European Club Cup, 2-10 October 2007

Kemer, Turkey

The Hilsmark Kingfisher team, 4NCL’s representatives at the European Club Championships flew out on Sunday evening to the splendid holiday resort of Kemer, Turkey.

Qualifying for the second successive year by virtue of finishing 3rd in the 4NCL, headed by team captain IM Lawrence Cooper and experienced English GM Keith Arkell on top board, the team looked forward in eager anticipation to doing battle against hopefully some of the world’s best players.

Four players in the team are looking for title norms out of this seven round competition (only tournament to offer this possibility). These are Andrew and Jovanka aiming for their first GM norms and Tavoularis and Briscoe aiming for their first and 2nd norms respectively (Briscoe obtained his only norm so far at Hastings 2006).

Making up the rest of the team is GM Ulf Andersson’s wife Christin and myself (only required if bubonic plague strikes the team!). Ulf played for us last year in Austria.

The 1st round draw did not disappoint, as we drew 4th seeds Bosna Sarajevo and former champions only a couple of years or so ago! Wow!!

Keith lined up to play world #2 Vassily Ivanchuk and Chris Briscoe (only recently improved his Elo rating by 30 points to 2273) lined up against former WCC vice-world champion Nigel Short!

The rest of the line-up was as follows:

Facing world number 2 and four former 2700 players plus super-GM Predojevic must have provided some interesting discussions over the breakfast table as they contemplated facing their illustrious world class opponents ...

Start of play (1pm UK time)

Briscoe eyes up the chess mountain that is Nigel Short, takes a deep breath and opens up against Nigel with the Ruy Lopez –Worrall Attack!

Interesting psychological choice as GM Short wrote the foreword to IM Andrew Greet’s well received book largely based on this weapon which Short used to defeat Karpov in their WCC quarter-final match in 1992.

After 1½ hours play only Keith and Nick look in any serious trouble, the rest seem to be doing okay against their mighty opponents.

2½ hour play ... Keith avoids losing a piece but looks like his position is going to explode in his face! Jovanka is under attack and Nick is a pawn down in a worse position.

Later ... Keith resigns in a hopeless position against an in-form Ivanchuk and Andrew, Nick and Christin faced similar fates.

Second last to finish is WGM (IM) Jovanka Houska who goes down bravely to GM Movsesian whilst failing to hold a difficult ending a pawn down. It’s all down to Chris now. Can he save our honour?

Yes!!! Although Chris had an edge for a large part of the game he was in massive time-trouble from move ten. He was forced to jettison a pawn and played most of the game with only a couple of minutes on the clock due to Fischer time limits being employed. Wow! He’s regained the pawn and actually looks better (from a weaker players perspective). The last game to finish, Chris saves Hilsmark’s honour with a draw and we avoid a 6-0 whitewash. Well done Chris! Chris is also mentioned in dispatches on the official website as one of the upsets of the day.

You can follow the broadcast games and replay through the games above via the official website European Club Cup 2007 - Kemer,Turkey

Hopefully we will have some photos soon. I fly out Friday night at 10pm to join them. Can’t wait!

Mark Hogarth
Manager
Hilsmark Kingfisher

Thanks to Jacques Tivillier for providing regular text message updates!

Round 1

Download the Round 1 PGN

Round 1 Report by IM Lawrence Cooper

England’s sole representatives, Hilsmark Kingfisher, had a daunting first round draw. We were drawn against Bosna Sarajevo who were led by Vassily Ivanchuk and also featured Nigel Short on board 5! Despite the huge rating differences we were looking forward to the challenge. Keith was facing the world number two, whilst the rest of the team were facing GMs rated below 2691 and 2645.

The board 1 tussle was a g3 Kings Indian with Ivanchuk varying from Arkell-Karajkin from Hastings Premier 2002 by playing 11…Bg4. Possibly the critical moment came on move 14 when Keith could have played Qxf3 giving him a slight edge and a position that black would have found very hard to play for a win. Instead after Bxf3 he came under pressure and despite putting up strong defence he eventually lost a pawn and lost on time as his position became critical.

On board 2, Andrew faced Almasi rated 2691 with black. Andrew obtained a solid position in a Bogo-Indian and as the time control approached one could tell Almasi was unhappy with his position. Sadly Andrew appeared to go astray after declining to take an exchange in an unclear ending and his position quickly fell apart. Although I haven’t had a chance to analyse the game I thought Andrew stood well and was the one looking to win.

On board 3 Jovanka was white against Movsesian rated 2679. After declining an unclear queen sac Jovanka appeared to have the better position and entered an ending a pawn up. Sadly the position turned and she eventually lost. Aside from the moves played on the board, one had to admit that Movsesian facial expressions made him a very difficult opponent to sit opposite.

On board 4 Nick faced Ivan Sokolov with black. Although he appeared to have a reasonable position from the opening his pawn sacrifice didn’t yield sufficient compensation and he was eventually ground down.

The result of the day was Chris Briscoe’s draw with Nigel Short on board 5.Short equalised comfortably from the opening and appeared to be the player pressing in the middle game, particularly as Chris was running short of time. However, Chris kept his nerve and managed to create enough counter play to force a repetition in a double rook ending where Chris had sacrificed a pawn but obtained a lot of activity. Indeed it was Chris who considered playing for a win at the end before agreeing to Short’s draw offer. A fine result and I was especially pleased with the way he handled the critical part of the game after a lacklustre opening.

On board 6 Christin faced a 2645 GM named Predojevic. After a fairly equal opening she tried to become active at the wrong moment and her pawn sacrifice was easily refuted and her activity proved insufficient. Once the queens came off her position quickly fell apart.

In conclusion, although I felt the score was harsh I was pleased we had the chance to play such a strong side and felt that with the exception of boards 4 and 6 we had chances in all the other four games. Keith was punished for one or maybe two inaccuracies and Andrew and Jovanka both had good positions before going astray around the first time control. I certainly think the experience of playing such a match would help in the future when taking on such strong opposition.