English Chess Forum

"Tim Harding wrote:
So you will probably play Tatiana Bogumil, the current 50+ world champion. What an honour for you!


Sadly for Nick, the Russians have rested her."

But Fatalibekova is quite a good opponent!

I see John Nunn has lost quickly as White against Israel. Very disappointing but no doubt showing just how difficult it is to play at this level without regular practice.

Speelman and Short rallying with the Black bits. C'mon England.

Terry Chapman drew so there is a fair chance of winning the match. He played a good opening, seemed to go wrong with Nxe7+ but his opponent apparently miscalculated.

Huzman resigned in a position which doesn't look totally gone - ah well. Down to Jon Speelman who is probably enjoying his pawn up endgame position.

Soffer seems to be getting his money's worth. He played games lasting about 90 moves and 126 moves in consecutive rounds, and now he's trying to do the same.

Nigel's possible mate with 2 knights is great. I think Huzman perhaps resigned as he was embarrassed he missed it, the ending doesn't look nice to say the least.

Fine win by Jon.

John Moore wrote:Fine win by Jon.

Indeed; Jon is leading board 3 performer on percentage, TPR (2598 so far) and points, although he has only played six of the rounds.
Nigel of course leads top board by all three measures.

I guess John Nunn may be rested tomorrow, though perhaps not as Ashdod are likely to be the opposition. It's sad to see him lose three games and rather surprising as last year he did well on top board.

The leading players on boards 2 and 4 are the Armenians Ivanov and Solozhenkin who won yesterday against John and Keith.

Team draw for round 8:

England II v St Petersburg
Germany Women v Armenia
England I v Ashdod CC
Heart of Finland v Israel
VSG 1880 Offenbach v Scotland
Athens/Crete v Austria
Wales v Oslo
Russia Women v Sweden I
Rochade Bielefeld Revival v Sweden II
Bermuda v England III
SCCU 125 v Latvia Women

In the 65+ tournament, where Russia (14) and France (11) are probably getting the top honours but third place is open,
England I will play England II (both on 7); Wales (7) will play a German team on 6MP and England III play Scotland (both on 6 MP).

Kevin Thurlow wrote:Soffer seems to be getting his money's worth. He played games lasting about 90 moves and 126 moves in consecutive rounds, and now he's trying to do the same.

It doesn't seem to have tired Ram Soffer out. He is the top seed in the blitz tournament currently in progress. Second seed is Jim Plaskett, who told me that some blitz games were just what he needed to sharpen up for Alexander Khalifman.

David Sedgwick wrote: Second seed is Jim Plaskett, who told me that some blitz games were just what he needed to sharpen up for Alexander Khalifman.

He could probably get a draw just by playing a dozen sensible moves and offering one, but I don't expect that's what Jim has in mind.

NickFaulks wrote:

David Sedgwick wrote: Second seed is Jim Plaskett, who told me that some blitz games were just what he needed to sharpen up for Alexander Khalifman.

He could probably get a draw just by playing a dozen sensible moves and offering one, but I don't expect that's what Jim has in mind.

That appears to be exactly what he had in mind.

Plaskett, H James (EN2) - Khalifman, Alexander (SPB) ½-½ World Senior Team Championship S50 2017 round 08

1. d4 d5 2. c4 c6 3. cxd5 cxd5 4. Nc3 Nf6 5. Nf3 Nc6 6. Bf4 Bf5 7. e3 e6 8. Bd3 Bxd3 9. Qxd3 Bd6 10. Bxd6 Qxd6 11. O-O O-O

Looks like it was Khalifman who offered the draw.

Wow, never seem that position - or indeed that "game" - before

Nice win with Black for Terry today. With Keith also winning and a draw for Jon, bronze is still likely. Nigel will probably also win soon.
Eng-2 scored just that half point.

In the 65+ ENG 1 v ENG 2 is 1.5 each with Stokes v Hewson still in play.