New Zealand Listener, 1976 - Advice I never follow

Advice I never follow

USUALLY ONLY offered by London congresses, - the 1976 Leicester "weekender" was an exception and gave good prize-money.

It attracted a number of strong players. D. Rumens was there as usual, as well as Welsh No. 1 G. H. Botterill. S. Hutchings, M. P. Littlewood and S. Reuben were among those determined to fight for first place. A surprise· entry was Dave Patrick who had just returned to England from living in a cave in the Canary Islands.

Going into the final round, pairings were Botterill (4) v Hutchings (4), Littlewood (4) v Patrick (4), and Rumens (4) v Chandler (4).

As expected, Botterill and Hutchings cancelled each other out with a hard fought draw; both of them went through unbeaten. Littlewood v Patrick was won by the latter after a game of mixed fortune - the reasons for Patrick's win in the end varied from tension to telepathy.

This left Rumens and me to battle it out to share first place with Patrick.

Rumens, D - Chandler, M - HE Atkins Memorial 1976

1.f4 "Play the board not the man" is advice I never follow. Rumens has one outstanding strength - his magnificent calculation of tactics - which he exploits with mating attacks. (See Le Blancey v Rumens, Miles v Rumens and Rumens v Bennett from earlier columns.) My whole strategy was based on hindering an assault on my king. I was determined Rumens was going to have to pay a price for any attack. (As it turned out the cost was two pawns.)  1...Nf6 2.Nf3 g6 3.e3 Bg7 4.Be2 O-O 5.O-O c5 6.d3 d5 7.Qe1 b6 8.Qh4 Bb7 9.Nbd2 Nc6 10.Ne5 Nxe5 11.fxe5 Nd7 12.d4 e6 13.Qh3 Qe7 14.Nf3 f6 Once the pawn on e5 disappears White has few aggressive prospects. An important point is that preventing someone from attacking you does not necessarily mean defending or playing passively.  15.exf6 Bxf6 16.Bd2 a6 17.Rae1 e5 18.e4 cxd4 19.Bh6 dxe4 20.Ng5 d3 21.cxd3 Bxg5 22.Bxg5 Qxg5 23.Qxd7 exd3 24.Qxb7 dxe2 25.Qd5+ Kg7 26.Qb7+ Kh6 27.Rf3 Rxf3 28.Qxf3 Re8 29.Rxe2 e4 We each had about two minutes left at this stage to complete our 48 moves. Consequently the standard of play deteriorated somewhat!  30.Qh3+ ( If 30.Rxe4 Qc1+ 31.Kf2 Qxb2+ ) 30...Kg7 31.Rc2 e3 32.Qd7+ Re7 33.Qd4+ Kh6 34.Re2 Qe5 35.Qxb6 Qd5 36.Qb3 Qe4 37.h3 Qb1+ 38.Kh2 Qe4 39.Qc3









Moves are clickable

39...Kg5! That move took Rumens aback  40.Qc5+ Re5 41.Qf8 Qf4+ 42.Qxf4+ Kxf4 43.Kg1 Ke4 44.Kf1 Kd3 45.a4 h5 46.b4 h4 47.Ra2 Rd5 48.Ra3+ Ke4 Time control passed, order restored, real chess continues.  49.Ra1 Rf5+ 50.Kg1 ( Or 50.Ke1 Rf2 51.b5 axb5 52.a5 Rxg2 53.Kf1 Kf3 and with threats like  54.-- e2+ 55.Ke1 Rg1+ all roads lead to Rome ) 50...Kd4 51.Rb1 Kc4 52.b5 axb5 53.a5 Rumens always believes in active counterplay but in this instance it only makes Black's task easier.  53...b4 54.Rc1+ Kd3 55.a6 b3 56.Rc6 This loses out of hand.  56...e2 57.Rd6+ Kc2 58.Rc6+ Kb2 59.Re6 Rf1+ ( On 59...Rf1+ 60.Kh2 e1=Q wins the White rook ) 0-1


There was some comment when the only two bare-foot players in the tournament, Dave Patrick and I, went on stage to collect the trophy.



In 1974, a stir was caused in round two of the world championships when the program CHAOS (US) beat compatriot CHESS 4-0 with the first example of a positional piece sacrifice ever seen in computer chess.

CHAOS - CHESS - Computer Chess Champs 1974

1.d4 d5 2.c4 dxc4 3.Nf3 Nf6 4.e3 e6 5.Bxc4 c5 6.Qe2 a6 7.O-O b5 8.Bb3 Bb7 9.Rd1 Nbd7 10.Nc3 Bd6 11.e4 cxd4 12.Nxd4 Qb8 13.g3 b4 Both programs were out of the book now  14.Na4 Bxe4 15.f3 Bg6?









Moves are clickable

e5 is "book"  16.Nxe6! As in no way could CHAOS have analysed to move 24, this sacrifice must have been based on positional considerations only.  16...fxe6 17.Qxe6+ Be7 18.Re1 Qd8 19.Bf4 Threat: Bc7  19...Kf8 20.Rad1 Ra7 21.Rc1 Threatens 22. Rc8. But 21. Bd6 wins at once.  21...Ng8 22.Rcd1 a5 23.Bd6 Bxd6 24.Qxd6+ Ne7 25.Nc5 Bf5 26.g4 Qe8 27.Ba4 b3 28.gxf5 bxa2 29.Bxd7 a1=Q 30.Rxa1 Ra6 31.Nxa6 Qd8 32.Kf2 Not the most attacking move on the board!  32...Kf7 33.Qe6+ Kf8 34.Qxe7+ Qxe7 35.Rxe7 Kxe7 36.Nc5 Rb8 37.Rxa5 Rxb2+ 38.Kg3 CHAOS eventually won (the remaining moves were ->)   38...g6 39.fxg6 hxg6 40.Ra6 Rc2 41.Re6+ Kf8 42.Re5 Rc1 43.Rg5 Kf7 44.Be6+ Kf6 45.h4 Rxc5 46.Rxc5 Kxe6 47.Rg5 Kf6 48.Kg4 Kf7 49.Rc5 Ke6 50.Kg5 Kd6 51.Ra5 Kc6 52.f4 Kb6 53.Ra1 Kc5 54.Rd1 Kb4 55.Kxg6 Kc3 56.Rd8 Kb4 57.Rc8 Kb5 58.h5 Kb6 59.Rc1 Kb5 60.h6 Ka4 61.Rb1 Ka3 62.f5 Ka2 63.Rb8 Ka3 64.f6 Ka4 65.Rb7 Ka5 66.Rb8 Ka4 67.Rb1 Ka3 68.Rb7 Ka4 69.Rb8 Ka5 70.Kg7 Ka4 71.Rb7 Ka5 72.Rb2 Ka4 73.Rb8 Ka5 74.Kg8 Ka4 75.h7 Ka5 76.h8=Q Ka4 77.Qh4+ Ka5 78.Qb4+ Ka6 79.Qa4# 1-0