European Individual Seniors (50+) Championship

[Mick Norris]

Arkell's golden result is a wake-up call to the English Chess Federation to rethink its international priorities and give proper backing to senior chess. Currently the ECF seriously backs only adult players in the men's Olympiad and European teams where England in the past decade have often finished as an underachieving also-ran.

Exactly - hopefully someone will bring this up at next month's ECF Finance Meeting

[PeterFarr]

Great article by Leonard Barden.

Also it was very sporting of Keith to allow a local Portuguese player to win the blitz; always good for the host to get some reward.

[Colin Patterson]

Yes, another great article by Leonard. Set me thinking about other age-related competitions where we have achieved pioneering wins; Conquest first World U16 champion; Kumaran first champion of the World U12; Mestel first World Cadets champ (U18). Not to mention Elaine Saunders and that early version of the World Girls.

It does seem we make a habit of leading the way. All we need now is the secret of repeating the success!

[John McKenna]

3 mins (+ 2 seconds increment) goes in no time when you're exhausted! Played a strong field and beat the 2 highest rated GMs, Sturua and Glek in nice games, but blew 2nd = by one bad move in a won position v Kalegin in the last round. I don't know if the games are up, but any normal move instead of the horrible ...f6 was surely winning. O well.

See below for how Keith avoided Russian territory with 8... d4N!?
28... f6 may not be as bad as Keith thought after the game - it could be that until 31... Kh7 he was still better.


[Event "ESCC 2014 - 50+ Blitz"] [Site "Porto POR"] [Date "2014.03.21"] [Round "9.3"] [White "Kalegin, Evgenij"] [Black "Arkell, Keith C"] [Result "1-0"] [ECO "A07"] [WhiteElo "2433"] [BlackElo "2433"] [Annotator "JM"] [PlyCount "89"] [EventDate "2014.??.??"] [TimeControl "360+2"] [WhiteClock ""] [BlackClock ""] 1. g3 d5 2. Bg2 c6 3. d3 Nf6 4. Nd2 e5 5. Ngf3 Nbd7 6. O-O Be7 7. e4 O-O 8. b3 d4 $146 (8... dxe4 9. dxe4 Qc7 10. Bb2 Re8 11. a4 (11. Ne1 Nc5 12. Nd3 Nxd3 13. cxd3 Bg4 14. Qc2 Rad8 {1/2 [42] Gelman-Yemlin 1996 Rus. U-20 Ch.}) 11... b6 ( 11... Bf8 12. Qe2 a5 13. Rfd1 Ng4 14. h3 Nh6 15. Nc4 f6 16. Rd2 Nf7 17. Bf1 Nc5 {1-0 [67] Hramtsov-Yanvarjov 1996 Moscow Ch.}) 12. Nc4 Bf8 13. Re1 Bb4 14. c3 Bf8 15. b4 a5 16. Qb3 h6 17. Nh4 Bb7 {0-1 [45] Platonov-Zaitsev 1968 USSR Ch.}) 9. Bb2 c5 10. Nc4 Qc7 11. a4 b6 12. Nh4 Re8 13. Nf5 Bf8 14. f4 g6 15. Nh4 Bg7 16. Bc1 Bb7 17. f5 a6 18. Bd2 b5 19. Na5 Bc8 20. h3 Nb6 21. Qe2 c4 22. bxc4 Nxa4 23. g4 Nc3 24. Qf2 bxc4 25. Nxc4 Bd7 26. Bg5 Nfxe4 27. dxe4 Qxc4 28. Kh1 f6 29. fxg6 hxg6 30. Bxf6 Rf8 31. g5 Kh7 32. Nf5 gxf5 33. Qh4+ Kg8 34. Bxg7 Kxg7 35. Qh6+ Kf7 36. exf5 Ke8 37. Bxa8 Ne2 38. Kh2 Qc3 39. Qh5+ Kd8 40. Qxe2 Rh8 41. Qg4 Qd2+ 42. Bg2 Bc6 43. Rg1 Qf2 44. Raf1 Qe3 45. Qg3 1-0

[MartinCarpenter]

Talking of playing when exhausted it does seem rather cruel that subsequent to these heroic efforts Keith had to come straight back and play in the 4NCL this Sunday!

[John McKenna]

How'd he do-dee?
Martin, no need to answer that on my account - unless you have more news to impart - I'll go and have a look for myself.

[benedgell]

I had a decent conversation with Phil Ehr at 4NCL this weekend about a variety of ECF- related issues, and Keith's result has definitely inspired more movement with regards funding for senior chess. I'm hopeful that will be reflected in the budgets at the Finance Council meeting. I also suggested the ECF should do something to recognise Keith's result (beyond the mention on the website). Wasn't able to think of anything specific at the time, but its not often that England has a European Chess Champion

[NickFaulks]

Did we ever get the story behind the mass forfeits of top players in the second round of the >65?