleksandr Lenderman on board 4 over Ni Hua. The key move was 29….f6! but even after White was forced to give up a knight, the game still had to be won. Lenderman, however, kept his cool to secure a famous win for the USA and probably scupper China’s chances of a hat-trick of World Team gold medals.

White:   Ni Hua (2683)     Black:  Aleksandr Lenderman (2637)

World Team Championship 2019 

 

Aeroflot Open

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

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

Kidlington Chess Congress

                                                                                 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