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X-ORIGINAL-URL:http://britishchessnews.com
X-WR-CALDESC:Events for British Chess News
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TZID:UTC
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TZOFFSETFROM:+0000
TZOFFSETTO:+0000
TZNAME:UTC
DTSTART:20190101T000000
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END:VTIMEZONE
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20201130
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20201201
DTSTAMP:20260817T135617Z
CREATED:20200411T223418Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260817T135617Z
UID:4518-1606694400-1606780799@britishchessnews.com
SUMMARY:Birthday of GM Simon Williams (30-xi-1979)
DESCRIPTION:GM Simon Williams\nBest wishes to GM Simon Williams on his fortieth birthday\, this day (November 30th) in 1979. \nSimon was Southern Counties (SCCU) champion in the 2001-02 (shared with Simon Knott) and the 2006-07 season. \nHis Wikipedia entry is here \nGM Simon Williams
URL:http://britishchessnews.com/event/birthday-of-gm-simon-kim-williams-30-xi-1979/
CATEGORIES:Birthday,British Championships,Player,Writer
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END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20201206
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20201207
DTSTAMP:20211106T121121Z
CREATED:20191130T140838Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20211106T121121Z
UID:2213-1607212800-1607299199@britishchessnews.com
SUMMARY:Birthday of IM John Hawksworth (06-xii-1963)
DESCRIPTION:We wish happy birthday to IM John Hawksworth born on Friday\, December 6th\, 1963. \nJohn Crofton Hawksworth was “born in Brighton\, England\, in December 1963 to Robert Marshall Hawksworth and Norah Connor Hawksworth née Crofton. He was baptised at St Saviour’s Church of England church in Pimlico\, London\, in 1964.[1]” \nThis was written about John who was 15 just prior to the Spassky vs the BCF Junior Squad simultaneous display in 1979 : \n“Bradford Grammar and Bradford. Rating 194. Yorkshire under-18 champion.” \nHe was awarded the IM title in 1986. \nAccording to ChessBase his highest FIDE rating was 2370 in January\, 1990 aged 27 which was the last year of serious competition at the 77th British Championships in Eastbourne. \nHe then pursued a highly successful career in the financial sector and is currently the Chief Economist for PriceWaterhouseCoopers. \nIM John Crofton Hawksworth (standing\,far left)\n[pgn]\n[Event “Lloyds Bank op 06th”]\n[Site “London”]\n[Date “1982.09.02”]\n[Round “9”]\n[White “Hawksworth\, John Crofton”]\n[Black “Kortschnoj\, Viktor Lvovich”]\n[Result “1-0”]\n[ECO “E15”]\n[BlackElo “2645”]\n[Annotator “British Chess News”]\n[PlyCount “49”]\n[EventDate “1982.08.??”]\n[EventType “swiss”]\n[EventRounds “9”]\n[EventCountry “ENG”]\n[SourceTitle “EXT 2008”]\n[Source “ChessBase”]\n[SourceDate “2007.11.25”]\n[SourceVersion “1”]\n[SourceVersionDate “2007.11.25”]\n[SourceQuality “1”] \n{[%evp 0\,47\,19\,31\,14\,-14\,-11\,0\,33\,10\,0\,-1\,22\,22\,54\,16\,11\,22\,20\,16\,16\,-2\,19\,8\,1\,\n1\,1\,2\,-1\,3\,5\,0\,10\,12\,25\,30\,20\,28\,15\,18\,75\,84\,6\,36\,153\,167\,306\,289\,310\,324]} 1.\nd4 Nf6 2. c4 e6 3. Nf3 b6 4. g3 Ba6 5. Nbd2 Bb4 6. Qa4 c5 7. a3 Bxd2+ 8. Bxd2\ncxd4 9. Bg2 Bb7 10. O-O Bc6 11. Qd1 Bxf3 12. Bxf3 Nc6 13. Bf4 O-O 14. Bd6 Re8\n15. Bxc6 dxc6 16. Qxd4 Nd5 $146 (16… c5 17. Qf4 Nh5 18. Qe5 f6 19. Qxh5 Qxd6\n20. Rfd1 Qe7 $14) 17. c5 e5 18. Qa4 Qd7 19. e4 bxc5 $6 20. Bxc5 Nf4 21. Qd1 Qh3\n$2 22. gxf4 exf4 23. f3 Re5 24. Qc2 $1 {and Black resigned.} Rg5+ 25. Kh1 1-0\n[/pgn] \nIM John Crofton Hawksworth (standing\, second from right)\nAt the Lloyds Bank Masters : Front (l-r) : Joel Benjamin\, Ian Wells\, Rear : Peter Morrish\, Stewart Reuben\, Richard Beville\, Gary Senior\, Richard Webb\, John Hawksworth\, Andrew King\, Nigel Short\, Mark Ginsburg\, Daniel King\, David Cummings\, Erik Teichmann\, John Brandford and Micheal Pagden
URL:http://britishchessnews.com/event/birthday-of-im-john-crofton-hawksworth-06-xii-1963/
CATEGORIES:Birthday,British Championships,Player
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:http://britishchessnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/hawksworth_john_480x640_0.jpg
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20201209
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20201210
DTSTAMP:20211109T181851Z
CREATED:20190822T222348Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20211109T181851Z
UID:1014-1607472000-1607558399@britishchessnews.com
SUMMARY:Birthday of WGM Dr. Jana Bellin (09-xii-1947)
DESCRIPTION:Happy birthday WGM Dr. Jana Bellin on this day (December 9th) in 1947. \nJana Malypetrova\nFrom The Encyclopedia of Chess (Robert Hale\, 1970 & 1976)\, Anne Sunnucks : \n“International Woman Master (1969)\, Czech Woman Champion in 1965 and 1967 and British Woman Champion since 1970. \nJana Malypetrova\nJana was born in Prague on the 9th December 1947 and learned to play chess at the age of eleven. She made her first appearance in the international field when she played 2nd board for Czechoslovakia in Women’s Chess Olympiad in Oberhausen in 1966. In the same year she represented Czechoslovakia in the Zonal tournament at Varna and came 11th. \nJana Malypetrova\nShe is now married to the British International Master\, William Hartston\, and played 1st board for England in the Women’s Chess Olympiad in Skopje in 1972 and represented England in the Zonal tournament in Wijk aan Zee in 1973 in which she tied for 1st place. In the same year she came =6th in the Interzonal Tournament. She is a doctor.” \nJana & Bill Hartston celebrate a family double at the British Championships in 1973 at Eastbourne\nFrom The Encyclopedia of Chess (Batsford\, 1977)\, Harry Golombek OBE : \n“Born in Prague\, Czechoslovakia\, but moved to England in 1970 after her marriage to WR Hartston. Czechoslovak Woman champion in 1965 and 1967 (under her maiden name of Malypetrova) and British Ladies champion in the five years 1970 to 1974. International Woman master since 1969.” \nBill and Jana Hartston are shown with some of their many chess sets. CHESS\, August 1973\, page 323\nFrom British Chess (Pergamon Press\, 1983) Botterill\, Levy\, Rice and Richardson : \nHastings International Chess Congress 21 year old Jana Malypetrova From Czechoslovakia And Vassily Smyslov From Russia.  Mandatory Credit: Photo by Michael Fresco/ANL/Shutterstock (1876232a)\n“Jana Miles was born 9 December 1947 in Prague\, Czechoslovakia. She moved to England when she married Bill Hartston. Divorced from Hartston in 1978\, she subsequently married Tony Miles.  \nHastings International Chess Congress 21 year old Jana Malypetrova From Czechoslovakia And Vassily Smyslov From Russia.  Mandatory Credit: Photo by Michael Fresco/ANL/Shutterstock (1876232a)\nShe was Czech woman champion in 1965 and 1967 and has regularly been the British Ladies Champion since moving to this country. She is a doctor of medicine.” \nBill and Dr\, Jana Hartston (née Malypetrova)\n[pgn]\n[Event “Olympiad Women-09”]\n[Site “Valetta”]\n[Date “1980.12.06”]\n[Round “14”]\n[White “Bellin\, Jana M”]\n[Black “Fischdick\, Gisela”]\n[Result “1-0”]\n[ECO “A72”]\n[WhiteElo “2220”]\n[BlackElo “2235”]\n[Annotator “Jana Miles & British Chess News”]\n[PlyCount “119”]\n[EventDate “1980.11.20”]\n[EventType “team-swiss”]\n[EventRounds “14”]\n[EventCountry “MLT”]\n[SourceTitle “EXT 2019”]\n[Source “ChessBase”]\n[SourceDate “2018.10.10”]\n[SourceVersion “1”]\n[SourceVersionDate “2018.10.10”]\n[SourceQuality “1”]\n[WhiteTeam “England (W)”]\n[BlackTeam “Germany (W)”]\n[WhiteTeamCountry “ENG”]\n[BlackTeamCountry “GER”] \n{[%evp 0\,119\,19\,31\,14\,-14\,-11\,0\,28\,50\,81\,61\,72\,74\,99\,105\,105\,87\,93\,61\,46\,25\,28\,\n17\,28\,16\,26\,26\,24\,36\,29\,43\,53\,64\,81\,50\,46\,89\,33\,87\,14\,29\,4\,-81\,-89\,-85\,-85\,-19\,\n-20\,14\,0\,0\,0\,0\,18\,17\,0\,0\,24\,35\,64\,97\,148\,64\,109\,117\,135\,140\,232\,151\,200\,227\,\n408\,223\,251\,148\,167\,208\,225\,240\,253\,229\,232\,182\,232\,217\,208\,200\,224\,204\,206\,\n240\,256\,294\,291\,302\,294\,288\,397\,406\,497\,503\,506\,504\,524\,539\,537\,554\,561\,570\,\n591\,609\,617\,617\,619\,655\,670\,669\,670\,695\,1012\,28087]} 1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 e6 3. Nf3\nc5 4. d5 exd5 5. cxd5 d6 6. Nc3 g6 7. e4 Bg7 8. Bg5 a6 ({Another possibility\nis to chase the bishop immediately e.g.} 8… h6 9. Bh4 g5 10. Bg3 Nh5 11. Bb5+\nKf8 12. e5 Nxg3 13. fxg3 dxe5 14. O-O a6 15. Bd3 b5 16. Nd2 c4 17. Qh5 f6 $146\n(17… Ra7 18. Bg6) 18. Bc2 Bd7 19. a4 Be8 20. Bg6 Nd7 21. axb5 Bxg6 22. Qxg6\naxb5 23. Rxa8 Qxa8 24. Nde4 Qe8 25. Qf5 Qd8 26. Kh1 Kg8 27. Nxb5 {winning\n(Miles-Hernandez\, Biel 1977). No wonder Benoni players seem to have abandoned\nthis particular line.}) 9. Nd2 {Last played in 2005} b5 10. Be2 O-O 11. Qc2 {\n[#]} {Curiously this same game appears with two move orders in the same (1981)\nyear of BCM. This move order is game #19833 on page 83 of volume CI (101).}\nNbd7 ({and this move order with annotations appears in the same BCM volume as\ngame #20197 on page 545. This version is reproduced in British Chess\, page 189.\n} 11… h6 12. Bh4 Nbd7 (12… Re8 13. O-O Qc7 14. Rae1 Nbd7 15. a4 b4 16. Nd1\nb3 17. Qb1 Rb8 18. Ne3 Rb4 19. Nec4 Rxa4 20. Bg3 Bf8 21. f4 Nb6 22. Nxb6 Qxb6\n23. Nc4 Qd8 24. Bh4 Be7 25. Bd3 Bb7 {as in J.Miles – D. Cramling\, Oslo\, 1980;}\n{the game continued} 26. e5 $1 dxe5 27. fxe5 $4 ({but} 27. d6 $1 {should win\nfor White e.g.} Bxd6 28. fxe5 Bxe5 29. Bxf6 Bxf6 30. Rxe8+ Qxe8 31. Rxf6 $18)\n27… Qxd5 {and Black won\,}) 13. a4 b4 14. Nd1) 12. a4 b4 13. Nd1 h6 14. Bh4\nRe8 {A new move in 1980 was} 15. Ne3 $146 {and now\, as any hyponotist might\nsay\, we are back in the room. The two versions of this game have transposed to\nthe same position.} (15. f3 {was the previous move from 1977.}) 15… b3 16.\nQb1 Qe7 $146 (16… Rb8 {has become the modern move in this position}) 17. O-O\nRb8 18. Ra3 $5 Rb4 19. f3 {With the idea of stabilising the centre and\nsurrounding the b3 pawn. After this move I left my boarda and went to survey\nthe situation of our men’s team.} {On returning I found that Black had played}\nNxe4 $2 {BCN : Despite the ? mark in BCM modern day engines find that this IS\nthe best move and asses the position as =(0.00) Am curious to know what the\nannotater thought was better for Black since no alternative was provided.} (\n19… Ne5 20. Rxb3 Rxb3 21. Nxb3 g5 22. Be1 Nh5 23. g3 $16) {At first the\nsituation looked grim} 20. Bxe7 Nxd2 21. Qc1 Nxf1 {[#]} {Eventually I realised\nI could recapture on f1 with the king! So} 22. Kxf1 $1 $15 {protecting the\nbishop and neutralising any unpleasing pins.} (22. Bxf1 $2 Rxe7 23. Nc4 Bd4+\n24. Kh1 Rxc4 25. Bxc4 Bxb2 $1 $19 {and Black wins.}) (22. Nxf1 $2 Rxe7 23. Bd3\nNe5 $19 {and White is getting squashed.}) 22… Rxe7 23. Nc4 Bb7 24. Qd1 $1 {\nTo get rid of the miserable rook on a3} Bd4 25. Rxb3 Rxb3 26. Qxb3 Bxd5 27. Qc2\n$11 Re6 {At last a defensive move from Black. By now she realised things were\nnot going to plan.} 28. Na5 Nf6 29. Bxa6 g5 $6 {BCN : This does not help\nBlack’s cause one little bit : quite the opposite.} (29… Be5) 30. Bc4 $1 {\nThe only move but sufficient} Bxc4+ 31. Nxc4 d5 32. Na3 c4 33. a5 Be5 34. g3\nBc7 $2 {By now we were both in considerable time trouble.} 35. Qa4 $1 {Black\nspotted the tactic below and played in desperation} c3 ({Intending to answer}\n35… Ra6 {with} 36. Nxc4 $1) 36. bxc3 Ra6 37. Nc4 $1 {(Anyway!)} dxc4 38. Qxc4\nRxa5 (38… Ra7 39. Qc5 Rb7 40. a6 Rb1+ 41. Ke2 Rb2+ 42. Kd3 Bb8 43. a7 Bxa7\n44. Qxa7 Rxh2 45. c4 {and wins}) 39. Qxc7 Ra1+ 40. Kg2 Ra2+ 41. Kg1 $1 $18 {\n[#] A sealed move} ({If} 41. Kh3 $2 g4+ 42. fxg4 Nh7 43. Qd8+ ({and Black can\nprobably hold the draw.} 43. g5 Nxg5+ 44. Kg4 Rxh2) 43… Kg7 44. Qd4+ Kg6 45.\nQd3+ Kg7 46. g5 Nxg5+ 47. Kg4 Rxh2 48. Qd1 Kf6 {gives Black hope of hanging in.\n}) 41… Ra1+ 42. Kf2 Ra2+ 43. Ke1 {The king is safest here.} Rxh2 44. c4 Nh7\n45. c5 Nf8 46. c6 Rc2 47. Qd6 Ne6 48. f4 gxf4 49. gxf4 Nxf4 50. Qd8+ (50. c7 $4\nNe6 $11 {was the annotation in 1981 and probably is the correct assesment.} 51.\nQd8+ Nxd8 52. cxd8=Q+ Kg7 53. Qd4+ Kg8 54. Qg4+ Kf8 55. Qa4 Rc1+ 56. Kf2 Rb1 {\nmakes the task difficult for White}) 50… Kg7 51. c7 Ne6 52. c8=Q Rxc8 53.\nQxc8 Ng5 54. Qf5 Ne6 55. Kf2 Nf8 56. Kg3 Ng6 57. Kg4 Nf8 58. Kh5 Ng6 59. Qg4\nKh7 60. Qd4 {and at last 1-0.} 1-0\n[/pgn] \nSir Philip Stuart Milner-Barry OBE presents Dr. Jana Hartston with the ? prize\nFrom Wikipedia : \n“Jana Bellin (née Malypetrová; born 9 December 1947) is a British\, formerly Czechoslovak chess player. She was awarded the Woman International Master chess title in 1969 and the Woman Grandmaster title in 1982. \nMoment of concentration for reigning women’s champion of Great Britain Jana Hartston and some of the 30 Post Officer players – all men who challenged her at postal headquarters London on September 6. Jana beat seven\, drew with sixteen and lost to seven.\nBellin was born in Prague\, Czechoslovakia. She was the Czech Women’s Champion in 1965 and 1967 under her maiden name of Malypetrová. After her marriage to William Hartston she moved to England in 1970 and won the British Women’s Championship in 1970\, 1971\, 1972\, 1973\, 1974\, 1976\, 1977 (after a play-off)\, and 1979. \nMoment of concentration for reigning women’s champion of Great Britain Jana Hartston and some of the 30 Post Officer players – all men who challenged her at postal headquarters London on September 6. Jana beat seven\, drew with sixteen and lost to seven.\nShe has fifteen appearances in the Women’s Chess Olympiads\, representing Czechoslovakia in 1966 and 1969 and England thirteen times from 1972 through 2006\, seven times on first board. \nMoment of concentration for reigning women’s champion of Great Britain Jana Hartston and some of the 30 Post Officer players – all men who challenged her at postal headquarters London on September 6. Jana beat seven\, drew with sixteen and lost to seven.\nAt the Olympiad she earned individual silver medals in 1966 and 1976\, a team bronze medal in 1968 with the Czechoslovakian team\, and a team silver in 1976 with England. \nBritish Speed Chess Championship Grandmaster Nigel Short Playing Chess In The Park With L-r Susan Arkell Sheila Jackson And Dr Jana Miles. Courtesy of Shutterstock\n[pgn]\n[Event “Troll Masters”]\n[Site “Gausdal”]\n[Date “1990.??.??”]\n[Round “9”]\n[White “Tisdall\, Jonathan D”]\n[Black “Bellin\, Jana”]\n[Result “0-1”]\n[ECO “E20”]\n[WhiteElo “2480”]\n[BlackElo “2240”]\n[Annotator “British Chess News”]\n[PlyCount “44”]\n[EventDate “1990.01.??”]\n[EventType “swiss”]\n[EventRounds “9”]\n[EventCountry “NOR”]\n[SourceTitle “CBM 016 Extra”]\n[Source “ChessBase”]\n[SourceDate “1990.07.01”]\n[SourceVersion “1”]\n[SourceVersionDate “1990.07.01”]\n[SourceQuality “1”] \n{[%evp 0\,44\,19\,31\,14\,-14\,-11\,-3\,33\,-47\,12\,7\,55\,33\,95\,67\,57\,45\,25\,9\,-9\,32\,32\,\n-10\,-24\,-23\,-27\,-27\,-21\,-17\,-14\,-10\,-4\,-34\,-43\,-32\,9\,-6\,5\,-4\,-12\,-9\,-8\,-204\,\n-221\,-224\,-224]} 1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 e6 3. Nc3 Bb4 4. f3 c5 5. d5 Nh5 6. g3 f5 7.\ne4 O-O 8. Nh3 d6 9. dxe6 Bxe6 10. Ng5 $146 Qe7 11. Nxe6 Qxe6 12. Qd5 $6 Qxd5\n13. exd5 Bxc3+ 14. bxc3 Nd7 $15 15. Kf2 Ne5 16. Be2 Rae8 17. Bd2 Nf6 18. Rab1\nRe7 19. h3 $6 (19. Kg2) 19… Rfe8 20. Rhe1 h6 21. g4 $4 fxg4 22. hxg4 Nexg4+\n$1 $19 {and White resigned.} 0-1 \n[/pgn] \n“Bellin is a medical doctor specialising in anaesthetics\, and works in intensive care at Sandwell General Hospital\, West Bromwich\, England. \nJana with Sheila Jackson to her left\nShe is also Chairman of the FIDE Medical Commission\, which supervises drug testing of chess players. \nBritish Speed Chess Championship Grandmaster Nigel Short Playing Chess In The Street With Woman Grandmaster Dr Jana Miles : Credit : Shutterstock\nBellin was married first to International Master William Hartston\, then to Grandmaster Tony Miles\, and after that to International Master Robert Bellin. She and Bellin have two sons: Robert (born 1988) and Christopher (born 1991).[citation needed] \nDr. Jana Bellin\nShe is the granddaughter of thrice Prime Minister of Czechoslovakia\, Jan Malypetr. and cousin of author and human rights campaigner Jiří Stránský. \nWGM Dr. Jana Bellin\, Courtesy of John Upham Photography
