Greatest act of giant-killing in chess

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Jon D'Souza-Eva

Re: Greatest act of giant-killing in chess

Post by Jon D'Souza-Eva » Sat Dec 11, 2010 12:08 am

In the under 14 section of the 1994 London Junior Chess Championships, Vladimir Malakhov, graded 115, defeated Karl Mah, graded 221, on the way to winning the tournament with 5/5. Malakhov was World under 14 champion in 1993, so obviously he was a tad undergraded.
http://www.ljcc.co.uk/1994.htm
Last edited by Jon D'Souza-Eva on Sat Dec 11, 2010 2:21 am, edited 2 times in total.

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Christopher Kreuzer
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Re: Greatest act of giant-killing in chess

Post by Christopher Kreuzer » Sat Dec 11, 2010 12:13 am

Jon D'Souza-Eva wrote:In the under 14 section of the 1994 London Junior Chess Championships, Vladimir Malakhov, graded 115, defeating Karl Mah, graded 221, on the way to winning the tournament with 5/5. Malakhov was World under 14 champion in 1993, so obviously he was a tad undergraded.
http://www.ljcc.co.uk/1994.htm
Good example! This is also the Malakhov who was a nuclear physicist (later, not when he was U14). I never knew he played in England as a junior! I wonder what Karl thought of that at the time! (i.e. did everyone know that Malakhov was undergraded, or did they all know that this was the World U14 champion?)

Roger de Coverly
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Re: Greatest act of giant-killing in chess

Post by Roger de Coverly » Sat Dec 11, 2010 12:32 am

Christopher Kreuzer wrote: Good example! This is also the Malakhov who was a nuclear physicist (later, not when he was U14). I never knew he played in England as a junior! I wonder what Karl thought of that at the time! (i.e. did everyone know that Malakhov was undergraded, or did they all know that this was the World U14 champion?)
A Google search comes up with
http://www.chessintranslation.com/2010/ ... physicist/

He mentions Dubna which famously is where Tony Miles got the last part of his GM norms.

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Christopher Kreuzer
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Re: Greatest act of giant-killing in chess

Post by Christopher Kreuzer » Sat Dec 11, 2010 12:47 am

Roger de Coverly wrote:
Christopher Kreuzer wrote: Good example! This is also the Malakhov who was a nuclear physicist (later, not when he was U14). I never knew he played in England as a junior! I wonder what Karl thought of that at the time! (i.e. did everyone know that Malakhov was undergraded, or did they all know that this was the World U14 champion?)
A Google search comes up with
http://www.chessintranslation.com/2010/ ... physicist/

He mentions Dubna which famously is where Tony Miles got the last part of his GM norms.
Thanks for that. It is a very good interview and well worth reading.

The best bit was this: And what do you think about books on chess openings? They’re a waste of time.

And the whole site is excellent as well!

http://www.chessintranslation.com/

I rarely bookmark sites, but I've done so for this one.

Richard Bates
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Re: Greatest act of giant-killing in chess

Post by Richard Bates » Sat Dec 11, 2010 2:30 am

Christopher Kreuzer wrote:
Jon D'Souza-Eva wrote:In the under 14 section of the 1994 London Junior Chess Championships, Vladimir Malakhov, graded 115, defeating Karl Mah, graded 221, on the way to winning the tournament with 5/5. Malakhov was World under 14 champion in 1993, so obviously he was a tad undergraded.
http://www.ljcc.co.uk/1994.htm
Good example! This is also the Malakhov who was a nuclear physicist (later, not when he was U14). I never knew he played in England as a junior! I wonder what Karl thought of that at the time! (i.e. did everyone know that Malakhov was undergraded, or did they all know that this was the World U14 champion?)
Not a good example, I'm afraid, and not just because of Malakhov's grade. The vast majority of the grades given on that site are simply wrong - Karl Mah was not 221 in 1994, for example. If you look a bit more closely at all the results given on the site you will notice he was also apparently 221 in 1992 & 1993! Everyone would have known Malakhov was U14 World Champion - I certainly did because I drew with him in the aforementioned World Championship. What he was doing here, is another question.

