Blitz 'n' Pieces

The official newsletter of the Edinburgh University Chess Club

Lothians League Latest

First Team

The last report ended with the First Team having secured a useful win against Edinburgh 1, having lost to Edinburgh 2 and drawn against Edinburgh West 1. Unfortunately, Edinburgh 1 managed to win all their other matches, albeit after some adventures (e.g. adjourning 3-2 up against Bankton but a rook down in the unfinished game). We also won all our other matches, making it seven wins in this League in a row; the closest encounter was a 3½-2½ win over Wandering Dragons, although at that stage the win merely emphasised earlier mistakes as we could no longer catch Edinburgh 1 and a match draw was enough to keep us ahead of the Dragons in second place. It was unfortunate that Steve Rix and Nick Thomas chose this match to lose their unbeaten individual records, but wins from Iain Gourlay, Markus Wörz and Mark Russell saw us home. Our final record was P11 W9 D1 L1, whereas Edinburgh 1 managed P11 W10 D0 L1. Oh well, such is life.

At the end of last term, we lost our three German stars, Martin Möbus, Markus Wörz and Bernd Krüger. At the start of this term we have acquired Scottish number two Mark Condie (2480, IM!), Australian post-grad Stephen Pickles (2235 FIDE) and Mark Pauly (another German star, rated 1930), as well as welcoming back Paul Brown (2015) after a year away. All in all, this has increased our strength considerably and we are optimistic for the current season.

This year has seen a league reconstruction, creating a Premier Division of six teams who play each other home and away. All the other teams in the division were amongst our victims last year, which is a promising sign! So far we have beaten Poisoned Pawns 1 easily enough (5-1, Steve lost) and had enough to spare against Pentland Hills 1 to win 3½-2½. Balerno 1 weren't much of a challenge and we eventually won 5½-½.

The big challenge this season came last Thursday in our match against the Wandering Dragons, who fielded IM Mark Orr (2415), Ian Robertson (2120), Steve Pimentil (2055) and three others all rated over 1885. Aware of the Dragons' likely strength, we had IM Mark Condie (2480) on our side, and in fact had rating advantages of between 35 and 110 points on each board. The games were all hard fought, but the breaks went our way; when the dust settled, we managed to achieve a 5-1 victory. At the time of writing, we have a Played 4, Won 4 record; all the other teams have lost at least one match.

For more information on the first team, see Steve Rix, phone him on 0131-650-8559 (day) or 0131-555-5690 (evenings) or send electronic mail to S.Rix@ed.ac.uk.

The first team's fixtures for the rest of the season are as follows:

Second Team Report

Last Season, the second team performance was very poor, mainly because the league committee promoted the team to the first division without asking anyone! The team managed to score one draw against Balerno 1 and beat Edinburgh 2 (bizarrely, the one team that the firsts lost to!), managing to lose against all other teams.

Despite this, the team stayed in the first division due to the league reorganisation. This season has started off badly, because the team was up against strong teams from the old first division. Against Civil Service 1, the team lost 6-0 and in the match vs Dragons 2, the score is 5-0 against us, with one adjourned. However, we are still confident of scoring reasonably this season, with a large number of weaker teams left to play against.

The next 2nd team match is away to Edinburgh West 2 on Wednesday 30th November.

If you would like to play for the second team, but have not had a chance to play yet, please contact the team captain John Thompson (Tel: 0131-650-5655 (W), 0592-269010 (H); e-mail: jst@ee.ed.ac.uk).

The second team's remaining fixtures are:

Club News and Events

We hope to organise an end-of-term special club evening, possibly involving mince pies and mulled wine.

The Chess Club meal will take place sometime next term, along with, with any luck, another pub crawl.

Next term's meetings will happen from 7-10 p.m. on Mondays in the Highland Room, Pleasance.

