Chess
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Your support makes all the difference.ONE OF the most wonderful things about chess is its absolute independence from age. Yesterday, I reported on the recent World Open in Philadelphia and the successes there of a team of British juniors sponsored by Wireplay, the youngest of whom, David Howell, is just eight.
But even younger children play chess competitively and indeed there are even biannual BCF "mini-squad" championships with sections for children from 10 down to as young as under six. The latest, organised by Tony Korfe in Barnet, took place over the weekend of 30-31 May and had as its youngest competitor Stephanie Hale from Chigwell Row in Essex, who learnt chess by watching her three older siblings. At the age of just four years and one month, she not only stayed the complete two-day course but even won a game!
This weekend too, there is a big national competition with the so-called "National Gigafinal" of the Saitek UK Chess Challenge at Nottingham University. Almost 700 survivors from the 35,000-odd in 1,050 schools who started are competing in 16 sections ranging from under seven to under 18. Battle will be joined in earnest on Sunday; tomorrow, thanks to sponsorship by British Land, their appetite will be whetted with seven simultaneous displays of 30 boards each against Matthew Sadler, myself, Graeme Buckley, Susan Lalic, Ketevan Arakhamia, Robert Bellin and Elvira Sakhatova.
At the other end of the age spectrum comes news that 92-year-old Anton Weleminsky won a grading prize in the Minor tournament in the Greater Manchester Summer Congress last weekend.
The event, held at Allen Hall, Manchester University, attracted 161 players in the three sections. the Open resulted in a tie on 4.5/5 between the two grandmasters present, Keith Arkell and Nigel Davies, who drew their individual game but, albeit not without great effort, succeeded in defeating all their other opponents. The Major (under 150) was won by George Hall from Manchester with a perfect 5/5, while Nick Burrows from Bolton and London made the same score in the Minor (under 110).
In this characteristically provocative game, Nigel Davies wound up Vic Knox, a fine old slugger with a huge punch when it connects, beyond the point of bearing. Knox lashed out between moves 12 and 15 but after 15 ...Nf5! and even more tellingly 17 ...Nb4 and 18 ...Bb5, it all rebounded in his face. Insufferable cheek!
White: Vic Knox
Black: Nigel Davies
Hippopotamus
1 e4 g6
2 d4 Bg7
3 Nc3 d6
4 f4 e6
5 Nf3 Ne7
6 Bd3 Nd7
7 0-0 0-0
8 Ne2 c5
9 c3 Qb6
10 Kh1 Nf6
11 Qe1 Bd7
12 Qh4 Rae8
13 e5 Nfd5
14 Ng5 h6
15 Ne4 Nf5
16 Qf2 cxd4
17 cxd4 Nb4
18 Bb1 Bb5
19 Nf6+ Bxf6
20 exf6 Rc8
21 g4 Qc6+
22 Kg1 Bxe2
23 Qxe2 Nxd4
24 Qe3 Qb6
25 Kg2 Nd5
26 Qh3 Rxc1
27 Qxh6 Nxf6
28 Bxg6 Qxb2+
29 Rf2 Qxf2+! 0-1
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