Chandler Cornered

British Championship 2009 Final Report + Crippen

Crippen: The Mild Mannered Murderer.
There is now is very strong evidence to show Crippen was innocent.
DNA has proved the body (which they thought was Crippen's wife) found
in the cellar at Hilldrop Crescent is infact the body of a man.

The forensic expert making his debut in this case was Bernard Spilsbury.
(later to become Sir Bernard Spilsbury and later still dead Sir Bernard Spilsbury)
He is introduced to the reader thus:

'To the man is the street he [Spilsbury] stood for pathology as Hobbs
stood for cricket or Dempsey for Boxing or Capablanca to chess.'

I remember reading something about this on Edward Winter's Chess Notes site.
I believe the Capablanca sentence was written in 1924. The Crippen trial was in 1910.
Back then Capablanca was certainly a household name, I wonder how many households
know the name of the current World Champion?

(Probably 54 Million in India, now get on with it........Ed)

OK. And now this: (who was Hobbs?).



Chess Brilliancy by Iakov Damsky.

An excellent chess book. All the top games, as voted by a GM jury,
from the Informator series 1968 - 1998 and then almost every game that
has been awarded the Best Game prize from the top tournaments
throughout history. Over 200 brilliant games.

Not only do you get these masterpieces, you get the background behind
each game and the tales of the political voting by the GM panel.

My one wee complaint.
From the back of the book blurb;

"...all of which have been subjected to a critical, computer based analysis."

I don't mind the computer shedding some light on these famous and brilliant games.
Damsky does a very good job of curbing the analysis making the book a joy to read.
Unlike some other books were the reader is faced with streams and streams of
computer analysis that no one will ever play over.

My gripe, and it is petty, is this. The book is called 'Chess Brilliancy'
But when a chance to show a brilliant move appears in the notes the
cold bland soulless computer has chosen the boring mechanical variation.

Two Examples.
Ljubojevic - Durao, Orense, 1974.
From analysis White to play.










The book (computer) suggests 25.Bxc6+ Bxc6 26.Qxc6 mate.
But is not the Queen sac 25.Qxc6+ Bxc6 25.Bxc6 mate more brilliant?

Reshevsky - Vaganian, Skopje, 1976
From analysis. Black to play










The book (computer) now gives 21...Rxh3+ 22.gxh3 Qxh3 mate.

But again there is a Queen sac. 21...Qxh3+ 22.gxh3 Rxh3 mate.

OK it is a measly complaint. Forget it. An excellent chess book.

(er.....The British Championship.....ED)


And a big congratulations to Grandmaster David Howell who is the 2009 British Champion.
(He is also the British U21 Champion, the British U18 Champion and the English Champion of 2009.)

Here is David in action. (photo from the British Championship website)



(some fool has been messing about with the demo board....Ed)

Here is the final table.

For all the results, games, pictures etc etc etc.

British Championship 2009 Website

So let's see a game from The new British Champion.

David Howell - Richard Palliser
Here David as White plays his only 1.d4 of the Championship, He played 1.e4 in all his other games.
I don't know if this was to avoid a pet defence that perhaps Palliser has v 1.e4 or has he
spotted a flaw in Richard's defence to The Trompowsky.

So I called Torquay and managed to speak to David.

"Hi David, congratulations on winning things."

"Who is this?"

"Why did you play 1.d4 v Palliser."

"It's three o'clock in the morning go away..." click.

Hmmmm....by that I have to summise that he touched his d-pawn by mistake and had to move it.

But let us not worry ourselves about the psychology of the opening, let us see the game.
White sacrifices the exchange for piece activity. He judged that the in play Bishop
is a fair swap for the inactive Rook and out of play Queen.










White played 10.dxc5.

(Hmmmm....I wonder if he touched his d-pawn by mistake again and HAD to take the Bishop).

This position is nigh forced after the exchange sac.










The Queen & Knight are a great attacking team. Threat 16.Nh5.
Black thwarted that idea with 15...h6.
Then this position appeared. Black to play.










Black had to give back a piece with 18...Bd7 (best move). And White did not take it.
White instead started to weave a mating net around the Black Queen.
A brave decision because in this position, Black to play.










The move 21...Bc6 just leaps off the board at you.
Moves an attacked piece to an aggresive position, protect the f3 Knight.
Instead the move played 21...Rd8 simply does not fit.

This is a tactical sharp position so even if your choices are narrow you
MUST always take the sharpest course. I'm surprised Palliser did not play it.
(though I think I see why - read on).

I think Black overlooked or underestimated White playing 23.Kf1 here










Perhaps he thought White could not allow the discovered Knight check.
The Rook went to d8 expecting or preventing the King from running to the d-file.

But Black has no good discovered check. He played 23...Qh2.
All White need do now is play a Knight to g4 and win.










Which Knight?
24.Neg4 allows Black to mate in 4 moves. (you work it out)
24.Nfg4 vacates f6 and wins the d8 Rook.

Here is the full game.

[Click here to replay the game] D.Howell - R.Palliser 1.d4 Nf6 2.Bg5 d5 3.Bxf6 gxf6 4.e3 c5 5.dxc5 e6 6.Nd2 Bxc5 7.g3 Nc6 8.Ne2 d4 9.exd4 Qd5 10.dxc5 Qxh1 11.Nc3 Qxh2 12.Nde4 0-0 13.Qd2 Rd8 14.Nxf6+ Kh8 15.Qg5 h6 16.Qg4 Qh1 17.Rd1 Rxd1+ 18.Nxd1 Bd7 19.Ne3 Ne5 20.Qf4 Nf3+ 21.Ke2 Rd8 22.Bg2 Ng1+ 23.Kf1 Qh2 24.Nfg4 Qh5 25.Qf6+

A good seat of the pants game that one. I like players that have no fear about
stepping into an unclear tactical fracas. Although in this case White either sacs
the exchange or allows Black an relatively comfortable game. It may be theory for all I know.
A good game, well one I can relate too.

