European Schools Chess Championships 2016

[Jonathan Rogers]

but its nice to keep the games of very young players at least slightly hard to find

Why?

Its just a personal opinion, the more games that are easily available for a player the easier it tends to be to prepare against them, and at a very young age they may have a less wide range of openings than after they have been playing for a few years. Also at the level they are at, they are often playing against opponents who have very few, if any games available for them to use to prepare.

Makes sense to me

[Jonathan Rogers]

Why?

Its just a personal opinion, the more games that are easily available for a player the easier it tends to be to prepare against them, and at a very young age they may have a less wide range of openings than after they have been playing for a few years. Also at the level they are at, they are often playing against opponents who have very few, if any games available for them to use to prepare.

Makes sense to me, though it's an argument for not publishing many games, rather than for publishing none - it is interesting to see how well these young players can play

[Jonathan Rogers]

.... Unfortunately, it's probably not a very good position for a "White to play and win" problem, because the computer says White has a better move than 28.Ng6+ which forces mate (whereas 28.Ng6+ only gives White a winning material advantage).

Yes, 28 Nh5 just leads to mate, because there are two mating threats (Qxg7, and Qd8+) and the only way to stop them both (28...Qg6 or 28...Qxh5) allows 29 Qf8+. So 28 Ng6 + turns out to be an example of "when you see a good move, stop to look for a better one!"

Perhaps one could make a problem out of it by asking readers to assess the consequences of the three different knight moves: 28 Nh5, 28 Ng6+ and 28 Ne2. Full marks for the comnputer-like Nh5, a nod of the human head for Ng6, and a nice "worst move on the board alarm" for 28 Ne2??, allowing 28...Rxh3+ and mate next move for Black (!)