Annual Pub Crawl Report

This year's pub crawl began at the new Chess Club favourite, the Holyrood Tavern. Deficiencies in the squad's drinking abilities soon became apparent (no GM Norms in sight) but this was more than made up for by excessive amounts of bad chess-playing. The unexpected pleasure of seats in a pub on a Saturday night took its toll and most people sank several pints before moving on. Steve Rix decided to make each pint a different brew, so that he could remember how many he'd had.

The club finally got itself together and moved to the Bare Story, where the bald facts soon became apparent: the intoxicated conversation was bad and the chess was worse. Steve Rix, bent on getting a monster hangover, sampled the Old Peculiar.

Moving on, we temporarily lost Steven O'Sullivan and Robin Young, our star new signings. The club was unable to make its traditional rest stop at the Castle Arms, as amid cries of "What time do you call this?" (what indeed!), we found it was shut. In classic style, we pressed on into Chambers Street Union. Steve Rix was totally incoherent by this time, repeating conversations about twenty times, according to Sharon the club president/doctor.

The rest of the squad commiserated with each other about life, chess and the apparent lack of a karaoke. IM Norms started flying everywhere before everyone staggered off to bed at some unreasonable time of the morning. Anyway, now it's onto ...

The Pub Crawl Awards

The "Alka Seltser Award", for merciless drinking to destruction: Paul Davies

The "Theakston Beer Goggles Award", for drunken incoherency: Steve Rix

The "Pay HM Treasury Wads of Cash Award", for drinking excessive amounts: Sharon Peoples

The "Oliver Reed Beer Swilling Award" for drinking ability: Mark Chapman

International Master norms: Steven Rix, Sharon Peoples, Paul Davies, Oliver Cameron, Mark Pauly.

Woman FIDE Master norm: Mark Chapman.

Congress News

Entry forms are available for the 1995 Lothians Championships, to be held on 13-15 January at the Lasswade High School Centre in Bonnyrigg. This is a short way out of Edinburgh, but getting there shouldn't be a problem. Mark Chapman is the man to ask about buses in that direction.

At this congress, there will be three sections of five rounds each, including the Premier (open), Challengers (Under 1850), Major (Under 1600) and Minor (Under 1300). The entry fee for students is £10.

World Chess News

The two rival World Championship cycles are now fairly well advanced. In the FIDE cycle, World Champion Karpov plays Gelfand in the semi-finals, whilst Kamsky plays Salov. The winners of these two matches will play each other for the FIDE World Championship.

The PCA candidates semi-finals took place in Linares in October 1994. The two English contenders Nigel Short and Michael Adams were both beaten convincingly, by Kamsky and Anand respectively. Curiously, both Englishmen began with three consecutive losses before going down by the same score, 5½-1½. The winners will meet in a Final for the right to challenge Kasparov. Just a few months ago, Kamsky recovered from 3-1 down to draw 4-4 in his FIDE quarter-final match against Anand, before winning the speed playoffs; this new match will be as much a test of nerve as skill.

The 1994 Chess Olympiad has been moved away from Greece after some high-level chess politics and will now take place in Moscow during December. This traditional FIDE event has in fact been bailed out by members of the rival PCA governing body, led by Kasparov. The change of organisers prompted a series of heated telephone discussions in England after Nigel Short decided that he wanted to play after all accepting the space freed by the graceful withdrawal of Dave "The Rave" Norwood. The latest news is that Short appears to be in now, despite previous threats of a walkout by various other members of the team.

The turbulent world of chess politics continues to throw up new twists. There have been rumours for many years that FIDE, under the leadership of Florencio Campomanes, has been heading towards bankrupcy; the lack of sponsorship for FIDE's "face-saving" Karpov v. Timman "World Championship Match" left the main governing body footing the bill. There will be a FIDE congress during December's Olympiad, where it is hoped that a new President will be elected. This will not be as clear-cut as it appeared only a few weeks ago, because of rumours that Campomanes intends to stand for yet another term in office.

