3rd World School Championships - Round 2

By That Went Hum

Sunday 29th April 2006. Did I mention the lovely weather, the clean enticing pool, the azure blue sea and the delights of a cold beer at the pool-side café? Or indeed at the beach bar? No? Well, you’ve got to ask yourself – is this your lucky day? Is it? Did he tell me already or not? To tell the truth, in all the excitement I can’t remember myself. So go ahead, reader, make my day …

As they say, payback for those long day trips to Halifax and Nottingham, those weekends at the Travel Inn in Swindon and sitting in the canteen at Yateley Manor for 4 hours between rounds …

And are there any downsides, I hear you ask? Well, to quote my Player, the pillows “appear to have been fashioned out of pebbles from the beach.” Tough, huh?

And now the Chess bit:

It is still early doors and you cannot expect the wild swings of the draw to settle down until after Round 4, but nonetheless the team takes a pretty-much collective bite of the reality sandwich in Round 2. We, the Assorted Hangers-On, are hoping that those on zero after Round 1 get off the mark, and those on one retain their winning ways. Would that we had asked for half as much and got it all, because that’s pretty much what happened. So, do you want the good news or the bad news first? What, the bad news? Get over, not even Lexie would vote that way. Let me phone a friend… right, as I thought, it’s the good news first.

Hard Rice Rhinos watched in glee as his Player Charlie took full advantage of his opponent blundering their queen after 5 moves to get off the mark with his first ever international win. Next up, Quad Leonine Nuns were able to watch their Player Joseph at close range as he secures a draw to move to ½ point. And Chair Stringent delights in her Player David’s well worked win. That just left Patrick on zero after Round 1. And this is where the news isn’t quite so good… watched by his Assorted Hanger-On (Emits Vents) he is still unable to secure a draw and eventually succumbs: “but there are 7 rounds still to go.” [Good to know the lad can do his maths – ed.]

The bad news relates to most of those who won their Round 1 games. Impartial Kick Egg saw her Player Callum lose out on board 4 after yesterday’s record-breaking victory. Looney Toot missed out on all the Greek Evening food to watch his Player George take the top seed to a very exciting 30-second-a-move 6 th hour end game before losing (more anon). Ed V-R does not have Assorted Hangers-On, but Partridge Tunneller shouldered that responsibility to watch him lose out. Saravanan’s Assorted Hangers-On, Hasty, sees him lose (I’m only using his short name because a) no one knows his real name and b) there are far too many ‘a’s anyway and I’m getting a headache and it’s all too much for me and I want to be alone), as does yours truly with my Player, Handle Unit. But then some really good news: Alien Frond King reports that his Player Samuel has won! So out first player to achieve 100%! And that leaves just the all-England draw: we are guaranteed a point here at least, and a strong possibility of a second 100%-er. Attaching Hanky Vial watched her Player, Jessica, and Partridge Tunneller stood in-loco-parentis for Lateefah. No pre-arranged draw here, the Players go head-to-head and battle it out for well over 3 hours before Lateefah emerges triumphant.

So back to The Marathon Man… what can be said? [It’s a goddamn disaster movie? - ed.] George took on the top seed, move for move, but sadly lost in the end. Chess, being as it is a harsh and unforgiving sport, allocates George a whole zero points for the achievement, not really doing justice to the quality of the game. To understand more fully perhaps, just a quick update for you on “the time control”. The “time control” is the amount of time each player has at the start of the game in which to make a set number of moves and/or complete the game. In this international tournament, each player starts with 90 minutes on their clock and after completing 40 moves they then get an additional 30 minutes added to whatever time they have remaining at that point. So basic time control is 2 hours per player. On top of this they get 30 seconds added per move made. Therefore, as an example, a 60 move game can last 2 x {90+30+(60x0.5)} = 5 hours. So in George’s case, by the time the match completed its 5 th hour and moved into the 6 th hour, both players were surviving just on 30 seconds per move. Much like the sprint finish that decides the winner at the end of a marathon!

