Round 4

Meeting Gerry Walsh

Gerry Walsh is President of the English Chess Federation and Deputy President of the European Chess Union. He is one of seven members of the board, chaired by Boris Kutin.

How did you get interested in chess administration?
It dates back to January 1967 when Botvinnik did a simultaneous display at Middlesborough.

In which capacity are you in Montenegro?
I am here as Chairman of the Appeals Committee. A key responsibility comes at the very end of the tournament when I say “And I discharge you from your responsibilities”, at which point the organizers get their deposit back!” Also, we had an ECU board meeting on the two days prior to the tournament.

What was on the ECU board agenda last week?
One thing we decided was that this tournament will be back in Herceg Novi in 2008. Next year it is to be in Croatia. The organizers there have the amazing plan for all chess games to be held in one big room.

How do you decide the location?
There are bids. There were four for the 2008 tournament, which had to be submitted to our Berlin office by July 1st. All the locations have to be visited by two people in advance. For instance, I recently visited Bulgaria, which is bidding for some chess tournaments.

What happened about the world junior this year?
Well, the original plan was to hold it in India; this then got switched to Russia, Turkey and eventually Georgia. The ECF made the decision not to send any juniors to the world junior tournament this year, but to have a group twice the normal size for the European competition.

Do you have a message for the English group?
A big thanks to the parents who have come at their own cost, and to the highly motivated coaches. A big thank you is also owed to the schools who have released the players to come. The juniors will learn an enormous amount from being here.

Gideon Franklin interviews Gerry Walsh on the hotel terrace

Round Four of the chess

The England players scored a combined total of eight points out of a possible 17 on a day in which 11 of them were black and all but four of the opponents had a FIDE rating.

The coaches - Robert Bellin, Andrew Greet, Jovanka Houska, Neil McDonald and Thomas Rendle – have kindly helped comment on the players’ games in the fourth round.

Radha won a piece out of the opening and smoothly converted a game which was one-sided in her favour. Marcus was caught out by an unusual opening and was unable to recover from a bad position. Samuel sacrificed a pawn for the initiative, but was left with insufficient play after a resilient defence by his opponent. Saravanan played a very interesting, but flawed combination, after which he lost a rook instead of gaining a strong attack, eventually losing to a German with a surname even longer than his own. Yang-Fan surprised his opponent with an opening improvement worked on in the morning coaching session, and quickly won two pieces for a rook, before going on to victory in fine style.

Sheila’s loss was particularly unfortunate: having played the first phase with complete accuracy, winning a piece for two pawns, she faced an unusually difficult conversion which led to mutual time trouble. Her Polish opponent found a huge tactical shot, which forced transposition to an endgame where Sheila was a pawn down with no chances of counterplay. Amisha had a well-fought draw in which she put pressure on her opponent, but was not able to break through the defence. Jessica tricked her opponent into an unfamiliar opening system, after which she gained some pressure, but it did not quite prove sufficient for victory against her WFM opponent. Still, the draw was a very satisfactory result.

Callum beat a Russian FIDE master – Andrew Greet has annotated the game below, showing how he “absolutely destroyed” the 2367-rated player. Subin had a topsy turvy struggle in which he finally emerged victorious in a rook and pawn endgame. Chantal blundered a pawn out of the opening, fought well to get a good position, capitalised on her chances and converted the endgame to her favour.

Selina had an uncharacteristic off day, losing in an uncomfortable game, but will surely be back on a winning track soon. James was black in a “Dragadorf” (hybrid of Dragon and Najdorf), a very topical new line. The setting backfired, he defended inventively and held a draw.

Ankush displayed his usual aggressive chess right from the start. It all went in typical Ankush fashion with wild tactics leaving “the entire board in flames”. He was an exchange up, but unusually came into time trouble and overlooked a tactical resource of the opponent which turned the tables completely.

Thomas won a piece out of the opening and smoothly converted a game which was one-sided in his favour. Simon was relieved to come away with a draw, declaring “My head was not working”. Li lost to a highly rated player from Georgia.

