English Chess Federation

World School Chess Championships - Round 9

Matt Hunt reports:

It is the last day of the tournament, and the games begin at 10am so there’s no time to recover from last night. The Quinn’s are pleased that their regular 3am wake-up call finally pays off. Breakfast today is served here in The Pallini Beach so no more slogging across the desert in search of fried food at The Athos Palace. It is overcast but warm, with the sun peeking through for a blood-red dawn. Is this an omen?

In the distance is the echo of faraway voices, playing faraway games. “Hey boy!” someone shouts. “Have you got chessbase?” and I say “I’ve got a little chess set but its packed away now, I’m on my way home on a flight.” No smell of brown leather, no one picks a fight. Lucky me as I’m a little fragile this morning.

Last minute rush of coaching and preparing. On hearing that he is not mentioned by name in yesterday’s report, Neil “Wary” McDonald makes a truly calamitous error of judgement and quotes Oscar Wilde: “There’s only one thing worse than being talked about, and that’s not being talked about.” So Neil goes solo today – and as a picture can speak a thousand words The Team Mascot has prepared the following:

The early morning flies past with only one reported mishap when one of The Players decides to head butt a fire extinguisher. No prizes for guessing who won. Let’s hope the result is reversed in the chess. Thinking it through, the Fire Extinguisher will probably lose on time.

Before we go to the chess bit, I think there is just enough time for a little cultural interlude. To set the context, some of the Responsible Adults had been returning to the Hotel from their perambulations with fanciful tales of skeletons and Greek ruins. How far had they searched to find this? How much credence could I give it? “Not far” and “A lot” as it turns out. So your sceptical but intrepid reporter, with The Team Mascot in tow for amusement, went in search of this mythical find. It turns out that less than a stone’s throw from the edge of the Hotel complex grounds is a half-finished but currently deserted archaeological dig. And yes – whilst decorum bids me to leave out the photos, I can report that the first thing you come across, lying on the ground, are two skellingtons. Creepy, I can tell you. But if you then press on to the ruins of the building, you are rewarded with real fragments of ancient Greek mosaic floors. I needed some urging from The Team Mascot, but I managed it and procured for you these never-seen-before-on-the-ECF-website photos:

And now the Chess bit:

It is the final round. Tension (at least as much, if not more than Spring) is in the air. There are some half-hearted attempts at humour amongst the Responsible Adults and TPTB. And tennis. Then the players start to come out…

Joseph is out in 55 minutes with a win, leaving him on an excellent 6 out of 9. Patrick loses to Joseph in the “who is out first” subsidiary competition but wins his match to end on 3 points in his first international! Then out comes Polly: a draw agreed, to end on 4 out of 9. Harry Streeter is out next, he has also earned a draw.

There is a long gap until, after 2½ hours, Sharan comes out with a win! Excellent result! Ten minutes later, it is the first reversal with Ed losing. He still ends the tournament on 4½ but is disappointed with himself as he has lost from a winning position. A few moments later Jessica manages the opposite and secures a draw having been in a losing position. A tremendous 5½ points, now she has to wait for other results to see where she has come in the placings – but we all believe she is in the top 3 U15 Girls…

On the 3 hour mark Ben emerges victorious. A well-deserved 6 out of 9!

At this stage we enter a nail-biting finale: Callum, George, Samuel and Dan remain playing, all on top 10 boards. Callum comes out and it is like a series of dominos falling – within minutes George exits, then Samuel and, just behind him, Dan. They have all won! Callum ends on 6 out of 9, the other three are all on 6½. A tremendous end to the Round!

What a finish by The Players!! They have worked extremely hard for 7 consecutive days. Longer hours, more intense and going on for longer than my A level exams! The Responsible Adults agree - they are all winners. As a squad, The Players again score more than 50% in the round: the total of 9½ out of 12 is in fact their best round of all and they get it in the last round which is often a low scoring round. The overall tournament score is 61 out of 108 – well over 50%!

The results of Round 9 are as follows:

The Players’ final set of results:

The England “teams” and their overall scores at the end of Round 9:

And here’s a chess gift for you: Samuel’s draw against Greek GM Grivas as reported in yesterday’s bulletin…

(1) Grivas, Efstratios (2520) - Franklin, Samuel
GM Simul Match, Halkidiki, Greece, 30.04.2006

1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 d6 3.Bb5+ Nc6 4.0–0 Bd7 5.Re1 Nf6 6.c3 a6 7.Bf1 Bg4 8.d3 e6 9.Nbd2 Be7 10.h3 Bh5 11.g4 Bg6 12.Nh4 h5 13.Nxg6 fxg6 14.Bg2 hxg4 15.hxg4 Ne5 16.f3 Nxd3 17.Re3 Nf4 18.Nf1 g5 19.Re1 Qc7 20.Ne3 Rd8 21.Qc2 Nd7 22.Nf1 Ne5 23.Be3 Nh3+ 24.Kh2 Nf4+ ½–½

Finally – many thanks from all The Players and their Responsible Adults to TPTB. It has been a tremendous trip, marred only by tomorrow’s 4am departure time. What’s the collective noun for an over-tired and grumpy chess party? We’ll find out in the morning, but you, dear readers, will have to use your imagination…

PS: A personal thanks to my editorial team who laboured long in to the night in a desperate attempt to bring a chess focus (failing that a touch of sanity) to these reports.

From the prize-giving we know that:

• Jessica Thiliganathan comes joint first in the U15 Girls; Well done Jessica!
• Samuel Franklin wins the best U12 in the U13 category, and the best performance by an unrated player in the U13. Congratulations to Samuel!
• England St George storm through to take 3rd place in the “team” event – well done to all of Daniel, Joseph, Samuel, George, Jessica and Callum for a tremendous achievement!

Final results, standings and prize-giving photos will be posted in due course. I’m off for a quick dip in the sea and several large beers…