OOPS!

And here are the final few blunders from The British Championship 2009.

A.Galliano - A.Green Round 10.
White to play.










White perhaps fooled by the opposite coloured Bishops missed the threat.

25.b3? Rc2 and White must lose a Rook.










When I'm in the queue at ASDA I always telling the people around me
the strength of placing a Rook on the 7th rank.
It would appear that Mr. Galliano does not shop at ASDA.

---

David Fitzsimons - James Hanley Rd.10

A missed shot here. Black to play.










Black played 46...Qb1 and went onto to lose.

Black can however pick up the exchange.

46...Qe1+ 47.Rg1 Qe2 (threatening mate on h2) 48.Rh3 Bc5.










White has to lose the exhange and Black then shuffles home the b-pawn.
When I'm in the queue at Tesco I always telling the people around me
about how one should always look at every check.
It would appear that Mr. Hanley does not shop at Tesco.

---

We end all this fun with James Cobb v Jack Rudd from the final round.
White to play, the Rook on b1 is under attack.










29.Qe2? Qxb1 0-1.
When I'm in the queue at Sainsburys I always telling the people around me
it's best not to let your opponent take a Rook for nothing.
It would appear that Mr. Cobb does not shop at Sainsburys.

---

Stats:
The quickest win was 16 moves. S.Dines - J.McDonnell Round 11

[Click here to replay the game] S.Dines - J.McDonnell 1.e4 c5 2.Nc3 Nc6 3.f4 g6 4.Nf3 Bg7 5.Bb5 Nd4 6.0-0 Nxb5 7.Nxb5 d5 8.exd5 a6 9.Nc3 Nf6 10.Qe2 Nxd5 11.Qc4 Nb4 12.Ne2 b6 13.c3 Be6 14.Qe4 Bf5 15.Qc4 Bd3 16.Qb3 Nc2

The longest game was the Round 6 draw between A.Raoof and D.Kolbus a 131 moves.
(I think I'll refrain from giving that one).

There was one pure classic Bishop sacrifice (Bxh7/h2+) G.Buckley - C.Ross in round 3.

[Click here to replay the game] G.Buckley - C.Ross 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nc3 Bb4 4.e3 b6 5.Bd3 Bb7 6.Nf3 Ne4 7.0-0 f5 8.Ne5 0-0 9.Nxe4 fxe4 10.Bc2 Qh4 11.c5 bxc5 12.a3 Ba5 13.dxc5 Qg5 14.f4 exf3 15.Nxf3 Qxc5 16.b4 Bxf3 17.Rxf3 Qe5 18.Bb2 Qxb2 19.Bxh7+ Kxh7 20.Rxf8 Qe5 21.bxa5

There were a handful of Bxf7/f2+ of which these two were entertaining.

First is J.Adair - P.Constantinou from Round 2.
I'm sure I've seen this before somewhere.
It's one to keep your sleeve if ever you want a quick draw

[Click here to replay the game] J.Adair - P.Constantinou 1.e4 g6 2.d4 Bg7 3.Nc3 c6 4.Nf3 d6 5.a4 Nf6 6.h3 0-0 7.Be3 Nbd7 8.a5 Qc7 9.Bc4 Rb8 10.Ng5 b5 11.axb6 axb6 12.Bxf7+ Rxf7 13.Ne6 Qb7 14.Nd8 Qc7 15.Ne6 Qb7 16.Nd8

M.Burrows - A.McClement from Round 3 was ablood thirsty
affair with both sides having more pieces than pawns after 24 moves.










You will enjoy this one.

[Click here to replay the game] M.Burrows - A.McClement 1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 d6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nc3 e6 6.g4 h6 7.h4 Be7 8.Qf3 Nc6 9.Nxc6 bxc6 10.g5 Nd7 11.gxh6 gxh6 12.Rg1 Rb8 13.Qh5 Bxh4 14.Be3 Rxb2 15.0-0-0 Rb8 16.Rxd6 Bf6 17.Rxe6+ Be7 18.Bd3 Nf6 19.Rxf6 Bxf6 20.e5 Qa5 21.Bc4 Rb7 22.Qf3 Qa3+ 23.Kd2 Bxe5 24.Qxc6+ Rd7+ 25.Ke2 Bb7 26.Bxf7+ Kd8 27.Qb5 Ba6

Five games ended in checkmate including one back ranker. L.Varnam - A.Galliano Rd.6










418 Games Played.
Incredibly 149 won by White and 149 won by Black (120 were drawn).

And then in a moment of supreme sadness I worked out the following:

The total number of moves played = 35,210.
Bishop Moves = 5525
Knight Moves = 6114
Rook Moves = 5988
King Moves = 3403
Queen Moves = 4124
Checks = 1902
White or Black Castled Kingside = 365
White or Black Castled Queenside = 97
Pawns Promoted = 7
1.e4 was played 215 times.
1.d4 was played 146 times.

....er......that's it.



(pic from the British Championship website)

British Championship 2009 Website

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