The British itself!

[Simon Ansell]

Something wrong then (move numbers?) as I had the BK on h6 making 79 Kg5 illegal

edit: entirely my mistake, was looking at 78. Qf4.

Very surprised Nick didn't win that, regardless.

[Barry Sandercock]

Was the last move 84.Ke4 actually played or was that just setting the kings position after the game had finished ? If it was, 84...Qc2 wins.

[IM Jack Rudd]

I haven't seen the scoresheet, but I removed 84.Ke4 from the live game feed before putting it in the PGN file for that very reason.

[Christopher Kreuzer]

When was the last time round 3 (or maybe any round) of the British had two non-GMs on board 1? Today it is Justin Tan with a second White against Jonathan Hawkins (admittedly, among the strongest of the non-GMs so the question is a bit unfair). Games about to start: any predictions for Rudd-Arkell on board 8?

[Roger de Coverly]

They are now risking displaying all the games in the live feed. In another thread, Jack mentioned that they had wired up every board, but weren't displaying them.

[Jonathan Bryant]

Haria - Fraser still following Basman-Stean Hastings 1973/1974

[Event "Hastings 1973/74"] [Site "Hastings ENG"] [Date "1973.12.27"] [EventDate "1973.12.27"] [Round "1"] [Result "1-0"] [White "Michael John Basman"] [Black "Michael Francis Stean"] [ECO "B50"] [WhiteElo "?"] [BlackElo "?"] [PlyCount "51"] 1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 d6 3.Be2 Nc6 4.c3 Nf6 5.d4 cxd4 6.cxd4 Nxe4 7.d5 Qa5+ 8.Nc3 Nxc3 9.bxc3 Ne5 10.Nxe5 Qxc3+ 11.Bd2 Qxe5 12.O-O Qxd5 13.Rb1 e6 14.Bb5+ Bd7 15.Bxd7+ Kxd7 16.Qa4+ Kd8 17.Rb5 Qc6 18.Rc1 Qa6 19.Ra5 Qd3 20.Be3 d5 21.Rxa7 Rxa7 22.Qxa7 Ba3 23.Qb8+ Ke7 24.Bg5+ f6 25.Qxb7+ Kd6 26.Qc7+ 1-0

[Christopher Kreuzer]

To part-answer my own question, there was a GM on board one for all rounds in 2013, 2011, 2010, 2009, 2008. The absence of (detailed) archived information on the 2012 British Championships and the ones before 2008 is seriously annoying. Where it was never online, I can understand, but when it was online, people really should try and archive it in a form that will persist (for how long is another question).

[Jonathan Bryant]

Haria - Fraser still following Basman-Stean Hastings 1973/1974

And now they’re not. ... f6 was mentioned on Basman’s tape on his Be2 Sicilian system. Doesn’t look like the sort of move you’d find otb to me.

[Roger de Coverly]

Haria - Fraser still following Basman-Stean Hastings 1973/1974

Lenier - Horton on bottom board adding one more game to the long list of Berlin endgame avoidance.

[Jonathan Bryant]

Haria - Fraser still following Basman-Stean Hastings 1973/1974

Lenier - Horton on bottom board adding one more game to the long list of Berlin endgame avoidance.

Indeed. Very disappointing.


PS: Why aren’t you playing Roger? Is the Seniors in the morning?

[Roger de Coverly]

And now they’re not. ... f6 was mentioned on Basman’s tape on his Be2 Sicilian system. Doesn’t look like the sort of move you’d find otb to me.

It's known to theory, or at least the databases. Julian Hodgson played it against Garcia of Columbia in the "World Open" in 2000. It seems to have been first tried in 1987, in what is only the second recorded game in the variation after Basman-Stean.

Exactly the same idea can be seen in the c3,h3 lines of the c3 Sicilian. Basman's version replaces h3 with the more useful Rb1.

1.e4 c5 2. Nf3 d6 3. c3 Nf6 4. h3 Nc6 5. d4 cxd4 6. cxd4 Nxe4 7. d5 Qa5 8. Nc3 Nxc3 9. bxc3 Ne5 10. Nxe5 Qxc3 11. Bd2 Qxe5 12. Be2 Qxd5 13. O-O

[John McKenna]

Hi guys,

I predict a draw between Jude & Justin in the Battle of the Berlin.
Jonathan - consult the schedule and I think you will find the Seniors Open Ch. starts on Saturday.

[JustinHadi]

Simon Williams seems to have a dangerous attacking position against David Howell. But dangerous for who?

[John Moore]

And now they’re not. ... f6 was mentioned on Basman’s tape on his Be2 Sicilian system. Doesn’t look like the sort of move you’d find otb to me.

It's known to theory, or at least the databases. Julian Hodgson played it against Garcia of Columbia in the "World Open" in 2000. It seems to have been first tried in 1987, in what is only the second recorded game in the variation after Basman-Stean.

Exactly the same idea can be seen in the c3,h3 lines of the c3 Sicilian. Basman's version replaces h3 with the more useful Rb1.

1.e4 c5 2. Nf3 d6 3. c3 Nf6 4. h3 Nc6 5. d4 cxd4 6. cxd4 Nxe4 7. d5 Qa5 8. Nc3 Nxc3 9. bxc3 Ne5 10. Nxe5 Qxc3 11. Bd2 Qxe5 12. Be2 Qxd5 13. O-O

First tried in 1987 by a certain Thomas Ernst who is no mug and if Julian played it as well then not complete rubbish as I thought when I first saw the move. It certainly took Ravi for ages to find 14 Rb4 (shame the clocks are no longer working on that one) but that might be a good move insisting on playing Bc4.

Incidentally, Jonathan, I am impressed that you remember this was a Basman recommendation on one of his tapes. I have some of these but the only one I can remember anything about was an excellent one by David Hooper on Rook endings which is still a great introduction for the club and county player. I also remember David, who passed away many years ago, ending the first side of the cassette by saying "Now you will have to turn the record over".

[Paul Dargan]

Yep - I remember those tapes as well. There was a Hodgson-Suba game from one the the Britishes in Eastbourne (92-ish?) in this line. There's also been some video-coverage on Chess.com recently where they seem to be completely unaware that thid tricky line used to be mandatory knowledge in the UK.

Paul