British Championship Congress 2022

[Geoff Chandler]

A bolt from the blue ended an exciting round one game where time trouble possibly figured.
White was better, Black takes over but misses playing a good move (42..Rd8+) instead we get a steel white King.
The players arrived here;

Nikolay Milchev - Shyam Jagdish Modi (black to play)

6rk/2R4p/5P2/5K2/1pQ2N1P/p7/P4q2/r7 b - - 8 52

52...Qxa2 is the move. Black played 52...Qxh4 (53.Ng6+ and Qxh4 is not on because 56...hxg6 is a check,)
After 52...Qxh4 the bolt hit the board. The kind of game, win, lose or draw, I loved being involved in.

The full game

1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 g6 3. Nc3 Bg7 4. e4 d6 5. h3 O-O 6. Nf3 e5 7. d5 a5 8. g4 Na6 9. Be3 Nc5 10. Nd2 Nfd7 11. h4 f5 12. gf5 gf5 13. ef5 Qf6 14. Nde4 Qf5 15. Bh3 Qf7 16. Ng5 Qe7 17. Qc2 Nf6 18. O-O-O e4 19. Bc5 dc5 20. Be6 Kh8 21. Nce4 Ne4 22. Qe4 Bf6 23. f4 Bd7 24. Rd2 Rae8 25. Re2 b5 26. Bd7 Qd7 27. Ne6 Rg8 28. f5 a4 29. Qf4 a3 30. b3 c6 31. Rd1 bc4 32. Qc4 cd5 33. Rd5 Qf7 34. Nf4 Rg1 35. Kd2 Ra1 36. b4 cb4 37. Re6 Bc3 38. Kc2 Rg8 39. Rc6 Qa7 40. Rd2 Bd2 41. Kd2 Qf2 42. Ne2 Qe1 43. Ke3 Rg3 44. Kf4 Qf2 45. Ke5 Re3 46. Kf6 Re8 47. Kf7 Rg8 48. f6 Qa7 49. Rc7 Qb8 50. Ke6 Qb6 51. Kf5 Qf2 52. Nf4 Qh4 53. Qg8 Kg8 54. f7

[Mick Norris]

Top board drawn in 10 moves

[IM Jack Rudd]

I have no idea if my attack was sound, but expletive me it was fun.

[Christopher Kreuzer]

I have no idea if my attack was sound, but expletive me it was fun.

Apparently it is another case of the wrong rook.

30...Rhf8 allowed mate in 8.
30...Raf8 is equal (allegedly, presumably because the Black king can shelter on a8 from the checks).

[NickFaulks]

I have no idea if my attack was sound, but expletive me it was fun.

It seems that 30...Rhf8 was another case of The Wrong Rook.

edit : a rapid response based solely on the useless Fish.

[Christopher Kreuzer]

Snap.

[NickFaulks]

Snap.

Having come second I tried to remove mine but was told I couldn't.

[David Sedgwick]

Snap.

Having come second I tried to remove mine but was told I couldn't.

The convention is to replace the post by the single word "deleted".

[Mick Norris]

Keith leading the field by half a point

[Joey Stewart]

Nice conversation by Keith in that endgame, it looked like his bishop pair was very strong but wasn't entirely obvious how to extract the full point and took some very precise maneuvering.

Still so close at the top, the old GMs are still right up there with the next generation, could be anybody's tournament.

[Geoff Chandler]

A good tournament this, a very low percentage of draws. Some surprising blunders by some very good players.

Same thing happened in the Scottish Championship. Usually both events throw up one or two 'there but for grace God go I' positions.
In the Scottish (and now here) it was happening in every round by some very experienced players.
Alex Mac, who controlled the tournament, will back me up. The players were scared to move.

I mention this is in a report I do on the Scottish in the next CHESS. 'Unexplainable' was voiced. Of course I put forward an opinion.
Long OTB lay off due to covid, too many internet games so the 3d vision is shot to hell and the sense of danger has lay dormant.
Possibly a grain of truth of in it. The coincidence is there in the games and I was not going to bow out with 'unexplainable.'

Hi Joey,

Keith would be a worthy winner of this, he has won more tournaments in Britain than anyone else. (a good guess that.Keith or Mark Hebden?)
Mark (black Rd.5) had quite a game today. He sacced a Rook on h2. Next time I looked his King was on h2!
Mark is Black again in Rd.6. v Vianney Domenech, Keith is black v Matthew Wadsworth.

Matthew may be scratching his head what to do v Keith's Caro Kann.
Jack or Justin, tell Matthew that I suggest 1.e4 c6 2.b4 (and get the 10p for the idea out of him) For 2.b4 see;

Prins v Cross Hastings 1931, https://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=2339869

And I want to see another game with 2.b4 , this time v a Kann expert, before I try it.

[Joey Stewart]

I'm pretty sure Keiths defences will be thoroughly tested tomorrow - looking at the absolute crushing opening Wadsworth achieved as black today it's safe to assume he will be bringing a lot of engine assisted preparation to the game.

I think this one would be special for Keith, he won the online British during lockdown (in spite of some idiot cheaters attempt to enter an engine under a fake name and ruin the event) but that one never really got recorded and I'm sure he would most like the over the board title, with this year being one of the most equal fields ever seen so probably the best chance.

[Roger de Coverly]

Matthew may be scratching his head what to do v Keith's Caro Kann.
Jack or Justin, tell Matthew that I suggest 1.e4 c6 2.b4 (and get the 10p for the idea out of him) For 2.b4 see;

Prins v Cross Hastings 1931, https://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=2339869

And I want to see another game with 2.b4 , this time v a Kann expert, before I try it.

Prins seems to be the only player you would have heard of playing it and then only once. There's a line of the Polish which runs 1. b4 c6 2. e3. In the e4 version, Black replies .. d5. White mostly responds 3. e5 which is approaching mainstream Caro stuff, for Black anyway.

Matthew rarely plays 1. e4 though.

[Chris Rice]

Great blog post from GM Paul Motwani co-winner of the over 50s with Philip Crocker and Chris Duncan. Great photos, chess positions and the sort of quirkiness Geoff would be proud of including the quote:

"83-year-old Stewart Reuben was as witty as ever when he said to me, “I’m in my prime now”, quite right when you’re …79, 83, 89 or 97, and so forth!"

and a press cutting of a promising under 14 junior, Mike Basman!

[Brendan O'Gorman]

Pix from British Seniors 65+ https://brendanogorman.smugmug.com/Ches ... nship-2022