URL:http://britishchessnews.com/event/birthday-of-jana-bellin/
CATEGORIES:4NCL,Birthday,British Championships,Player
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END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20201210
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20201211
DTSTAMP:20211210T095748Z
CREATED:20200402T173520Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20211210T095748Z
UID:3986-1607558400-1607644799@britishchessnews.com
SUMMARY:Birthday of FM Peter Batchelor (10-xii-1996)
DESCRIPTION:Best wishes to FM Peter Batchelor on his birthday. \nPeter J Batchelor was born on Tuesday\, December 10th\, 1996. “Breath” by The Prodigy was the UK Number One Single. His father is the player Guy Batchelor. \nPeter’s first recorded rapidplay event was on the 17th of July 2005 in the Barnet Knights Under-9 tournament where he scored 4/6 and his first (!) standard play event was on August 20th 2005 being the British Land UK Terafinal which was not such a happy result. \nHis first published ECF grading was 56E in July 2006 at the age of ten with a rapidplay grading of 57A. \nPeter played league chess in the Middlesex and London Leagues playing initially for Willesden & Brent and then with Wanstead & Woodford both with his father Guy. \nPeter attended the Capital City Academy which is a “specialist sports and arts Academy in Willesden\, North West London\, in the borough of Brent.” He has returned there post-graduation to teach chess and run the school chess club. \nPeter studied mathematics at the University of Warwick and now lives in London. \nAccording to Ben Purton : “I captain Peter in the 4NCL chess league\, he is one of the most professional and talented players on my squad. He is extremely smart and nice to be around. Peter would be an asset to any organisation in the future and any graduate scheme would be foolish not to take such a person on. \nI have seen him grow in to one of the best U21 chess players in the UK and hope to see him gain his IM title soon.” \nPeter became a FIDE Master in 2015 and\, according to Felice and Megabase 2020 his peak FIDE rating was 2365 in December 2016. \nFIDE rating profile for Peter Batchelor according to Megabase 2020\nPeter plays for Grantham Sharks in the Four Nations Chess League (4NCL). \nWith the white pieces Peter plays the Queen’s Gambit and the Trompowsky Attack. \nAs the second player Peter plays the Classical variation of the Caro-Kann and the Alartortsev Variation. \nOn chess.com Peter plays under the nom de plume of Pbatch. \nPeter Batchelor\, 4NCL Final weekend\, 2014\, Courtesy of John Upham Photography\n[pgn]\n[Event “GBR-ch 104th”]\n[Site “Llandudno”]\n[Date “2017.08.04”]\n[Round “7”]\n[White “Rudd\, Jack”]\n[Black “Batchelor\, Peter J”]\n[Result “0-1”]\n[ECO “E24”]\n[WhiteElo “2252”]\n[BlackElo “2309”]\n[Annotator “British Chess News”]\n[PlyCount “40”]\n[EventDate “2017.07.29”]\n[EventType “swiss”]\n[EventRounds “9”]\n[EventCountry “WLS”]\n[SourceTitle “CBM 179 Extra”]\n[Source “ChessBase”]\n[SourceDate “2017.08.23”]\n[SourceVersion “1”]\n[SourceVersionDate “2017.08.23”]\n[SourceQuality “1”] \n{[%evp 0\,40\,19\,31\,14\,-14\,-11\,4\,33\,-47\,-26\,-31\,-25\,-25\,-4\,-22\,0\,-4\,-6\,-13\,-24\,\n-9\,7\,-9\,-12\,-29\,-29\,-63\,-23\,-32\,-20\,-28\,-26\,-36\,82\,96\,58\,-99\,-86\,-277\,-277\,\n-268\,-271]} 1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 e6 3. Nc3 Bb4 4. f3 d5 5. a3 Bxc3+ 6. bxc3 c5 7. e3\n{the runner-up in this position} (7. cxd5 Nxd5 8. dxc5 Qa5 9. e4 Ne7 10. Be3\nO-O {is more common.}) 7… O-O 8. Bd3 (8. cxd5 exd5 9. Bd3 b6 10. Ne2 Ba6 11.\nO-O) 8… dxc4 (8… Nc6) 9. Bxc4 Qc7 10. Ba2 (10. Qd3 Nc6 11. Ne2 Rd8) 10…\nNc6 $146 (10… b6) 11. Ne2 b6 12. O-O Ba6 $1 13. Rf2 Rfd8 14. Qa4 Na5 15. e4\ncxd4 16. cxd4 $15 {[#]} e5 $6 (16… Rac8) 17. Bb2 Bxe2 18. dxe5 $2 (18. Rxe2\n$16) 18… Rd2 $1 19. exf6 $2 Rxb2 20. Bd5 Qc5 $1 0-1\n[/pgn] \nFM Peter Batchelor at the 2013 British Championships\, Courtesy of John Upham Photography
URL:http://britishchessnews.com/event/birthday-of-fm-peter-j-batchelor-10-xii-1996/
CATEGORIES:4NCL,Birthday,Player
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END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20201211
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20201212
DTSTAMP:20211209T112235Z
CREATED:20191209T163736Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20211209T112235Z
UID:2261-1607644800-1607731199@britishchessnews.com
SUMMARY:Birthday of GM Matthew Turner (11-xii-1975)
DESCRIPTION:Birthday of GM Matthew James Turner (11-xii-1975)
URL:http://britishchessnews.com/event/birthday-of-gm-matthew-james-turner-11-xii-1975/
CATEGORIES:Birthday,Player
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:http://britishchessnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/IMG_1257-scaled.jpg
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20201211
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20201212
DTSTAMP:20210807T163528Z
CREATED:20200410T112417Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20210807T163528Z
UID:4331-1607644800-1607731199@britishchessnews.com
SUMMARY:Birthday of GM Gawain Jones (11-xii-1987)
DESCRIPTION:Birthday of GM Gawain Christopher B Jones (11-xii-1987) \nGawain was Southern Counties (SCCU) champion for the 2012-13 season.
URL:http://britishchessnews.com/event/birthday-of-gm-gawain-christopher-b-jones-11-xii-1987/
CATEGORIES:4NCL,Birthday,British Championships,Player,Writer
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:http://britishchessnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/JUZ_3014-scaled.jpg
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20201211
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20201212
DTSTAMP:20260817T135555Z
CREATED:20200411T223934Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260817T135555Z
UID:4523-1607644800-1607731199@britishchessnews.com
SUMMARY:Birthday of FM Christopher Wood (11-xii-1940)
DESCRIPTION:Birthday of FM Christopher Baruch Wood (11-xii-1940)
URL:http://britishchessnews.com/event/birthday-of-fm-christopher-baruch-wood-11-xii-1940/
CATEGORIES:Birthday,Player
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20201213
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20201214
DTSTAMP:20201212T223944Z
CREATED:20191213T135517Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20201212T223944Z
UID:2383-1607817600-1607903999@britishchessnews.com
SUMMARY:Birthday of David Shire (13-xii-1947)
DESCRIPTION:Happy Birthday to David Shire. \nDavid John Shire was born on Saturday\, December 13th 1947. On the same day “Ballerina” by Vaughn Monroe and His Orchestra hit #1 on the Billboard Best Sellers in Stores record chart.
URL:http://britishchessnews.com/event/birthday-of-david-j-shire-13-xii-1947/
CATEGORIES:Birthday,Composer,Player,Problemist
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:http://britishchessnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/JUA3089-scaled.jpg
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20201213
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20201214
DTSTAMP:20201213T110541Z
CREATED:20191213T140256Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20201213T110541Z
UID:2387-1607817600-1607903999@britishchessnews.com
SUMMARY:Birthday of Colin Sydenham (13-xii-1937)
DESCRIPTION:Birthday of Colin Peter Sydenham (13-xii-1937)
URL:http://britishchessnews.com/event/birthday-of-colin-peter-sydenham-13-xii-1937/
CATEGORIES:Birthday,Composer,Player,Problemist
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:http://britishchessnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/13.12-colin_sydenham.jpg
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20201214
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20201215
DTSTAMP:20201213T185406Z
CREATED:20191211T173844Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20201213T185406Z
UID:2311-1607904000-1607990399@britishchessnews.com
SUMMARY:Birthday of IM Brandon Clarke (14-xii-1995)
DESCRIPTION:Happy Birthday Wishes to IM Brandon George I Clarke born on this day (December 14th)\, 1995. “Earth Song” by Michael Jackson was the UK Number One single. \nIn the 2003 London Junior Championships he was =13 with 4/7 \nIn July 2004 he secured his first published standard play grading of 84D and 62D for rapid play.  His first recorded rapid  play tournament was on the 4th of October 2003 being the Mini Squad Under 8s. In this event he beat a certain Jamie Horton who had a grading of 45D at the time. \nIn 2006 Brandon won outright the London Under 12 title with 7.5/9. Marcus Harvey was a runner-up. This situation was repeated one year later. \nIn 2009 Brandon won the LJCC Under-16 title this time with Akash Jain as runner-up. His TPR for a score of 5/6 was 199. \nBrandon was a chess scholar at Wellington College\, Berkshire and was part of the strongest school / college team to play in the National Schools competition for many years that included James Holland\, Felix Jose Ynojosa-Aponte\, Alexander Galliano\, Latefah Meesam-Sparkes\, Akash Jain\, Adrian Archer-Lock and latterly William Foo and Richard Zhu. Despite being easily the strongest team they were denied the title by the antiquated age handicapping rules. \nFIDE rating profile for Brandon Clarke according to MegaBase 2020\nHe became an International Master in early 2019 and plays much chess in Australia\, New Zealand and England having lived in the USA for some time after leaving Wellington College. \nAged 24 Brandon has achieved his highest FIDE rating of 2445 and it shows every sign of increasing. \nIM Brandon Clarke\, British Championships (Major Open)\, Torquay 2019\, Courtesy of John Upham Photography\nWith the White pieces Brandon is almost exclusively an e4 player with occasional forays with the Queen’s pawn. Against the Najdorf he prefers 6.Bg5 and allows the Marshall against the Ruy Lopez. \nAs the second player he plays the Najdorf and the King’s Indian Defence most of the time. \nBrandon has his own YouTube Channel. \nOn Chess.com he plays under the handle of Biranidun with a blitz rating of 2847. \n[pgn]\n[Event “GBR-ch Major 106th”]\n[Site “Torquay”]\n[Date “2019.07.29”]\n[Round “3”]\n[White “Clarke\, Brandon GI”]\n[Black “Sugden\, John N”]\n[Result “1-0”]\n[ECO “B42”]\n[WhiteElo “2433”]\n[BlackElo “2068”]\n[Annotator “British Chess News”]\n[PlyCount “77”]\n[EventDate “2019.07.27”]\n[EventType “swiss”]\n[EventRounds “9”]\n[EventCountry “ENG”]\n[SourceTitle “EXT 2020”]\n[Source “ChessBase”]\n[SourceDate “2019.10.17”]\n[SourceVersion “1”]\n[SourceVersionDate “2019.10.17”]\n[SourceQuality “1”] \n{[%evp 0\,77\,34\,21\,52\,43\,49\,34\,40\,41\,66\,48\,47\,47\,43\,35\,47\,41\,41\,55\,77\,75\,36\,18\,\n67\,99\,103\,85\,104\,101\,87\,91\,119\,104\,92\,97\,97\,93\,197\,192\,187\,100\,100\,114\,184\,161\,\n176\,177\,184\,187\,187\,195\,188\,202\,202\,157\,202\,209\,208\,213\,214\,209\,249\,267\,274\,\n238\,270\,269\,658\,276\,279\,269\,292\,308\,309\,298\,342\,356\,356\,361]} 1. e4 c5 2. Nf3\ne6 3. d4 cxd4 4. Nxd4 a6 5. Bd3 Nc6 6. Nxc6 dxc6 7. Nd2 e5 8. Nc4 Nf6 9. O-O\nBg4 10. Qe1 Nd7 11. f4 exf4 12. Bxf4 Bc5+ 13. Kh1 O-O 14. Qg3 Bh5 15. Nd6 $16\nBxd6 16. Bxd6 Re8 17. e5 Nf8 18. Rf4 Re6 $146 (18… Ne6) 19. Raf1 Rh6 20. Bxf8\nQxf8 21. Bc4 Qe7 $6 (21… b5 22. Bb3 Qe7 $16) 22. Bxf7+ $1 Bxf7 23. Rxf7 Qxf7\n24. Rxf7 Kxf7 25. Qb3+ Kf8 26. Qxb7 Rd8 27. Qb4+ Ke8 28. h3 Re6 29. Qb7 Rd5 30.\nQxg7 Re7 31. Qg8+ Kd7 32. e6+ Kc7 33. Qg3+ Kb7 34. c4 Rd8 35. c5 Kc8 36. Qa3\nRxe6 37. Qxa6+ Kc7 38. Qa7+ Kc8 39. Qxh7 1-0\n[/pgn] \nIn January 2019 Brandon scored a very impressive victory in the 126th (!) New Zealand Open. “The 2019 126th New Zealand Open is part of the 126th New Zealand Congress and is a 9-round Swiss event being held at the Waipuna Conference Centre in Auckland from 14-22 January 2019.” \nCross table from the 126h New Zealand Open\nBrandon made a welcome return to the UK and comfortably won the 2019 Major Open in Torquay with 8.5/9 as an IM. \nBrandon plays for Australia Kangaroos in the Pro Chess League. \nThe ECF grading web site shows his only club to be Littlethorpe (in Leicestershire) although Brandon played for Warwickshire Select in the Four Nations Chess League (4NCL). \nIM Brandon Clarke\, British Championships (Major Open)\, Torquay 2019\, Courtesy of John Upham Photography
URL:http://britishchessnews.com/event/birthday-of-im-brandon-george-i-clarke-14-xii-2005/
CATEGORIES:Birthday,British Championships,Player
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:http://britishchessnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/bct_4620_lv-scaled.jpg
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20201214
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20201215
DTSTAMP:20201030T162932Z
CREATED:20191211T174157Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20201030T162932Z
UID:2315-1607904000-1607990399@britishchessnews.com
SUMMARY:Birthday of IM Ian Thomas (14-xii-1967)
DESCRIPTION:Birthday of IM Ian Thomas (14-xii-1967)
URL:http://britishchessnews.com/event/birthday-of-im-ian-thomas-14-xii-1967/
CATEGORIES:Birthday,British Championships,Player
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:http://britishchessnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/IMG_1433-scaled.jpg
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20201214
