Vasily Smyslov - strategist or tactician?

Last weekend, Vasily Smyslov passed away in Moscow at the age of 89. He was the seventh world champion in 1957/58, beating and then losing to Mikhail Botvinnik in consecutive years. In 1984, aged 63, he lost 8.5-4.5 to Garry Kasparov in the candidates’ final to decide who played Karpov for the world title. In 1997, aged 76, he shared second place at Malmo. He is primarily thought of as a major strategist, but he was “vasily” underrated as a tactician, who employed sharp combinations when necessary, as in the miniature below!

Also, last weekend saw the international chess congress take place in Cork, with 139 players, including 3 GMs.-Bulgarian champion Dejan Bojkov pipped Croatian Bogdan Lalic and Russian-Irish Alexander Baburin to the title-a result that for former winner Lalic was nothing to “crow at”!

Finally, the winner of the recent Fisherwick tournament was, among the Seniors, Ian Woodfield ahead of Norman McFarland, while in the Juniors, R. Gupta and H. Reddy were “ever reddy” to take the spoils!

P.S. Years ago, when local young player Damien Artt from Belfast won his game, I commented in my newspaper article: “D. Artt hits the bullseye”.

Rookie

Vasily Smyslov 1921–2010

The 7th official World Chess Champion Vasily Smyslov died yesterday at the age of 89. The photograph above was taken at a simultaneous exhibition given by Smyslov in the Great Hall at Queen's University Belfast on Wednesday 15th January 1969. 

Rookie reports on a Malone reverse

UCU LEAGUE DIVISION TWO (AT FORTWILLIAM, 24/3/10)

FORTWILLIAM	VS	MALONE
D.HOUSTON	1-0	S.FERRIS
S.WOOD	1-0	S.FLANAGAN
J.WOOD	1-0	D.RUBEN
E.MORGAN	0.5-0.5	N.MCFARLAND
DEFAULT	0-1	B.JAFFA
TOTAL	3.5-1.5
+BONUS	5.5-1.5

Come in, Houston. We have a problem! David Houston responds to his captain’s plea and Houston “Texas” Sam Ferris’s patient play to win on board one. With Stephen Wood shaving a narrow victory over Sam Flanagan on board two, his brother John was “ruben” salt in to the wound by beating David Ruben on board three. Ed led at the start on board four but Stormin’ Norman fought back to draw. Bernard Jaffa “appealed” to the captains for a point on board five, when no-one turned up against him after an hour. Malone’s defeat means three other teams can still catch the leaders on the line - Wannabees, Bombardier or Winston. After last year’s last round defeat to champions, QUB B, will Malone always be the bridesmaid, never the bride?

TEAM	PLAYED	POINTS
MALONE	12	59.5
BOMBARDIER	12	52.5
WINSTON	12	51.0
WANNABEES	11	50.5
FORTWILLIAM	13	50.5
HENDERSONS	13	31.0
RAVENS	12	22.0
RANDALSTOWN	11	19.0

Daly Retains QUB Rapidplay Open Title: Rookie Reports

In this column, Colm appears not “Daly” but annually as he has won the QUB Rapidplay in the last two years. The £1000 prize fund attracted 44 players, including at least 8 from Dublin, who found it hard to train, as a bomb scare meant they had to go part of the way by bus!

Round one: No real shocks, although Martin Kelly had Gonzaga’s 1991 rated player David Murray in a hurry to scramble a win from a lost position.

Round two: There were surprise draws for Aaron ”sweater” McCully (1331) over Carl Jackson (1671) and Robert Lavery (1040) over William Storey (1368) - but that’s another story. Spring is in the air as I spotted two robbins on one of the boards - Kiran Robbin beat Kevin Robbin!

Round three: On board two, in a battle of the Dubliners, Gordon Freeman played Oisin Benson and threw Oisin out with the “washing”. Home’s where Michael Holmes felt like going after losing to Kevin Fitzpatrick, 720 points below him. Martin Kelly beat the splendidly named Gianluca Sarri - who’s sorry now?

