BRITISH CHESS CHAMPIONSHIPS - THE GAMES

[ThomasThorpe]

Or not! K vs K on board 1. Even I could draw that against Mickey!!!

[John Moore]

A great final day. For those who remember the lazy Oxbridge draws of the 70s in the Championships, what a refreshing change.

[benedgell]

Yang- Fan deserves a lot of credit, not least for drawing with Adams, but also for going from 1.5/4 to finishing on 7/11.

[Jonathan Bryant]

I think maybe Mickey was a tempo short of getting RvN. Not that he would have won that either.


That's the trouble with these last rounds though. It's always just a job lot of short draws and the tournament ends with a whimper.

[Andrew Stone]

I got K v K in a simul against Krogius once and offered him a draw as a joke. Apparently there were no jokes in Soviet Union, well not in his exalted position anyway.

[Christopher Kreuzer]

I think maybe Mickey was a tempo short of getting RvN.

Which line was this?

[John Moore]

Andrew - in the Soviet Union, it would have depended on where his King was or whether he had been trained by the Patriarch.

[Alex Holowczak]

A great final day. For those who remember the lazy Oxbridge draws of the 70s in the Championships, what a refreshing change.

It's not over yet, either: If Jones beats Pert he joins Adams and Short in the playoff.

[AustinElliott]

Yang- Fan deserves a lot of credit, not least for drawing with Adams, but also for going from 1.5/4 to finishing on 7/11.

Second that. Without wishing to jinx him, the lad seems to have 'future GM' written all over him. No mean task to draw the endgame against a renowned super-GM grinder who is himself playing for an unshared championship.

[AustinElliott]

A great final day. For those who remember the lazy Oxbridge draws of the 70s in the Championships, what a refreshing change.

It's not over yet, either: If Jones beats Pert he joins Adams and Short in the playoff.

Certainly both Krogius and Averbakh never came across as having as a sense of humour, either in interviews or in writing. Didn't they both become high chess federation panjandrums and arbiters?

One always had the feeling the USSR chess system rather distrusted jokers, and indeed those given to any kind of levity - Bronstein, Tal, and even Spassky would be examples. They found 'dour and serious' much more appropriate, see e.g. Botvinnik.

[Paul Cooksey]

Certainly both Krogius and Averbakh never came across as having as a sense of humour, either in interviews or in writing. Didn't they both become high chess federation panjandrums and arbiters?

Averbakh recently published a memoir, although still waiting on the post so can't recommend or otherwise.

[Jonathan Bryant]

I think maybe Mickey was a tempo short of getting RvN.

Which line was this?

I meant at the end - but ignore me I'm talking cock. Quite a few tempi is much more accurate. Wasn't close at all. Shame. Would have been the only way the day could have ended better.


update: even more cock being talked. Penny has finally dropped - the king's on the wrong side of the pawn so it was never on.

[John Moore]

Got a feeling that Pert will march his King up and down quite a lot!

[John Moore]

and the g4 break will come around move 100!!

[AustinElliott]

Is there really any chance of a win for either side in Jones-Pert? Seems v. unlikely that Jones can get the Knights in down the a- and b-files without allowing the Black Queen in at b1-b2, which would be very dangerous in view of the Swiss cheese nature of White's dark squares.

Speaking from the heights of sub-130 patzerdom, I can't see an obvious plan for either of them to make much progress... any of the greater chess minds lurking around here have a view?