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20201215
DTSTAMP:20201030T163058Z
CREATED:20191211T174833Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20201030T163058Z
UID:2317-1607904000-1607990399@britishchessnews.com
SUMMARY:Birthday of IM Karl CC Mah (14-xii-1980)
DESCRIPTION:Birthday of IM Karl CC Mah (14-xii-1980) \nIM Karl CC Mah\nIM Karl CC Mah
URL:http://britishchessnews.com/event/birthday-of-im-karl-cc-mah-14-xii-1980/
CATEGORIES:Birthday,British Championships,Player
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:http://britishchessnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/IMG_1070-scaled.jpg
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20201216
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20201217
DTSTAMP:20201030T164341Z
CREATED:20200408T130020Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20201030T164341Z
UID:4193-1608076800-1608163199@britishchessnews.com
SUMMARY:Birthday of FM Stephen J Cullip (16-xii-1973)
DESCRIPTION:Birthday of FM Stephen J Cullip (16-xii-1973)
URL:http://britishchessnews.com/event/birthday-of-fm-stephen-j-cullip-16-xii-1973/
CATEGORIES:Birthday,Player
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20201217
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20201218
DTSTAMP:20211217T150849Z
CREATED:20200408T124730Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20211217T150849Z
UID:4181-1608163200-1608249599@britishchessnews.com
SUMMARY:Birthday of FM Paul Cooksey (17-xii-1971)
DESCRIPTION:Birthday of FM Paul S Cooksey (17-xii-1971)
URL:http://britishchessnews.com/event/birthday-of-fm-paul-s-cooksey-17-xii-1971/
CATEGORIES:Birthday,Player
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20201221
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20201222
DTSTAMP:20211220T110902Z
CREATED:20200410T214751Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20211220T110902Z
UID:4390-1608508800-1608595199@britishchessnews.com
SUMMARY:Birthday of FM Robin Moss (21-xii-1964)
DESCRIPTION:Birthday of FM Robin BW Moss (21-xii-1964)
URL:http://britishchessnews.com/event/birthday-of-fm-robin-bw-moss-21-xii-1964/
CATEGORIES:Birthday,Player
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20201222
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20201223
DTSTAMP:20211222T110618Z
CREATED:20191212T144348Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20211222T110618Z
UID:2341-1608595200-1608681599@britishchessnews.com
SUMMARY:Birthday of IM David Eggleston (22-xii-1987)
DESCRIPTION:Best Wishes to IM David Eggleston on his birthday. \nDavid James Eggleston was born on Tuesday\, December 22nd 1987 in Sunderland\, County Durham to Ian and Janet Eggleston (née Robson). David has a brother\, Thomas A\, also born in 1987 who plays chess to a high standard (2178 in 2020). Thomas also plays for Durham City and for 4NCL North East England. \nThere is one game in Megabase between the brothers from round 5 of the Durham Open in 2003 which resulted in a 13 move draw. They shared the 1st prize with 4/5. \nDavid currently resides in Durham and plays for Durham City in the North East League and for Cheddleton in the Four Nations Chess League (4NCL). \nDavid became a FIDE Master in 2007 and an International Master in 2013. \nAccording to ChessBase David’s peak FIDE rating was 2434 aged 26 in December 2013. However\, this could easily be surpassed. \nHe has a plus score against Keith Arkell\, James Jackson\, Peter Sowray and Chris Ward to name but a few. \nIM David James Eggleston\nWith the white pieces David is a staunch e4 player playing open Sicilians\, the Italian Game and 3.Nc3 versus the French and the Caro-Kann. \nAs the second player David plays the Najdorf and the Nimzo-Indian Defence. \n[pgn]\n[Event “GBR-ch 105th”]\n[Site “Hull”]\n[Date “2018.07.29”]\n[Round “2”]\n[White “Eggleston\, David”]\n[Black “McShane\, Luke J”]\n[Result “1-0”]\n[ECO “C54”]\n[WhiteElo “2397”]\n[BlackElo “2669”]\n[Annotator “British Chess News”]\n[PlyCount “87”]\n[EventDate “2018.07.28”]\n[EventType “swiss”]\n[EventRounds “9”]\n[EventCountry “ENG”]\n[SourceTitle “CBM 185 Extra”]\n[Source “ChessBase”]\n[SourceDate “2018.06.29”]\n[SourceVersion “1”]\n[SourceVersionDate “2018.06.29”]\n[SourceQuality “1”] \n{[%evp 0\,87\,30\,30\,23\,14\,14\,11\,17\,55\,11\,-5\,35\,29\,35\,-10\,-9\,-13\,12\,4\,15\,20\,23\,\n-34\,-26\,-26\,-31\,-21\,-23\,-50\,-31\,-31\,-7\,-7\,-13\,-23\,-30\,-31\,-37\,-50\,-17\,-69\,-44\,\n-49\,-67\,-70\,-76\,-85\,-45\,-102\,-72\,-103\,-99\,-99\,-95\,-101\,-116\,-120\,-110\,-101\,\n-104\,-114\,-118\,-118\,-77\,-114\,-148\,-210\,-197\,-279\,-101\,-103\,-103\,-103\,85\,154\,\n229\,229\,500\,514\,1303\,1303\,1303\,2218\,29977\,29978\,29979\,29980\,29981\,29982]} 1. e4\ne5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bc4 Bc5 4. c3 Nf6 5. d3 d6 6. O-O O-O 7. a4 a5 8. Nbd2 Ne7 9.\nRe1 Ng6 10. Nf1 Be6 11. Ng3 Bxc4 12. dxc4 Qd7 13. h3 Rfe8 14. Nh2 Nf4 15. Qf3\nNe6 16. Nf5 Qd8 17. h4 Kh8 18. g3 Rf8 19. Kg2 Ng8 20. h5 g6 21. Nh4 Ng7 22. h6\nNe6 23. Re2 Qe8 24. Qg4 f6 25. N2f3 Qf7 26. Qh3 Rae8 27. Bd2 f5 28. exf5 gxf5\n29. Rae1 f4 30. b4 Ba7 31. c5 Nxh6 32. Re4 Rg8 33. Rh1 Ng4 34. Kf1 Bb8 35. gxf4\nexf4 36. c4 h5 37. Ng2 Kh7 38. cxd6 Nf6 39. Ne5 Qg7 40. Qf5+ Kh8 41. Rxh5+ Nxh5\n42. Qxh5+ Qh7 43. Nf7+ Kg7 44. Bc3+ 1-0\n[/pgn] \nDavid has one book\, published in July 2014 : Hacking up the King published by Mongoose Press : \nHacking Up The King\nIM David James Eggleston
URL:http://britishchessnews.com/event/birthday-of-david-james-eggleston-22-xii-1987/
CATEGORIES:4NCL,Birthday,British Championships,Player
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:http://britishchessnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/JB4_7645-scaled.jpg
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20201225
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20201226
DTSTAMP:20201224T161521Z
CREATED:20191212T161528Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20201224T161521Z
UID:2345-1608854400-1608940799@britishchessnews.com
SUMMARY:Birthday of IM Graeme Buckley (25-xii-1971)
DESCRIPTION:BCN sends best wishes to Graeme Buckley on his birthday. \nGraeme Noel Buckley born on Saturday\, December 25th\, 1971 in Wolverhampton\, West Midlands. \nHis first chess club was Bushbury which is also known as Bilston Sports & Social Club Ltd. His father David is the long time club President. \nGraeme’s first recorded games in Megabase 2020 were at the 1987 British Championship in Swansea were he scored a modest 4/11. \nGraeme married IM Susan Lalic in Sutton\, Surrey in 2001 and they reside in Sutton. They have two daughters\, Lucy and Emma who attend Nonsuch High School for Girls following in the footsteps of their mother. \nGraeme became a FIDE Master in 1994 and an International Master in 1995. \n[pgn]\n[Event “4NCL : Bolton”]\n[Site “?”]\n[Date “1995.05.??”]\n[Round “11”]\n[White “Buckley\, Graeme N”]\n[Black “Quillan\, Gary M”]\n[Result “1-0”]\n[ECO “A45”]\n[Annotator “British Chess News”]\n[PlyCount “33”]\n[SourceTitle “BCM\, 1995\, page 354”]\n[WhiteTeam “Midland Monarchs”]\n[BlackTeam “North West Eagles”] \n{[%evp 0\,12\,19\,31\,14\,-9\,-11\,2\,24\,5\,6\,3\,5\,-49\,0]} 1. d4 Nf6 2. Bg5 Ne4 3. Bh4 (\n3. Bf4 c5 4. f3 Qa5+ 5. c3 Nf6 6. d5) 3… c5 4. f3 g5 5. fxe4 gxh4 6. e3 Qb6\n7. Nc3 Qxb2 (7… e6) 8. Nd5 Kd8 9. Rb1 Qa3 10. Qh5 Nc6 $6 (10… Qxa2 11. Rd1)\n11. Nf3 $16 f6 $146 (11… cxd4 12. exd4 e6) (11… e6 12. Qg5+ Be7 13. Nxe7\nNxe7 14. Kf2 Qxa2 15. Bd3 Rg8 16. Qxc5 b6 17. Qd6 Qa4 18. Rb5 Ba6 19. Rhb1 Bxb5\n20. Rxb5 Rc8 21. Ne5 $13) 12. Be2 Qxa2 $2 (12… cxd4 13. O-O) 13. O-O $18 Nb4\n$2 {[#]} 14. Rxb4 $1 cxb4 15. Ne5 $1 fxe5 16. Qxe5 e6 17. Qf6+ {and Black\nresigned.} (17. Qxh8 exd5 18. Qxf8+ Kc7 19. Qc5+ Kd8 20. Rf8#) 1-0\n[/pgn] \nHe has played for Midland Monarchs and Wood Green in 4NCL\, Surrey CCA\, Wimbledon 4NCL Guildford and Bushbury (in Wolverhampton) \nAccording to ChessBase Graeme reached his highest FIDE rating in July 2003\, aged 32 of 2420. \nGraeme teaches chess in many Surrey Schools and in conjunction with Susan. \nGraeme has been a director of Surrey County Chess Association for four years resigning in 2011. \nGraeme was Southern Counties (SCCU) champion for the 2009-10 season \nAccording to Easy Guide to the Queen’s Gambit Accepted\, Cadogan\, 1998 : \n“Graeme Buckley caused a stir in his first year as a professional player securing his International Master title in a matter of months\, quickly followed by his first grandmaster norm. More recently he has been involved in some major coaching projects. In 1996 he was manager of the English youth team\, who achieved the impressive double of winning both the Glorney and Faber Cups.” \nWith the white pieces Graeme playa the Queen’s Gambit nowadays with Nf3 appearing before c4 having flirted with the Trompowski in the early days. \nAs the second player he plays the Sicilian Scheveningen\, the King’s Indian and not the Queen’s Gambit Accepted despite authoring a book about it! \n[pgn]\n[Event “BCF-chT 0708 (4NCL)”]\n[Site “Sunningdale”]\n[Date “2007.11.16”]\n[Round “2”]\n[White “King\, Daniel J”]\n[Black “Buckley\, Graeme N”]\n[Result “0-1”]\n[ECO “C02”]\n[WhiteElo “2528”]\n[BlackElo “2390”]\n[Annotator “British Chess News”]\n[PlyCount “44”]\n[EventDate “2007.09.15”]\n[EventType “team”]\n[EventRounds “11”]\n[EventCountry “ENG”]\n[SourceTitle “EXT 2008”]\n[Source “ChessBase”]\n[SourceDate “2007.11.25”]\n[SourceVersion “1”]\n[SourceVersionDate “2007.11.25”]\n[SourceQuality “1”] \n{[%evp 0\,44\,19\,38\,40\,41\,41\,1\,15\,-10\,-7\,-11\,5\,-11\,3\,-4\,-9\,-5\,13\,-37\,-37\,-26\,-21\,\n-14\,7\,-20\,0\,0\,-18\,-35\,-35\,-72\,-73\,-86\,-40\,-162\,-144\,-211\,-274\,-475\,-475\,-474\,\n-510\,-542\,-509\,-509\,-509]} 1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 e6 3. c3 d5 4. e5 Nc6 5. d4 Bd7 6.\nBe2 Nge7 7. O-O Rc8 8. a3 Nf5 9. dxc5 $146 (9. b4 cxd4 10. cxd4 Be7 11. Bb2 Qb6\n12. Qd2 O-O 13. Rd1 f6 14. Nc3 fxe5 15. dxe5 Be8 16. Rac1 Bh5 17. Na4 Qd8 18.\nNc5 Bxc5 19. Rxc5 $11) 9… Bxc5 10. Bd3 Nh4 11. Nbd2 Bb6 12. Qe2 O-O 13. Nxh4\nQxh4 14. g3 Qh3 $11 15. Nb3 $6 (15. Nf3 Qh5) 15… f6 $1 16. exf6 $6 (16. Be3\n$19) 16… e5 $1 {[%cal Ge5e4]} 17. Be3 e4 18. Bb5 (18. Bxb6 exd3 19. Qxd3 axb6\n20. fxg7 Kxg7 $19) 18… Bg4 19. f3 exf3 20. Rxf3 Ne5 21. Nd2 Nxf3+ 22. Nxf3\nRxf6 0-1\n[/pgn] \nMultiple Choice by Graeme Buckley\nEasy Guide to the Queen’s Gambit Accepted by Graeme Buckley\nTrends in the Trompovsky\, Vol. 4\nIM Graeme Buckley\, Surrey Open\, 2013\, courtesy of John Upham Photography
URL:http://britishchessnews.com/event/birthday-of-im-graeme-noel-buckley-25-xii-1971/
CATEGORIES:Birthday,British Championships,Player,Writer
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:http://britishchessnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/JEU0590-scaled.jpg
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20201225
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20201226
DTSTAMP:20201225T130823Z
CREATED:20200401T144556Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20201225T130823Z
UID:3934-1608854400-1608940799@britishchessnews.com
SUMMARY:Birthday of WIM Rita Atkins (25-xii-1969)
DESCRIPTION:BCN wishes Happy Birthday (and seasonal greetings) to WIM Rita Atkins (25-xii-1969) \nRita Zimmersmann was born on Thursday\, December 25th 1969 in Hungary.  \nShe became a Women’s International Master in 1992. \nHer peak FIDE rating according to Felice was 2225 in January 1998 aged 29\, however according to MegaBase 2020 her peak rating was 2280 in July 1992 aged 23. \nRita has played for the Cambridgeshire CCA and 4NCL Blackthorne Russia. \nRita’s first recorded game in Megabase 2020 was runner-up the 5th Schoeneck Under-18 Girl’s Open with 5.5/7. \nIn 1990 she was =runner-up with 6/9 in the Aarhus Women’s tournament. \nShe was =1st in the Budapest Women’s IM tournament securing a norm. \nCrosstable for the 1991 Budapest IM Women’s tournament\n[pgn]\n[Event “Budapest Spring op 08th”]\n[Site “Budapest”]\n[Date “1992.??.??”]\n[Round “?”]\n[White “Atkins\, Rita”]\n[Black “Almasi\, Zoltan”]\n[Result “1-0”]\n[ECO “C48”]\n[WhiteElo “2255”]\n[BlackElo “2390”]\n[Annotator “British Chess News”]\n[PlyCount “59”]\n[EventDate “1992.03.??”]\n[EventType “swiss”]\n[EventRounds “9”]\n[EventCountry “HUN”]\n[SourceTitle “CBM 030 Extra”]\n[Source “ChessBase”]\n[SourceDate “1992.11.01”]\n[SourceVersion “1”]\n[SourceVersionDate “1992.11.01”]\n[SourceQuality “1”] \n{[%evp 0\,59\,33\,1\,12\,18\,11\,21\,20\,2\,19\,16\,19\,13\,13\,21\,21\,20\,2\,6\,6\,4\,37\,15\,7\,13\,\n19\,22\,12\,-14\,48\,35\,45\,40\,70\,41\,48\,-3\,2\,-24\,12\,3\,11\,4\,246\,407\,380\,387\,581\,605\,\n1220\,1092\,2161\,2161\,29989\,29990\,29991\,29992\,29993\,29988\,29995\,29996]} 1. e4 e5\n2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Nc3 Nf6 4. Bb5 Nd4 (4… Bb4) 5. Nxd4 (5. Ba4) 5… exd4 6. e5\ndxc3 7. exf6 Qxf6 8. dxc3 c6 (8… Qe5+ 9. Qe2) 9. Bd3 d5 10. Be3 {[#]} Be6 $6\n$146 {Looks rather passive. Maybe Black was considering long castling but\nsurely that is unplayable?} (10… Bd6 {is much more sensible and “main line”.\nThe bishop compliments the structure and the c8 bishop can find a decent home\nlater.}) 11. Qd2 {Discourages long castling for sure.} Bd6 12. O-O-O $16 {\nOn the other hand\, long castles for white is totally the right way to go.} Qe7\n13. Kb1 {possibly worried about d4 from Black.} O-O 14. f4 {Pushing the king\nside pawns looks like the right plan commensurate with long castling. White’s\nattack appears to be mich faster than Blacks.} b5 $2 {Too ambitious.} (14…\nRfe8) 15. f5 $18 Bd7 16. Rde1 {Black’s position is starting to creak.} Be5 17.\ng4 f6 18. g5 Rfe8 19. Rhg1 fxg5 20. Bxg5 Qd6 21. Qf2 Bf6 $2 {[#]} 22. Re6 $1 {\nIt is likely that Black had missed this clever shot} Bxe6 23. Bxf6 g6 24. Qh4 {\nBlack can resign with dignity.} Bxf5 25. Bxf5 {It is mate in eight !} Qf8 26.\nBxg6 hxg6 27. Rxg6+ Kf7 28. Qh7+ Ke6 29. Be7+ ({Two moves faster to mate is}\n29. Bd4+ Kf5 30. Qh5+ Ke4 31. Qe2+ Kf5 32. Qg4#) 29… Kf5 30. Rf6+ {and Black\nthrew in the Tal ! A good win against a strong opponent.} 1-0\n[/pgn] \nIn 1992 she became Hungarian Women’s champion with 8/11 : \nCrosstable for 1992 Hungarian Women’s Championship\nWith the white pieces Rita both 1.e4 and 1.d4 playing open Sicilians\, the Trompowsky Attack and the Accelerated London System. \nAs the second player she plays the Sicilian Four Knights\, the Modern Benoni and recently\, the Czech System. \nWIM Rita Atkins\, Courtesy of John Upham Photography\nIn 1997 Rita relocated to England and played in her first 4NCL weekend for Slough. She married IM Michael Hennigan and settled in London. \nBy 2014 Rita had transferred to Blackthorne in the Four Nations Chess League and had become Rita Atkins. \nIn the last few years Rita has become active in the field of chess education and has combined her interests of mathematics and chess especially in the teaching of children. She has presented at various London Chess Conferences and works with John Foley within ChessPlus. \nWIM Rita Atkins at the 2016 London Chess Conference  : The Didactics of Chess\, Courtesy of John Upham Photography.\n[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AOTJKk_m4T0[/embedyt]