Round four: Shane Lee (1633) from Finglas was certainly not “fingerless” as he manoeuvred the pieces expertly to beat Oisin Benson (2085) while Robert Lavery ”bobbed”up again to beat Sean Linton (1354).

Round five: Shock winners in the last round (which allowed them to share second place on 4/5 with three others) were Lukasz Kwiatek (1830)-his “key attack” demolished Sam Osborne (2099) - and Shane Lee who beat Gareth Annesley (1965) “and slay” him, he did! In all the hurlyburly, I nearly missed the win by Thomas Hurley (850) over William Storey, as I was too busy beating fellow blogger, C.J. Murphy, to claim the intermediate grading prize. [Crosstable and list of prizewinners posted here - DMcA]

Congratulations to the brilliant team of Chris Millar,David McAlister and Eamonn Walls for running the event so well and to ever polite winner Colm Daly, who promised to bring even more from the south next year.

If you are thinking of taking the reverse journey to the Cork Congress this weekend, visit www.corkchess.com. By coincidence, years ago, when reporting on the Mulcahy Memorial Congress in Cork at Christmas, I said it was a good place to see “chessnuts boasting over an open fire”!

Finally, here is the vital sixth game of the Tal-Botvinnik clash where Tal’s knight sacrifice is still controversial!

Rookie update on League 2

Malone gave the V sign against Winston (no, not that one, but the one Churchill used for victory!) on St.Patrick’s Day. As it was a feastday in a church, I decided to play two Sams on the top two boards (get it?) who drew their matches. The third match showed Moorcroft needs more craft in his game. Board four saw Walter ”falter”, while on board five Jaffa was “pipped” at the post.

UCU LEAGUE DIVISION TWO AT FISHERWICK, 17/3/10

MALONE	VS	BANGOR WINSTON
SAM FLANAGAN	0.5-0.5	EDDIE WHITESIDE
SAM FERRIS	0.5-0.5	JAMES O’FEE
DAVID RUBEN	1-0	MARTIN MOORCROFT
NORMAN MCFARLAND	1-0	WALTER WILSON
BERNARD JAFFA	0-1	KEVIN AGNEW
TOTAL	3-2
+BONUS	5-2

Hendersons make history in St Patrick’s Day massacre. By Chestnut69

The Hendersons are well and truly back to winning ways after a convincing win over highflying Bombardier at the Royal on Tuesday. In what must surely be the upset of the season and in the midst of a full scale darts tournament at the RVH Social Club, the Hendos got straight to the point to see off their east Belfast opponents by 4 to 1. Indeed at one point darts fan CJ Murphy with divided loyalties was tempted to take up the arrows as well as the while pieces, but he settled for the latter in his board 4 clash with Eric Bookless. After some uncharacteristic patchy form from a wary Pearse O’Brien, the Hendos captain dismissed Pearse’s hopes of playing board 4 with the utmost faith that he would deliver against Bombardier stalwart Stewart McConaghy.

The match started with a typically nonchalant performance of Richard Kaczarowski seeing off Paul McNaughton on board 2 early doors, followed by an out of sorts Brendan O’Neill throwing away a winning position, allowing Mark Newman to pinch a win to equalise on board 1.

Eric Bookless got a taste of Cathal Murphy’s Fried Liver Attack on board 4 and it was clear that this tactic threw Eric out of “book” after 5.Ng5 followed by 6.Nxf7. Indeed Eric had to play the remainder of the game “bookless”, but nevertheless he managed to stifle Murphy’s early aggression with accurate defending (see game – bloggers comments welcome) and had Murphy under severe pressure, threatening mate on move 22. However a bad mistake with 27…Rf4 allowed Cathal to take rook with Knight which preceded a Bookless resignation giving the Hendersons a 2-1 lead.