Campo's case for re-election has recently been supported by none other than Kasparov, who has stated that although the two still have their differences, Campo remains the best hope for a reconciliation between FIDE and the rival PCA. As this comes at a time when the PCA has come in for much public criticism even from the players who stand to gain the most financially (such as Kamsky) and amid rumours that Intel will not be renewing their sponsorship of the PCA because of poor publicity for PCA events, it seems possible that Kasparov is trying to hedge his bets between two ships which, if not actually sinking, appear to be listing alarmingly.

There are differing opinions as to the influence of chess computers. What is undeniable is that they have become very good recently, as a couple of PCA speed events demonstrated. In Munich, Fritz2 on a Pentium PC came equal first with Kasparov in an all-play-all blitz event featuring 16 other top human players, although Kasparov then won the playoff convincingly with his secret opening weapon, 1 e3. In London in September, Chess Genius2 on a Pentium PC eliminated Kasparov from an Intel-sponsored Quickplay event, both sides having 25 mins for all moves. The beast went on to beat Predrag Nikolic 2-0, before getting gubbed by the Indian super-GM Anand. It is obviously possible to buy a chess playing PC for about £2000 which will thrash anyone outside the world top hundred at blitz and cause considerable difficulties at quickplay rates. The following game is a case in point:

White: G.Kasparov (2810)
Black: Chess Genius2/Pentium
Intel Grand Prix, London 1994, Game 1 of 2

1 c4 c6 2 d4 d5 3 Nf3 Nf6 4 Qc2 dxc4 5 Qxc4 Bf5 6 Nc3 Nbd7 7 g3 e6 8 Bg2 Be7 9 O-O O-O 10 e3 Ne4 11 Qe2 Qb6 12 Rd1 Rad8 13 Ne1 Ndf6 14 Nxe4 Nxe4 15 f3 Nd6 16 a4 Qb3 17 e4 Bg6 18 Rd3 Qb4 19 b3 Nc8 20 Nc2 Qb6 21 Bf4 c5 22 Be3 cxd4 23 Nxd4 Bc5 24 Rad1 e5 25 Nc2 Rxd3 26 Qxd3 Ne7 27 b4 Bxe3 28 Qxe3 Rd8 29 Rxd8 Qxd8 30 Bf1 b6 31 Qc3 f6 32 Bc4 Bf7 33 Ne3 Qd4 34 Bxf7 Kxf7 35 Qb3 Kf8 36 Kg2 Qd2 37 Kh3 Qe2 38 Ng2 h5 39 Qe3 Qc4 40 Qd2 Qe6 41 g4 hxg4 42 fxg4 Qc4 43 Qe1 Qb3 44 Ne3 Qd3 45 Kg3 Qxe4 46 Qd2 Qf4 47 Kg2 Qd4 48 Qxd4 exd4 49 Nc4 Nc6 50 b5 Ne5 51 Nd6 d3 52 Kf2 Nxg4 53 Ke1 Nxh2 54 Kd2 Nf3 55 Kxd3 Ke7 56 Nf5 Kf7 57 Ke4 Nd2 58 Kd5 g5 59 Nd6 Kg6 60 Kd4 Nb3 0-1

Cheapo Corner

White: S.Rix (2090)
Black: B.S.Thipsay (2210, WIM, Mrs)

Co-editor Steve had a fine time at the Lloyds Bank Masters in London, August 1994, qualifying for a FIDE rating of 2225. It was reported on the Internet that he drew with Thipsay in the first round; this was unfortunately not IM Pravin (2505) but instead his wife, Bhagyashree. Anyway, the swindle achieved was a big morale booster.

White had sacrificed a piece in the course of a rather panicky time scramble, played out on a snazzy new digital clock (a bargain at a mere £70, not). After 50 Kh3!? Rxf2, what did White play next and what trap did this move set?

