English Chess Forum

A fine win by Jim Plaskett against one of the golden Soviet legends, though England 2 looks likely to lose the other three games against Armenia.

The other draw being Mark Hebden's with Black v 2543 rated Helgi Olafsson.

Very well done Jim! I just saw it after I posted.

Going back to the GLC event in 1986, which Leicester residents might remember with the same affection as the football Premiership 2015/2016, wasn't Vaganian bullied quite a lot with his Alekhine's then too? I feel quite sure that he lost with it to at least one of Nunn or Plaskett in that event.

The line played today is one that I had a very good record with when I played 1 e4. I actually distantly remember Tim Harding annotating one of his own wins with it in CHESS back in the 1980s. I always followed up 9 Ne2 with Bc3, and I guess that Vaganian expected that - and so 10 Ng3 perhaps came as a surprise. Well, evidently it was a surprise, since the horrible 11...Bxb2+ can hardly have been preparation. Thus Jim had a won position in twelve moves.

I wonder also whether it was the second opening surprise Vaganian had against an Englishman in this event. Nunn's 7...Kf8 in their brief round four draw was startling but also logical in its own way and seemingly very effective.

Jonathan Rogers wrote:Going back to the GLC event in 1986, which Leicester residents might remember with the same affection as the football Premiership 2015/2016, wasn't Vaganian bullied quite a lot with his Alekhine's then too? I feel quite sure that he lost with it to at least one of Nunn or Plaskett in that event.

The line played today is one that I had a very good record with when I played 1 e4. I actually distantly remember Tim Harding annotating one of his own wins with it in CHESS back in the 1980s. I always followed up 9 Ne2 with Bc3, and I guess that Vaganian expected that - and so 10 Ng3 perhaps came as a surprise. Well, evidently it was a surprise, since the horrible 11...Bxb2+ can hardly have been preparation. Thus Jim had a won position in twelve moves.

I wonder also whether it was the second opening surprise Vaganian had against an Englishman in this event. Nunn's 7...Kf8 in their brief round four draw was startling but also logical in its own way and seemingly very effective.

Wasn't Kf8 actually 0-0 but wrongly transmitted?

That was what I assumed. Vaganian replied immediately.

The game doesn't tell us. I too assumed 7...0-0 at first but then I got wondering - maybe Black does want his rook on h8, to play ...h5-h4 ?

If it was indeed the un-Nunnish Kf8 White could have played 11 dxe5 Ng4 12 e4! with advantage, says the computer.

Germany drew so I think the standings going into the last round (match points & game points) are:

Armenia 14 23.5
Germany 14 23
England 13 23.5
Emanuel-Lasker-Gesellschaft 13 22.5

with Armenia likely to face the Emanuel-Lasker team.

Nr. Heimmannschaft Gastmannschaft Ergebnis
1. Emanuel-Lasker-Gesellschaft - Armenia :
2. Germany 1 - Thüringen :
3. Austria - Russia Women :
4. Post-SV Ulm - England 1 :
5. Hessische Seniorenmannschaft - England 2

Keith Arkell wrote:I have good news: the soccer result has been avenged!

Boards 2, 3 and 4 were drawn, while Jonathan Speelman did the biz on board one v Hjartarsson

Keep up the good work Keith, and pass our best wishes to the rest of the team too

Leonard Barden wrote:If it was indeed the un-Nunnish Kf8 White could have played 11 dxe5 Ng4 12 e4! with advantage, says the computer.

Yes, it would have been quite un-Nunnish. I think it must have been 7...0-0 instead. I guess I get over-attracted to odd-looking moves!

More importantly, how will the people who expect to make millions out of the live transmissions do so until they can reliably transmit what has happened? How much would the TV rights to last night's Euro game be worth if it had gone "Ozul scores a penalty, but maybe he missed. Watch this space, we should have a definitive answer tomorrow"?

NickFaulks wrote:More importantly, how will the people who expect to make millions out of the live transmissions do so until they can reliably transmit what has happened? How much would the TV rights to last night's Euro game be worth if it had gone "Ozul scores a penalty, but maybe he missed. Watch this space, we should have a definitive answer tomorrow"?

I don't think anyone would believe that Ozil had scored a penalty

Jonathan Rogers wrote:

Leonard Barden wrote:If it was indeed the un-Nunnish Kf8 White could have played 11 dxe5 Ng4 12 e4! with advantage, says the computer.

Yes, it would have been quite un-Nunnish. I think it must have been 7...0-0 instead. I guess I get over-attracted to odd-looking moves!

From the official download file:

[Event "Armenia-England 1"] [Site "Radebeul"] [Date "2016.07.01"] [Round "?"] [White "Vaganian, Rafael A"] [Black "Nunn, John D M"] [Result "1/2-1/2"] [ECO "D79"] [WhiteElo "2577"] [BlackElo "2597"] [PlyCount "42"] [EventDate "2016.??.??"] 1. d4 Nf6 2. Nf3 g6 3. c4 Bg7 4. g3 c6 5. Nc3 d5 6. cxd5 cxd5 7. Ne5 O-O 8. Bg2 e6 9. Bf4 Bd7 10. Qd2 Nc6 11. O-O Nxe5 12. Bxe5 Bc6 13. Rac1 Nd7 14. Bxg7 Kxg7 15. Rc2 Nf6 16. Rfc1 Qd6 17. e3 Rfc8 18. Ne2 b6 19. Nf4 Bb7 20. Nd3 Rxc2 21. Rxc2 Rc8 1/2-1/2