Indholdsfortegnelse for April 2024 i British Chess Magazine

Arguments used in promotion of chess often emphasize that the game helps train concentration and stimulates problem solving. In the era of information overflow, where the fear of missing out (FOMO) is a key driver in the social life among many people, particularly the young, could this present an opportunity for chess to be positioned as a tool for combating distraction? At the beginning of April I was in the Swiss capital – Bern – for the celebration of 100 years of FIDE. The Swiss, together with FIDE, put on a great show which included the procession of the FIDE’s torch relay in the centre of Bern, “something which we have never had in our city,” as the mayor said later. A well thought out, well organised and well executed…

David only won narrowly, both times, because the evergreen Professor Jonathan Mestel came very close to overtaking him. Mestel has himself won the title many times and is also a former World Chess Solving Champion. Third place - one of the regulars? No, a newcomer. Audrey Kueh, with no previous experience at solving championships, although a strong over-the-board player, achieved a superb score. Audrey narrowly edged ahead of Kamila Hryshchenko for the bronze medal position. Kamila did get a major prize, however - that for the best solving performance over the last 12 months. During 2023/24, she won multiple prizes, had a massive increase in solving Elo rating, and became a regular member of the British solving team at international competitions. In parallel with the British Championship there is an…

Two of the greatest Jewish intellectuals, Lasker (1868-1941) and Einstein (1879-1955) were contemporaries and friends. Emanuel Lasker, son of a Jewish cantor, and world chess champion from 1894 to 1921, shared many concerns with that genius of Relativity, Albert Einstein. Not least was his preoccupation with the future of European Jews. Towards the end of his career, Lasker published The Community of the Future. This was a political tract, in which he demonstrated many of his ideas to create an ideal society. Two problems were especially prominent in his lucubrations: the fate of European Jews, highlighted of course by the irresistible rise of the Nazis in Germany, and the spectre of widespread unemployment. To resolve the first problem, Lasker even proposed the near geographical homonym, Alaska, as a possible refuge…

1 M. Travasoni L’Italia Scacchistica 1979 WIN 2 Y. Afek EBUR 2002 (version) DRAW 3 S. Abramenko Tsjernobyl Ty 1990 WIN 4 G. Zachodjakin Shakhmaty v SSSR 1951 DRAW BEAT THE BEST SOLVERS Your challenge this month is to solve the studies used in the Winton British Chess Solving Championship. If you can, you will have beaten every competitor. No-one got a perfect score in the study-solving round. At this year’s finals, some of the world’s top solvers came to Britain to compete against the British solvers. Even the overall winner, Eddy van Beers from Belgium, did not fully solve either of the two studies in the Open event. Five competitors did succeed with the first of those two studies, but no-one fully solved the second one. David Hodge, who…

After six rounds in the 4NCL Division One Wood Green are in top spot, having won all their matches, closely followed by The Sharks and Manx Liberty. (See the placings at the end of the article.) We shall look at two games by younger players, starting with a fine win on the top board by William Claridge-Hansen against Lupulescu in the match Manx Liberty against Oxford 1. Constantin Lupulescu - William Claridge-Hansen 4NCL 2023–24 England ENG (5.1) 1.e4 c5 2.♘f3 e6 3.c3 White avoids the Open Sicilian, potentially transposing to a French Defence with one important difference in that White has not yet played d4. 3...d5 4.e5 d4 Black prevents White from following up with d4: a good and combative decision. 5.♘a3 ♘c6 6.♙d3 6.♙b5 ♙d7 is also playable for…

A REVIEW OF: “A CHESS BIOGRAPHY OF RUDOLF SPIELMANN: FROM VIENNA TO MUNICH TO STOCKHOLM” BY GRIGORY BOGDANOVICH, ELK AND RUBY, 2023 “A CHESS BIOGRAPHY OF BORIS VERLINSKY: FIRST GRANDMASTER OF THE SOVIET UNION” BY SERGEI TKACHENKO, ELK AND RUBY 2023 “OBSESSION: A CHESS BIOGRAPHY OF VSEVOLOD RAUZER”, BY ALEXANDER KONSTANTINOPOLSKY, ELK AND RUBY 2023 In the last few years, the publishing house Elk and Ruby has been providing an invaluable service to Englishspeaking chess players who do not read Russian by producing splendid translations of works about players and events mostly involving the Soviet Union. The three books reviewed here reinforce this service, at the same time as adding a volume (originally in Russian) on one of the outstanding players of the German-speaking realm, Rudolf Spielmann. All of these…

6253 The breakthrough player of 1924 was that of Carlos Torre Repetto. He won the Louisiana championship in 1923, scoring +12 =2, then moved to New York and was not overawed by the challenge. Torre entered for the championship of the New York State Chess Association, to be held at Rochester. There were nine entrants, Torre scored +6=2 and tied for first place with 1915 champion Harold Jennings. Roy Black was third a point behind. Here is Torre’s game against the player placed fourth. Carlos Torre - Edward Bradford Adams Rochester 1924 1.e4 e5 2.♘f3 ♘c6 3.♙b5 g6 Steinitz and Pillsbury both played this with success. 4.d4 exd4 5.♘xd4 ♙g7 6.♙e3 ♕e7 A novelty which appeared a few times later. 7.♘c3 ♘f6 8.0-0 ♘xd4 8...♘xe4 9.♘xe4 ♕xe4 does not work…