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Re: Greatest act of giant-killing in chess

Post by David Sedgwick » Sat Dec 11, 2010 6:24 pm

Richard Bates wrote:
Christopher Kreuzer wrote:
Jon D'Souza-Eva wrote:In the under 14 section of the 1994 London Junior Chess Championships, Vladimir Malakhov, graded 115, defeating Karl Mah, graded 221, on the way to winning the tournament with 5/5. Malakhov was World under 14 champion in 1993, so obviously he was a tad undergraded.
http://www.ljcc.co.uk/1994.htm
Good example! This is also the Malakhov who was a nuclear physicist (later, not when he was U14). I never knew he played in England as a junior! I wonder what Karl thought of that at the time! (i.e. did everyone know that Malakhov was undergraded, or did they all know that this was the World U14 champion?)
Not a good example, I'm afraid, and not just because of Malakhov's grade. The vast majority of the grades given on that site are simply wrong - Karl Mah was not 221 in 1994, for example. If you look a bit more closely at all the results given on the site you will notice he was also apparently 221 in 1992 & 1993! Everyone would have known Malakhov was U14 World Champion - I certainly did because I drew with him in the aforementioned World Championship. What he was doing here, is another question.
If you look closely at the crosstable, you'll see that the alleged 115 grade for Malakhov is actually a "d" grade. This is a figure to which the program is set to default automatically when no actual or estimated grade is supplied.

Michael Jones
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Re: Greatest act of giant-killing in chess

Post by Michael Jones » Sat Jan 08, 2011 12:16 am

From last year's BUCA, an 85 grade beating a 166. Again the winner was undergraded - he was more like 120 strength, but had improved at a rate that the grading system couldn't keep up with.

[Event "2010 BUCA Championship"]
[Site "Oxford, England ENG"]
[Date "2010.02.28"]
[Round "5.12"]
[White "Taylor, John-Paul"]
[Black "Yu, Yiangshi"]
[Result "1-0"]
[ECO "B21"]
[WhiteElo "85"]
[BlackElo "166"]
[PlyCount "49"]
[WhiteTeam "Warwick"]
[BlackTeam "Oxford"]
[TimeControl "30/3600 900"]

1. e4 c5 2. d4 cxd4 3. c3 d3 4. Bxd3 Nc6 5. f4 g6 6. Nf3 Bg7 7. O-O d6 8. e5 Nh6 9. Qe2 O-O 10. Rd1 Ng4 11. Bc4 Qb6+ 12. Nd4 dxe5 13. fxe5 Ngxe5 14. Be3 Ng4 15. Bb3 Qc7 16. h3 Qh2+ 17. Kf1 Qh1+ 18. Bg1 Nh2+ 19. Kf2 e5 20. Nxc6 bxc6 21. Nd2 h5 22. Ne4 h4 23. Ng3 hxg3+ 24. Kxg3 e4 25. Bd4 1-0

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JustinHorton
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Re: Greatest act of giant-killing in chess

Post by JustinHorton » Mon Jan 10, 2011 1:11 pm

In the first round of last year's Benasque Open, this chap beat this one. At the time the winner was graded 470 points below the loser.
"Do you play chess?"
"Yes, but I prefer a game with a better chance of cheating."

lostontime.blogspot.com

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Re: Greatest act of giant-killing in chess

Post by Geoff Chandler » Mon Jan 10, 2011 2:58 pm

John-Paul Taylor - Yiangshi Yu

Cracking wee game.
Inviting the Queen onto h1,then chopping the c6 Knight
with the plan of getting the b1 Knight to g3 and saccing it.
Good.

Carl when are we going to get a game moving pgn thingy.

Michael Jones
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Re: Greatest act of giant-killing in chess

Post by Michael Jones » Wed Jan 12, 2011 4:03 pm

That particular game can be viewed on the BUCA site:

http://www.buca.org.uk/pgnviewer/ltpgnv ... h=merida33|

I think 17... Qh1+ was a bit overambitious, 17... Nxe3+ would have been a safer bet; perhaps Black was thinking "I might as well put my queen where I like, there's no way this 85 grade's possibly going to beat me". After 19. Kf2 the queen's going nowhere so White has all the time in the world to trap it.

Earlier that season the same 85 grade had demolished a 145 in under 20 moves in a King's Gambit. He doesn't go in for 'normal' openings.