URL:http://britishchessnews.com/event/birthday-of-wim-rita-atkins-25-xii-1969/
CATEGORIES:Birthday,Player
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BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20201226
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20201227
DTSTAMP:20201223T150159Z
CREATED:20200411T130309Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20201223T150159Z
UID:4431-1608940800-1609027199@britishchessnews.com
SUMMARY:Birthday for IM Vaidyanathan Ravikumar (26-xii-1959)
DESCRIPTION:Vaidyanathan Ravikumar (“Ravi” to his friends) was born in Paramakudi\, Ramanathapuram\, Tamil Nadu\, India on Saturday\, December 26th\, 1959. On this day Nelson Rockefeller announced that he would not seek the Republican Party nomination for 1960. \nRavi credits his father N. Vaidyanathan for help with his early chess development. \nAn early image of Vaidyanathan Ravikumar from page 81 of Ulf Andersson’s Decisive Games\nIn 1978 Ravi won the Asian Junior Championships in Tehran and was awarded the International Master title as a consequence. Ravi was India’s second International Master : Manuel Aaron was the first in 1961. \n“Ravi” at the 2013 UKCC Terafinal at Loughborough Grammar School\, Courtesy of John Upham Photography\nHis earliest recorded game in Megabase 2020 was from the 3rd of September 1978 and was from the World Under-20 Championships in Graz\, Austria. The event was won by Sergei Dolamatov and Ravi finished =25th on 6.5/13. The following year (Norway\, 1979) Ravi improved to =12th with 7.5/13 and the title was won by Yasser Seirawan. James Plaskett was =3rd. \nRavi at the UKCC Southern Gigafinal 2014 at the Rivermead Leisure Centre\, Reading. Courtesy of John Upham Photography\nBy now ( 1979) Ravi had graduated from The University of Madras with a degree in commerce and relocated to England seeking more playing opportunities. He played in his first Lloyd’s Bank Open in 1979. \nRavi and IM Andrew Martin providing the commentary for the 2015 British Championships in Warwick. Courtesy of John Upham Photography\nRavi made his first appearance for India in an Olympiad at Valetta\, Malta 1980. In 1981 he was runner-up to Bjarke Sahl in the 6th North Sea Cup followed by a creditable equal 10th in the 68th British Championships at Morecambe won by Paul Littlewood. In round eight he played this attractive game against Daniel King. Notes by PC Griffiths : \n[pgn]\n[Event “British CF-68 Championship”]\n[Site “Morecambe/ Lancashire”]\n[Date “1981.08.11”]\n[Round “8”]\n[White “King\, Daniel J”]\n[Black “Ravikumar\, Vaidyanathan”]\n[Result “0-1”]\n[ECO “C06”]\n[WhiteElo “2320”]\n[BlackElo “2325”]\n[Annotator “PC Griffiths & British Chess News”]\n[PlyCount “84”]\n[EventDate “1981.08.03”]\n[EventType “swiss”]\n[EventRounds “11”]\n[EventCountry “ENG”]\n[SourceTitle “BCM\, 1981\, page 432.”]\n[Source “ChessBase”]\n[SourceDate “1998.11.16”]\n[SourceVersion “1”]\n[SourceVersionDate “1998.11.16”]\n[SourceQuality “1”] \n{[%evp 0\,84\,26\,16\,41\,46\,23\,50\,2\,12\,-1\,18\,10\,-5\,-3\,7\,-1\,-12\,0\,2\,2\,5\,1\,10\,10\,2\,0\,\n25\,55\,4\,21\,36\,50\,-15\,-2\,-68\,30\,-17\,-41\,-34\,-41\,-33\,-39\,-43\,-36\,-43\,-45\,-39\,-39\,\n-45\,-16\,-37\,-23\,-39\,40\,44\,44\,25\,-36\,-28\,-33\,-1\,-1\,-64\,-48\,-27\,-27\,-18\,10\,-304\,\n-291\,-332\,-292\,-586\,-427\,-686\,-317\,-333\,-322\,-322\,-104\,-661\,-662\,-659\,-671\,\n-670\,-691]} 1. e4 e6 2. d4 d5 3. Nd2 Nf6 4. e5 Nfd7 5. Ngf3 (5. Bd3 c5 6. c3\nNc6 7. Ne2 cxd4 8. cxd4 f6 9. exf6 Nxf6 10. Nf3 Bd6 11. O-O Qc7 12. Bg5 O-O 13.\nBh4 Nh5 14. Qc2 h6 15. Bh7+ Kh8 16. Bg6 Rxf3 17. Bxh5 Rf8 18. Bg3 Bd7 19. Rac1\n{is\, more or less the main line in 2020.}) 5… c5 6. c3 Nc6 7. Bd3 Qb6 8. O-O\n{There is in any case no convenient way to defend the d-pawn again; if White\ndoes not wish to play a gambit here\, 5. Ne2 and later Ndf3 is the normal\nmethod.} cxd4 9. cxd4 Nxd4 10. Nxd4 Qxd4 11. Nf3 Qb6 12. Qa4 {One of White’s\nintentions with his twelfth move is in some circumstances to switch the queen\nto g4\, though on the whole the main danger to Black comes on the queenside in\nthis variaton.} a6 ({Another common move here is} 12… Qb4 13. Qc2 Qc5 14. Qe2\nBe7) 13. a3 h6 ({More common is} 13… Qc6 14. Qg4 g6) 14. b4 $6 $146 (14. Be3\n$1 Qxb2 $4 15. Bd4 b5 16. Qd1 Qxa3 17. Rxa3 Bxa3 $18) 14… Be7 15. Be3 Qd8 16.\nBd4 O-O 17. Rfe1 Re8 18. Rad1 Nf8 19. Qb3 Bd7 20. a4 Rc8 21. Re2 b5 {[#]} {\nNot easy to tell where White goes wrong in this game; his position still\nlookes quite good\, yet he is unable to penetrate Black’s fortress anywhere.\nPerhaps he should have tried to occupy the c-file earlier?} 22. a5 Qc7 23. Qb2\nQb7 24. Nd2 Rc6 25. Qa3 {[#]} Rc4 $1 {For the exchange he will get a strong\npassed pawn\, play on the long white diagonal and useful targets in the white b\nand e pawns.} 26. Bxc4 (26. Nxc4 bxc4 {would cost a second pawn at once.})\n26… dxc4 27. Ne4 Ng6 28. Qg3 {A king-side attack would seem the best chance.\nNf4 and then Nd3 can scarcely be permitted.} ({but if} 28. g3 Bc6 29. Rde1 Rd8\n{things just get worse.}) 28… Bxb4 29. Bc5 Bxa5 30. h4 h5 31. Qg5 Bc6 $2 {\nand now it is Black’s turn to go astray…} (31… c3 {was correct}) 32. Nf6+\n$1 gxf6 33. exf6 $18 Bc3 {[#]} 34. Bd4 $2 (34. Rd4 $3 {and Stockfish 12\nexcitedly announces mate in 13.}) 34… Bb4 $19 35. Qxh5 Bxg2 $19 (35… Rd8)\n36. Qg5 $2 Qf3 $1 37. h5 Bh3 $2 (37… Bd6) 38. hxg6 $18 Qg4+ 39. Qxg4 Bxg4 40.\nRe4 $4 {the final blunder after a roller coaster ride…} (40. f3 $1 Bxf3 41.\nRh2 Be4 42. g7 Bh7 43. Kg2 $18) 40… Bxd1 $19 41. g7 Bc2 42. Rh4 Bh7 {and\nwhite resigned} 0-1\n[/pgn] \nIM Vaidyanathan Ravikumar v. Vassily Smyslov\, Lloyds Bank Open\, round 6\, 30th August 1981. The game was drawn in 33 moves.\nIn 1982 Ravi scored a creditable =3rd at the 1982 British Championships (Mile’s year) in Torquay including wins over Basman\, Muir and Plaskett : \nCross table for the 1982 British Championship in Torquay\n1983 included an excellent win over James Tarjan at the Lloyds Bank Open but Danny King got revenge for his 1981 defeat! \n[pgn]\n[Event “Lloyds Bank op 07th”]\n[Site “London”]\n[Date “1983.08.29”]\n[Round “6”]\n[White “Tarjan\, James Edward”]\n[Black “Ravikumar\, Vaidyanathan”]\n[Result “0-1”]\n[ECO “E71”]\n[WhiteElo “2535”]\n[BlackElo “2400”]\n[Annotator “British Chess News”]\n[PlyCount “118”]\n[EventDate “1983.08.24”]\n[EventType “swiss”]\n[EventRounds “9”]\n[EventCountry “ENG”]\n[SourceTitle “EXT 2000”]\n[Source “ChessBase”]\n[SourceDate “1999.11.16”]\n[SourceVersion “1”]\n[SourceVersionDate “1999.11.16”]\n[SourceQuality “1”] \n{[%evp 0\,118\,19\,31\,14\,-14\,31\,41\,60\,47\,41\,45\,40\,30\,27\,44\,62\,50\,54\,58\,55\,36\,66\,\n66\,70\,67\,76\,76\,81\,80\,153\,87\,183\,7\,0\,-91\,-66\,-71\,-77\,-85\,-85\,-73\,-85\,-79\,-85\,\n-110\,-95\,-115\,-130\,-143\,-151\,-177\,-175\,-183\,-180\,-177\,-189\,-179\,-181\,-174\,-159\,\n-176\,-164\,-222\,-222\,-222\,-222\,-222\,-230\,-215\,-212\,-205\,-241\,-251\,-209\,-228\,\n-220\,-228\,-239\,-237\,-205\,-216\,-222\,-234\,-239\,-251\,-221\,-238\,-238\,-272\,-376\,\n-394\,-398\,-396\,-314\,-324\,-306\,-325\,-316\,-323\,-393\,-415\,-395\,-433\,-249\,-292\,\n-325\,-334\,-341\,-342\,-348\,-385\,-388\,-394\,-394\,-422\,-420\,-420\,-431\,-431\,-431]} 1.\nd4 Nf6 2. c4 c5 3. d5 d6 4. Nc3 g6 5. e4 Bg7 6. Bd3 O-O 7. h3 (7. Nge2) 7… a6\n{third most popular after 7…e6} (7… e6 8. Nf3 exd5 9. exd5) 8. a4 e5 9.\nNge2 b6 10. Bg5 h6 11. Be3 Kh7 $146 12. Qd2 Nbd7 13. f3 Nh5 14. h4 Ra7 15. g3\n$16 f5 {[#]} 16. O-O-O $6 {Sgt. Wilson would probably ask if long castling was\n“wise” before preventing f4.} (16. exf5 gxf5 17. O-O-O $14) 16… f4 $1 $17 17.\nBf2 fxg3 18. Nxg3 Nxg3 19. Bxg3 Rxf3 20. Qg2 Rf8 21. Rdg1 $19 {Optically this\nappears encouraging for White but Black has it all under control.} Qe8 (21…\nh5) 22. Be1 Nf6 23. Be2 Nh5 24. Qh2 Nf4 25. h5 g5 26. Kc2 Nxe2 27. Qxe2 Raf7\n28. Rg3 Rf4 29. b3 Qf7 30. Qg2 Rf1 31. a5 bxa5 32. Na4 Rxh1 33. Qxh1 Qf4 34.\nQg2 Bd7 35. Nb6 Be8 36. Rh3 a4 37. bxa4 Qf1 38. Qxf1 Rxf1 39. Kd2 g4 40. Rh2\nRf4 41. Nc8 Bf8 42. Bg3 Rf3 43. Bh4 Bxh5 {[#]} 44. Be7 $2 (44. Rf2) 44… g3 $1\n$19 45. Rh1 (45. Rxh5 g2 46. Ke2 Rg3 {is crushing.}) 45… Rf2+ {Black now\nshows good technique is wrapping this game up.} 46. Ke3 Re2+ 47. Kd3 g2 48. Rg1\nBxe7 49. Nxe7 Bf3 50. Nf5 Rxe4 51. Nxd6 Rh4 52. Ke3 Rh1 53. Kf2 Kg6 54. Nb7 e4\n55. Rxg2+ Bxg2 56. Kxg2 Rc1 57. d6 Rd1 58. Nxc5 Rxd6 59. Nxe4 Rd4 {A great win\nfrom Ravi against a strong GM.} 0-1\n[/pgn] \nRavi at the closing ceremony of the 2014 British Championships at Aberystwyth. Courtesy of John Upham Photography\nRavi’s second Olympiad appearance for India came at Thessaloniki\, Greece in 1984. This year provided Ravi’s highest FIDE rating of 2415 in January. \nIM Vaidyanathan Ravikumar and friends at the 1990 NatWest Young Masters\nRavi continued to be active as a player until 2000 when he started a career in coaching. He was the National Coach of the Emirates for eight years and has accompanied the ECF junior chess team to World Youth Chess Championships in 2014\, held in Al Ain\, UAE. \nRavi at the 2014 British Championships at Aberystwyth. Courtesy of John Upham Photography\nAccording to Spectrum Chess Calculation : “He is an experienced chess coach and provides chess coaching in 10 schools in Hertfordshire” \nHis first book was Karpov’s Best Games\, Chess Check\, 1984. \nFollowing that Ravi wrote a biographical work on Ulf Andersson : \nUlf Andersson’s Decisive Games\, IM Vaidyanathan Ravikumar\, Peja International\, 1985.\nand then \nPlay the Benko Gambit\, Vaidyanathan Ravikumar\, Pergamon Press\, 1991\nfollowed by \nThe Closed Sicilian\, Vaidyanathan Ravikumar\, Tournament Chess\, 1993\nChess Tactics Quiz Book\, Chess Check\, Vaidyanathan Ravikumar\, 2004\nand most recently \nSpectrum Chess Calculation\, Vaidyanathan Ravikumar\, Chess Check\, 2011\nThere were also works on Anatoly Karpov and Jan Timman as well as works on the Caro-Kann Defence.
URL:http://britishchessnews.com/event/birthday-for-im-vaidyanathan-ravikumar-26-xii-1959/
CATEGORIES:Birthday,Player,UKCC,Writer
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BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20201229
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20201230
DTSTAMP:20260817T135529Z
CREATED:20200411T183358Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260817T135529Z
UID:4487-1609200000-1609286399@britishchessnews.com
SUMMARY:Birthday of FM  Nicholas Thomas (29-xii-1966)
DESCRIPTION:Birthday of FM  Nicholas Thomas (29-xii-1966)
URL:http://britishchessnews.com/event/birthday-of-fm-nicholas-thomas-29-xii-1966/
CATEGORIES:Birthday,Player
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20201230
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20201231
DTSTAMP:20201229T175730Z
CREATED:20200412T131219Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20201229T175730Z
UID:4543-1609286400-1609372799@britishchessnews.com
SUMMARY:Birthday of FM Jonah Willow (30-xii-2002)
DESCRIPTION:Happy Birthday to FM Jonah Willow \nJonah B Willow was born in Nottingham on Monday\, December 30th 2002. Jacob was the most popular boy’s name in 2002. “Lose Yourself” by Enimem was number one. \nJonah’s first recorded graded standard play tournament was the 2010 Delancey UK Chess Challenge Terafinal and his first recorded rapidplay event was the Nottingham Rapidplay in 2011. \nJonah Willow at the 2012 UKK Terafinal. Courtesy of John Upham Photography\nJonah’s first published standard play grade was 96D in January of 2012 : \nJonah’s ECF grading progress\nJonah has represented West Nottingham\, 4NCL Wood Green\, Nottinghamshire CA and Syston (Leicester). \nFIDE rating profile for FM Jonah B Willow from Megabase 2020\nIt is a little curious as to the reason for the rating profile to halt at the end of 2018 since Jonah has played plenty of FIDE rated games since. Compare the above with : \nFIDE rating for FM Jonah Willow from fide.com\nJonah has plus scores against : Mike Surtees\, Richard Pert\, Peter Shaw\, Ranesh Ratnesan\, Shreyas Royal\, Keith Arkell and Ameet Ghasi to name but a few. \nWith the white pieces Jonah is a committed 1.e4 player but he has scored 83% with 1.Nc3! \nJonah plays the unusual Chekhover Variation  (4.Qxd4) in the 2…d6 Sicilian : this is an interesting alternative and is discussed by GM Ben Finegold : \n[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=liecBr62eqA[/embedyt] \nand  \nGM Varuzhan Akobian : \n[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FNoGIo4yjkM[/embedyt] \nJonah plays the Four Knights game with white. \nAs the second player he plays the Accelerated Dragon and the Modern Benoni. \n[pgn]\n[Event “Titled Tuesday intern op 17th Nov”]\n[Site “Chess.com INT”]\n[Date “2020.11.17”]\n[Round “5”]\n[White “Willow\, Jonah B”]\n[Black “Svidler\, Peter”]\n[Result “1-0”]\n[ECO “B53”]\n[WhiteElo “2386”]\n[BlackElo “2723”]\n[Annotator “British Chess News”]\n[PlyCount “59”]\n[EventDate “2020.11.17”]\n[EventType “swiss (blitz)”]\n[EventRounds “11”]\n[EventCountry “USA”]\n[SourceTitle “Mega2020 Update 58”]\n[Source “Chessbase”]\n[SourceDate “2020.11.27”]\n[SourceVersion “1”]\n[SourceVersionDate “2020.11.27”]\n[SourceQuality “1”] \n{[%evp 0\,15\,29\,25\,61\,47\,79\,62\,86\,57\,70\,22\,12\,11\,15\,6\,5\,0]} 1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 d6\n3. d4 cxd4 4. Qxd4 {The Chekhover Variation (Vitaly Checkhover 1908 – 1965)} a6\n{Black wishes to develop the knight without having it pinned. Probably also\nmakes it awkward for White to castle long.} ({The “main line” is} 4… Nc6 5.\nBb5 Bd7 6. Bxc6 (6. Qd3 Nf6 7. c4 g6 8. Nc3 Bg7 9. O-O O-O 10. h3 a6 11. Bxc6\nBxc6 12. Nd4 Nd7 13. Be3 Rc8 14. Rac1 Nc5 15. Qc2 Ne6 16. Nxe6 fxe6 $14) 6…\nBxc6 7. Nc3 Nf6 8. Bg5 e6 9. O-O-O Be7 10. Rhe1 O-O 11. Kb1 Qa5 12. Qd2 Qa6 13.\nNd4 Rfc8 14. f3 $11) 5. c4 Nc6 6. Qe3 g6 7. Be2 Bg7 8. h3 Nf6 9. O-O O-O 10.\nNc3 Nd7 11. Rd1 Nc5 12. Rb1 {[#]} f5 $2 {Probably not correct but active\nnontheless. 13 games with this in MegaBase 2020 and the move is labelled as\n“hot”.} (12… a5) 13. b4 f4 (13… Nxe4 14. Nxe4 fxe4 15. Ng5 $1 Kh8 16. Bb2 {\nRemoving the defender…} Bxb2 17. Rxb2 Bf5 18. g4 $18) 14. Qd2 $18 Bxc3 15.\nQxc3 Nxe4 16. Qc2 Nf6 17. Bxf4 $18 Bf5 18. Bd3 Bxd3 19. Qxd3 $146 (19. Rxd3)\n19… Qc8 20. Bh6 Re8 21. Re1 (21. Qb3) 21… Qf5 22. Qd2 Rad8 23. Nd4 Nxd4 24.\nQxd4 e5 25. Qb6 Rd7 26. Rbd1 (26. b5) 26… Re6 27. Qe3 Kf7 28. Rd2 d5 $2 29.\ng4 Qe4 30. cxd5 {and Svidler resigned.} 1-0\n[/pgn] \nHe has his own Twitch TV channel. \nOn chess.com he is JonahWillow and his highest chess.com rating has been 2863 on April 5th 2020.
