Dear Member
I hope you are enjoying the weather, the Ashes and the start of the football season (also chess, if you have time). In this edition we lead on the British Championship with Michael Adams taking his seventh title and Jovanka Houska winning the women’s title for the ninth time. Our correspondent FM Tim Wall gives us the inside view both on and off the board in what has been another exciting and successful tournament in Torquay and Director of Home Chess Adrian Elwin gives a precis of the event. We also feature a superb history of the county championships by Anthony Fulton with a round-up of the July finals from tournament director Mark Murrell. It is hard to believe that at one time there were 100-a-side matches! Imagine organising such a team without WhatsApp and with 200 people merrily smoking Capstan unfiltered cigarettes.
Other features include news of the forthcoming London Chess Classic, England Women’s Festival in Hull and a report on the inaugural World Prison Chess Championships.
— Mark Rivlin
British Championships
Director of Home Chess Adrian Elwin’s roundup here
Wall-ky Torquay
Tim Wall blogs about the British here
Up the ladder or down the snake?
Check your July grades here – https://www.englishchess.org.uk/new-grades-are-out-4/
Roses are White
Yorkshire took the honours at the County Championships finals; results of each section were
Open – Yorkshire; Minor – Lincolnshire; U180 – Essex; U160 – Middlesex; U140 – Yorkshire; U120 – Essex; U100 – Staffordshire.
More here – www.englishchess.org.uk/100th-counties-championships-finals-day-13th-july/ and for Anthony Fulton’s superb piece on 100 years of county chess click here – https://www.englishchess.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/100-Years-of-the-Counties-Championship-1.pdf
Glory at Glorney
England won the Gilbert and Robinson sections of the Glorney Gilbert Robinson Cup and came second in the Stokes section and third in the Glorney section – http://chess-results.com/tnr458025.aspx?lan=1 and https://www.englishchess.org.uk/Juniors/the-glorney-cup-2019/
The European Youth Chess Championship is taking place in Bratislava, Slovakia. Daily roundups here – https://www.englishchess.org.uk/Juniors/european-youth-championship-starts-today/ and the European Youth Team Championships results are here – https://chess-results.com/tnr450723.aspx?lan=1&art=20&turdet=YES&flag=30&snr=15
English Girls’ Chess Championships
19th-20th October – https://www.englishchess.org.uk/Juniors/english-girls-chess-championships-2019/
Midland Open this weekend
Last chance saloon to enter the Midland Open this weekend in Telford. Details here – http://www.mccu.org.uk/m_congress/
FIDE questionnaire …
… on time limits for rated games. Alex Holowczak, FIDE Qualification Commission Secretary, is seeking responses to a questionnaire about the length of games required for standard play games to be FIDE rated. Links here – https://www.fide.com/component/content/article/1-fide-news/11769-qc-questionnaire-on-time-limits-for-rated-games.html and here https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdQV61DavV-2Z85IDQkAMK5itDzWPgy3YmPPxWnRLI6ePNSDQ/viewform
World Prison Chess Championships
James Corrigan reports from HMP Wandsworth. The first ever World Prison Chess Championship took place on the 5th and 6th of August bringing together teams of 4 prisoners from Armenia, Belarus, Russia, USA, England, Brazil and Italy for 15 minute games across the internet on chess.com. Team England comprised the best chess players from HMP Wandsworth, where the chess club is run by Peter Sullivan, Prisons Co-ordinator of Chess in Schools and Communities. Russia won the tournament and Team England finished last place, but that score does not reflect on the quality of the individual games. Playing across continents and language barriers is difficult for organising any event, but in a prison doubly so! The event was a wonderful experience for the prisoners and couldn’t have taken place without the fantastic support of the prison staff at HMP Wandsworth. To quote our Board Two, ‘Without a doubt it was the happiest day of life for the past two years inside.’
