Are you feeling a touch of déjà vu when you look at this picture? Haven’t we seen this photo before? Is the Webmaster losing his marbles? No, it’s simply a game of spot the difference. If you have not read the earlier article on Website of the Year click here and see if you can see a difference between the two photos. If you don’t want to know the answer, look away now.

Those who you who read the original article will know that there was an error on the original trophy concerning our website address. The ECF agreed to produce a corrected version and did not not want the first trophy returned so we are now the proud possessors of both an official Website of the Year trophy and an unofficial imperfect one. The club will keep one copy and the Webmaster the other but who should have which?

While all the excitement of the latest photo session was taking place, Andy Flood, supreme commander of the Thanet Chess Congress, casually announced that actually he, too, had received a similar trophy for Congress of the Year 2018 so watch this space for more shameless self-promotion in the near future.

Meanwhile, what’s happening at the club, you might be wondering. Well, this season promises to be one of the closest club championships in living memory. David Faldon (175) has won or shared the Goodall Cup every year since he joined the club in 2010. However, he has some genuine competition this year with the arrival of Trefor Owens (167), Arnaud Wisman (155) and Shany Rezvany (163). Other new members have already made their mark: Paul Johnson (116) won his first four games in the Goodall including victory over Shany, and Richard Clement (128) beat Trefor in his first game. Perhaps this is David’s tactic: lie in wait and let the others make enough mistakes so he can coast home as usual. We shall see.

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)

   [FEN "8/8/3kp3/1p1p1p2/3Pn1p1/P1bNPnP1/2B1KP2/2B5 w - - 0 17"]  

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.

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.