URL:http://britishchessnews.com/event/birthday-of-fm-jonah-b-willow-30-xii-2002/
CATEGORIES:4NCL,Birthday,British Championships,Player,UKCC
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BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20210101
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20210102
DTSTAMP:20210120T115949Z
CREATED:20191229T122758Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20210120T115949Z
UID:2634-1609459200-1609545599@britishchessnews.com
SUMMARY:Birthday of IM Dagne Ciukšyte (01-i-1977)
DESCRIPTION:Birthday of IM Dagne Ciukšyte (01-i-1977)
URL:http://britishchessnews.com/event/birthday-of-im-dagne-ciuksyte-01-i-1977/
CATEGORIES:Birthday,Player
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:http://britishchessnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/Dagne.jpg
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BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20210102
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20210103
DTSTAMP:20210120T120409Z
CREATED:20200409T074929Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20210120T120409Z
UID:4225-1609545600-1609631999@britishchessnews.com
SUMMARY:Birthday of FM Stuart Fancy (02-i-1959)
DESCRIPTION:Birthday of FM Stuart Fancy (02-i-1959)
URL:http://britishchessnews.com/event/birthday-of-fm-stuart-fancy-02-i-1959/
CATEGORIES:Birthday,Player
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:http://britishchessnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/Stuart_Fancy_2012.jpg
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BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20210107
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20210108
DTSTAMP:20210120T120552Z
CREATED:20191230T113557Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20210120T120552Z
UID:2638-1609977600-1610063999@britishchessnews.com
SUMMARY:Birthday for GM Luke James McShane (07-i-1984)
DESCRIPTION:We send best wishes to GM Luke James McShane on his birthday\, this day (January 7th) in 1984. \nHere is Luke’s Wikipedia entry \n[pgn]\n[Event “Hastings 9798”]\n[Site “Hastings”]\n[Date “1997.12.31”]\n[Round “3”]\n[White “McShane\, Luke J”]\n[Black “Plaskett\, H James”]\n[Result “1-0”]\n[ECO “B44”]\n[WhiteElo “2455”]\n[BlackElo “2450”]\n[Annotator “McShane\,L”]\n[PlyCount “45”]\n[EventDate “1997.12.29”]\n[EventType “tourn”]\n[EventRounds “9”]\n[EventCountry “ENG”]\n[EventCategory “13”]\n[SourceTitle “CBM 063”]\n[Source “ChessBase”]\n[SourceDate “1998.03.26”]\n[SourceVersion “1”]\n[SourceVersionDate “1998.03.26”]\n[SourceQuality “1”] \n{[%evp 0\,45\,26\,28\,41\,41\,43\,23\,44\,24\,40\,7\,25\,32\,20\,5\,5\,-1\,-35\,-20\,20\,20\,0\,-13\,6\,\n30\,1\,-17\,129\,129\,133\,134\,133\,136\,136\,137\,150\,153\,153\,161\,172\,172\,179\,183\,188\,\n177\,189\,185]} 1. e4 {Rodriguez\,Am} c5 2. Nf3 e6 3. d4 cxd4 4. Nxd4 Nc6 5. Nb5\nd6 6. Bf4 e5 7. Be3 Be6 {Rodriguez: A flexible move order in a position where\nonly other three continuations are quite playable.} (7… Be7 {Rodriguez\,Am}) (\n7… a6 {Rodriguez\,Am} 8. N5c3 Nf6 {is probably the most reliable now since:}\n9. Bc4 Be6 10. Nd5 Nxe4 $3 {seems to work well for equality.}) (7… Nf6 {\nRodriguez\,Am} 8. Bg5 Be6 {has been the main line for years but:} 9. Bxf6 gxf6\n10. Nd2 $1 {looks promising for White these days.}) 8. Nd2 Nf6 (8… a6 {\nRodriguez\,Am} 9. Nc3 Nf6 10. Nc4 {is an important line too} b5 (10… Rb8 $5\n11. Bb6 Qd7 12. Qd2 Nb4 $1 $11 {Amador Rodríguez-Zapata\, Mexico 1993}) 11. Nb6\nRb8 12. Nbd5 Be7 {used to work well for Black until my strong novelty 13.a4!.\nSee CBM 59 or inf 69/(163) for my game against Gilberto Hernández}) 9. Bg5 d5\n$6 (9… a6 {Rodriguez\,Am} 10. Bxf6 $1 gxf6 11. Nc3 {is much more playable\nwith many options\, just one of them:} d5 12. exd5 Bxd5 {works better than in\nthe current game\, for instance:} 13. Bc4 (13. Nxd5 Qxd5 14. Nc4 Nd4 $6 (14…\nQxd1+ $14) 15. c3 Rd8 16. Ne3 Qa5 17. Bc4 b5 18. O-O bxc4 19. cxd4 Rxd4 20. Qf3\n$44 {Trepp\,M-Wyttenbach/Bern op 1989}) 13… Bxc4 14. Nxc4 Qxd1+ 15. Rxd1 Bb4\n16. O-O Bxc3 17. bxc3 Ke7 18. Nd6 Rab8 19. Nf5+ Ke6 20. Ng7+ {1/2-1/2\nKengis-Andersson/Haninge 1992}) (9… Be7 10. Bxf6 {Rodriguez\,Am} Bxf6 11. Nc4\nO-O {is also obscure and playable.}) 10. exd5 Bxd5 11. Bxf6 gxf6 12. Bc4 $1 {\nRodriguez: A strong move I had already discovered many years ago when I\nstarted to investigate this variation.} (12. Nc4 $6 {Rodriguez\,Am} Be6 13. Qf3\n(13. Ncd6+ Bxd6 14. Qxd6 Qxd6 15. Nxd6+ Ke7 16. O-O-O Rhd8 17. Nb5 Nb4 $17 {\nRodin\,M-Milov\,L/Komercni Banka op 1996/EXP 55}) 13… Nb4 14. Ne3 Bc5 15. Na3\nNc6 $15 {Trepp-Kaenel/Switzerland ch 1990}) 12… Rc8 (12… Bxg2 13. Rg1 $36)\n(12… Bxc4 13. Nxc4 Qxd1+ 14. Rxd1 $16) (12… a6 13. Rg1 $36 (13. Bxd5 {\nRodriguez\,Am} axb5 14. Bb3 Nd4 15. O-O Nxb3 16. axb3 Rxa1 17. Qxa1 Be7 18. Qd1\n$14 {Leko\,P-Portisch\,L/ch-HUN1997})) 13. Qg4 $1 {Xc8} (13. Bxd5 {Rodriguez\,Am}\nQxd5 14. Qg4 Qe6 $11) 13… Bxc4 {Rodriguez: A losing move} (13… Nb4 14.\nO-O-O (14. Bxd5 {Rodriguez\,Am} Rxc2 $5 {and even though the position looks\npleasant for White he must now find and active continuation not without risk.\nAs we will see soon\, the game continuation was too easy.} (14… Nxc2+ 15. Ke2\nNxa1 16. Rxa1 Rc5 17. Bc4 $16) 15. Nc3 $6 (15. Ne4 $5 Nxd5 16. Rd1) (15. O-O $5\nQxd5 16. Rac1) 15… Nd3+ $1) (14. O-O h5 15. Qe2 Rg8 16. g3 a6 $13) 14… a6)\n(13… h5 14. Qh3 (14. Qf5 $143 $6 Ne7) 14… Nb4 15. Bxd5 Nxc2+ (15… Rxc2\n16. Qb3)) 14. Nxc4 {Rodriguez: With simply too many threats.} Nd4 $2 15. Ncd6+\nBxd6 16. Nxd6+ Ke7 (16… Qxd6 17. Qxc8+ Ke7 18. Qxb7+ $18 (18. Qxh8 $6 Nxc2+\n19. Ke2 Nd4+ 20. Ke1 $11 (20. Kf1 Qa6+ $19))) 17. Nxc8+ Qxc8 18. Qxc8 Rxc8 19.\nRc1 Rxc2 20. Rxc2 Nxc2+ 21. Kd2 Nd4 22. Rc1 Nc6 23. Rc3 1-0 \n[/pgn] \nLuke James McShane\n[pgn]\n[Event “London Classic 2nd”]\n[Site “London”]\n[Date “2010.12.08”]\n[Round “1”]\n[White “McShane\, Luke J”]\n[Black “Carlsen\, Magnus”]\n[Result “1-0”]\n[ECO “A37”]\n[WhiteElo “2645”]\n[BlackElo “2802”]\n[Annotator “McShane\,L”]\n[PlyCount “77”]\n[EventDate “2010.12.06”]\n[EventType “tourn”]\n[EventRounds “7”]\n[EventCountry “ENG”]\n[EventCategory “19”]\n[SourceTitle “CBM 140”]\n[Source “ChessBase”]\n[SourceDate “2011.01.18”]\n[SourceVersion “1”]\n[SourceVersionDate “2011.01.18”]\n[SourceQuality “1”] \n{[%evp 0\,77\,19\,-12\,11\,2\,18\,16\,9\,4\,4\,15\,4\,5\,44\,30\,18\,18\,23\,24\,45\,32\,45\,0\,36\,41\,\n37\,-25\,15\,22\,30\,39\,26\,-3\,22\,33\,28\,67\,9\,33\,35\,11\,71\,73\,65\,65\,80\,77\,65\,65\,94\,100\,\n84\,76\,90\,90\,90\,96\,98\,98\,98\,116\,118\,81\,117\,187\,198\,219\,222\,222\,184\,195\,197\,191\,\n198\,218\,228\,228\,231\,236]} 1. c4 c5 2. g3 g6 3. Bg2 Bg7 4. Nc3 Nc6 5. Nf3 d6 6.\nO-O Nh6 7. d4 $5 {With this interesting idea\, White voluntarily gives up the\nbishop pair in order to increase his lead in development.} (7. b3 {was played\nin Flores-Carlsen at the Khanty Mansiysk-Olympiad in 2010}) 7… cxd4 8. Bxh6\nBxh6 9. Nxd4 Ne5 {[%csl Gc8\,Gg2\,Gh6][%cal Yg2a8] An ambitious decision\,\nrefusing to simplify the position.} 10. Qb3 O-O 11. Rfd1 {[%csl Rd8\,Rh6][%cal\nYc4c5\,Yd4f5\,Yd1d8] The position is calm on the surface\, but the situation is\ntense. Black’s queenside is under pressure\, but if Black can catch up in\ndevelopment then his pair of bishops will give him an advantage\, so it’s\nimportant for White to keep up the momentum and create threats. This move\ncreates the idea of c4-c5\, and if d6xc5 then Nd4-f5 with a discovered attack.}\nNd7 12. Qa3 a5 13. b4 $5 {[%csl Ga3][%cal Ya3a8\,Yc4c5] A brave decision which\ntook some time. I wanted to seize the initiative before my opponent had a\nchance to unravel his queenside. The immediate threat is to advance c4-c5\nwhich would break through the queenside defences.} Ra6 {[%csl Ga6][%cal Ya5b4\,\nYb7a6]} (13… Nb6 {was the critical response\, hitting c4 and protecting the\nrook on a8 so that axb4 becomes possible. Now after} 14. c5 Nc4 15. Qb3 Nd2 $5\n{is a surprising shot. During the game I thought White had good chances in the\ntactical melee which arises after 16.Qd5!?\, but perhaps} 16. Qa4 {is the\ncorrect follow up after all.}) 14. b5 Ra8 {It’s not obvious who has gained\nfrom the pawn’s advance to b5. If White can break through\, the advanced pawn\nwill be an asset\, but if Black can get a grip on c5 then the c4-pawn will be a\nlong term weakness.} 15. e3 a4 16. Rab1 Bg7 17. Ne4 {[%cal Yc4c5] White is\nthreatening c4-c5 again\, which would open the floodgates for the rest of my\npieces. It’s correct to prevent that\, but I had foreseen the nice maneouvre\nwith the other knight.} Qb6 18. Nc6 $1 {[%csl Gc6\,Gd5\,Re7][%cal Yc6e7\,Yc6b4\,\nYb4d5]} Re8 ({Capturing the knight wasn’t a great option:} 18… bxc6 19. bxc6\nQc7 (19… Qxc6 20. Nf6+ {wins the queen.}) 20. cxd7 Bxd7 21. c5 {and White\nwill probably pick up a pawn.}) 19. Nb4 {[%csl Rb6\,Gd5\,Ge4][%cal Yb4d5\,Yc4c5]\nHeading for a nice square on d5.} f5 {Certainly ugly\, but both of us thought\nthis was a necessary evil. Perhaps though\, moving the queen away was the best\nbet.} 20. Nc3 $6 (20. Nd5 $1 Qd8 21. Ng5 $1 {was the strongest continuation\,\nthreatening to hop into the hole on e6. After} Nc5 22. b6 {threatens a fork on\nc7. If both the rooks flee then} Rf8 23. Nc7 Rb8 24. Rb5 $1 {is incisive\, and\nBlack has no good answer to Rxc5.}) 20… Qc5 $2 (20… e6 $1 {was the best\ndefence. I was looking at some ideas with} 21. Na6 $5 {but the position\nremains messy. Retreating the knight to d3 should preserve an edge though.})\n21. Nxa4 Qa7 22. Na6 $3 {[%csl Ga6\,Ra7\,Gg2][%cal Yg2a8\,Yb5b6\,Ya6c7] Certainly\nMagnus missed the force of this knight sacrifice. The threat is Na6-c7 and\ntaking the knight comes with its own problems.} bxa6 (22… Rf8 23. c5 $1 Nxc5\n24. N4xc5 dxc5 25. Qxc5 {and the knight still can’t be taken:} bxa6 26. b6 Qb8\n27. Qd5+ $18) 23. b6 Nxb6 24. Rxb6 $1 (24. Nxb6 Rb8 {is less convincing.})\n24… Rb8 25. c5 $1 Be6 {Black faced an unappealing choice.} ({The alternative\nwas} 25… dxc5 26. Qxc5 Rxb6 27. Nxb6 Be6 28. Qc6 Bf7 29. Bd5 {and Black is\nin huge trouble.} e6 $2 {allows a pretty finish:} 30. Nc8 Qb8 31. Bxe6 $1 Rxe6\n32. Rd8+ Bf8 33. Ne7+ $1 Kg7 34. Rxb8 Rxc6 35. Nxc6 {with an easy win.}) 26.\nRdb1 dxc5 27. Rb7 Rxb7 28. Rxb7 Qa8 29. Nxc5 Qc8 (29… Bf7 30. Rxe7 $1 {\nis winning comfortably\, as a6 will also drop off after the exchange of rooks.}\nQb8 31. Rxe8+ Qxe8 32. Qxa6 {etc.}) 30. Qxa6 Bf7 (30… Qxc5 31. Qxe6+ Kh8 32.\nBc6 {[%csl Re7] wins the e7-pawn as well.}) 31. Bc6 Rd8 32. Nd7 $1 {[%csl Gd7]\n[%cal Yb7c7\,Ya6b6\,Yb7b8] The neatest way to finish. The threat is simply to\nplay Qb6 followed by Rc7 or Rb8 to trap the queen\, and there is no good\nresponse.} Rxd7 (32… Be6 33. Qb6 Rxd7 34. Rb8 $1 {wins with a pin.}) 33. Bxd7\nQc1+ 34. Qf1 Qxf1+ 35. Kxf1 Bc4+ 36. Kg1 Bxa2 37. Ba4 $1 {[%cal Ya4b3] Forcing\noff a pair of bishops makes the technical task much simpler.} e5 38. f3 $1 {\nA final accurate move. After exchanging bishops\, White will play e3-e4 to fix\na weakness on e5 before advancing the king.} Bh6 39. Bb3+ 1-0\n[/pgn] \nLuke James McShane
URL:http://britishchessnews.com/event/birthday-for-gm-luke-james-mcshane-07-i-1984/
CATEGORIES:Birthday,British Championships,Player
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BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20210108
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20210109
DTSTAMP:20210120T120750Z
CREATED:20190822T161251Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20210120T120750Z
UID:990-1610064000-1610150399@britishchessnews.com
SUMMARY:Birthday of IM George Botterill (08-i-1949)
DESCRIPTION:We send birthday wishes to IM George Steven Botterill born on this day (January 8th) in 1949. \nHere is his Wikipedia page \nBrian Reilly\, Ray Keene\, George Botterill\, Anatoly Karpov\, Harry Golombek and Viktor Korchnoi\nand here is his academic page \nCapa vs Corzo Rerun ? Nigel Short had 1977 British Champion George Botterill on the ropes at The National Bank of Dubai Open. In the photo Nigel is considering 42 Rh5 The champ just escaped with a draw.\n[pgn]\n[Event “Bath zt”]\n[Site “Bath”]\n[Date “1987.02.15”]\n[Round “2”]\n[White “Botterill\, George Steven”]\n[Black “Chandler\, Murray G”]\n[Result “1-0”]\n[ECO “E49”]\n[WhiteElo “2370”]\n[BlackElo “2595”]\n[Annotator “British Chess News”]\n[PlyCount “80”]\n[EventDate “1987.02.14”]\n[EventType “tourn”]\n[EventRounds “11”]\n[EventCountry “ENG”]\n[EventCategory “7”]\n[SourceTitle “CBM 004”]\n[Source “ChessBase”]\n[SourceDate “1988.06.01”]\n[SourceVersion “1”]\n[SourceVersionDate “1988.06.01”]\n[SourceQuality “1”] \n{[%evp 0\,80\,19\,31\,14\,-14\,-11\,4\,33\,-47\,-26\,-31\,-25\,-25\,-25\,-25\,-18\,-14\,-21\,-11\,\n-13\,-26\,-12\,-26\,-22\,-27\,-29\,-29\,-7\,-40\,-38\,-66\,-42\,-31\,-1\,-32\,16\,9\,42\,37\,76\,93\,\n73\,50\,48\,32\,50\,15\,16\,19\,36\,17\,35\,27\,39\,21\,36\,28\,-8\,18\,63\,35\,35\,17\,62\,77\,43\,\n-103\,91\,54\,295\,356\,352\,376\,361\,358\,353\,324\,352\,365\,870\,969\,1250]} 1. d4 Nf6 2.\nc4 e6 3. Nc3 Bb4 4. f3 d5 5. a3 Bxc3+ 6. bxc3 O-O 7. cxd5 exd5 8. e3 b6 9. Bd3\nc5 10. Ne2 Re8 11. O-O Ba6 12. Bxa6 Nxa6 13. Qd3 Nb8 14. Ng3 Nc6 15. Ra2 Rc8\n16. Re2 h6 17. Bb2 Ne7 18. e4 Ng6 19. Qd2 dxe4 20. fxe4 Nh7 21. Nf5 Nh4 22. Qf4\nNxf5 23. Qxf5 Rc7 24. d5 c4 25. Bc1 Qd7 26. Qf3 Rc5 27. Qh5 f6 28. h4 Re5 29.\nQf3 Nf8 30. Be3 Ra5 31. Bd4 Re8 32. Qg3 Kh7 33. Bxf6 Rxd5 34. Bd4 Ng6 35. exd5\nRxe2 36. h5 Nh8 37. Rf8 Re7 38. Qb8 Nf7 39. Rg8 Re1+ 40. Kh2 Re5 1-0\n[/pgn] \nIM George Steven Botterill (08-I-1949)\nThe Modern Defence\, BT Batsford\, 1972\, GS Botterill and RD Keene\nThe Pirc Defence\, BT Batsford\, 1973\, GS Botterill and RD Keene\nBritish Chess\, Pergamon Press\, 1983. Editors : GS Botterill\, DNL Levy\, JM Rice and MJ Richardson
URL:http://britishchessnews.com/event/birthday-of-george-steven-botterill/
CATEGORIES:Birthday,British Championships,Player,Writer
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:http://britishchessnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/Bot01091.jpg
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BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20230108
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20230109
DTSTAMP:20230109T124705Z
CREATED:20230109T124704Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20230109T124705Z
UID:22151-1673136000-1673222399@britishchessnews.com
SUMMARY:Birthday of GM Keith Arkell (08-i-1961)