White: M.Wörz (1970)
Black: M.Chapman (1865)
Edinburgh Challengers, 1994

In this clash of two EUCC members at the last Edinburgh Chess Congress, Mark Chapman continued sneakily with 20... c5. After Markus continued carelessly with 21 Rxc5?, Mark was able to land a satisfying cheapo. Can you see it?

Some Games

The following encounter was not a classic, but was a useful win considering its timing: it brought Steve up to 2½/5 against FIDE-rated players in the tournament.

White: M.Houska (2270 FIDE)
Black: S.Rix (2090 SCA)
Lloyds Bank Masters (6), 1994

1 Nf3 Nf6 2 d4 g6 3 Bg5

We had played each other a couple of years previously, in a Cambridge Open. He played a Trompovsky then, and I managed to win.

3... Bg7 4 Nbd2 d6 5 e4 Bg4?!

The standard plan of ... O-O, ... c6, ... Qe8 and ... e5 is better.

6 h3 Bxf3 7 Qxf3 Nc6 8 c3 h6 9 Bh4 e5?!

Now the pin on the knight is awkward. Maybe 9... Qd7 was better.

10 d5 Nb8 11 Bb5+ c6 12 dxc6 bxc6 13 Bc4 Nbd7 14 0-0 0-0 15 Rad1 Qe7 16 Rfe1 Nb6 17 Bb3 Rad8 18 a4 Rfe8 19 a5 Nbd7 20 Ba2 Nc5

Heading for e6 and then f4.

21 Nc4

Hoping for 21... Ne6? 22 Nxd6!

21... g5 22 Bg3 Nfxe4?!

Taking with the other knight looks somewhat more sensible.

23 b4 Nxg3 24 bxc5 d5 25 Nd6 Ne4 26 Nxe8 Rxe8 27 c4 Qxc5

Suddenly Black has compensation for the exchange, e.g. 28 cxd5 Nc3 29 Rc1 e4 30 Qf5? Ne2+, or 30 Qh5 cxd5.

28 Rxe4?

White just seems to be a few pawns down after this. Black must take care of his king, though, as White can dominate the b1-h7 diagonal.

28... dxe4 29 Qxe4 Qxa5 30 Bb1 Rd8

Exchanging rooks would help Black. The rook cannot defend f7 from f8, because of White's mate threat; it is important to keep White's rook quiet too.

31 Rf1 Qc5 32 Re1 Rd4 33 Qf5 Rf4 34 Qc2 Qxc4 35 Qd2 Rd4 36 Qe3 a5

Lobbing the a-pawn at him seemed to cause problems.

37 Rc1 Qd5 38 Kh2 e4 39 Re1 f5 40 Qe2 Rd2

Spotting the threat of 41 Ba2!

41 Qe3 Rb2

Threatening 42... Bd4 and ... Rxf2.

42 Rf1 Qb5 43 Qe1 a4 44 g4 Rxb1!

The clearest way, but I hadn't actually calculated everything out.

45 Qxb1 Qxb1 46 Rxb1 Be5+ 47 f4

I'd missed this, having counted on 47 Kg2 a3, when, having no check, White cannot prevent ... a2-a1=Q.

47... gxf4 48 Rb4 f3+ 49 Kg1 e3 50 Rxa4 e2 51 Ra8+

If instead 51 Kf2, the flashy 51... Bg3+ 52 Kxg3 e1=Q+ and the methodical 51... Bc3 both win easily enough.

51... Kf7 52 Ra7+ Kf6 53 g5+ Kxg5 54 h4+ Kg4 55 Ra4+ Kg3 0-1

The Lloyds Bank Masters was won by the young Russian Alexander Morozevitch, who produced a somewhat impressive score of 9½/10, drawing with IM Tkachiev in Round 3 before beating five GMs. His tournament performance rating of 2970 has only ever been bettered by former World Champions Fischer and Karpov. Not bad for a 17-year-old IM! The following game is typical of his highly aggressive play:

White: A.Morozevitch (2575, IM)
Black: M.Petursson (2540, GM)
Lloyds Bank Masters (8), 1994