---

Kilpatrick,C (2071) - Gritsenko,A (2367) [B87]
B U14 (4), 13.09.2006
[Annotated by Andrew Greet]

Play the game here

Prepare to witness one of the best games of the championships so far, as England's Callum Kilpatrick slaughters a Russian FIDE Master rated almost 300 points above him. 1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 d6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nc3 a6 6.Bc4 e6 7.Bb3 b5 8.Bg5 Be7 9.Qf3 Qc7 10.0-0-0 Nbd7 Diagram # Before the game we had prepared an extremely sharp and aggressive response to Gritsenko's favourite Najdorf. Here is where the fun starts... 11.e5! Bb7 12.Qg3 dxe5 [ 12...Nxe5 is the alternative, which also leads to great complications.] 13.Bxe6! In this variation of the Najdorf it is quite thematic for White to sac a piece in order to rip through the black king's protective pawn cover. 13...fxe6 14.Nxe6 Qc6 15.Nxg7+ Kf7 16.Bxf6 Diagram # 16...Nxf6 [ Amazingly Callum had already reached this position in a previous game! Kilpatrick - Azad, European Union Youth Ch 2006 continued with 16...Bxf6 17.Nf5 Nb6 18.Nd6+ Ke7 19.Rhe1 Qxg2 20.Rxe5+ Kf8 21.Rf5 Nd7 22.Nxb7 Qxb7 23.Rxd7 Qxd7 24.Rxf6+ Ke8 25.Qe5+ Kd8 26.Rd6 Re8 27.Qf6+ Kc8 28.Rxd7 Kxd7 29.Ne4 Rxe4 30.Qf5+ Re6 31.Qd5+ and Black resigned. It is not clear whether Black ought to recapture with bishop or knight. Both options lead to positions in which White enjoys long-lasting pressure in return for the small material investment. Theoretically Black may be able to defend, but in practice is will always be difficult.] 17.Nf5 Bf8 18.Qxe5 Re8 [ We looked at 18...Qc5 19.Qf4 in our preparation, and concluded that Black would be set for a tough defence. Gritsenko's move leads to similar types of positions.] 19.Qf4 Diagram # 19...h5? This is a losing move. In all fairness to Gritsenko, he had been walking a tightrope for several moves. He had been caught in a prepared variation and was already over an hour behind on the clock, so it is hardly surprising that he eventually slipped up. 20.Nd6+! Now Black is completely busted. 20...Kg6 [ 20...Bxd6 21.Rxd6 leaves Black with no satisfactory defence to the dual attacks on c6 and f6.] 21.Qf5+ Kg7 22.Qg5+ Now White regains his sacrificed piece 'for free', while retaining his three extra pawns...not to mention Black's king, which remains highly vulnerable. 22...Kh7 23.Qxf6 Bh6+ 24.Kb1 Rhf8 25.Qd4 Diagram # B lack could almost have resigned here, but decides to struggle on for a while. The rest of the game sees Callum maintain control of the position while gradually forcing exchanges to reach an easily won ending. 25...Rd8 26.Qd3+ Kg8 27.Rhe1 Bg7 28.Re7 Rd7 29.Rxd7 Qxd7 30.Nxb7 Qxb7 31.f3 h4 32.Nd5 Qf7 33.f4 Re8 34.g4 hxg3 35.hxg3 Qh5 36.a3 Qg4 37.Rh1 Kf7 38.Nc7 Re7 39.Nxa6 Qe6 40.Nb4 Rd7 41.f5 Qe7 42.Qb3+ Kf8 43.Nd3 Qe4 44.Qb4+ Qxb4 45.axb4 Rd4 46.Rf1 Bf6 47.Rf4 Rd7 48.g4 Kg7 49.Nc5 Rd1+ 50.Ka2 Rg1 51.Ne6+ Kf7 52.Re4 1-0

---

Who is coaching who

In case you were wondering, here is the scheme of the coaching.

Robert Bellin: Sheila, James, Ankush and Simon
Andrew Greet: Selina, Callum and Amisha
Jovanka Houska: Radha, Chantal and Thomas
Neil McDonald: Saravanan, Subin and Jessica
Thomas Rendle: Marcus, Samuel and Yang-Fan

The happiest coach on Wednesday was Jovanka, proudly declaring, “All of mine won today”.

Sheila discusses her chess with Neil McDonald while her father Bert observes

Sheila asks a question

Chantal prepares for her afternoon match

Technical wizard

The internet reports would not be arriving without the technical wizardry of Yang-Fan’s father Quan, pictured here. After finally getting connected at a third internet café we discovered on Wednesday, we walked to the castle at the top of the hill in the old town of Herceg Novi to admire the view. Watch out for a new feature of annotated games allowing viewers to play through the game with a java-enabled html link.

Quan Zhou admires the view from the castle