All in all then a pretty down day for England as a whole, but the winners help keep the mood buoyant and the spirit remains strong (they only do doubles here, and the G&T is billed as Vodka&Lemon for some reason). Again due to the Eng-v-Eng pairing there are only 11 possible points to be won, but our final total of 4½ is just below the target 50% mark. Overall though we have 12½ out of 24 points for both rounds, so we stay just above that benchmark.

The full results of Round 2 are as follows:

The draw for Round 3:

The Players’ results to date:

Two cracking highlights from Round 1:

Messam-Sparks, Lateefah - Flaharty M, Precious
World Schools Chess Championships, U15G, Kallithea, Greece 28.04.2007
Annotated by Meander Sloth.

1.e4 Nf6 2.e5 Nd5 3.d4 e6 [3...d6 is a more usual continuation] 4.Nf3 Bb4+?! 5.c3 Ba5 The Bishop is missed in the defence of Black's King, it would be better placed on e7. Little could Black know how severely (and promptly) this would be punished! 6.Bd3 Nc6 7.0-0 0-0? This looks sensible but.. 8.Bxh7+! The so-called 'Greek Gift' sacrifice is used to great effect here by Lateefah. 8...Kxh7 [8...Kh8 Declining the piece is hardly any better: e.g. 9.Ng5 g6 10.Qg4 with a winning attack.] 9.Ng5+ Kg8?! [9...Kg6 was the only chance. However... 10.h4! (10.Qg4!? is also strong 10...f5 11.Qg3 Qe7 12.Nxe6+ Kf7 13.Nxf8+-) 10...Qe7 11.Qd3+ f5 12.exf6+ Kxf6 13.Qf3+ Kg6 14.h5+ Kh6 15.Nxe6+ Kh7 16.Nxf8++-] 10.Qh5 g6? allowing an immediate end to the game 11.Qh7# A flawless win. 1-0

Craffert,Duan - Venmore-Rowland,Edward [A48]
World Schools Chess Championships, U15B, Kallithea, Greece 28.04.2007
Annotated by Mad Haunt.

1.d4 Nf6 2.Nf3 g6 3.Bg5 Ne4 4.Nc3 White should keep hold of his bishop, by playing Bh4 or Bf4. In these sort of positions after the bishop has been exchanged the black dark squared bishop will have no equal 4...Nxg5 5.Nxg5 d5 6.g3 Bg7 7.Bg2 c6 A very sensible way of playing against white's system 8.0–0 0–0 9.e3 e5 10.e4?? Qxg5 11.exd5 exd4 12.Ne4 Qd8 Not Qxd5??, of course, because of Nf6+ 13.dxc6 Nxc6 14.Rc1?! Be6 15.a3 Qc8 16.Qd2 Bh3 17.Bxh3 Qxh3 18.Nd6 Ne5 19.Qe2 Ng4 20.f3 Ne3 A very nice knight manoevre 21.Rf2 Qd7 22.Nc4 Rfe8 23.Qd3 Bh6 24.Rb1 Nxc4 25.f4 [25.Qxc4 Be3–+] 25...Rac8 26.c3 Re3 27.Qd1 d3 28.b3 Nxa3 29.Ra1 Nb5 30.Qd2 Rce8 31.Kf1 Re2 32.Rxe2 Rxe2 33.Qd1 Qh3+ 34.Kg1 Qg2# A very nice game by Edward, helped by his opponents 10th move blunder! 0–1

And now, renewing our brand introduction feature:

******** Great Chess Moments from History ********

And finally, Kids Korner!

A chess master died - after a few days, a friend of his heard a voice; it was him!
"What's it like, where you are now," he asked.

"What do you want to hear first, the good news or the bad news?"
"Tell me the good news first."

"Well, it really is heaven here. There are tournaments and blitz sessions going on all the time and Morphy, Alekhine, Lasker, Tal, Capablanca, Botvinnik, they're all here, and you can play against them."

"Fantastic!" the friend said, "and what is the bad news?"
“You have Black against Capablanca on Saturday.”