English Chess Federation

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

Mureck, Austria, 8-17 August

Day Eight

8:57 a.m. One of the Team Mates is in the coaching room. He has been up for an age. No sign of anyone else. At least not from where I’m lying. Interesting how the construction of tables becomes all too evident when viewed from underneath.

I have decided that today, the penultimate day of the tournament, I am going to put to the sword or indeed put to rest the rumours about the proximity of Slovenia. So, taking a Team Mate and his Sibilant for protection, armed with just 3 words of German (all from “The Great Escape” – pfuff, they’ll be useful) we head out by bike in search of this mythical country. And what d’you think happened? After just a few short minutes of cycling blow me if it didn’t just pop up there right in front of us! The rumours are true. On this basis I am tending to believe the earth is spherical. Slovenia is but a stones throw from Mureck, as a sober crow flies. So after some tough negotiating with the Austrian border guard, we are allowed to walk as far as the official boundary which is mid-way across the river. But if you look closely you will see that some sneaky crossing of the line occurs…

And on the way back who do you think we bump in to? It is proving to be a Eureka-moment type of day, I’m even starting to believe some of Mr Chips’ more fanciful flights of fancy (definitely repetition, not alliteration):

I also need to commend to you what is a small but perfectly formed international event. The coincidental Chess tournament I mean. The organisation is excellent, and the speed with which the pairings are made and bulletins issued is ideal. The electronic bulletins contain every game played, and are available up-to-date each day. The rounds are well run, and the venue is excellent. The official website is also very up-to-date – a small but formidable team of organisers is responsible:

Some of the RAs are trying to figure out this Chess business too, but are clearly failing miserably:

Round 8 (the chess bit):

For the penultimate time, the Team Mates plus 1 x Lucky Sheep head for the venue in the shuttle. It’s almost a well-oiled machine now, except that it isn’t. And next year the oiling will have to start all over again.

As you know we have two Eng vs Eng matches, one in the U12 section and one in the U14 section. The paranoia and increased security arrangements again kicked in with coaching sessions disrupted by multi-location changes. Someone needs to invent telecoaching, where Team Mate and Coach can in fact be in different countries.

All that is out of the way now, and it is heads down at the board…

First out is Daniel with a win. Then Joseph wins, but at Patrick’s expense. Polly gets a creditable draw, and things are looking up! Then news of Saravanan against the FIDE-rated Estonian – Saravanan has won! Great start for the Team Mates.

Bit of a gap then news comes in from the U14 section: Ed and Sharan have draws, Ed’s being against a rated player – well done! Sadly then we hear that Harry has lost. And then Callum wins the U14 Eng vs Eng duel – good for him but obviously not great for William.

Things are looking good. With 2 results still to go the Team Mates already have 5½ points in the bag. And the last two games are Victor and Samuel, on boards 2 and 3 of the U12 section respectively so massive games for them – winning will put them in strong positions for placings with only one round left to go tomorrow. Both play long games: Samuel is slightly ahead in his game but gets into time trouble so agrees a draw. Victor’s game goes on and on – in fact neither player has any time left on their clock, they are both down to surviving on the 30 seconds they get each time they make a move. It is actually thrilling to watch and on several occasions moves are made with just 2 or 3 seconds on the clock. The game looks draw-ish (at least to the more perspicacious watchers) but then disaster as Victor makes his move too late and the clock runs down before he has time to press it!

So a good overall score of 6 out of 12 points for the Team Mates, but still there is an air of disappointment hanging over the group. No time to mope tho’ as the 9th (final) round starts at 08:30 in the morning…

The Team Mates’ results for Round 8:

The Team Mates’ results to date:

Because of the lack of time between the 8th and 9th rounds, all Team Mates and Coaches are too busy preparing for the final round to write up The Game of the Round. Instead, here is a novelty game from the last round – try to work out how many times each colour had match winning opportunities:

Hunt, Daniel [ENG] – Seligson, Julius [FIN]
EU Youth Chess Championships (U12) Mureck, Austria 16.08.2006

1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.d4 f6 4.d5 Nd4 5.Nxe5 Nxc2+ 6.Kd2 Nxa1 7.Qh5+ g6 8.Nxg6 hxg6 9.Qxh8 Kf7 10.Qh7+ Bg7 11.d6 Nh6 12.Kd1 Qh8

13.Bc4+ Kf8 14.Qxg6 1-0 [Black resigns]

Mr Chips stays late at the venue to grab the first copy of the final round draw off the printer and cycle it maniacally back to the Fabiani GastHof. And no time to type them up here! All we have to do now is fit in opponent research, coaching, dinner and 15 pints between 19:30 and 21:00 as everyone is determined to get to bed early given that the final round is an 08:30 start.

And finally, for viewers watching in black and white …

Day 8

Message from Prtrchess@hal.con on Sat, 5 Aug 2006 11:27:54 EDT

To: XXXXXXXXXXX
Subject: Re: Good news regarding the Team Mascot

Dear Holly

Guten tag.

Gagarin has not been rescued yet. The hot weather is causing problems, the snails are shrinking quicker than we can get more snails to the top of the tower. Shelly has come up with a brilliant idea. He is going to wait until Gagarin, out in space, is exactly opposite us, then tunnel through the centre of the Earth and simply drop a rope down so Gagarin can crawl up. See picture of rescue plan.

Message from The Team Mascot on Sun, 6 Aug 2006 08:41:59 EDT

To: Prtrchess@hal.com
Subject: Re: Good news regarding the Team Mascot

Dear Peter,

I am sad to be the bearer of bad news but I have a strange feeling that Escape plan number 2 will be about as successful as number 1. But not to worry for I have a list of ways to retrieve Gargarin so tell the Newbury snail that he can go home* and let the Highways Agency know that he is alright.

Ways to rescue Gargarin
1. Break into NASA (nuf sed)
2. Borrow Danny’s remote control aeroplane and wait until Gagarin is directly above us. Then turn it on and hold down the up button for 2 hours, get Gagarin to jump aboard, and then make it turn so it is going down and then hold down for another 2 hours
3. Break into a radio station and then transmit a radio broadcast asking whether if you are in space then could you have a look out for him.
4. Put up posters in the street asking if anyone has seen a lonely snail with a shell that looks like a space suit.

WARNING: NO actual snails were hurt during the making of this list.

* see Newbury Snail article.

Hope this helps,
The Team Mascot

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

Interesting Fact #8:

There was no Interesting Fact #6.