DESCRIPTION:We send birthday wishes to GM Keith Arkell\, born this day (January 8th) in 1961. \nKeith Arkell\nHere is Keith’s Wikipedia entry \nGM Keith Arkell (ENG)\nThis was written about Keith aged 18 prior to the 1979 Spassky vs the BCF Junior Squad simultaneous display : \n“Rednal\, Birmingham. Rating 188. 2nd Lloyds Bank junior international\, 1979.” \nKeith was Southern Counties (SCCU) champion for the 2014-15 season sharing with Jonathan Hawkins \nHere is an interview with ChessBase from 2016. \nGM Keith Arkell\n[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4PIzZG4FlZ8[/embedyt] \n[pgn]\n[Event “BCF-chT 1415 (4NCL)”]\n[Site “England”]\n[Date “2015.02.14”]\n[Round “5.164”]\n[White “Rogers\, Jonathan”]\n[Black “Arkell\, Keith C”]\n[Result “1/2-1/2”]\n[ECO “B12”]\n[WhiteElo “2277”]\n[BlackElo “2497”]\n[Annotator “Saunders\,J/Arkell”]\n[PlyCount “82”]\n[EventDate “2014.11.15”]\n[EventType “team-swiss”]\n[EventRounds “11”]\n[EventCountry “ENG”]\n[SourceTitle “EXT 2016”]\n[Source “ChessBase”]\n[SourceDate “2015.10.08”]\n[SourceVersion “1”]\n[SourceVersionDate “2015.10.08”]\n[SourceQuality “1”]\n[WhiteTeam “Barbican II”]\n[BlackTeam “Cheddleton”]\n[WhiteTeamCountry “ENG”]\n[BlackTeamCountry “ENG”] \n{[%evp 0\,82\,19\,38\,72\,69\,71\,77\,64\,2\,30\,17\,14\,9\,29\,24\,35\,-30\,-50\,-74\,-74\,-75\,-88\,\n-128\,-3\,-16\,-56\,-32\,-43\,-43\,10\,5\,20\,16\,16\,-4\,5\,-3\,-68\,-61\,-45\,-40\,-37\,-1273\,68\,\n-201\,-202\,-210\,-197\,-207\,-208\,-228\,-194\,-183\,-149\,-150\,-148\,-143\,-143\,-141\,138\,\n141\,141\,150\,138\,140\,138\,173\,201\,198\,198\,210\,213\,236\,232\,190\,225\,138\,142\,100\,\n114\,95\,114\,95\,92]} 1. e4 c6 2. d4 d5 3. e5 c5 4. c4 e6 5. Nf3 cxd4 6. Nxd4 Bb4+\n$5 ({Databases are peppered with games where Keith has played} 6… Nc6 {\nbut perhaps he wanted to keep his opponent guessing.}) 7. Nc3 Ne7 8. h4 Nbc6 9.\na3 $5 {Jonathan\, perhaps with the far-sighted plan of not being strangled\nslowly in a rook and pawn endgame\, wants to provoke something sharp.} Bxc3+ 10.\nbxc3 Nxe5 11. Bf4 N5g6 (11… Nxc4 12. Bxc4 dxc4 {is tempting but maybe} 13.\nNb5 O-O 14. Qxd8 Rxd8 15. Nc7 Nd5 16. O-O-O $5 {gives White a bit of\ncompensation. Instead\, Black gives back material to get some pressure on the\ne-file.}) 12. Bg3 e5 13. h5 exd4 14. hxg6 Nxg6 15. Qxd4 O-O 16. cxd5 Re8+ 17.\nBe2 Ne7 18. Rd1 Nf5 19. Qd3 {[diag]} Qg5 (19… Qg5 {We haven’t quite got\nthere yet\, but we’re coming up to a spectacular mutual oversight which needs\nexplaining. Seeking enlightenment (and also wanting to be sure that the moves\nwere correctly recorded – mix-ups do happen)\, I got in touch with Keith on\nFaceBook to ask what happened. Keith responded at some length\, centring on his\nthoughts as he planned the move 19…Qg5. What followed are his own words\,\nlightly edited by me: “It’s impossible to fully explain how such a thing can\nhappen\, but let me try anyway. So\, I’m sitting there analysing the move I want\nto play in principle – which at the time was 19…Qd8-g5. I know that my\nadvantage increases if I can make the move\, but obviously I am concerned about\nhis possible reply} 20. Qb5 {So I analyse} Re4 {(other moves didn’t look very\ngood to me)} 21. d6 {- the only move that could give me any problem\, as it\nthreatens to win a piece. Visualising the position\, I then hoped that} Be6 {\nwould be strong\, as it threatened the winning 22…Bc4. Of course\, the main\npotential drawback to this is that he can then fork my rooks with} 22. Qxb7 {\nI would then need} Rxe2+ {to work or I would be lost! So – and don’t forget\,\nall this is before playing 19…Qg5 – I set about analysing 22…Rxe2+ as I\n(wrongly!) believed that 19…Qg5 hinged on this. So\, 22…Rxe2+} 23. Kxe2 Bc4+\n24. Kf3 {(obviously forced) and then\, I thought\, ”please let 24…Re8 be a\nwinning move”! It certainly looked winning. It was obvious he had to either\nput a rook on e1 or his bishop on e5 to stop …Be2 mate. I didn’t look beyond}\nRe8 {[diag]} 25. Rde1 ({I saw a pretty mate against} 25. Rhe1 {which was} Qh5+\n26. Kf4 g5+ {(my favourite move!)} 27. Kxf5 Qg6+ 28. Kg4 f5+ 29. Kh3 Qh5+ 30.\nBh4 Qxh4#) ({so that just left the irritating} 25. Be5 {to deal with. Find a\ngood move there and I could play 19…Qg5. I decided that 25…h5 must be\nwinning and anyway certainly left him in trouble.}) 25… Bd5+ 26. Qxd5 Nh4+ {\nSo I analysed no more and plunged in with 19…Qg5. He quickly replied 20 Qb5\nand\, after briefly running through all those nice lines again\, I confidently\nplayed 20…Re4. He continued following my analysis\, with 21 d6?? and I had 21.\n..Be6?? ready for him. So there you have it. The explanation is that we were\nplaying out a variation I had analysed way ahead\, and I didn’t stop properly\nto check if there might be something else going on!”}) 20. Qb5 Re4 21. d6 $4 (\n21. O-O Nxg3 22. fxg3 Re5 $5 {seems to be broadly equal.}) 21… Be6 $4 ({\nWhat Keith had missed in his move 19 analysis\, and what Jonathan also missed\nwhen playing 21.d6\, was the bone-crushing} 21… Nxg3 $3 {\, which is game over\nas} 22. Qxg5 {allows} Rxe2# {mate\, while a capture on g3 loses the queen to 22.\n..Qxb5 as the e2 bishop is pinned.}) 22. Qd3 $4 (22. O-O $1 Rd8 23. Bd3 {\nand White is well in the game.}) 22… Nxg3 {This time Black doesn’t fluff his\nlines.} 23. fxg3 Qe5 $1 24. Rh4 (24. d7 Rd8 {makes no material difference\,\nwhile a king move such as}) (24. Kf1 {loses to} Bc4 {.}) 24… Bg4 25. Qxe4 $1\n({A much better bet than} 25. Rxg4 Rxg4 {\, which looks pretty hopeless for\nWhite.}) 25… Qxe4 26. Rxg4 Qe5 $6 ({There seems to be no reason not to\nsnatch a pawn with} 26… Qxg2 27. d7 Rd8 {\, with very reasonable winning\nchances.}) 27. d7 Qxc3+ $2 ({After this\, Black’s winning chances evaporate.}\n27… Rd8 {keeps the Black flag flying\, though it’s by no means obvious how he\ncan go about winning.}) 28. Kf1 Rd8 29. Re4 $1 {White’s firm control of the\ne-file is his salvation.} Qc6 ({Possibly another oversight\, but it turns out\nto be non-critical as the following tactical sequence doesn’t leave Black too\nmuch to do to save the game. After} 29… Kf8 30. Bb5 Qf6+ 31. Ke1 g6 32. Re8+\nKg7 33. Rxd8 Qxd8 34. Rc1 {\, the game peters out to a draw.}) 30. Re8+ Rxe8 31.\nd8=Q g6 32. Qd5 Qc3 33. Bc4 Qf6+ 34. Kg1 Re7 35. Rf1 Qb6+ 36. Kh1 Qc7 {The\nzenith of White’s game – Houdini scores it at +2.13 – but it is hard to see\nhow White can bring any more pressure to bear on Black’s position or make\nmeaningful progress. Maybe Magnus Carlsen would have found a way.} 37. Qd4 a6\n38. Rd1 b5 39. Bf1 Re8 40. Kh2 Qc2 41. Qd3 Qc5 1/2-1/2 \n[/pgn] \n[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LJgiN5MgOns[/embedyt] \n[pgn]\n[Event “Crawley e2e4 Gatwick op 10”]\n[Site “Crawley”]\n[Date “2016.10.26”]\n[Round “1”]\n[White “Arkell\, Keith C”]\n[Black “Wadsworth\, Matthew J”]\n[Result “1-0”]\n[ECO “D23”]\n[WhiteElo “2450”]\n[BlackElo “2290”]\n[Annotator “Keith Arkell”]\n[PlyCount “159”]\n[EventDate “2016.10.26”]\n[EventType “swiss”]\n[EventRounds “9”]\n[EventCountry “ENG”]\n[SourceTitle “Arkell’s Endings : Game 1”]\n[Source “ChessBase”]\n[SourceDate “2017.10.13”]\n[SourceVersion “1”]\n[SourceVersionDate “2017.10.13”]\n[SourceQuality “1”] \n{[%evp 0\,159\,19\,29\,23\,-4\,25\,20\,30\,-2\,20\,22\,9\,-6\,15\,-19\,-25\,-6\,-8\,-13\,6\,-4\,-3\,\n-3\,6\,-21\,-8\,-11\,22\,0\,7\,1\,14\,1\,3\,11\,8\,0\,5\,5\,29\,50\,52\,22\,21\,24\,45\,27\,63\,69\,55\,70\,\n72\,80\,74\,14\,33\,25\,26\,42\,34\,44\,48\,48\,68\,63\,89\,99\,98\,92\,126\,116\,115\,116\,116\,122\,\n128\,113\,128\,129\,132\,133\,135\,151\,158\,147\,151\,136\,137\,132\,142\,134\,152\,152\,156\,\n152\,162\,164\,163\,152\,152\,152\,163\,153\,153\,161\,157\,136\,153\,153\,153\,161\,157\,157\,\n162\,157\,157\,157\,157\,157\,158\,134\,158\,134\,208\,189\,189\,189\,189\,141\,189\,165\,182\,\n160\,177\,156\,202\,184\,193\,202\,210\,195\,208\,221\,276\,293\,377\,373\,545\,373\,639\,373\,\n373\,367\,365\,381\,371\,480\,537\,732\,1259\,28004]} {Taken from Arkell’s Endings\,\nGame 14\, pp 68-71} 1. Nf3 d5 2. c4 c6 3. d4 Nf6 4. Qc2 dxc4 5. Qxc4 Bg4 6. Nbd2\nNbd7 7. g3 e6 8. Bg2 Be7 9. O-O Bh5 10. a4 $1 $146 (10. b3) 10… a5 11. Qb3\nQb6 12. Qxb6 Nxb6 13. b3 Nfd5 14. Bb2 O-O 15. Nc4 Nxc4 {This capture gave me\nsome encouragement as my pawn will gain in stature\, and I will have long-term\nprospects on the b-file.} 16. bxc4 Nb4 17. Rfd1 Rfd8 18. c5 Bf6 19. e3 b6 {\nAgainst a waiting move I planned Rab1 and Ba3} 20. cxb6 Rab8 21. Rac1 Rxb6 22.\nRd2 Bg6 23. Bc3 Be4 {[#]} {I think this was an oversight and he had missed my\n25th move.} 24. Ne5 Bxg2 25. Nc4 Ra6 26. Kxg2 {Now I have the kind of position\nI like: no weaknesses and a guarantee of permanent pressure against his\nqueenside pawns.} Rda8 27. Nxa5 {It was hard to resist playing in this\nstraightforward manner. It will now be a very tough task for Wadsworth to hang\non to his backward c-pawn.} (27. Rb1 {runs into} c5) ({and} 27. Rb2 {allows}\nNd3) 27… Nd5 28. Nb7 Rxa4 29. Rdc2 Ra2 30. Be1 g6 31. Kf3 {[%csl Gc6] With\ne3 defended I’m now threatening to capture his pawn.} Rxc2 32. Rxc2 Ne7 33.\nBb4 Ra6 34. Nc5 Ra7 {The c-pawn is lost whatever he does} ({For example} 34…\nRb6 35. Ba5 Rb5 36. Bd8 {with Nd3 or Ne4 to follow}) 35. Ne4 Kg7 {[#]} 36. Bxe7\n{I could have exchanged both minor pieces\, but felt that the subsequent ending\nwould be more favourable if I kept the knight\, which tends to be more\neffective than a bishop at close quarters.} Bxe7 37. Rxc6 h5 38. h3 {[#]} {\nHow do you set about winning such a position? Clearly not with the pieces\nalone\, but using pawns will unavoidably involve exchanges\, and you don’t\nwant too many swaps as rook\, knight and pawn versus rook and bishop is usually\na simple draw. The answer is somewhere in-between. Ideally you would like to\nfix the kingside with g4-g5\, and then organise e3-e4 and d4-d5.} Rb7 39. g4\nhxg4+ 40. hxg4 Ra7 {[#]} {I was pleased to see this and thought he should\nprefer 40…g5\, but I guess he was reluctant to put a pawn on the same colour\nas his bishop. 40…f5 was also interesting\, but I didn’t expect him to\nweaken his pawns in such a cavalier manner.} 41. g5 {Now I have a free hand to\nslowly improve my position because …f6 will always leave Black with too many\nweaknesses. So many times this is what we strive for in chess – leaving the\nopponent without any real counterplay is often half the battle.} Ra5 42. Kf4\nRa7 43. Rb6 Bd8 44. Rb5 Rd7 45. Kg4 Be7 46. Ra5 Bd8 47. Ra8 {[#]} {If you\nstudy the great endgame players such as Magnus Carlsen and Anatoly Karpov\, you\ncannot fail to observe their endless patience. Maintaining the tension rather\nthan committing oneself to immediate action tends to have a wearisome effect\non the opponent\, as well as forcing them to defend accurately to avoid further\ndamage.} Be7 48. Rc8 Rb7 49. Re8 Rc7 50. Rb8 Rd7 51. f4 Rc7 52. Kf3 Ra7 53. Nc5\nRc7 54. Nd3 Ra7 55. Rc8 Bd6 56. Ke4 Rb7 57. Nf2 {From g4 the knight will have\na choice of entry points into the heart of Black’s position.} Be7 58. Ng4 Ra7\n59. Rb8 Bd6 60. Rb5 Be7 61. Ke5 Ra3 {Spooked by my intention to make progress\nwith e3-e4 and d4-d5\, combined with Nf6 and Rb8\, Matthew gives some ground.}\n62. Rb7 Ra5+ 63. Ke4 Kf8 64. Nf6 Ra8 65. Ke5 Rd8 66. Nh7+ Ke8 67. e4 Ra8 68.\nNf6+ Kf8 69. d5 exd5 70. exd5 Rd8 71. Rb6 {[#]} {Threatening to win on the\nspot with 72 d6.} Bc5 72. Rc6 Ba3 73. d6 {Inch by inch I’ve brought about a\nwinning position. The rest is relatively straightforward.} Kg7 74. Kd5 Bb2 75.\nNg4 Ba3 76. Ne5 f6 77. Rc7+ Kg8 78. Nf7 Bxd6 79. Nxd6 fxg5 80. fxg5 1-0\n[/pgn] \nArkell’s Odyssey\nArkell’s Endings\, Keith Arkell\, GingerGM\, 2020\, ISBN-10 : 1527265595\nBCN has reviewed Arkell’s Endings in depth
URL:http://britishchessnews.com/event/birthday-of-gm-keith-charles-arkell-08-i-1961-2/
CATEGORIES:2023,4NCL,Birthday,British Championships,Player
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END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20210109
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20210110
DTSTAMP:20220108T163914Z
CREATED:20210919T133057Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20220108T163914Z
UID:18870-1610150400-1610236799@britishchessnews.com
SUMMARY:Birthday of FM Shreyas Royal (09-i-2009)
DESCRIPTION:BCN sends birthday wishes to FM Shreyas (known as “Shrey” by his friends) Royal born on Friday\, January 9th\, 2009. “Hallelujah” by Alexandra Burke was number one in the UK hit parade. \nShreyas attended The Pointer School in Blackheath\, London\, SE3 whose motto is “The Lord is my Shepherd”. \nIn October 2021 BCN secured an interview with Shreyas via his father Jitendra and below is mostly from that interview: \nBCN: What caused his initial interest in chess and at what age? \nHis initial interest in chess was capturing or as he used to call it ‘eating’ pieces but as he grew more mature\, he loved that there were so many possibilities in chess\, so much still left to explore! At the Age of 6 he learnt and got an interest in chess. \nBCN: Has Shreyas had any chess teachers or coaches? \n\n\nJyothi Lal N. with a peak of 2250 FIDE but is very knowledgeable and helped from just above beginner to 1800. He was Shreyas’s first coach.\nMeszaros Gyula (Julian) who was an IM with a peak of 2465 FIDE and was an endgame master which helped him from 1800-2100.\nHis Current Coach is GM John Emms with a peak of around 2600 FIDE\, he is an expert in many fields such as Positional Play\, Openings\, Strategic chess etc and has also made a big impact on how to prepare against opponents. He had helped him from 2100-2300 so far in just under a year!\n\n\nBCN: Which chess clubs and/ or Teams does Shreyas represent? \nHe represents SV Erkenschwick from Germany and Wasa SK from Sweden for online events as he has joined them during the pandemic. He started his 4NCL career with KJCA Kings in January 2019 but now mainly represents Wood Green which he has played for in online events in and will also represent them in the upcoming 4NCL weekends. \nHis first appearance in Megabase 2022 comes from the 2015 British Under-8 Championship in Coventry\, the eventual winner being Dhruv Radhakrishnan. \nProgress from those early days has only been interrupted by school examination breaks and the Covid pandemic: \nFIDE Rating progress chart for FM Shreyas Royal\nIn August 2016 in Bournemouth Shreyas scored an impressive 6/6 to win the British Under-8 Championship. \nShreyas Royal at the 2016 UKCC Delancey Terafinal in Loughborough courtesy of John Upham Photography\nBCN: What was his first memorable tournament success? \nThis was the 2016 European Schools Under-7 championship where he was runner-up without any preparation or work on chess! \nShreyas Royal at the 2016 UKCC Delancey Southern Gigafinal in Reading courtesy of John Upham Photography\nIn 2021 Shreyas was awarded the FM title by FIDE: \nFIDE FM Certificate for Shreyas Royal\nBCN: Which chess players past & present are inspirational for him? \n\n\nMagnus Carlsen\, world champion and broke many FIDE records also is an inspiration for most of this generation. He likes his slow grinding and almost winning from any opening or ending. This is his favourite player of all time.\nGarry Kasparov played brilliant attacking chess and calculated like a machine.\nBobby Fischer played a similar style to Kasparov but was more talented than both Magnus and Kasparov in his opinion as he worked all by himself at a time in the USA when chess was not so popular while for the Russians\, they had brilliant coaches and had one good player after the other. He rates him a bit lower because Fischer quit competitive chess a bit too early and could not reach the heights he was worthy of.\nAlireza Firouzja\nFabiano Caruana\n\n\nBCN: What are his favourite openings with the White pieces? \nHe plays 1.d4 pretty much all the time. \nMegaBase 2020 has 294 games with 1.d4 and one solitary 1.g3 from March 2021. The 1.d4 games feature main line Queen’s Gambit / Catalan type positions championing 5.Nge2 against the King’s Indian Defence and the exchange variation against the Grunfeld. \nBCN: and what are his preferred defences as the second player? \nReally depends on what they play\, against every opening he has got one or two lines which he enjoys equally. \nMegabase 2022 informs us that Shreyas defends the main line Closed Variation of the Ruy Lopez and main line Giuoco Piano. Previously he essayed the Sicilian Najdorf. \nBCN: Does he have any favourite chess books? \nNot really as he is not such a big fan of chess books\, but he likes My 60 Memorable Games by Bobby Fischer. Fundamental Chess Endings and Encyclopedia of Chess Combinations. \nBCN: Which tournaments are planned for 2022? \nWe have pencilled in a couple of norm and Open (France\, Spain\, Germany etc.) tournaments in European countries. \nBCN: What are his favourite subjects outside of chess? \nHis favourite subjects outside chess are Science\, History\, Maths with Science as his favourite\, History as his second favourite and Maths as his third favourite. \nBCN: Does Shreyas play any physical sports? \nHe does Football\, Cricket and a bit of Lawn Tennis. \nBCN: What are his plans and aspirations for the future? \nTo become a world chess champion one day\, but it’s very expensive to even get to the level of IM! Currently we are looking for sponsors who can help support Shreyas to get there. \nHere is his personal website. \nIn late December 2021 Camberley Chess Club had Shreyas as their weekly Zoom meeting guest speaker. \nand finally three of SRs favourite games: \n[pgn]\n[Event “British Chess Championship Major Open”]\n[Site “?”]