English Chess Federation

4th European Union Youth Chess Championship U14, U12 & U10

Mureck, Austria, 8-17 August

The EU Youth Championships – Day One

8:57 a.m. Most of the Team Mates are in the coaching room. They have been up for an average of 1.4 hours. Mr Chips is about to do his briefing, the Sibilants and the Team Mascot hang around but some Responsible Adults are noticeable by their absence. The Team Mates’ task for the week has already been set: 9 rounds of gruelling, IQ searing, stress-busting Boggle! Ed is slightly surprised. Polly was expecting table tennis, table tennis and more table tennis. Callum’s eldest sister reports by txt msg that her friends have measured her arms and they are 6 feet! “Is that each?” her mum wonders. Mark L has been nominated Lord of the Flies and is put in overall control of the 7 fly swats: he can use 4 himself simultaneously. Meanwhile the skiers who have lost their skis walk by rather listlessly. Lost their snow too, but no one in The House is going to risk telling them. Never mind, let me take you back – let’s begin the begin as they say…

Day One minus One:

Flying Ryanair. Sounds better than it is. No FEB. Stansted Airport, 0700 hours. Easy for some travellers, a nightmare for others. What can you say: you should have chosen to live in Essex? Somewhere closer to Cambridge? Whatever. Do I look bovvered? Does any part of my face look bovvered? Everyone is made up when Ryanair announce that they allow Team Mates and their Responsible Adults to board first! So that is one plane full then!

A short flight, just 2 hours. Then we land in Graz. “Was fur ein schónes Baby!”. A coach transfer through the alpine foothills, and within the hour we are pulling into the environs of the fabulous Gasthof Fabiani (check it out at www.gasthof-fabiani.at). But more of that anon.

Everyone spends the next 5 hours settling in. This involves gross beer (why?) and kleine beer (my German is not that great) and rot wein. You know it’s worth it.

Having said all that, it’s a miracle everyone is here. I am not suggesting that Oliver Stone would have fertile grounds for his next blockbuster movie but several events have put us all on edge. First up: Coach #27 (Adam-not-related-to-me-Hunt) has his boarding pass mysteriously disappear at Stansted. A frantic search results in a late, mad dash for the boarding gate. Luckily the flight is 45 minutes late so it’s just a case of Adam losing some street cred by being seen to be running by his pupils. And in the corridor too!

As if that wasn’t enough, when we arrive at Graz, Daniel’s mum’s suitcase is open when it appears on the carousel! “Theft!” shrieks her other (and some would say lesser) half! But a good rummage through the underwear reveals nothing missing (or so he says).

Things only got worse once we were at the Gasthof. A simple walk to the local lake and … “Kersplash!” – huge waves spread across the small lake suggesting a meeting of significant matter with water surface – yet there is no sign of any living creature in the lake, surely it only holds enough plankton for one very, very, very small basking shark? But according to Martha this must have been Nessie size. And yet no snails appear to be involved at all…

Day One for Real

It was a relief to finally get to the venue and attend the sweet opening ceremony. Short speeches of welcome and praise for the all the Team Mates competing over the next 9 days, bracketed between short bursts from a 3-piece brass band. “Mureck is not just a Boggle town,” said the mayor, “We are a music town too!”.

So now the chess bit:

A tough draw is on the cards in the first round. No one has time to research opponents as the pairings are only posted 25 minutes after the first round is supposed to start. But within minutes they are off and the Responsible Adults resume their pacing, nodding knowingly to hide the fact they haven’t a clue (in most cases) what is going on. But the concentration and effort in the Boggle hall is clear to anyone who is watching...

The Team Mates’ results of Round 1 are as follows:

The Team Mates’ results to date:

The game of the round is:

Silva, Miguel (POR) (1925) - Jones,William (ENG)
EU Champs U14 (Rd 1), 09.08.2006

1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 d6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nc3 a6 6.Bc4 e6 7.Bb3 Nbd7 8.Be3 Nc5 9.f3 hardly the most critical way for white to play. The whole point of putting the bishop on c4 is to open the a2-g8 diagonal 9...b5 10.g4 b4 11.Nce2 Bb7 12.Qd2 a5 13.Rd1 [13.0-0-0] 13...Be7 14.Bc4 0-0 15.g5 Nfxe4! 16.fxe4 Nxe4 17.Qc1 Nxg5 18.Rg1 Nh3 with 3 pawns for the piece and the central pawn mass black has more than sufficient compensation for the piece 19.Rf1 Bh4+ 20.Ng3 Bg2 21.Qd2 Bxf1 22.Bxf1 Ng5 23.Bg2 Rc8 24.Kf1 h6 25.Kg1 d5 26.Nde2 Qf6 27.Bd4 e5 28.Rf1 Qe6 29.Nf5 exd4? [29...Ne4 30.Bxe4 dxe4 31.Nxh4 Qg4+ retains a clear advantage] 30.Nxh4? [is much better 30.Qxd4! ] 30...Qe3+ 31.Qxe3 dxe3 32.Nd4 Rc4 33.Nhf5 e2 34.Re1 g6 35.Bxd5 Rc5 36.Ne7+ Kg7 37.Rxe2 Rd8 38.Nb3 Rcxd5 39.Nxd5 Rxd5 40.Kg2 a4 41.Rd2 Re5 42.Nd4 Rd5 43.Nf3 Rc5 44.Nxg5 Rxg5+ 45.Kf2 Rc5 46.Ke2 Rc6 47.Kd1 f5 48.Rd4 Rb6 49.Rd5 f4 50.Rc5 Re6 51.Rc4 g5 52.Rd4 f3 53.Rd2 g4 54.Rf2 h5 55.Kd2 h4 56.c4 g3! 57.hxg3 hxg3 58.Rxf3 g2 59.Rg3+ Rg6 0-1

And finally, for my younger readers…

You may recall from the World Schools Chess Championships (excellently covered by your roving reporter at the time, even if I say so myself) the following txt message that long-suffering Gill received from Mr Chips: “Have found a very nice cave overlooking the sea. I will be very happy here – the shops are a long way but have already made friends with a snail who was clinging to the shear [sic] rock face outside my cave. We seem to have so much in common. I feel the first pangs of hunger – in my delirious state I fear I may eat the snail and then not have a friend.” Well, the correspondence continues:

Message from Prtrchess@hal.com on Tue, 2 May 2006 16:37:14 EDT

To: XXXXXXXXXXX
Subject: Thumbs

I am now 'Lord of the Snails'. Respect or I'll send them to sort you out!!!

On a more serious note, I am now running an employment agency for talented snails. I have one on my books who is a bit of a writer. Could you pass on any possible contacts. He's called 'Shelly'. His mum is quite famous, I think she is Susan and works in London. I think she has something to with 'Complete idiots guides'. If you go to google search for 'Shelly author' she should be on the first page listed. It is all rather sad, mum is famous and a bit of a 'go getter' but poor old 'Shell' as we call him is very slow and came to my special school in Scunthorpe. He was one of my first pupils, mum promised to come to a parents' evening in 1965 and has not turned yet.

I think that I had better go and lie down!!

Peter

PS Susan Shelly is an icon in certain elements of society in London. See picture - eat your heart out she's mine, all mine.

***** End of Message *****

Interesting Fact #1:

If you take the first 3 letters of the word Snail, all you need to do is add an “a” and you have an anagram of NASA…