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Re: Greatest act of giant-killing in chess

Post by Alex Holowczak » Wed Jan 12, 2011 4:09 pm

These games seem far more exciting than they did when I was putting them in the computer. :oops:

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Gavin Strachan
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Re: Greatest act of giant-killing in chess

Post by Gavin Strachan » Wed Jan 12, 2011 10:59 pm

I always thought that the greatest act of giant killing was beating your dad when you were a kid. Great fun!

Andy McCulloch
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Re: Greatest act of giant-killing in chess

Post by Andy McCulloch » Thu Jan 13, 2011 12:14 am

I started playing chess to combat the boredom when I took my son to weekend tournaments. He is a much better player than I am, so my greatest act of giant killing was when I beat him. Definitely great fun.

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IM Jack Rudd
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Re: Greatest act of giant-killing in chess

Post by IM Jack Rudd » Tue Jan 25, 2011 3:55 pm

[Event "2011 Tradewise Gibraltar Chess Festival "]
[Site "Gibraltar"]
[Date "2011.01.25"]
[Round "1.101"]
[White "Berggren, Klas"]
[Black "Zanetti, Bruno"]
[Result "1-0"]
[ECO "C33"]
[WhiteElo "1463"]
[BlackElo "2017"]
[PlyCount "43"]
[EventDate "2011.01.25"]

1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. d4 cxd4 4. Nxd4 e5 5. Nb5 d6 6. N1c3 a6 7. Na3 Nf6 8.
Bg5 Be7 9. Bxf6 Bxf6 10. Nd5 O-O 11. c3 Bg5 12. Nc2 Be6 13. Nce3 Rc8 14. Be2
Ne7 15. O-O Bxe3 16. Nxe3 Qb6 17. Qd2 Rfd8 18. Bg4 d5 19. Bxe6 Qxe6 20. exd5
Nxd5 21. Rfd1 Nxe3 22. Qxd8+ 1-0

Jon D'Souza-Eva

Re: Greatest act of giant-killing in chess

Post by Jon D'Souza-Eva » Tue Jan 25, 2011 8:25 pm

Here's a game which I should have lost against someone graded 99 points lower than me (74 vs 173). I can't even claim he was an undergraded junior as Bill must be almost 70 years old.

After my 33rd move I was trying to decide whether I should resign after 34. Re8 or allow him the flashy mate. However he played the inferior 34. Rxc5 and after that I had chances.

[Event "Cowley vs Cowley Workers. Frank Wood Shield"]
[Date "2008.11.17"]
[Round "2"]
[White "Jackson, Bill"]
[Black "D'Souza-Eva, Jon"]
[Result "0-1"]

1. e4 d5 2. exd5 Qxd5 3. Nf3 Bf5 4. Nc3 Qa5 5. Bc4 e6
6. O-O c6 7. a3 Nf6 8. d3 Bd6 9. Bd2 Qc7 10. Re1 O-O
11. h3 Nbd7 12. Ne4 b5 13. Nxd6 Qxd6 14. Ba2 c5 15. Bc3 Rfd8
16. Ng5 Re8 17. Nf3 a5 18. Qd2 b4 19. axb4 axb4 20. Be5 Nxe5
21. Nxe5 Qd4 22. c3 Qd6 23. Qe2 Nd5 24. cxb4 Nxb4 25. Bc4 Qb6
26. b3 h6 27. Rxa8 Rxa8 28. g4 Bg6 29. Nxg6 fxg6 30. Qxe6+ Qxe6
31. Rxe6 Kh7 32. Re5 Ra1+ 33. Kg2 Rc1 34. Rxc5 Nxd3 35. Bxd3 Rxc5
36. Bc4 g5 37. Kf3 Kg6 38. Ke4 Kf6 39. Kf3 Ke5 40. Bg8 Rc3+
41. Kg2 Kf4 42. Bf7 Rc6 43. Bc4 Rd6 44. Bg8 Ke4 45. Bc4 Kd4
46. Bg8 Kd3 47. Bc4+ Kd2 48. Kf1 Rd7 49. Bg8 Re7 50. Bc4 Rc7
51. f3 Ke3 52. Kg2 Kf4 53. Kf2 Ra7 54. b4 Ra4 55. Be2 Rxb4
56. Kg2 Rb2 57. Kf2 Ra2
0-1

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