Things looked good for a result for the Hendersons and Pearse O’Brien managed to destroy Stewart McConaghy’s Stonewall Attack “brick by brick” pulling off an impressive victory to give the Hendos a winning score at 3-1. But the icing on the cake came when Philip Morrison arrived under the radar yet again to beat old rival Billy McKittrick. There was no “horsing around” this time from Phil as he stole in to force resignation, a tempo ahead of Bill who couldn’t quite deliver his own threatened mate, to give the Hendersons their third victory in their first full year as a separate team.

RVH HENDERSONS	vs	BOMBARDIER
Brendan O’Neil	0-1	Mark Newman
Ryszard Kaczarowski	1-0	Paul McNaughten
Pearse O’Brien	1-0	Stewart McConaghy
Cathal Murphy	1-0	Eric Bookless
Philip Morrison	1-0	Bill McKittrick
Total	4-1
+Bonus	6-1

It wasn’t clear whether it was green beer, or maybe just water being supped after the victory, but in the packed social club, the remaining Murphy, Morrison and O’Brien triumvirate took the applause from their fellow RVH darts players in full anticipation of an enjoyable St Patrick’s holiday.

A Tal story

I have told many tall stories in the past, but here is a Tal story and I’m not taking the “Mikhail”, honestly. Today is the fiftieth anniversary of the game below, the first in the 1960 world championship match, which saw Tal win over Botvinnik, champion off and on since 1948, who gained revenge in 1961 over an ill Tal. The Latvian grandmaster Tal, ”letts” be honest (get it?), is my favourite chess champion, whose games are always worth studying. He once said: ”there are two types of sacrifices - sound ones and mine” - a typically modest and amusing comment. For more of the same, get ”Life and Games of Mikhail Tal”, possibly the best chess book ever, or his book on the 1960 world championship, full of insight and intellectual “riga”!

Two tournaments to look forward to this month are in Belfast and Cork. This Saturday, 20/3/10, the £1000 QUB Rapid takes place at the Students Union – “check” out details at chrismillar75@hotmail.com. The following weekend, Friday 26th to Sunday 28th March, sees a “corker” of a tournament - the 5,000 euro 18th annual Cork congress - details at www.corkchess.com though how Cork was able to keep “afloat” despite the recession down south, I don’t know.

Last week in division one, Lagan “sank” The Away Team by 5.5-1.5 to score their first win. It was good to see the return to competitive chess of my former rival chess journalist, Belfast Telegraph’s William Collins as Lagan’s board two. As for Willie, ”will he”come to the fore in future chess events? I hope so, anyway!

Finally, thanks for the many erudite comments on my recent blogs - the latest from “I’m a right” Charleyboy is, though, double-edged as he awaits with anticipation my return to top form - no pressure, then! So, for comparison’s sake, in each blog, I shall resurrect a “golden oldie” from the “Irish News” column. When Fred Harte played Fred Armstrong in a Dublin tourney in the 1980’s, I commented: ”the intricate tapestry of this game was woven by just two freds”.

Rookie

Rookie on the clash of the league leaders

This week, with 5 games to go, the big two in the league met a point apart and the leading team smashed the second team by 6.5-0.5 at home, with a draw on top board and four wins on the other boards, to lead the division by 7 points - no, not the division one clash between RVH Hawks and QUB, but the division two clash between Malone (now on 53 from 10 games) and Bombardier (on 46 from 10 games) last night at Fisherwick Chess Club! What a coincidence! However, with Bombardier having a much easier finish to the league than Malone, the title is still up for grabs, with the two Bangor teams not totally out of it.

