English Chess Forum

This year's Varsity Match between Oxford and Cambridge will take place tomorrow, Saturday 5th March. The match will be played at the RAC Clubhouse on Pall Mall, London, and is once again being generously sponsored by Henry Mutkin. Spectators, appropriately attired in suit and tie, or equivalent, are most welcome.

The match will begin at 12 noon with an Opening Cermony, after which clocks will be started at 12:30. The time control is 2 hours for 40 moves, followed by a 1 hour quickplay finish, so the games will finish by 18:30.

The board pairings are as follows:

      Cambridge                                               Oxford
1   IM Gabor Pinter [HUN] (2363, 214)             GM Amon Simutowe [ZAM] (2481, -)
2   Peter Roberson [ENG] (2274, 212)              David Zakarian [ARM] (2362, -)
3   Mitesh Shridhar [USA] (2118, -)                  FM Ravindran Shanmugam [SIN] (2293, -)
4   Christopher Graw [GER] (2257, -)               Thanasis Tsanas [GRE] (2264, -)
5   CM Sven Quist [GER] (2150, 197)                Robbie Coleman [SCO] (2042, 185)
6   Mikhail Tyomkyn [GER] (2106, 172)             Steffen Schaper [GER] (-, 172)
7   Richard Lee [ENG] (-, 172)                          Murray David [ENG] (1880, 178)
8   Isabella Khazagerova [RUS] (2080, )            Yangshan (Susan) Yu [ENG] (-, e135)

I intend to post regular updates on the BUCA twitter account: http://www.twitter.com/bucachess

My support for this match lies very firmly with the University that enters my tournament.

I note that there are only 4 English players taking part, only one of whom has a rating above 1900. Are there any strong English players at Oxford or Cambridge who are not playing, for whatever reason?

Richard James wrote:I note that there are only 4 English players taking part, only one of whom has a rating above 1900. Are there any strong English players at Oxford or Cambridge who are not playing, for whatever reason?

My honest opinion is that they've probably done well to get 4 between them. It probably would have been fewer; I understand Murray David was a late replacement for Oxford.

Last weekend, 53% of the players were non-English.

I can't speak for Cambridge, but this is our strongest team. Murray's rating has been inactive for six years, so his ECF grade is a much more reliable indicator of his playing strength.

Alex is right - Murray was a replacement for another foreign player who became ineligible.

Alex Holowczak wrote:Last weekend, 53% of the players were non-English.

We had four (plus one Scot, Robbie). So above the average.

I'll be there and am delighted to be BUCA's first Honorary Life Vice President which accords me all sorts of non existent honours and perks...

cjdemooi wrote:I'll be there and am delighted to be BUCA's first Honorary Life Vice President which accords me all sorts of non existent honours and perks...

It's the thought that counts.

I'll also be in attendance, having been invited by Eoin.

Cambridge aren't missing anyone. Boards 3-7 were (partly) decided on the basis of a selection tournament (won by the underrated Mitesh, which explains our board order) so there are a few players of about the same strength as our boards 6-7 who could've played, (but only half of them are English!) but no one better. I think it's somewhat of a fluke year - last year we had at had at least 3 other English players (who had all played a lot of games on the English junior chess scene).

I have again been invited to be the arbiter and I look forward to seeing several other members of this Forum.

The number of non-British players in the match has increased sharply in recent years. This year's total of 11 appears to be a new record, but in 2007, 2008, 2009 and 2010 the corresponding numbers were 6, 7, 10 and 8 respectively.

In 1995, the first year for which I was an arbiter, there was only one.

Amon Simutowe will become the fourth GM to play in the match whilst already holding the title. The previous three were David Norwood, Dharshan Kumaran and Luke McShane. Curiously, all four represented Oxford (or will have done so).

The Varsity Match is now well underway (as at 2.12pm). Oxford won the toss and chose White on odds.

More news as I have it.

I'm in the process of posting news about the Varsity Match here - http://www.bcmchess.co.uk/news/varsity2011.html - it will be updated from time to time this afternoon.

Jon Speelman predicts a 4.25 - 3.75 win for Cambridge at the moment. Don't ask me how he worked that out - I'm not a mathematician.

First game to finish...


[Event "Varsity Oxford-Cambridge"]
[Site "London"]
[Date "2011.03.05"]
[Round "5"]
[White "Coleman, Robbie"]
[Black "Quist, Sven"]
[Result "1-0"]
[ECO "B57"]
[WhiteElo "2042"]
[BlackElo "2150"]
[PlyCount "75"]
[EventDate "2011.03.05"]
[EventType "team-"]
[EventRounds "1"]
[EventCountry "ENG"]
[SourceDate "2011.03.05"]
[WhiteTeam "Oxford"]
[BlackTeam "Cambridge"]

1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. d4 cxd4 4. Nxd4 Nf6 5. Nc3 d6 6. Bc4 Qb6 7. Nb3 a6 8.
Be3 Qc7 9. f3 e6 10. Qd2 Bd7 11. O-O-O Ne5 12. Bd3 b5 13. Kb1 Be7 14. Qf2 Rb8
15. g4 b4 16. Ne2 a5 17. g5 Nh5 18. Qh4 g6 19. f4 Nxd3 20. cxd3 a4 21. Rc1 Qb7
22. Nbd4 d5 23. e5 Qa6 24. Rhd1 Rc8 25. Rxc8+ Bxc8 26. Qe1 Bd7 27. Qd2 O-O 28.
Ng3 Ng7 29. h4 Bc5 30. Ndf5 Bxe3 31. Nh6+ Kh8 32. Qxe3 b3 33. Qc5 bxa2+ 34.
Kxa2 Qa8 35. Rc1 Nf5 36. Ngxf5 gxf5 37. Qe7 Qd8 38. Qxd8 1-0

Second game to finish...


[Event "Varsity Oxford-Cambridge"]
[Site "London"]
[Date "2011.03.05"]
[Round "6"]
[White "Tyomkyn, Mikhail"]
[Black "Schaper, Steffen"]
[Result "1/2-1/2"]
[ECO "B27"]
[WhiteElo "2106"]
[BlackElo "2000"]
[PlyCount "65"]
[EventDate "2011.03.05"]
[EventType "team-"]
[EventRounds "1"]
[EventCountry "ENG"]
[SourceDate "2011.03.05"]
[WhiteTeam "Cambridge"]
[BlackTeam "Oxford"]

1. Nf3 g6 2. e4 Bg7 3. d4 c5 4. dxc5 Qa5+ 5. c3 Qxc5 6. Na3 Qa5 7. Bc4 Nc6 8.
O-O d6 9. Qb3 Nh6 10. Bxh6 Bxh6 11. Bxf7+ Kf8 12. Nd4 Nxd4 13. cxd4 Rb8 14. Be6
Bxe6 15. Qxe6 Qb4 16. Rad1 Qxb2 17. Rd3 b5 18. Rb1 Qe2 19. Rf3+ Ke8 20. Nxb5
Kd8 21. Rf7 Bf8 22. h4 Rxb5 23. Rc1 Rb8 24. Rc6 Qd1+ 25. Kh2 Qxd4 26. f4 Qa4
27. Rc4 Qd7 28. Qd5 Rc8 29. Rb4 Qc6 30. Qd4 Rg8 31. Qxa7 Qc5 32. Qa4 Qh5 33.
Rb3 1/2-1/2