Club news

Broadstairs Chess Club is currently in a healthy position in many ways. Firstly, the club is financially sound with a secure venue that has been its home for the best part of seventy years. Secondly, results this season have been very encouraging. The club has already won the Mick Croft Cup and the Team Quickplay while all three league teams are well placed in their respective divisions: the Millar Cup team is second, the Hargreaves Shield team is top with a 100% record while the Walker Shield team is second in an increasingly tight league with several matches still to play. Finally, team spirit is good. The new players have been a magnificent addition to the club and appear to be enjoying their chess. All have made significant contributions to the club’s success as is evident from the latest ECF grades. To quote two examples, Paul Johnson’s grade has gone from 116 to 129 while Richard Clement has improved from 129 to 145. Amazing! One consequence of this influx of new players is that the internal club competitions have become extremely competitive and the end of the season promises to be very exciting. Wisely, the stronger players have largely avoided each other at this stage and appear to be circling like wild animals waiting for the other to make the first move.

The Goodall Cup, the club championship, is intriguingly poised at this half-way stage. The excellent ECFLMS site has all the results which can be viewed on a regular basis with weekly updates. A glance at the statistics (click here) shows that the leaders – if we go by highest percentage success rate and games played – at this stage are as follows:

1st        Richard Clement    100% (10 games played)

2nd=    David Faldon    100% (5)

             Arnaud Wisman 100% (5)

4th        Trefor Owens  81.82% (11)

5th        Paul Johnson  79.17% (12)

A lot can happen with 19 games to play altogether and much will depend on results when the mighty stags lock horns. In the meantime, Richard Clement is the early front-runner. Can he keep it up? Watch this space.

The situation in the knockout competition for the John Couzens Vase is similar. This is, of course, a time handicap and at the AGM it was agreed to tighten the rules this year so that the minimum time for the stronger player has now been reduced from 7½ minutes to five. This is in a two-hour game so that in such pairings the weaker player gets one hour and fifty-five minutes! The aim is to allow everyone a reasonable chance of winning the competition but it has not quite had the desired effect yet with most the big guns still firing. However, we shall see as sooner or later the stronger players may well play each other but will that allow one of the outsiders to sneak up on the inside?

There was an excellent turnout at the club last Monday with 18 of the 20 regular members playing which is another positive sign. Broadstairs has never been a large chess club and a glance at the archives bears this out.

Here we have a copy of the Goodall Cup sheet from thirty years ago. The first thing to notice is that only eight players took part – this season it is twenty – and the second is that it was an all-play-all twice competition. This was common in those days until increased membership meant that more than twenty games would have to be played. The handwriting is that of George Stiggers, long-time secretary and treasurer of the club. Note the entry fee of 10p ‘to provide funds for a prize for the winner’. Not sure when that was abolished but there is no financial reward today just the kudos of winning and your name on the trophy. Note also that ‘White in the first game to be decided by alphabetical order of names’. This was a permanent gripe of Alek Zielinski’s as he was destined forever to play all his games as Black before once playing as White. (At the time I tried to find if there was anyone on the ECF list with a name that would come after Alek’s alphabetically and there was only one, Malcolm Zukunft, who was a member of Herne Bay Chess Club, only a few miles away from Broadstairs.) Finally, look at the results: Mac Greaves won by half a point to record the eighth of his nine Goodall Cup victories, a total that was matched in 2018 by David Faldon. Will 2019 see David become the first player to win ten Goodall Cups? This could be his toughest test yet.

Brits in Gibraltar

                         GM David Howell

With over 90 grandmasters in the field, the Gibraltar Masters which has just concluded was never going to be a stroll for anyone and choosing a winner was probably like doing the same in the Grand National. For those wondering why Lev Aronian, Wesley So, Hikaru Nakamura and Maxime Vachier-Lagrave were not at Wijk aan Zee, here is your answer: they were in Gibraltar and not having an easy time of it either. While it would be churlish not to acknowledge the winner, the Russian GM Vladislav Artemiev on 8½/10, it should be noted that So, MVL and Nakamura finished 11th, 13th and 16th respectively on 7/10 while Aronian finished 24th on 6½/10. The three leading British players performed with great credit in such a strong field: Michael Adams came 14th with 7/10 and Gawain Jones 32nd on 6½/10 but the star of the show as far as the Brits were concerned was David Howell who finished an excellent 4th with 7½/10. He lost only one game – of which more anon – and in the last two rounds drew with Nakamura (world number 16) and beat Aronian, the world number 10 and World Championship semi-finalist with time to spare.