MALONE	VS	BOMBARDIER
S.FLANAGAN	0.5-0.5	M.NEWMAN
N.GREEN	1-0	P.MCNAUGHTEN
S.FERRIS	1-0	S.MCCONAGHY
D.RUBEN	1-0	E.BOOKLESS
N.MCFARLAND	1-0	B.MCKITTRICK
TOTAL	4.5-0.5
+BONUS	6.5-0.5

Newman left his “mark” on the overall result with a draw on board one. McNaughten scored ”naught on” board two. Ferris ”wheeled” out all his pieces to beat McConaghy on board three, Bookless was “clueless” on board four, while on board five, McKittrick’s “tricks” over the board failed to work, as his opponent exploited his advantage to the “max” in the battle of the mc’s!

Rookie goes to the pub

Walls and Woodfield walk away with top two spots!!

Eamonn Walls wrested top spot from the surprise leader Jonathan Woodfield in the last round of the latest Queen’s Blitz at the Parlour Bar last Sunday. Eamonn won his fourth out of seven blitzes with 4.5/5, a half-point ahead of Jonathan, who pipped Gareth Annesley and Stephen Scannell for second place on tiebreak. Grading prizes went to Damien Lavery, William Ashenhurst and Steve MacCullough. Upstairs in the Parlour Bar was an unusual venue, where the disco atmosphere was rather dark and made it difficult to find your opponent, never mind the board. I expected the music to come on, perhaps Chubby “Checker” and “Let’s twist again”, but in any case there were a few chubby checkers playing chess instead - you know who you are!

Round one had no shocks, but in round two new man Jonathan Woodfield (1463) trounced Mark Newman (1781). He followed up in round three by beating “Hurricane” Andrew Higgins (1674) while Scannell (2105) lost to “George” Lukasz Kwiatek in a star wars confrontation. In round four, Gareth ”Gates” Annesley feared they “would field”  Woodfield junior against him  – they did and Gareth (1965) duly lost, while Woodfield senior (Ian) opened cheekily with the Vienna against fellow Fisherwick captain, Martin Kelly, and unsurprisingly was lucky to draw against the Vienna expert! Round five reverted to form and Walls won the battle of the W’s to win overall. Amazingly for a bar, there was “coffey”at the end  –  Caroline Coffey who finished in last place.

Don’t forget the QUB Rapid at the Students Union on Saturday, 20/3/10, with a massive £1000 guaranteed prizefund.  Get further details at chrismillar75@hotmail.com.

League round-up

Last night, in division one, RVH Hawks smashed QUB 6.5-0.5 to lead on 65 points, 7 ahead of QUB on 58 with four games to go.

Finally, last time I made a few orange jokes as they “appeal” to me, but the game I was referring to at the time in league division two involving Bernard Jaffa is so exciting that it takes the “biscuit” (or should that be “cake”)?

White: Mallon (Randalstown); Black: Jaffa (Malone)

Rookie goes international

Bent Larsen - true or false?

Let’s get it straight - Bent Larsen is not a gay footballer, but a Great Dane Grandmaster, whose 75th birthday is today, 4th March 2010.

Famous for the Larsen Attack (1.b3), two of his games feature in Fischer’s “My 60 Memorable Games”, but I can’t remember which!

To avoid accusations of plagiarism or “larseny”, here is another of his games, illustrating even GMs can blunder:

Told to “be prepared”

Rookie reports on Malone's league visit to Randalstown

We trooped in last night to Randalstown Scout Hall in its centenary year to play a top vs. bottom clash in division two. We should have lost the match. On board 3, Norman had his ups and downes as his opponent missed playing a queen check which would have won him a rook, while on board 4 Bernard Jaffa was crushed in the opening, losing the exchange and allowing his queen and king to be pinned by a rook, but squeezed out a win and left the hall full of zest!!

RANDALSTOWN	VS	MALONE
S.EACHUS	0-1	S.FLANAGAN
P.WILSON	0.5-0.5	D.RUBEN
S.DOWNES	0.5-0.5	N.MCFARLAND
S.MALLON	0-1	B.JAFFA
J.ROGERS	0.5-0.5	M.KELLY
TOTAL	1.5-3.5
+BONUS	1.5-5.5