Game of the Week 9

It would be disingenuous to claim that this Game of the Week features a member of Broadstairs Chess Club or even the Thanet League because the winner is out of our league in more ways than one.  Wei Yi is the rising star of world chess.  At fifteen, he has already been a grandmaster for two years and is widely tipped to be a future world champion, having just beaten Magnus Carlsen’s record as the youngest player to achieve a 2700+ rating. This game, played in the penultimate round at the recent Tata Steel Challengers at Wijk an See, secured him first place and an invitation to the main tournament next year. It may not be a game by a local player but it is easy on the eye and well worth playing through.  Unfortunately, we can’t even claim that you saw it here first as it appeared in one of Michael Adams’ recent newspaper columns.

White: Wei Yi (2706)          Black: Anne Haast (2347)

(Tata Steel Challengers 2015)  

 

John plays the Benko Gambit

John did not want this game to be considered as a Game of the Week as the thirty point difference in grading suggests that it was not an especially outstanding performance on his part.  However, he felt it was not without interest and definitely worth a look so here it is.

White: Leon Garfield (101)          Black: John Couzens (131)

(Hargreaves Shield v Margate)  

Hargreaves Shield v Margate (a)

Broadstairs 3        Margate 1

1. Paul Carfrae (132) 0-1       Colin Gregory (117)
2. John Couzens (131) 1-0       Leon Garfield (101)
3. Tom Lovegrove (117) 1-0       John Clarke (86)
4. Andy Flood (113) 1-0       James Maskell (80)

Andy Flood writes:

A confident Broadstairs team arrived at Margate for the local derby, outgrading Margate on all four boards. The team was shocked by the early loss on Board 1 by Paul Carfrae, the team’s star player, as he lost in a poor game by his standards. Up until now Paul was unbeaten and top points scorer so he was entitled to have an off day. The match score was levelled some time later as I won what should have been a drawn game by getting my rooks on the 7th rank as my opponent sought to do likewise but was one move behind. John Couzens was always in control of his game following an early pawn sacrifice and dominated as his opponent struggled against both John and the clock. So with Broadstairs leading 2 – 1, all the pressure was on Board 3 and Tom Lovegrove who was still seeking his chess match fitness and a win. The game started steadily and there was nothing to choose between either player but after a fairly dull three hours the position became very complex. Would Tom take his opponent’s knight with a rook sacrifice enabling Broadstairs to go on to win and would he get his calculations right? He played safe, making the sensible choice in the context of the match, resulting in a well-deserved win, his opponent quickly crumbling under time pressure and resigning as his queen was about to be lost.

 

Millar Cup v Folkestone (h)

Broadstairs 2    Folkestone  5

1 David Faldon (170) ½-½         Jim Bayford (188)
2 Bob Page (141) ½-½         David Shire (179)
3 Paul Carfrae (132) 0-1         John Atherton (164)
4 John Couzens (131) 0-1         Kevin Smyth (160)
5 Andy Flood (113) 0-1         Martin Cutmore (158)
6 David Wheatley (106) ½-½         David Erwee (115)
7 Bob Cronin (101) ½-½         Chris Siebert (107)

David Faldon writes:

A short report this week as my game kept me busier than usual.

It was a close match, despite the 2-5 final score. Boards 6 and 7 were drawn by 9pm. Boards 3 and 5 didn’t last much longer as Paul and Andy (both playing black) were ground down by vastly superior force. That left us needing 2½ points from the last three games to tie the match – and we nearly got them.

The board 1 game was wild all the way with pawns and pieces sacrificed (mostly by me) for the attack. At one point I missed a clear win but in the end the queens got swapped off and the attacks petered out. As time ran down, both players decided they stood worse, so a draw was agreed.

Board 2 was a more positional game, but no less tense. Bob P defended stoutly against a very strong opponent and got his reward (a draw) when he managed to swap queens and rooks, leaving David S with not enough material to force a win.

The board 4 game see-sawed back and forth. John stood worse out of the opening but took advantage of a slip to win a pawn – and a very nice protected passed pawn it was too. Kevin didn’t give up, though. He blockaded the passed pawn and John’s attempt to lift the blockade backfired spectacularly.

Many thanks to everyone who turned out to play. We gave a very strong Folkestone team a tough match.

Best Game Prize

Thanet players with long memories will remember there used to be a Best Game Prize. This was a competition run towards the end of the season whereby anyone who had played what he thought was a particularly fine game could send it anonymously to the league secretary who would gather all the entries – usually about six – and make copies to distribute to the various clubs in the league for members to discuss and vote on during a club night. Clubs would then place the games in order, send their results to the secretary and the scores were then added up.  The winner would be revealed at the league AGM, given his prize and, although this I don’t remember, would then be invited to go through the game to those assembled.   The competition gradually faded out owing to a combination of factors: the usual lack of interest, the unwillingness of some clubs to give up an evening or even part of an evening to go through the games and, of course, the games were not completely anonymous as those who had submitted entries could not really comment on their own games.

However, in the digital age, it is to be hoped that these problems can be overcome and therefore it has been decided to revive the Best Game Prize with immediate effect. David Williams has agreed to ‘host’ the games on the Thanet website and anyone in the Thanet Chess League who has played a notable game this season considered worthy of winning the Best Game Prize is invited to send the game to David and he will publish all those he receives at the end of the season.  He has asked for games to be in pgn form but if you are unsure about that, a game typed out (correctly!) in algebraic notation should suffice. The difference now is that the games can be played at your leisure on your computer and the only thing to be decided is whether individuals send their results or we continue to vote as clubs.

In the meantime, if you have played a particularly outstanding game this season – preferably not one submitted to this site for Game of the Week! – send it to David Williams whose email address is dgw757@yahoo.co.uk.  More information is on the Thanet site and while you are there, you might like to read James Essinger’s interesting article, reprinted from Chess magazine, about chess generally and a recent game of his against Bob Pooley.