White:  Lev Aronian (2767)      Black:  David Howell (2685)

Gibraltar International Chess Festival 2019

This was probably Howell’s most notable victory since he beat your correspondent aged seven – Howell not me – with a Marshall Gambit and generously explained afterwards where I had gone wrong. However, it was not all plain sailing for him this week and he will probably have nightmares about his 59th move in the following game, his only defeat, against IM Sumiya Bilguun in round 3 where the following position occurred:

It’s Howell (White) to move. Stockfish has the position as equal (0.37) and if Howell had played the move the computer suggested (59.Kd3), it would still have been equal at 0.37. However, Howell played 59.Ke3??, a Howeller of the first degree. 59…Rxc3+!  Ouch! If the pawn re-captures, Black’s b-pawn queens. Howell struggled on until move 81 but the game was up.

 

 

Carlsen wins again

All good things must come to an end and for the Tata Steel Masters 2019 that day was today but what a finish was conjured up. In an all-play-all tournament it is obviously chance who plays who in the final round but what could be better than the two leading players drawn to fight it out against each other for first place. Magnus Carlsen went into the game with a half-point lead over Anish Giri thanks to his win in Round 12 while Giri was held to a draw. While this means that Giri would have to beat Carlsen to win the tournament – and what a worthy champion he would be if he were able to do that – at least it prevents the threat of déjà vu: in the same tournament last year Carlsen and Giri tied for first place with the former winning the tie break. After the way Carlsen easily dispatched Fabiano Caruana in the World Championship, this is probably something Giri would prefer to avoid. How he would like to repeat his 22-move victory over Carlsen in his first Tata Steel Masters in 2011. Sadly, despite having the benefit of the white pieces, Giri never gained much of any advantage and with Black standing ‘much better’ according to Stockfish, a draw was agreed after 30 moves, leaving Carlsen winner for the seventh time.

So while all the locals were cheering for Giri who is Russian-born but has competed for the Netherlands since 2009, what of the Van Foreest family featured in the last Tata article on this site? Lucas finished on 6/13 in the Challengers while his 11-year old brother Nanne scored 4/9 in the Group 5A all-play-all with an average FIDE rating of 1716 (approx 174 ECF). Nanne’s twin sister, Machteld is the stronger player of the two, having won the Dutch U10 Girls’ Championship in 2014 at the age of 6 and both the U12 and U14 Dutch Youth Championships (boys section) in 2018. At Tata she competed in the Group 2C all-play-all, finishing on 3/9 for a performance rating of 2004 (approx 201 ECF). To put this into perspective, the top English U11 girl is Jessica Mellor (145 ECF) and the next highest is graded 126.

           GM Jorden Van Foreest

Meanwhile, what of the eldest sibling, Jorden, who was competing in the Masters? While he lost seven of his thirteen games, it should be remembered that he had the second lowest FIDE rating of all the competitors and he was mixing with serious company. Of his three wins, the following was a wonderful attacking performance against the world number thirteen. After his opponent’s victory in Round 9, The Daily Telegraph chess column was headed ‘Nepo back in the running’ as he moved into joint first place. Unfortunately, this appeared to scupper his chances as he scored only 1½/4 in his remaining matches. His defeat by Jorden Van Foreest was his first in the tournament.

White:  Jorden Van Foreest (2612)      Black:  Ian Nepomniachtchi (2763)

Tata Steel Masters 2019 Round 10

Finally, here is a bonus Blunder of the Week and it just goes to show that even the best players can get it wrong sometimes. Here we have the current US Champion Sam Shankland playing with the black pieces in Round 11 at the Tata Steel Masters against Anish Giri, who has just played 45. b6. What would you do as Black?

Well, Shankland resigned, apparently thinking that because he could not get his king back to a8, he was lost but Giri knew that if the king reaches c8 – which it can do – the game was drawn. When Shankland offered his hand, Giri had to ask him to be sure: “Did you resign?” “Yes,” he replied! For the full story and an interview with Giri after the game, click here.

Tata Steel update

Rook van Zugzwang reports from Wijk aan Zee

Welcome to my home town, Wijk aan Zee, and to the Tata Steel Chess Tournament, the biggest and best in the world. For those of you unfamiliar with Wijk, it is a coastal town about 44 km from Amsterdam  and my English friends say it is a little like Broadstairs but with better chess players. At least, that is certainly the case at this time of year when players and spectators from all over Europoe descend upon our little town. Most of those are ‘amateurs’ but the main interest is on the 28 players who take part in the two main competitions, the Challengers and the Masters.

