English Chess Federation

World School Chess Championships - Round 8

Matt Hunt reports:

Sunday 30 th April 2006 . It’s a lovely day here and the pigeons are settling in the outfield … [GIVE OVER! – ed].

I’ll get down to it. Many a cutting remark has been made about TPTB and the coaching cartel and, notwithstanding it was me that made them, I think it is “just not fair”. So I aim to compensate by dedicating this edition to their selfless commitment to the furthering of the chess abilities and chances of The Players. I hope that reads as more sincere than was meant.

In order to bring you the revelations that will leave you reeling, I disguised myself as a cleaning maid to get access to the coaching quarters. I soon realised what a school-boy error that was – the LAST person that any of the coaches is going to let into their room is someone who looks like they might clean it. How would they find any of their scraps of paper holding useful opponent info (such as names)? What would happen if either of their two shirts was mistaken for a hand towel [more likely a rag – ed] and taken away to be laundered? Nonetheless – and I cannot reveal the secret of how I did it, as I will need to use the ruse again – I managed to get in and can now reveal the inside story…

The coaches are renowned chess players or coaches in the own right. They put aside worldly things to benefit The Players. Indeed, if they could only be persuaded to put aside Childish things too it would be nearly perfect. Or at least that scruffy, out-of-date Holland t-shirt. Whatever. Their dedication has to be smelt to be believed.

A day in the Life: The day for a coach starts at about 10:30pm the night before, when the pairings come out for the next round. Immediately there is a searching of databases (databii?) and a gnashing of teeth.

Ok, so maybe less of the gnashing and more of the searching. Opponents are viewed, assessed and mental notes made, all in readiness for the next day’s coaching session. Sadly, there follows enough beer to erase the memory of an elephant. Thankfully, no one has any memories of an elephant to erase. So off the coaches go to beddy-byes.

Early the next morning, if you are lucky, you will find their trail and be able to creep up on them unobserved at the breakfast table. Wouldn’t wish it on my worst enemy mind! But there they are in their natural habitat – an “eat-all-you-can buffet”. But no sooner do they see any of The Players than they skitter off (who’d have believed I could get “skitter” into an article on chess, and for it to actually make sense? Next up: “skedaddle”) [don’t you dare – ed]. They are then noticeable by their absence until the first coaching slot at 10:00. This reticence on their part I put down to burping. Don’t know why, I just do.

10am is “Chico time” for the coaches i.e. 4 hours non-stop coaching, one hour per coachee. This is the serious business, and is prioritised even ahead of the eat-all-you-can buffet lunch. There have been some notable successes, where variations or lines covered in the morning have been played in the afternoon – and the coaches really earn their pay (as one of The Players says “i.e. nuffink.”). It is hit and miss though, and often within the first few moves of the game the morning’s specific coaching is out the window. But then the benefit of 1:1 coaching from excellent coaches, and lines covered in previous coaching sessions can kick in. All The Players agree that the coaching is top notch and it is highly valued. If not in this tournament it will be used somewhere. I know of at least one of The Players who earlier this week benefited by using a single novelty taught by one of the coaches at another international tournament over a year ago!

At 14:00 the last of the coachees has been processed and the coaches again elude observation. Typically they remain incognito until after the round has started at 17:00, the occasional exception being the Lesser Redhead who can sometimes be found ritually slaughtering a Responsible Adult on the Tennis court or at the Table Tennis table. In any event, once the chess actually starts all the coaches can be easily observed as they parade nervously up and down the central aisle of the playing hall, itching to shout out the next move to each of their coachees. They are then ready when The Players start to emerge, to undertake a review of the game just completed.

This is where, given the state of their rooms, the coaches show a surprising sensitivity: they balance the pointing out of errors with careful praise where deserved, and seek to build The Player back up from a loss or bring them back down to earth in a controlled way if they have won. And this goes on until Ben comes out, so often the coaches do not get to dinner until 22:00 at night. After a quick snuffle through the buffet, the coaches skedaddle back to the pool-side café (have I mentioned the pool or the café before? No? I’ll come to that in a minute then) for a quick abstemious beer before 10:30, the pairings for the next round and the cycle starts all over again.

So there it is. In a nutshell. Probably a pistachio nutshell, as we are in Greece. If we were in Brazil it would no doubt be a Brazil nutshell. If we were in Charlie Brown’s cartoon strip it would be a Peanuts shell. And as Ben’s Responsible Adult says, if were 22 miles into a marathon we’d hit The Wall and it would be a Walnut shell. Whatever. And as a reward for their diligence and hard work, the coaches get a prime sea view (the sea is there, look closely between the roof of the restaurant and the sky):

And now the Chess bit:

First up there’s an additional piece of chess news. Samuel Franklin spent the morning scuba diving [Unlikely – ed] sorry, playing in a Simultaneous against the Greek GM Efstratios Grivas (FIDE Rating: 2520). Samuel distinguished himself in securing a draw, an achievement that should not be under-estimated. In fact Grivas did not lose any of the 22 simultaneous games, and the only other person we believe to have also secured a draw is the South African Team Chess coach. Well done Samuel!

Back to the main event:

It is nail-biting stuff, albeit similar to snail racing in timescale. Oh, Mr & Mrs Ed V-R: as you can see there is no need to worry any longer, an enterprising responsible Adult has managed to procure said Earl Grey for Ed so we are expecting great things from him today…

It is the penultimate round and fortunately there are no pairings of Eng vs Eng. Each of The Players is going into this round with their own personal target to achieve – it just happens to be the same for all: to win! The Responsible Adults retire to fret or shop. Then the players start to come out…

First out is Patrick, he has lost. Then comes Ed … he has won, the Earl Grey has clearly made all the difference! Just after 2 hours have gone and out comes Joseph with a win. Sharan secures a draw. So does Polly.

Then there is a gap until nearly three hours are up.  Out comes George with a draw, and moments later Callum wins his match.  Next is Jessica, and she has won leaving herself with a chance in terms of U15 girl placings.  Thanks are due to Harry who had previously played the same opponent so shared his game details and thoughts with Jessica during preparation time.  A real team effort!  Then come Harry and Dan – both have lost.

That leaves just two U13s Samuel and Ben still at their boards. Both are in with a chance of a top ten finish, they need these points today! It is a long time before they are out. Most of the rest have gone for dinner, then comes good news: Ben has a draw! And then, and I guess we shouldn’t be surprised, Samuel wins!

All in all, a set of results we have to be happy with. A number of The Players are contesting top 5 positions as we go into the final round tomorrow (Round 9 is at 10am local time, 8am back there in the UK). And as a squad, we do achieve more than 50% score again: 7 out of 12!

The full results of Round 8 are as follows:

Unfortunately, as tomorrow is an early kick-off, the coaches are all too busy to be able to provide edited highlights of the round…

The draw for the final Round 9. It is a protracted and frustrating process, with Mr Chips shuttling back and forth between the Pallini Beach and the Athos Palace whilst the tournament organisers go to dinner. Witness this latest txt message that long-suffering Gill received from him: “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.”

The Players’ results to date:

The England “teams” and their overall scores at the end of Round 8:

Question: What’s the difference between illegal and unlawful?

Answer: One’s against the law and the other’s a big, sick bird.