1 e4 c5 2 Nf3 Nc6 3 Bb5 d6 4 0-0 Bd7 5 Re1 Nf6 6 c3 a6 7 Bf1 Bg4 8 d4 cxd4 9 cxd4 d5 10 e5 Ng8 11 Be3 e6 12 a3 Nge7 13 Nbd2 Nf5 14 Bd3 Be7 15 Bb1 Qd7 16 b4 Bh5 17 Ra2 0-0 18 h3 Kh8 19 Rf1 Rac8 20 g4 Nxe3 21 fxe3 Bg6 22 Bxg6 hxg6 23 Nb3 Na7 24 Nc5 Qc6 25 a4 b6 26 Nd3 Kg8 27 h4 Qd7 28 g5 Rc3 29 h5 gxh5 30 Nf4 Rxe3 31 Nxh5 Qc6 32 Nf6+ Bxf6 33 gxf6 g6 34 Rc2 Qd7 35 Qc1 1-0

Problem Page

(There appears to have been a slight misunderstanding here. When the editors asked Sharon, Elle Presidente herself, for a selection of chess problems, we had something rather different in mind. Oh well. - Eds)

Dear Dr Peoples,

For years I have wandered the corridors of life, searching for the ultimate meaning. I have experimented with various mind-altering drugs in an attempt to see more clearly. I have studied the writings of great men, in order to learn from their experiences. Now, in the throes of despair, I turn to you in a desperate plea for understanding. My question is: what is the meaning of chess?

Shazzy says: Chess is "a game of skill for two players using 32 pieces (chessmen) on a board with 64 black and white squares" (courtesy of the Doulos English dictionary).

Dear Miss Peoples,

Ever since I was involved in a freak accident as a toddler involving knitting needles and electric sockets, I have been behaving in a strange, disturbed way. Not only do I play for Lasswade Chess Club and study Maths/Economics, recently I have been experiencing urges to commit crimes. I also suffer from an inability to drink beer at a rate of more than one pint every couple of hours. Do I have a problem?

Shazzy says: You are indeed in grave danger. Recent medical research has shown there is a strong correlation between playing for Lasswade CC and mental insanity. My advice is to consider playing for a groovy, hip and happening team like EUCC. Do not worry about the criminal urges, though; they should prove useful in your work as Treasurer.

Dear Sharon,

I am in despair. I realised recently that my only friends are a chess computer called Fritz and a database containing 200,000 games. All I seem to do is work and play chess. No-one ever talks to me. What's wrong with me?

Shazzy says: The problem appears to be that you are what we Medics call a 'sad bastard". My advice is "Get a life!".

Dear Shazzy,

No-one seems to appreciate me. I am an amazingly good-looking, talented, exceedingly witty, wonderfully modest first-year. Yet, when I treat the rest of the chess club to my pearls of wisdom and side-splittingly funny anecdotes, they tell me to shut up. What is the matter with them?

Sharon says: Our advice is "sod off".

Revenge!

Dear Editors,

Although I try not to play much chess these days, I find myself as President trying to keep order in a club full of socially-inadequate males. My outside interest is Psychiatry, but that can get depressing too as all I seem to do is write libellous gossip about other people.

We say: You are obviously not stretching yourself enough mentally. Our advice is that you sign up for the Second Team, try to change to a demanding course such as Medicine and get yourself a boyfriend.

Cheapo Corner Answers

In S.Rix-B.Thipsay, White tried 51 Rg4+ and was very pleased to see Black blunder by 51... Kf5??. This allowed 52 Rg5+! hxg5 (stalemate), and 52... Kxg5 would have been no better. Instead, 51... Kf6 should win.

Mark Chapman's cheapo was a nice decoy sacrifice which led to the win of material: 21 Rxc5? Re1+! 22 Rxe1 Bxd4+ 23 Kh1 Bxc5, and Black went on to win thanks to his extra piece.