Indholdsfortegnelse for October 2023 i British Chess Magazine

China's ascent as a global chess powerhouse has been nothing short of extraordinary. From its humble beginnings, China has now emerged as a dominant force in the chess world. The unfolding of China’s path to chess dominance is something which should be looked at carefully and studied If the youth represent the future, then the world has a lot to expect from the country of the Red Dragon when it comes to chess. China’s chess success continues to captivate attention as they clinched a resounding victory at the FIDE World Youth U16 Olympiad hosted in Eindhoven, the Netherlands. Turkey was second, Armenia third while the English team finished in 32nd place. The Chinese team demonstrated unwavering dominance throughout the competition, amassing 17 out of 18 match points. Only the team…

As my review of Raymond Keene’s admirable ‘Fifty Shades of Ray’ (quoted at the back of this new book) stated in its conclusion: ‘Provocative, challenging, colourful, spicy, here is a menu of delights: a meze table or tapas board where piquant flavours jostle for attention. It even looks as good as it tastes, with elegant chess diagrams a most pleasing feature. You will not necessarily like or agree with anything, but you will leave the board with your mind buzzing with the sheer verve and ebullience of this vivid evocation of the game of life.’ If this was a fair summary of that book, it is certainly true – a fortiori – of its successor, which will have been eagerly awaited by the many who enjoy Ray’s inimitable and [grand]masterly…

In the chess world, where intellect and strategy reign supreme, emotions run deep beneath the surface. It's a realm where victory and defeat are not merely outcomes but profound experiences that shape the psyche of Grandmasters In a recent interview, former World Champion Viswanathan Anand was asked if he hated losing as much as Kasparov did. He said: “To me, it seems he isn’t even close to me, but I admit I can’t see him from the inside, and he probably can’t see me from the inside. When I lose, I can’t imagine anyone in the world who loses as badly as I do inside.” You wouldn’t think this of Anand, who usually appears calm and composed. But: “I’m not a good loser. I’m a good actor. I know how…

The renowned Yugoslav/Serbian Grandmaster Aleksandar Matanovic passed away in Belgrade on 9 th August, two months after celebrating his 93 rd birthday. Following the passing of Yuri Averbakh in May of 2022, Matanovic was the world’s oldest living Grandmaster A journalist by training and a highly successful player, Matanovic has left an indelible mark on the chess world, both with his games and with his writing. Alongside Svetozar Gligoric, Borislav Ivkov and Milan Matulovic – he formed the backbone of the second superpower in the chess world, marking the golden era of Yugoslav chess from 1950 to 1980. Matanovic was also the vice president of FIDE from 1990 to 1994 and the director and editor of…

Aron Nimzowitsch (1886-1935), author of the chess players’ strategic bible My System, emerged from a 19th-century tradition of great Jewish players of the game. Much like Marx for economics and Freud for psychology, they tried to explain chess in a formulaic fashion that enabled them to plan ahead. Wilhelm Steinitz, world chess champion from 1866 to 1894, sought to extract rules of positional play from the chaotic tactical struggles of most of his forebears. Dr Siegbert Tarrasch, who was at least Steinitz’s equal as a player, though never himself world champion, went further. Tarrasch codified, or sought to codify, the lessons which Steinitz had distilled, while purging some of his great predecessor’s more opaque beliefs. He became known as the Praeceptor Germaniae, the “chess teacher of Germany”. Where Tarrasch erred,…

In 1921, Jose Capablanca wrote a classic work, Chess Fundamentals. It was not a thick work. Even Capa couldn’t explain everything in one book. He did, however, explain some key concepts an average reader could take away from the examples given and apply in their play. One of the lessons he spent several pages on was his explanation of how to take advantage of a backward pawn and how to convert it to a win. He used the Open Defence to the Ruy Lopez and quoted an ‘anonymous’ non-tournament game he played. I went digging for it and found it. We’ll look at the game and the related example he provided. It’s an excellent example of his approach to evaluating a position and mapping out a plan. J. Raul Capablanca…

6238 Eagle-eyed readers will spot that in past columns I have referred to Rudolf Charousek. I now prefer Rezso Charousek, which was his byline when conducting the chess column of Pesti Hirlap. Those columns for 1899 are available at www.chessarch.com 6239 There have been several collections of Charousek’s games. Vlastimil Fiala’s collection in Quarterly for Chess History volume 1 contains games and positions as well as cross tables. He gives eight games and a position played against Jakab Wollner. Here are four more. Wollner was not in Charousek’s class, but the games are still instructive. Rezso Charousek - Jakab Wollner Kaschau, 1892 1.e4 e5 2.f4 exf4 3.♙c4 ♙e7 4.♘f3 ♙h4+ 4...♘f6 is the modern approach. 5.g3 Steinitz preferred 5.♔f1. 5...fxg3 6.0-0 ♘h6 6...gxh2+ 7.♔h1 d5 8.♙xd5 ♘f6 9.♙xf7+ ♔xf7 10.♘xh4…

1 A. Sarychev USSR Championship 1978 draw 2 V. Hergert WCSC 2023 draw 3 D. Gurgenidze The Problemist 1986 (version) draw 4 M. Minski 64 2023 win TEST-SOLVING Your task this month is to pit your solving skills against the world’s best solvers. Our four studies were used in the congress at Batumi, in Georgia, where many of the finest solvers gathered in September for the annual World Chess Solving Championship. The first two studies were used in the WCSC itself and the third and fourth were used in the Open, which serves as a warm-up competition for the WCSC. The new World Champion is in fact also the old World Champion. Well, maybe not "old" - Danila Pavlov is only twenty years old - but he has already proved…

THE EUROPEAN SENIOR TEAM CHAMPIONSHIPS (POLAND, JULY 2023) England had a very successful tournament, winning two team Gold Medals, one Silver and one Bronze The England 50+ 1st team of Mark Hebden, John Emms, Keith Arkell, Glenn Flear and Chris Ward won the 50+, defending their title from last time. Mark Hebden scored a brilliant 7.5/8 on top board. The England 50+ Women’s team of Susan Lalic, Sheila Jackson, Ingrid Lauterbach, Petra Nunn and Natasha Regan also took the Gold Medal. The England 50+ second team of Graeme Buckley, Steve Dishman, Richard Holmes, Phil Crocker and Bob Noyce took the team bronze. England’s third team of Jonathan Hill, Haran Rasalingam, Paul Dupre and Mark Hogarth finished 8th. In the 65+ the 1st team of John Nunn, Tony Kosten, Peter Large,…

The successful Congress featured the Northumbria Masters, a GM tournament and an IM tournament with several title norms being achieved. The Congress Director was Tim Wall and there was sponsorship for title norms from Mark Jordan. In the Masters Gudmundur Kjartansson and David Gormally shared first place. In the GM tournament Rajat Makkar won with 7.5/9 and made a grandmaster norm and in the IM tournament Krzysztof Raczek of Poland won with 7.5/9. We look at two games from the GM Pool starting with a sparkling win by Daniel Fernandez Dan SIN Fernandez - Jonah B Willow Northumbria GM Pool 2023 Newcastle upon Tyne ENG (1.1) 1.d4 ♘f6 2.g3 e6 3.♙g2 d5 4.♘f3 The Catalan; a solid choice for White and difficult for Black to meet. 4...c5 5.0–0 cxd4 6.♘xd4…