See below for Board 1 England vs Board 1 Belarus. White in this game lost on time, but judge for yourself who was the better player —
1. d4 d5 2. c4 dxc4 3. Nf3 e6 4. Qa4+ Qd7 5. Qxc4 Bd6 6. e4 c67. e5 Bc7 8. Nc3 Ne7 9. Ne4 b5 10. Qc2 Na6 11. a3 Nf5 12. Be3Nxe3 13. fxe3 O-O 14. Bd3 Bd8 15. Nd6 h6 16. Be4 Nb8 17. Nxb5 Ba6 18. Nd6 Be7 19. Nc4 Qc7 20. b4 Bb5 21. O-O Nd722. Rf2 Rac8 23. Rc1 Nb8 24. Nfd2 Bg5 25. Rf3 f6 26. Nd6 fxe527. Rxf8+ Rxf8 28. Nxb5 Bxe3+ 29. Kh1 Qb6 30. Nd6 Qxd431. N6c4 Rf2 32. Rd1 Bxd2 33. Nxd2 Re2 34. Bf3 Rf2 35. Qc1 Qh4 36. Ne4 Ra2 37. Qc4 Rxa3 38. Qxe6+ Kh7 39. Qf5+ Kg840. Qg4 Qe7 41. Nc5 Re3 42. Qc8+ Qf8 43. Qxf8+ Kxf8 44. Kg1Ke7 45. Kf2 Ra3 46. Re1 Nd7 47. Nxd7 Kxd7 48. Rxe5 Rc3 49. Bg4+ Kd6 50. Re6+ Kd5 51. Re7 g5 52. Rxa7 Kc4 53. Rb7 Rb354. Be6+ Kc3 55. Bxb3 Kxb3 56. Rb6 Kc4 57. Rxc6+ Kxb4 58. Ke3 Kb5 59. Rc3 Kb4 60. Kd4 Kb5 61. Rb3+ Ka4 62. Kc4Ka5
4NCL Women’s League
Terms & Conditions of entry here – https://www.4ncl.co.uk/fide/information_womens_league.htm and entry forms here – http://www.4ncl.co.uk/fide/4ncl_womens_league_indiv.htm
Caps off to Caplin
Specialist provider of desktop and mobile etrading technology Caplin will be the primary sponsor of the Hastings International Congress. More here – http://www.hastingschess.com/caplin-systems-sponsors-the-hastings-international-chess-congress/
The 23rd 4NCL Congress will take place in South Normanton 4-6 October – http://www.4ncl.co.uk/fide/information_23.htm
Speed Kings
Nigel Towers writes about UK Open Blitz. This is an ECF-organised UK Championship event, with regional events across the UK and an all play all final with a significant prize fund. Entries will include very strong players given the number of GMs, IMS, WGMs and WIMs in last year’s events. The availability of section prizes for the regionals so players of all strengths have a chance of winning a prize. Two open and two women’s qualification places from each event. The Open and Women’s finals in Solihull which we will be using live boards for, and (probably) streaming live with one of the internet chess providers. Entries and more details here – https://www.englishchess.org.uk/uk-open-blitz-championships-2019/ and entry here – https://britchess.wufoo.com/forms/uk-open-blitz-2019/
London Chess Classic
The 11th Classic will run this year from November 29th to December 8th at its traditional home of the Olympia Conference Centre. The Super GM tournament will be accompanied by the Festival including a FIDE-rated Open and other graded sections as in previous years. Malcolm Pein and the team at Chess in Schools and Communities are also trying to organise another Super Blitz and Super Rapid. There will also be the daily activities for schools and chess teacher training courses. More to come next month. Please check londonchessclassic.com for updates or email info@londonchessclassic.com
Director of Women’s Chess Chris Fegan’s roundup
The 2019 British Championships are now over and many thanks and congratulations to all women and girls who participated. All attention now turns to the English Women’s Chess Festival which will be held at the Royal Hotel, Hull over the weekend Friday 30th August to Sunday 1st September 2019. The centrepiece of the Festival is the English Womens Chess Championshipn 2019 and entries can be made online at https://www.englishchess.org.uk/english-womens-championships-2019/
The festival which surrounds the Championship will include coaching, talks, simultaneous displays and a Civic Reception on the Saturday night. The festival promises to be the highlight for women’s chess in 2019.