We are constantly told that chess is a young person’s game and a glance at the entrants for both competitions will bear this out. You may be unfamiliar with the van Foreest family but they are well known in the Netherlands and GM Jorden van Foreest (19) plays in the Masters while his bother, Lucas, also a grandmaster at 17, plays in the Challengers. If you think that is young, the Challengers also features IM Vincent Keymer (14) and GM Rameshbabu Praggnanandhaa, who is not 14 until August! At the other end of the scale is GM Evgeny Bareev who at 53 is old enough to be their grandfather. All chess players know that it is no fun playing juniors so imagine how Bareev must have felt as he faced a young whippersnapper like van Foreest in Round 3.

White:  Lucas van Foreest (2502)      Black:  Evgeny Bareev (2650)

Tata Steel Challengers 2019 Round 3

So what about the Masters, you may be asking. Well, it’s tight at the top and after eight rounds there is only half a point separating the leading five players. Ominously, after his run of 21 successive draws, Magnus Carlsen is beginning to strike form at the right time, winning three of his last four games to move into joint first place. We are pinning our hopes on Anish Giri, who plays Carlsen in the final round. In the meantime, let’s raise a cheer for the oldest player in the tournament, Vishy Anand, appearing at Wijk aan Zee for the 19th time. Vishy will be 50 this year yet he remains in the world top ten and currently shares the lead with Carlsen whom he plays in Round 10. Like Carlsen, he has won three games and drawn the rest but victories in his last two games suggest that momentum is with him. Anyone who can dispatch the world number three in 29 moves as Vishy did in Round 8 today cannot be discounted as a potential tournament winner.

White:  Viswanathan Anand (2773)      Black:  Shakhriyar Mamedyarov (2817)

Tata Steel Masters 2019 Round 8

And what about the Game of the Tournament so far. Well, for many it is this swashbuckling effort from Teimour Radjabov in Round 7. After the game the two players discussed it at length and their analysis was recorded by organisers. Enthusiasts – the discussion went on for 35 minutes – can find it either on the Tata Steel site, Chess.com or YouTube.

White:  Teimour Radjabov (2757)      Black:  Santosh Gujrathi Vidit (2695)

Tata Steel Masters 2019 Round 7

Tata Steel Chess Tournament 2019

The Tata Steel Chess Tournament which begins tomorrow (Jan 11) is one of the biggest events in the chess calendar. This year is the 81st tournament and although its name has changed in that time, it has always been held in the Dutch town of Wijk aan Zee. It regularly attracts the best players in the world – Magnus Carlsen will be playing for the fifteenth time – and six of the world’s top ten players will be competing this year. The second seed behind the world champion is the Azerbaijani, Shakhriyar Mamedyarov, known throughout the chess world as Shakh. He is the current world number three and for those who think Carlsen is unassailable these days, it is worth noting that he and Shakh met nine times last year in all formats with Carlsen only winning once and that was in a blitz tournament. Here is Shakh’s neat victory over the champion at Biel in the summer where he finished clear first by one and a half points.

White:  Shakhriyar  Mamedyarov (2801)      Black:  Magnus Carlsen (2842)

 Biel International Chess Festival 2018 

The average ELO rating in the Masters Tournament is 2753 and there is also a Challengers Tournament where the average is 2580. Both sections have fourteen players. The website  http://tatasteelchess.com has all the information you need and a lot more. The archive is worth a look – it provides details of the most games played (of current players, Vishy Anand 221) and the highest win percentage. Of this year’s competitors it is not Carlsen but Ding Liren with 63.46% so perhaps he is worth a punt if you are a betting person. One curious feature of the Masters Tournament is that for the past six years it has gone ‘on tour’ with two of the rounds taking place in alternative venues to Wijk aan Zee. This year Round 5 will take place in Alkmaar (see below) and Round 10 in Leiden.
In addition to the two major tournaments, there are also several events for those mere mortals quaintly described on the official site as ‘amateurs’. These tournaments attract thousands of entries. Finally there is the Tata Steel Chess Festival on January 19-20 and if you can understand Dutch, there is more information here  (I couldn’t find a translate button). The Masters gets under way on Saturday and there will be updates on this site from our Dutch correspondent, Rook van Zugzwang.