\n[Date “2018.08.05”]\n[Round “9”]\n[White “Royal\, Shreyas”]\n[Black “Jayawarna\, Nugith”]\n[Result “1-0”]\n[ECO “E70”]\n[WhiteElo “1927”]\n[BlackElo “2013”]\n[Annotator “Shreyas Royal”]\n[PlyCount “57”]\n[SourceTitle “Jitendra”] \n{[%evp 0\,57\,19\,17\,14\,-9\,41\,45\,31\,44\,44\,2\,7\,2\,6\,12\,41\,26\,65\,-13\,27\,39\,44\,41\,87\,\n75\,50\,46\,63\,46\,82\,51\,168\,230\,230\,231\,258\,262\,258\,149\,433\,213\,161\,441\,522\,195\,\n500\,527\,501\,169\,1531\,1211\,1221\,1268\,1296\,1314\,1336\,1370\,1375\,1397]} 1. d4 Nf6\n2. c4 g6 3. Nc3 Bg7 4. e4 d6 5. Nge2 {This is the Kings Indian Defence Kramer\nvariation} O-O 6. Ng3 e5 7. d5 c6 {I think c6 is a sideline whereas the main\nline goes} (7… Nbd7 8. Be2 a5 9. h4 h5 10. Bg5 Qe8 $1 $14 (10… Nc5 $2 {\nremember not to fall into this trap} 11. Bxh5 $3 {An astonishing move} gxh5 12.\nNxh5 {With pressure and an iniative} Kh8 13. Qf3 Bg4 14. Qxf6 Bxh5 15. Qxd8\nRaxd8 16. Bxd8 Rxd8 17. f3 f5 18. exf5 e4 19. g4 Bf7 20. g5 Bxc3+ 21. bxc3 Bh5\n22. fxe4 Re8 23. Kd2 Nxe4+ 24. Kc2 Ng3 25. Rhe1 Be2 26. f6 Kh7 27. Rg1 Re3 28.\nRae1 Kg6 29. Kb2 Nh5 30. Rgf1 Bxf1 31. Rxe3 Bxc4 32. Re7 Bxd5 33. Rxc7 Bc6 34.\nf7 Kg7 35. g6 Nf4 36. h5 Ne6 37. Rc8 Nf8 38. Rxf8 Kxf8 39. h6 {1-0 (39) Ward\,C\n(2423)-Storey\,C (2245) Coventry 2015})) 8. Be2 a6 {[#]} ({Relevant:} 8… cxd5\n9. cxd5 Nbd7 10. Be3 a5 11. O-O Nc5 12. f3 Bd7 13. Nh1 Qb8 14. a4 Rc8 15. Nf2\nh5 16. Bb5 Kh7 17. Nd3 b6 18. Nxc5 bxc5 19. Qd2 Rc7 20. b3 Rb7 21. Bc4 Ng8 22.\nRab1 Qd8 23. f4 exf4 24. Bxf4 Qe7 25. e5 dxe5 26. d6 Qe8 27. Be3 f5 28. Bxc5\nNf6 29. Nd5 Nxd5 30. Bxd5 Bc6 31. Rfc1 Bxd5 32. Qxd5 Rab8 33. Rd1 Rd7 34. Ba3\ne4 35. Rbc1 Qe5 36. Qxe5 Bxe5 37. Rc7 Rbd8 38. Rxd7+ {Bologan\,V (2640)-Kozul\,Z\n(2613) Doha 2016 1-0}) 9. dxc6 $146 (9. O-O b5 10. Bg5 Bb7 11. Qd2 {might of\nbeen better despite allowing b5}) ({Predecessor:} 9. O-O cxd5 10. cxd5 Nbd7 11.\nRe1 b5 12. b4 Nb6 13. a4 bxa4 14. Nxa4 h5 15. Bg5 Rb8 16. Bxh5 Nbd7 17. Qd2\ngxh5 18. Nxh5 Kh7 19. Ra3 Rh8 20. Rf3 a5 21. Nxg7 Kxg7 22. Bxf6+ Nxf6 23. Qg5+\nKf8 24. Rxf6 Rxb4 25. Nc3 Qc7 26. h4 Bh3 27. Re3 {1-0 (27) Bocharov\,D (2610)\n-Kokarev\,D (2628) Vladivostok 2016}) 9… bxc6 $6 {maybe he might of been\nintending d5} (9… Nxc6 {[%cal Gc6d4] I think is better}) 10. Bg5 h6 11. Be3\nQc7 12. Qd2 {[%cal Ge3h6]} h5 13. O-O Be6 14. Rad1 Rd8 15. f4 Ng4 $4 {the\nlosing blunder} (15… exf4 {is an improvement in my opinion} 16. Bxf4 Nbd7)\n16. f5 $1 Nxe3 17. Qxe3 $18 Bc8 $4 (17… Qa7 18. c5) 18. fxg6 fxg6 19. Qg5 Kh7\n$6 {[#]} 20. Bxh5 $3 (20. Nxh5 $1 {also wins} Bh6 (20… gxh5 21. Bxh5 Qa7+ 22.\nc5 Qxc5+ 23. Kh1 Rd7 24. Qg6+ Kg8 25. Qe8+ Kh7 26. Bg6+ Kh6 27. Bf5) 21. Nf6+\nKg7 22. Qg3) 20… gxh5 21. Nxh5 Ra7 {[#]} 22. Rf6 $1 Qb6+ (22… Bxf6 23.\nNxf6+ Kh8 24. Qg8+) 23. Kh1 Re7 24. Rdf1 (24. Rg6 {is mate in six!} {as follows\n} Kh8 25. Nf6 Qc7 26. Qh5+ Bh6 27. Rxh6+ Kg7 28. Qg6+ Kf8 29. Rh8#) 24… Qc7\n25. Rh6+ Bxh6 26. Nf6+ Kh8 27. Qxh6+ Rh7 28. Nxh7 Qxh7 29. Qf6+ 1-0\n[/pgn] \nand from more recent times: \n[pgn]\n[Event “First Saturday IM July 2021”]\n[Site “Budapest\, Fortuna u. 4. St. G”]\n[Date “2021.07.27”]\n[Round “2.4”]\n[White “Royal\, Shreyas”]\n[Black “Ilincic\, Zlatko”]\n[Result “1-0”]\n[ECO “E11”]\n[WhiteElo “2168”]\n[BlackElo “2395”]\n[Annotator “Shreyas Royal”]\n[PlyCount “95”]\n[EventDate “2021.??.??”]\n[SourceVersionDate “2018.06.03”] \n{[%evp 0\,95\,19\,31\,14\,-14\,-11\,0\,31\,34\,64\,65\,61\,30\,46\,45\,45\,42\,73\,34\,54\,28\,18\,26\,\n45\,50\,48\,40\,39\,41\,36\,26\,37\,39\,58\,43\,39\,16\,19\,17\,22\,9\,17\,9\,22\,-9\,29\,24\,41\,23\,\n119\,119\,130\,126\,212\,208\,256\,229\,200\,221\,222\,222\,222\,222\,224\,139\,167\,157\,206\,\n205\,206\,207\,206\,240\,237\,204\,253\,282\,295\,284\,299\,286\,317\,313\,323\,334\,380\,403\,\n438\,451\,483\,493\,488\,524\,545\,511\,520\,556]} 1. d4 {this is my first win against\na grandmaster in OTB chess and is a brilliant positional game} Nf6 2. c4 e6 3.\nNf3 Bb4+ 4. Bd2 c5 5. Bxb4 cxb4 6. a3 {this was part of my preparation\, I had\nplayed him 2 times before with g3 and a delayed a3 but with no success\, he\nwould always prepare a different line agianst it so this time I needed to get\nhim out of his comfort zone} bxa3 7. Rxa3 O-O 8. Nc3 d6 9. e3 ({Relevant:} 9.\ne4 Nc6 10. Be2 b6 11. O-O Bb7 12. d5 Nb4 13. Nd4 e5 14. Nf5 g6 15. Nh6+ Kg7 16.\nQd2 Qe7 17. Qg5 Bc8 18. h4 Nc2 19. Ra2 Nd4 20. Bd3 Qd8 21. f4 Nd7 22. Nf5+ Nxf5\n23. exf5 Nc5 24. Bb1 Qxg5 25. hxg5 gxf5 26. fxe5 dxe5 27. Bxf5 a5 28. Bc2 Bd7\n29. Raa1 Rac8 30. Rae1 Rfe8 31. Re3 e4 32. Bxe4 Re5 33. Ref3 Nxe4 34. Rxf7+ Kg6\n35. Nxe4 Rxe4 36. Rxd7 Rcxc4 37. Rd6+ Kxg5 38. Rxb6 Re2 {Banikas\,H (2599)\n-Cordova\,E (2592) Chess.com INT 2020 1/2-1/2 (61)}) 9… b6 (9… Nc6 10. Be2\ne5 11. O-O Bg4 {is the the most popular and probably one of the best ways to\nplay against it}) 10. Be2 Bb7 11. O-O a6 {this structure was not the greatest\nway to deal with this} 12. b4 $1 {I had seen soem structures similiar like\nthis\, when preparing and realized we needed to make use of our queenside\nmajority} Nbd7 13. Qb1 {[#] I was just asking myself\, where do I want my\npieces? It can really help improve your chess if you care about pieces and\nalways want to improve them\, the arrows showed what I wanted my setup to be\nlike} Qc7 $146 ({Predecessor:} 13… Qb8 14. Rd1 Rc8 15. e4 a5 16. Rb3 axb4 17.\nRxb4 Ra3 18. Rc1 Ra5 19. d5 e5 20. Nd2 Ra8 21. Na4 Qc7 22. Nxb6 Nxb6 23. Rxb6\nRcb8 24. Rc2 Nd7 25. Rb4 Bc8 26. Rcb2 Rxb4 27. Rxb4 g6 28. Nb3 Kg7 29. Bg4 Nc5\n30. Bxc8 Nxb3 31. Rxb3 Qxc8 32. Rc3 Ra4 33. Qf1 Qc5 34. Rc1 Ra2 35. g3 h5 36.\nQe1 Rb2 37. h4 Ra2 38. Kf1 Kf6 39. Rc3 Kg7 40. Qe3 Qxe3 41. fxe3 Kf6 42. c5\ndxc5 43. Rxc5 {Parligras\,M (2601)-Anton\,T (2412) Calimanesti Caciulata 2017 1/\n2-1/2}) 14. Rc1 Rfc8 15. Nd2 Qb8 {[#]} 16. f3 $1 {Not only is it important to\nimprove your pieces but it is also important to make your opponent’s pieces\nunhappy. I just blunt is potentially dangerous bishop especially when he gets\nhis queen to a8 it also stops some nasty Be4 or ne4 when my knight gets to b3}\nRc7 (16… d5) 17. b5 a5 18. Na4 Qf8 19. Rac3 Rac8 20. Nb3 e5 {if he just sits\nthere and waits I just play R3c2 (to stop Nd5 when c5 happens) and c5} 21. Qb2\n$1 {this is a fantastic move because it brings my queen back to the king with\nQd2 and stops some potential Qe3+\, it also protects my e2 bishop. When the\nqueen is far away from the king it can be dangerous} Qe7 22. Qd2 g6 23. R3c2 h5\n24. c5 $1 {and finally\, after a lot of manoeuvring I get my c5 break in} exd4\n$2 (24… dxc5) 25. c6 $18 dxe3 26. Qd1 Nc5 27. Nxb6 Rd8 28. cxb7 Rxb7 29. Nd5\n$1 Nxd5 30. Qxd5 Nxb3 31. Qxb3 d5 32. Rc8 d4 33. Qd3 Qd7 34. R8c6 Rdb8 $2 (\n34… Kg7) 35. Qc2 (35. R1c5) 35… Kg7 36. Qc5 Rd8 37. Qe5+ Kg8 38. Bc4 Qf5\n39. Qxf5 gxf5 40. Bd3 $18 {[#]} f4 41. Kf1 Kg7 42. R1c5 a4 43. Ra6 Re8 44. Ke2\nh4 45. Rxa4 h3 46. gxh3 Rh8 47. Rxd4 Rxh3 48. Rxf4 {Probably my best game of\nall time} 1-0\n[/pgn] \nand finally: \n[pgn]\n[Event “Vezerkepzo IM Aug 2021”]\n[Site “Budapest\, Fortuna u. 4. St. G”]\n[Date “2021.08.23”]\n[Round “3.3”]\n[White “Royal\, Shreyas”]\n[Black “Rohit\, S.”]\n[Result “1-0”]\n[ECO “E01”]\n[WhiteElo “2296”]\n[BlackElo “2268”]\n[Annotator “Shreyas Royal”]\n[PlyCount “53”]\n[EventDate “2021.08.21”]\n[EventRounds “10”]\n[EventCountry “HUN”]\n[SourceTitle “Jitendra”]\n[SourceDate “2018.06.03”]\n[SourceVersionDate “2018.06.03”] \n{[%evp 0\,53\,19\,9\,42\,-10\,-16\,0\,-3\,-37\,13\,6\,29\,25\,20\,13\,57\,36\,38\,38\,52\,58\,58\,72\,\n72\,14\,61\,23\,54\,62\,58\,58\,66\,52\,45\,54\,78\,25\,117\,123\,110\,110\,146\,37\,30\,44\,51\,49\,\n55\,13\,217\,159\,236\,245\,1807\,839]} 1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 e6 3. Nf3 d5 4. g3 Bb4+ 5. Bd2\n({Relevant:} 5. Nbd2 O-O 6. Bg2 b6 7. O-O Bb7 8. Ne5 a5 9. Qc2 a4 10. Rd1 Bd6\n11. cxd5 exd5 12. Ndc4 h6 13. Bf4 Re8 14. Rac1 Na6 15. a3 Bf8 16. Ne3 c5 17.\nNf5 cxd4 18. Nc6 Qd7 19. Bh3 Kh8 20. Ne5 Rxe5 21. Bxe5 Ne4 22. Bxd4 Rc8 23. Qd3\nNac5 24. Qe3 Kh7 25. Bxc5 Nxc5 26. Qf3 d4 27. Rxd4 Qe8 28. Qe3 Qc6 29. f3 Re8\n30. Qf2 g6 31. Ne3 Qf6 32. Ng4 Qg7 33. Rcd1 h5 34. Ne3 Nb3 {Dubov\,D (2702)\n-Carlsen\,M (2862) chess24.com INT 2020 1-0}) 5… Bd6 6. Nc3 $5 {This was all\npart of my preparation as last time I got some equal Stonewall against him\,\nthis line avoids the stonewall and is tricky to play against as black. Black\nneeds to very accurate to still get a slightly worse position} O-O (6… c6 $6\n7. Qc2 $16 {[%cal Ge2e4\,Ge1c1] and now we open the centre and try to\nlong-castle}) 7. Bg5 c6 8. Bg2 Nbd7 (8… h6 9. Bxf6 Qxf6 10. O-O Qd8 11. c5\nBc7 12. e4 {[%cal Gb2b4] is the main line if he knew I was going to play this\,\nNc3 is not so common but effective. Even here we are better because of our\nspace\, centre and better pieces. Our idea now is to do some minority attack})\n9. e4 $1 dxe4 10. Nxe4 {[#]} Bc7 $146 {this was not the right square to move\nthe bishop to\, the best move was Bb4+ but even if he did not see that I would\nexpect Be7 as the pin became very nasty} (10… Bb4+ 11. Nc3 {and once we\nfully develop our better pieces and space will give us an adavantage}) ({\nPredecessor:} 10… Bb4+ 11. Nc3 h6 12. Bf4 Ne4 13. Qc2 Nxc3 14. bxc3 Be7 15.\nO-O b6 16. Rfe1 Bb7 17. Rad1 Re8 18. h4 Qc8 19. Bh3 Nf8 20. Ne5 Bd6 21. Qd2 Qc7\n22. Bg2 {1/2-1/2 (22) Cordova\,E (2571)-Nyzhnyk\,I (2665) Saint Louis 2019}) 11.\nO-O h6 12. Bh4 $1 Qe7 ({No need to be scared of} 12… g5 $2 13. Nfxg5 $1 hxg5\n14. Bxg5 {[%cal Gd1f3\,Ga1d1\,Gd4d5\,Gf1e1] and the pin will be nasty\, along with\nan exposed king}) 13. Re1 {[%cal Ge1e7] put the rook in line in with the queen\nis a normally a good idea} Qb4 $2 {he collapses\, but on the other there was\nnot much better to do because of the pin and I may get some d5 in later} 14.\nNxf6+ Nxf6 15. Bxf6 gxf6 16. Qc1 $1 Kg7 17. c5 $1 {this was a really nice move\nbecause normally when the queen is away from the king the king is in MASSIVE\ndanger and just before I get along with my attack\, I cut of her communications\nwith the king} Bd8 18. Qf4 Qa5 19. Qg4+ Kh7 20. Qh5 Qc7 21. g4 Kg7 {[#]} 22.\nRe3 $1 {I have a lot time and can just slowly improve my pieces\, another good\nprinciple is when attacking try to bring in as much pieces as possible} Qd7 23.\nRd1 $1 Bc7 24. Rdd3 $1 b6 $2 {[#] this was not so stupid because he can’t just\nsit and wait but on the other hand he could of just turned his prophylactic\nbrain on… I am now preparing a killer blow} (24… Rh8 {was better}) 25. g5\n$3 {I had prepared this move from when I played Rd1} hxg5 (25… fxg5 26. Nxg5\nBf4 27. Rg3 $1) 26. Nxg5 Re8 (26… Rh8 {he thought this would work but…} 27.\nNxe6+ $1 Qxe6 (27… fxe6 28. Rg3+ Bxg3 29. Rxg3+ Kf8 30. Qxh8+ Ke7 31. Rg7#)\n28. Rg3+ Bxg3 29. Rxg3+ Kf8 (29… Qg4 30. Rxg4+ Bxg4 31. Qxg4+ Kf8 32. Bxc6)\n30. Qxh8+ Ke7 31. Re3) 27. Bxc6 $1 1-0\n[/pgn] \nFM Shreyas Royal at the London Chess Classic\, 2021 courtesy of John Upham Photography
URL:http://britishchessnews.com/event/birthday-of-fm-shreyas-royal-09-i-2009/
CATEGORIES:4NCL,Birthday,British Championships,Junior
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:http://britishchessnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/LCC_6153-scaled.jpg
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20230111
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20230112
DTSTAMP:20260817T141002Z
CREATED:20191230T140104Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260817T141002Z
UID:2645-1673395200-1673481599@britishchessnews.com
SUMMARY:Birthday of IM Shaun Taulbut (11-i-1958)
DESCRIPTION:We send best wishes to IM Shaun Mark Taulbut born on this day (January 11th) in 1958. \nIM Shaun Mark Taulbut\nHere is his Wikipedia article from the Polish (!) version : \nIn 1974. I shared m. In the championship of Great Britain juniors to 16 years [1] \, whereas in 1977. Won the Brighton title of vice-champion of Great Britain (won the George Botterill ). He achieved the greatest success in his career at the turn of 1977 and 1978 in Groningen \, where he won the title of European champion up to 20 years [2] . In 1978 in Mexico he won the title of team world champion in the category up to 26 years [3] . He achieved another success in 1981 in Copenhagen \, sharing the first town (together with Petyr Welikow and Tom Wedberg ) inopen tournament Politiken Cup . In the same year\, he divided II-IV in New York \, while in 1982 he repeated this achievement in London (after William Watson \, together with Jonathan Tisdall and Mark Hebden ). In 1983 he ended his chess career. \nIM Shaun Mark Taulbut\nHe reached the highest ranking in his career on July 1\, 1982\, sharing 9-10 points with 2465 points. place among English chess players [4] . \nHe is the author of many books on chess\, primarily devoted to the theory of debuts . \nIM Shaun Mark Taulbut (right) playing Adrian Mikhalchishin\nand here is the game from the above photograph : \n[pgn]\n[Event “WchT U26 01 fin-A”]\n[Site “Mexico City”]\n[Date “1978.09.02”]\n[Round “6”]\n[White “Taulbut\, Shaun M”]\n[Black “Mikhalchishin\, Adrian”]\n[Result “1-0”]\n[ECO “C87”]\n[WhiteElo “2405”]\n[BlackElo “2460”]\n[Annotator “ChessBase”]\n[PlyCount “53”]\n[EventDate “1978.08.26”]\n[EventType “team-tourn”]\n[EventRounds “9”]\n[EventCountry “MEX”]\n[SourceTitle “EXT 2003”]\n[Source “ChessBase”]\n[SourceDate “2002.11.25”]\n[SourceVersion “1”]\n[SourceVersionDate “2002.11.25”]\n[SourceQuality “1”]\n[WhiteTeam “England”]\n[BlackTeam “Soviet Union”]\n[WhiteTeamCountry “ENG”]\n[BlackTeamCountry “URS”] \n{[%evp 0\,53\,19\,31\,34\,19\,13\,4\,13\,-2\,-9\,0\,7\,-5\,7\,30\,9\,9\,9\,11\,6\,4\,4\,6\,-4\,10\,41\,15\,\n43\,36\,44\,18\,24\,13\,60\,33\,52\,42\,52\,78\,167\,167\,303\,301\,291\,278\,302\,303\,451\,495\,\n495\,507\,527\,515\,513\,549]} 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bb5 a6 4. Ba4 Nf6 5. O-O Be7\n6. Re1 d6 (6… b5) 7. Bxc6+ $5 bxc6 8. d4 exd4 9. Nxd4 Bd7 10. Nc3 O-O 11. Qf3\n{[%cal Gd4f5]} Rb8 $146 (11… Re8 {Keres\,P-Spassky\,B URS-chT Leningrad 1962 1/\n2-1/2}) 12. Rb1 (12. b3) 12… Rb6 $6 13. h3 g6 14. Nb3 {[%csl Rb6][%cal Gc1e3]\n} Nh5 15. Be3 $14 Rb8 16. e5 dxe5 17. Bh6 Re8 18. Rxe5 Ng7 19. Rd1 $16 {\n[%cal Gd1d8]} Ne6 $2 (19… Bd6 $142) 20. Ne4 $40 Rb5 21. Rxe6 $1 fxe6 22. Qc3\ne5 23. Qc4+ Kh8 24. Qf7 Rg8 25. Nf6 Bxf6 26. Rxd7 Qxd7 27. Qxd7 {Avec ce score\nde 3-1\, il s(agissait de la première défait en match d’une équipe soviétique\ndepuis trés longtemps.} 1-0\n[/pgn] \n(from l-r) Jonathan Kinlay\, Shaun Taulbut\, Jonathan Speelman\, David Goodman and Jonathan Mestel accepting 1st prize at the 1978 World U26 Student Olympiad in Mexico City\nShaun Taulbut (upper right) and David Goodman (lower right) from the 1978 U26 Olympiad\nShaun coached strong juniors especially Michael Adams. In MAs case it was by means of correspondence and this was funded by the Friends of Chess. \nShaun largely gave up competitive chess in 1983 to pursue a financial services career. He reached a senior position in ANZ (Australia and New Zealand Banking Group) reporting to Ian Snape. In ANZ Shaun met Stephen Lowe and on September 19th 2005 they became Directors and owners of British Chess Magazine Ltd. Shaun lives in Wokingham with his wife\, Christine and several pets including a wormery. \n(second from right standing ) Shaun Taulbut\nShaun occasionally plays for Crowthorne in the Berkshire League and the Surrey Border League and has played for the BCM Dragons 4NCL team managed by John Upham. \nPositional Chess by Shaun Taulbut
URL:http://britishchessnews.com/event/birthday-of-im-shaun-mark-taulbut-11-i-1958/
CATEGORIES:2023,4NCL,Birthday,British Championships,Player,Writer
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END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20210115
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20210116
DTSTAMP:20230109T222958Z
CREATED:20200409T181200Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20230109T222958Z
UID:4293-1610668800-1610755199@britishchessnews.com
SUMMARY:Birthday of IM Andrew Horton (15-i-1998)
DESCRIPTION:Birthday of IM Andrew P Horton (15-i-1998) \nAndrew became a FIDE Master in 2015 and an International Master in 2018.
