English Chess Forum

Keith wins again as does John Emms who is 4/4
Team in bronze position and play Canada tomorrow

"One further point: people talking about (the input of) games being 'neglected' did make me guffaw. This could only come from those who have never themselves contributed towards the Sisyphean task of getting historical games input and maybe haven't stopped to think about how much work is involved for zero reward. Luckily there are many who do contribute and I take this opportunity to thank the many who have helped me (including members of this forum, e.g. Roger), and also all the game inputters who contribute towards other database projects such as Big/Mega, StarBase, Chess Scotland, chessgames.com, etc."

I agree. I put the games on Chessbase from a tournament I ran, where there was considerable variety in the strength of players, so a game between two tailenders (who might never have played a tournament before) frequently didn't make a lot of sense. When the games were published in the organization's magazine, I didn't even get an acknowledgement...

There are a lot of unpublished games out there. If someone does decide to input all the games from BCM in the 1910s, why not tell John, he might even put a note on Britbase that someone is working on that decade, so someone else can volunteer to do the 1900s?

Mick Norris wrote: ↑

Fri Apr 19, 2019 9:04 pm

Keith wins again as does John Emms who is 4/4
Team in bronze position and play Canada tomorrow

Thanks Mick - yes, we (4th seeds) duffed up Iceland ( 2nd seeds) today in a very important match, and, curiously, I learned off a bystander that although my victim ( a chap called Hjartarson, whom I've never played or seen before ) was apparently world number 11 in January 1989,there were, in that same rating list, three English players rated ahead of him!

Keith Arkell wrote: ↑

Fri Apr 19, 2019 10:43 pm

Mick Norris wrote: ↑

Fri Apr 19, 2019 9:04 pm

Keith wins again as does John Emms who is 4/4
Team in bronze position and play Canada tomorrow

Thanks Mick - yes, we (4th seeds) duffed up Iceland ( 2nd seeds) today in a very important match, and, curiously, I learned off a bystander that although my victim ( a chap called Hjartarson, whom I've never played or seen before ) was apparently world number 11 in January 1989,there were, in that same rating list, three English players rated ahead of him!

Johann Hjartarson defeated Viktor Korchnoi 4.5-3.5 in their 1988 world title candidates match before losing to Anatoly Karpov in the quarter-final.

That was the same candidates series where Speelman knocked out Seirawan and Short before losing to Timman in one semi-final, with Karpov beating Yusupov in the other. The two semis were played simultaneously in London with the aid of a sponsor who promised to finance the entire cycle but pulled out when Speelman was defeated.

Keith Arkell wrote: ↑

Fri Apr 19, 2019 10:43 pm

( a chap called Hjartarson, whom I've never played or seen before ) was apparently world number 11 in January 1989,there were, in that same rating list, three English players rated ahead of him!

Short, Speelman and Nunn if I've remembered correctly.

Keith Arkell wrote: ↑

Fri Apr 19, 2019 10:43 pm

Mick Norris wrote: ↑

Fri Apr 19, 2019 9:04 pm

Keith wins again as does John Emms who is 4/4
Team in bronze position and play Canada tomorrow

Thanks Mick - yes, we (4th seeds) duffed up Iceland ( 2nd seeds) today in a very important match, and, curiously, I learned off a bystander that although my victim ( a chap called Hjartarson, whom I've never played or seen before ) was apparently world number 11 in January 1989,there were, in that same rating list, three English players rated ahead of him!

v good team result indeed.

But Keith, did you mean to say you hadn't heard of Hjartarson, or simply that you hadn't seen or met him before - the latter would not be so surprising since I think he stopped playing soon after 1991 to concentrate on a (legal?) career.

I meant that for such a prominent player I was surprised that our paths had never crossed, Jonathan. Judging by his FIDE card and Wiki entry, he became relatively inactive between about 1998 and 2016.

Then, following his return to full activity, he became Icelandic Champion in 2016, Nordic Champion in 2017 and that same year played in the FIDE World Cup.

I've just remembered that Jon Speelman beat him in this event 3 years ago, but I didn't really 'see' him, as such, because I had a quick draw with Margeir Petursson and then left the playing room.

A few years ago, I think it was 2016, Iceland was to host the European Team Championships and they were allowed to have a second team.
They decided it should be a senior team and Hjartarson was on it. So they decided to play the World Senior Teams first to warm up. Fridrik Olafsson was on the team too.
You were indeed in that event in Radebeul, Keith.
Afterwards Hjartarson won the Icelandic championship.

ChessBase had an article about him at the time but it doesn't seem to be possible to search for it?

Tim Harding wrote: ↑

Sat Apr 20, 2019 10:48 pm

ChessBase had an article about him at the time but it doesn't seem to be possible to search for it?

This one?

https://en.chessbase.com/post/johann-hjartarson-is-back

England without Keith beat Canada despite a loss from John Emms
USA win again and play Iceland possibly the last chance of a slip up
England play Armenia who are level on match points but ahead on game points
Tough match good luck to the team

Worth highlighting a superb effort from forum member Mark Page in round 5 of the Over-65 yesterday. Playing for England 2, Mark (rated 2107) drew with several-times East German champion GM Rainer Knaak (rated 2482) who was playing top board for Germany. And Mark had the better of it for much of the game's course.

The USA drew, but I guess they could afford to do that.

We beat Armenia, it seems, with a grandiose performance from John Emms. Albeit that Chessbomb leaves some mystery as to what happened in Speelman's game (won in six moves, phone default?) and why Plaskett resigned.

Does this mean silver again?

Jonathan Rogers wrote: ↑

Sun Apr 21, 2019 7:53 pm

The USA drew, but I guess they could afford to do that.

We beat Armenia, it seems, with a grandiose performance from John Emms. Albeit that Chessbomb leaves some mystery as to what happened in Speelman's game (won in six moves, phone default?) and why Plaskett resigned.

Does this mean silver again?

Chess results show England 2-2 Armenia with a draw from Speelman.

USA11; Armenia, England, Italy 9; Israel , Iceland, Germany 8.

Round 7 Israel-USA, Italy-England, Iceland-Armenia.

Jonathan Rogers wrote: ↑

Sun Apr 21, 2019 7:53 pm

Albeit that Chessbomb leaves some mystery as to what happened in Speelman's game (won in six moves, phone default?)

Two rounds running Chessbomb has had Jon's games finishing in the opening with a decisive result posted, presumably a faulty board.

It probably didn't help that on two separate occasions Vaganian knocked over his glass of water.