Northern Knights
The excellent Northumbria Masters tournament is taking place 23rd-27th August at Novotel Newcastle Airport. The nine-round FIDE rated tournaments include Northumbria Masters (eligible for title norms) Challengers (Under 2050 FIDE, Under 180 ECF) £975 Major (Under 1825, Under 150 ECF): unior Rapidplay (Under 11 & Under 14 sections) – a one-day tournament on Friday 23rd August with numerous prizes and trophies. More here – https://northumbriamasters.com/
On a roll
GM Igor Rausis was caught cheating by a camera concealed in the men’s lavatory at the Strasbourg Open. Perhaps he was studying a variation of the Bowel Opening. More here – https://en.chessbase.com/post/58-year-old-gm-igors-rausis-caught-cheating-at-the-strasbourg-open
ECU training courses
The next open ECU courses in the UK are ECU101 Teaching chess in primary school (two day course) at Cambridge Saturday 31st August / 1st September – and London Wednesday 4th/5th December – . Teaching mathematics through games on a chessboard (one day course) are being held in Cambridge on Friday 30th August – http://bit.ly/ChessMathsCambridge and London Friday 29th November – http://bit.ly/ChessMathsHammersmith
More on both courses here – https://www.englishchess.org.uk/ecu-training-courses/
Master at the Local
Stephen Greep reports on GM Simon Williams taking on the good folk of Hull. On a sunny Sunday afternoon in Hull, Simon Williams entertained local players to a 26 board simultaneous – the sixth Hull Grandmaster Challenges, following Michael Adams, David Howell, Luke McShane, Gawain Jones and Jovanka Houska. The venue was the smart Edwardian suite at the Royal Hull Hotel. After four gruelling hours the scores were GM 24, locals 2 with no draws –wins were recorded by Mate Ther of Harrogate (who beat Gawain Jones when he was aged just nine in an earlier Hull GM simultaneous) and Rod Wardlaw of Scunthorpe who was awarded a prize by Simon for the best game of the day. Mate Ther won the prize of a copy of Fritz, kindly donated by Chess Direct and there were further prizes from Simon and Chess Magazine. Simon’s time to dispatch 26 players with an average grade of 137, was just 10 minutes each. The opening move on board one was made by Cllr Craker, portfolio holder for Culture, Leisure and Tourism at Hull City Council. Not only had his committee donated £10,000 towards the British Championships last year but a further £4,500 for other local chess events this year. After 1. D4, Cllr Craker sat down and became board 27. Unfortunately, Simon forgot his brief and dispatched him rapidly. Hull hopes this hasn’t ended the council’s sponsorship of local chess …
Golden age tickets
Team lists for European Senior Team Chess Championship, Croatia 17-27 September here – https://www.englishchess.org.uk/Seniors/revised-team-list-croatia/
Chess magazine taster for August here
Fast coach to Hull
Hull Chess Club’s Stephen Greep reports on a chess windfall from the local council …
We have received £8,000 for junior chess from Hull City Council which must be spent on Hull children. We have split it on three years’ worth of summer schools (as the first one we did was a brilliant success), £1,000 for schools and our Saturday library club, £1,000 for local juniors to attend congresses outside the area and also for dedicated junior coaching.
Hull CC are also hosting the 4NCL International Congress, incorporating the 56th Hull Congress on the weekend of 1st-3rd November. There will also be a junior coaching initiative at the tournament. More here – https://www.hullchess.com/ and here https://www.hullchess.com/public/files/Events%20-%20ours/2019%20Congress/coaching.pdf
Book review
IM Gary Lane on 300 Most Important Chess Positions by Thomas Engqvist, a useful accompaniment for club players – here
Winning inmates
Carl Portman plays chess at HMP Hewell – https://www.englishchess.org.uk/carl-portman-visits-hmp-hewell/
Problem solved
Another testing problem from Christopher Jones with last month’s solution here
Obituary
John Henshaw – https://www.ecforum.org.uk/viewtopic.php?f=46&t=10340