URL:http://britishchessnews.com/event/birthday-of-fm-andrew-p-horton-15-i-1998/
CATEGORIES:2023,4NCL,Birthday,British Championships,Player
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:http://britishchessnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/jb4_4220_lv-scaled.jpg
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20230118
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20230119
DTSTAMP:20230118T103106Z
CREATED:20230118T103105Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20230118T103106Z
UID:22215-1674000000-1674086399@britishchessnews.com
SUMMARY:Birthday of IM Paul Littlewood (18-i-1956)
DESCRIPTION:BCN wishes Happy Birthday to Paul Littlewood \nPaul Edwin Littlewood was born on Wednesday\, January 18th\, 1956 in Skegness\, East Lindsey\, Lincolnshire. His parents were John and Jean Littlewood (née) Hadwick. Paul’s chess playing uncle was Norman Littlewood. \nJohn and Paul on Skegness beach circa 1958. Kindly supplied by Paul Littlewood. George and Ringo are out of shot !\nJohn\, Jenny and Paul Littlewood\, circa 1962. Kindly supplied by Paul Littlewood.\nPaul attended Glenburn Comprehensive School in Skelmersdale from 1967 and then read Natural Sciences at Christ’s College\, Cambridge from 1974. \nPaul played badminton for Lancashire and Cambridge and\, in 1971\, won the English Schools Mixed Championship when he was 15 years old. \nPaul and family receive a chess lesson from John following John’s win in the 1972 Southport Open\nOn leaving University Paul taught science at Southbrook Comprehensive\, Daventry. Four years later Paul became a dealer at Phillips & Drew and followed this as an Executive Director at Goldman Sachs. Stays at Lehman Brothers and JP Morgan were followed by a change of direction and since then Paul has been director of various food supply companies retiring in 2014. \nPaul is married (3rd November 2006) to (his second wife) Fiona and lives in St. Albans\, Hertfordshire. \nPEL won the ECF President’s Award in 2007 and from the 2008 ECF Yearbook we have the following citation : \n“International Master and accomplished bridge player. From British Chess champion (1981) Paul has presided over the 4NCL as chairman during its most successful period. When he became chairman over ten years ago the league consisted of two divisions and 32 teams. The league has now expanded to four divisions and a total of 72 teams. Most of England’s juniors play 4NCL. During this time 4NCL became one of the strongest leagues in Europe\, at one time boasting a Division 1 rivalling the Bundesliga in strength in the top matches. \nPaul has demonstrated the sound judgement of Solomon when dealing with league disputes and has drawn on his business acumen\, honed during a successful career in the City with Goldman Sachs to make 4NCL the financially stable and expanding league it is today.” \nRoll of Honour \n\nBritish U18 Champion 1972\nBritish U21 Champion 1975\nBritish Champion 1981\nAs a junior represented England in Glorney Cup\nInternational Master 1980\n\nFrom British Chess (Pergamon Press\, 1983) by Botterill\, Levy. Rice and Richardson we have this article from Richard W. O’Brien : \n“Paul Littlewood was destined to become a strong player from birth. His father John was for some time one of the strongest players in the country and represented England on many occasions. His uncle Norman was for a few years not far behind. Paul\, however\, has surpassed them both and has become the first in the family to reach IM status. (Ed: JEL was very much worthy of the IM title but insufficient events of the right type held him back). \nA. Howard Williams\, Martyn J. Corden\, Paul E. Littlewood and A. Jonathan Mestel\nAll three are essentially attacking players. There have been times in recent years when play at the Hastings Premier has become dull. However\, Paul one of the English representatives at the last three tournaments\, was certainly not to blame. (His game against Brito of Brazil which follows is a striking example of this).” \nCoached by his father\, Paul became British U18 champion in 1972 and three years later became British U21 champion. \nClearly more interested in an academic career he went up to Cambridge and then followed his father into the teaching profession. Opportunities to play in strong tournaments were thus very limited. These opportunities\, however\, were grasped in both hands. Three times in thirteen months between August 1978 and August 1979 he obtained an IM norm and thus the title. \nPartial crosstable for the Lloyds Bank Open\, 1978\nThe first caused a sensation as it was totally unexpected. He shared first place at Lloyds Bank ahead of several grandmasters including Shamkovich\, who was the first grandmaster he ever defeated. \nLeonid Shamkovich plays Paul Littlewood during the 1978 Lloyds Bank Masters. Paul won the game.\nEight months later Aaronson Masters was won and then came the final norm\, also at Lloyds Bank. \nTournaments abroad were limited although he represented England students. He did play at Kringsja (2nd equal) in 1978 and Borovo where he scored 6.5.13 finishing ahead of 3 GMs. \nIn 1981 came his finest achievement – winning the British Championship with a massive 9/11. \nPartial crosstable from the 1981 British Championship in Morecambe\nHis father who was also competing in the championship was as proud as could be and deservedly so (he also coached Sheila Jackson who retained her British Ladies Championship that year). His excellent all round play took him to the title and only once during the tournament did he stand worse. His endgame play was so good that CHESS even published an article solely on these endings. \nPaul Littlewood and friends during the 1978 Lloyds Bank Masters\nDuties at school in Daventry meant he was\, in February 1982\, unable to take part in the zonal at Marbella. This followed an excellent Hastings when as British Champion he made a plus score – a rare event indeed. \nIM Paul Littlewood during filming for the “Trick of the Mind” series from Derren Brown\nIn the summer he gave up teaching and joined Phillips & Drew (stockbrokers). He now (ed : this was in 1983) lives with his (first) wife Sue and family in the wilds of Essex (Billericay). \nIM Paul Littlewood\, event and photographer unknown\n[pgn]\n[Event “Christmas Congress 1980/81-56 Premier”]\n[Site “Hastings”]\n[Date “1980.12.29”]\n[Round “1”]\n[White “Brito\, Luismar Jorge”]\n[Black “Littlewood\, Paul E”]\n[Result “0-1”]\n[ECO “C89”]\n[BlackElo “2440”]\n[Annotator “British Chess News”]\n[PlyCount “82”]\n[EventDate “1980.12.29”]\n[EventType “tourn”]\n[EventRounds “15”]\n[EventCountry “ENG”]\n[EventCategory “10”]\n[SourceTitle “MCD”]\n[Source “ChessBase”]\n[SourceDate “1999.07.01”]\n[SourceVersion “1”]\n[SourceVersionDate “1999.07.01”]\n[SourceQuality “1”] \n{[%evp 0\,74\,38\,46\,10\,19\,22\,18\,17\,-4\,3\,-20\,5\,-11\,-3\,-3\,3\,-22\,16\,28\,6\,41\,12\,18\,\n37\,37\,37\,-8\,19\,23\,29\,24\,24\,2\,29\,38\,18\,6\,23\,17\,-122\,-311\,-312\,-312\,0\,-228\,-322\,\n-287\,-271\,-271\,-271\,-271\,-303\,-827\,-205\,-205\,-230\,-195\,-152\,-193\,-193\,-180\,\n-193\,-172\,-240\,-866\,-1079\,-1149\,-1149\,-1281\,-1152\,-1149\,-1277\,-1272\,-1275\,\n-1275\,-1332]} 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bb5 a6 4. Ba4 Nf6 5. O-O Be7 6. Re1 b5 7.\nBb3 O-O 8. c3 d5 $1 {The Marshall Gambit and why not!} 9. exd5 Nxd5 10. Nxe5\nNxe5 11. Rxe5 c6 12. d4 Bd6 13. Re1 Qh4 14. g3 Qh3 15. Be3 Bg4 16. Qd3 Rae8 17.\nNd2 Re6 {[#]} 18. c4 $6 {An idea of Byrne but not played since 2002.} ({\n2021 thinking is} 18. a4 $1 f5 19. Qf1 Qh5 20. f4 bxa4 21. Rxa4 g5 22. Rxa6\ngxf4 23. Bxf4 {is a modern main line.}) (18. Qf1 Qh5) 18… Bf4 $1 $17 19. cxd5\n$2 (19. Qf1 {was required} Nxe3 20. Qxh3 Bxh3 21. cxb5 Nc2 {[#] A pretty wild\nposition! Do you know what is going on here?}) 19… Rh6 $19 20. Qe4 Qxh2+ 21.\nKf1 f5 (21… Bxe3 {is possibly more accurate.} 22. Rxe3 Rf6 23. f3 Bh3+ 24.\nKe1 cxd5 25. Qh4 Rh6 26. Qf4) 22. dxc6+ $146 (22. d6+ Kh8 23. Qxc6 Rxd6 24. Qb7\nBxe3 25. Rxe3 f4 26. Re7 fxg3 27. Rf7 Rf6 28. Rxf6 gxf6 29. fxg3 Re8 30. Ne4\nQe2+ 31. Kg1 Bf3 {Gesos – Fabry\, 1977\, 0-1.}) 22… Kh8 23. Qd5 Bxe3 24. Rxe3\nf4 25. gxf4 Qxf4 26. Re2 (26. Nf3 Rh1+ 27. Ke2 Rxa1 28. Bc2 Rxa2 $1 $19) 26…\nRh2 (26… Qh2) 27. f3 Bh3+ 28. Ke1 Rh1+ 29. Kf2 Rh2+ 30. Ke1 Rh1+ {Oh what\nfun!} 31. Kf2 Rxa1 32. Qe4 (32. Qe5) 32… Qg5 33. Nb1 Rxb1 34. Qxb1 Qg2+ 35.\nKe3 Rxf3+ 36. Kd2 Qg5+ 37. Kd1 Rf1+ {and white resigned.} {If} 38. Re1 Bg4+ 39.\nKc2 Rf2+ 40. Kd3 Bf5+ 41. Re4 Qd2# 0-1\n[/pgn] \nPaul gives a simultaneous display in Letchworth. \n[pgn]\n[Event “London Aaronson Masters”]\n[Site “London”]\n[Date “1979.04.16”]\n[Round “5”]\n[White “Basman\, Michael John”]\n[Black “Littlewood\, Paul E”]\n[Result “0-1”]\n[ECO “A00”]\n[WhiteElo “2405”]\n[BlackElo “2405”]\n[Annotator “British Chess News and George Botterill”]\n[PlyCount “56”]\n[EventDate “1979.04.12”]\n[EventType “swiss”]\n[EventRounds “9”]\n[EventCountry “ENG”]\n[SourceTitle “EXT 1999”]\n[Source “ChessBase”]\n[SourceDate “1998.11.16”]\n[SourceVersion “1”]\n[SourceVersionDate “1998.11.16”]\n[SourceQuality “1”] \n{[%evp 0\,54\,19\,-63\,-56\,-53\,-52\,-89\,-55\,-70\,-50\,-46\,-26\,-42\,-48\,-27\,-38\,-13\,-18\,\n-50\,-12\,-67\,-32\,-98\,-56\,-99\,-83\,-83\,-83\,-73\,-38\,-100\,-89\,-89\,-125\,-108\,-163\,\n-159\,-164\,-154\,-163\,-144\,-144\,-446\,-303\,-361\,-364\,-371\,-364\,-812\,-1568\,-2013\,\n-2191\,-29975\,-1329\,-1430\,-1569]} 1. b4 {Mike liked pushing his knight’s pawns.\nOn this day the b2 pawn was the victim.} e5 2. a3 d5 3. e3 Nf6 4. Bb2 Bd6 5. c4\nc6 6. cxd5 cxd5 7. Nf3 {White’s strategy is to induce the advance ….e4 and\nthereby establish a strong outpost on d4.} Qe7 {Black resists temptation.} 8.\nNc3 Nc6 9. h3 $146 {Hardly an inspired choice. Maybe White thought he was\nworse already?} ({Better is} 9. d3 O-O 10. Be2 Rd8 11. O-O $17) 9… O-O $17 {\nBlack’s lead in development is clear.} 10. g4 $6 {This can hardly be justified\nbut then again we refer to our note after move 1. Michael does sometimes get\ncarried away wit his outlandish ideas : GB.} Be6 11. Ne2 {Heading for f5\ncombined with Rg1 might stir up trouble for Black.} a6 (11… Ne4 12. Bg2 f5 {\nand the f2 square is under some pressure.}) 12. Ng3 e4 {Black finally succumbs\nto temptation\, though not without justification. White’s set-up is too\nartificial.} 13. Nd4 Nxd4 14. Bxd4 Nd7 15. Qb3 {[#]} Ne5 $1 16. Be2 Nc6 $1 {\nThe refutation of White’s strategy. With the loss of his blockade on d4\,\nWhite’s game disintegrates.} 17. Bb2 d4 $1 $19 {The time has come to open the\nposition.} 18. Qd1 Bxg3 19. fxg3 d3 20. Bf1 f5 21. Qc1 {Desperation\,} ({but on\n} 21. gxf5 Rxf5 22. Bg2 Qg5 {he is defenceless.}) 21… fxg4 22. Qc5 Qf7 23.\nO-O-O {White seeks some salvation on his side of the board\, but instead finds\nhimself walking into a mating net.} Ba2 $1 24. hxg4 Na5 $1 {A neat touch} ({\nthough the prosaic} 24… Rac8 {also wins of course.}) 25. bxa5 ({Or} 25. Qxa5\nRac8+ 26. Bc3 Qb3 {forces mate}) 25… Rac8 26. Rh5 Rxc5+ 27. Rxc5 Qxf1 $1 {\nand White resigned} 28. Rxf1 Rxf1# 0-1\n[/pgn] \nChess Tactics\, Paul Littlewood\, Crowood Chess Library\, 1991\n[pgn]\n[Event “British CF-68 Championship”]\n[Site “Morecambe/ Lancashire”]\n[Date “1981.08.08”]\n[Round “6”]\n[White “Chandler\, Murray G”]\n[Black “Littlewood\, Paul E”]\n[Result “0-1”]\n[ECO “E52”]\n[WhiteElo “2455”]\n[BlackElo “2430”]\n[Annotator “Bill Hartston\, George Botterill and British C”]\n[PlyCount “62”]\n[EventDate “1981.08.03”]\n[EventType “swiss”]\n[EventRounds “11”]\n[EventCountry “ENG”]\n[SourceTitle “EXT 1999”]\n[Source “ChessBase”]\n[SourceDate “1998.11.16”]\n[SourceVersion “1”]\n[SourceVersionDate “1998.11.16”]\n[SourceQuality “1”] \n{[%evp 0\,62\,19\,35\,34\,-14\,0\,-4\,33\,16\,34\,17\,17\,25\,44\,6\,8\,4\,-4\,3\,-6\,0\,-2\,-2\,17\,-5\,\n-5\,-22\,6\,-22\,-18\,-37\,-21\,-93\,17\,-26\,-13\,-44\,-101\,-101\,-107\,-91\,-152\,-150\,-33\,\n-25\,-100\,-93\,-95\,-108\,-110\,-120\,-117\,-192\,-169\,-187\,-38\,-345\,-312\,-710\,-996\,\n-996\,-1001\,-1027\,-1029]} {Annotations sourced from BCM\, 1981\, page 498\, game #\n20170\, Bill Hartston\, British Chess\, 1983\, George Botterill and British Chess\nNews\, 2021.} 1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 e6 3. Nc3 Bb4 {This is the third time these two\nhave crossed swords in this opening in 1981\, though on the other two occasions\nit was Chandler who had Black. Littlewood won at Hastings in January\, but then\nChandler hit back with a masterly endgame performance in the ARC tournament.}\n4. e3 O-O 5. Bd3 d5 6. Nf3 b6 ({WRH : Both Chandler and and Littlewood have\nplayed the fashionable line with} 6… c5 7. O-O cxd4 8. exd4 dxc4 9. Bxc4 b6 {\nHere\, perhaps just for a change\, perhaps to avoid any prepared lines\nLittlewood chooses something different.}) 7. a3 {GB : It seems to me that this\nmove would fit i better with the development of the white knight at e2 rather\nthan f3. WRH : This move is usually delayed until after 7.00 Bb7 Now tha game\nquickly develops along unusual paths.} (7. O-O Bb7 8. cxd5 exd5 9. a3 Bd6 10.\nb4 a6 11. Qb3 Qe7 12. b5 axb5 13. Nxb5 Nbd7 14. a4 c5 15. Ba3 Ba6) 7… Bxc3+\n8. bxc3 Ba6 $1 {GB : White squares! WRH : When your opponent has the bishop\npair\, you should exchange one of them. So said Nimzowitsch and here Littlewood\ntakes his advice. Black’s plan is gain control of the white squares after the\nexchange of bishops.} 9. cxd5 Bxd3 10. Qxd3 exd5 11. c4 Nc6 {Black’s play is\nreminiscent of the Tchigorin Defence to the Queen’s Gambit relying on piece\nplay to contest and restrain the centre.} 12. Bb2 $2 $146 {Underestimating the\nactivity of Black’s pieces.} (12. O-O Na5 13. Ne5 c5 14. Bb2 Rc8 15. Rad1) ({\nInstead} 12. Bd2 Ne4 13. O-O {leads to an equal game.}) 12… Na5 13. Nd2 c5\n14. dxc5 {This move indciates that White is still hoping for an advantage from\nthe opening.} ({but he would have done better to settle for slight inferiority\nafter} 14. O-O dxc4 15. Nxc4 Nc6) 14… dxc4 $1 15. Qc3 ({Black’s queenside\npawns give him the better chances after} 15. Qxd8 Rfxd8 16. Bxf6 gxf6 17. O-O-O\nRd3) 15… Qd5 $17 16. cxb6 Rfd8 $1 {A fine pawn sacrifice. White cannot\ncastle kingside because his knight on d2 hangs. Meanwhile the Black major\npieces become very active.} 17. bxa7 Rxa7 ({WRH : note that} 17… Qxg2 {\nwould have been met by} 18. O-O-O Rxd2 19. Rdg1 $1) 18. e4 $6 (18. Nf3) 18…\nRe7 19. O-O-O {At last the king has escaped from the centre\, but its new home\nis also far from safe.} Qa8 $19 20. Kb1 Rd3 21. Qc2 Red7 {Black’s simplest\nthreat now is 22..Qd8 followed\, if necessary\, by Nb3 or Nxe4. The pin on the\nd-file must be broken before it is too late.} 22. e5 Ne8 23. Nf3 Qd5 {Mighty\ncentralisation of the black forces.} 24. Nd4 Rb7 {WRH : The final shift of the\nattack to the b-file proves the last straw for White’s strained defences.} 25.\nRxd3 cxd3 26. Qa4 {Otherwise …Nc4 wins the pinned bishop} (26. Qxd3 {WRH :\nloses to the prosaic} Nc4) 26… Rb8 {WRH : calmly defending the attacked\nknight and renewing the threat of Nc4. To add to his problems\, White was now\nseverly short of time.} 27. Ka1 Nc7 28. Rb1 d2 $1 {GB : White is quite lost\nhere. He has no defence against …Ne6 followed by a fatal check on b3. WRH :\nWith so many white pieces trying simply to plug gaps in his leaky position it\nis almost impossible to find a move which does not lose everything.} 29. Bc3\nRxb1+ 30. Kxb1 Qc4 $1 31. Qc2 ({WRH : the final shock} 31. Qxc4 d1=Q+ {leaves\nBlack a queen ahead.}) 31… Qf1+ {and White resigned. WRH : a total triumph\nfor Black’s white-square strategy.} 0-1\n[/pgn]
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