Damian McCarthy's Warrington chess column - web exclusive (From Warrington Guardian)

Damian McCarthy's Warrington chess column - web exclusive

1:47pm Friday 18th December 2009

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THE largest chess tournament seen in the UK for 15 years got under way this week as eight of the world's top grandmasters gathered for the first ever London Chess classic.

The British number one Nigel Short represents our best chance of success.

Born locally in Leigh, as a junior Short played league chess at Warrington League club Atherton, and also attended the local league club Culcheth for a brief period.

Nigel Short is best remembered for his televised World Championship title match against Garry Kasparov held in 1993.

Despite Short's eventual defeat in this match, the achievement of becoming the number one contender for the World title remains a feat unequalled in the history of British chess.

Short has enjoyed something of a resurgence in his career of late, and has broken back into the top 30 chess ranked players in the world.

He will have his work cut out for him this week, however, as he faces a field including the hottest player in the world right now, 19-year-old Magnus Carlsen of Norway, whom is currently ranked the world number one and is being coached by none other then Short's old adversary Kasparov himself.

Former World Champion and world number four Vladimir Kramnik is also participating and will no doubt be a strong favourite along with Carlsen.

I will be travelling down to London this weekend to watch this event and shall bring back more details on this next week!

Returning to Warrington league chess this week, Nigel Short's two former clubs Atherton and Culcheth were in action against each other as they faced each other for the first time this season.

Culcheth have been setting the pace in division one so far this year however Atherton have always traditionally been one of the most successful teams of Warrington chess and would no doubt be keen to take this opportunity to close the gap at the top.

In the end, the match finished 3-3 leaving the points shared and Culcheth still clear at the top of Division One.

Perhaps the most interesting game of those played was that of Geoff Jones V Shaun Brogan which is our feature game below this week.

A final note, I was very sad to hear of the death of Peter Rathbone of Penketh chess club.

Peter was a stalwart of the Warrington Chess League for many years - playing initially for the Warrington chess club at the YMCA.

After the club moved to Penketh in 1977, he became tournament organiser and a regular member of their teams until failing health in the mid-1990's.

He continued for several years to play for the Warrington postal teams in the BCCL and still holds the record of the highest total points contributed for our CC teams.

Peter will be sadly missed by the Penketh club as well as by the wider chess community.

(109) JONES,Geoff v BROGAN, Shaun [A40]

CULCHETH V ATHERTON

1.d4 e6 2.c4 Bb4+ 3.Bd2 Bxd2+ 4.Qxd2 f5 5.e4

White gambits a pawn in order to try and achieve a lead in development. I must admit this move looks a little dubious to me. However white will now seek to prove that the slight gain of time involved in this will outweigh the loss of the pawn.

5...fxe4 6.Nc3 Nf6 7.f3 e3

Black returns the pawn in order to gain back the tempo he lost. Taking on f3 allows white to recapture with the Knight with gain of time.

8.Qxe3 b6 9.Bd3 Bb7 10.Nge2 Qe7 11.0–0 0–0 12.a3 a5

Black clamps down on white's kingside, stopping the potential space gaining move b4.

13.Rfd1 Nc6 14.Ne4 Nd8!?

An interesting move, black prepares to re-route this knight to the kingside and at the same time opens the h1–a8 diagonal for the bishop.

15.N2c3 Nf7 16.Nxf6+ Qxf6 17.c5 bxc5 18.dxc5 Ne5 19.Bf1 Bc6 20.b4??

The black pieces have arranged themselves beautifully and are now bearing down on the white king. White however has missed the potential of the black set-up unaware of the danger!

20...axb4 21.axb4 Rxa1 22.Rxa1 Nxf3+

The killer blow is finally delivered! Black could have played this move immediately however he first chose to exchange his only inactive piece the rook on a8.

23.gxf3 Qg6+ 24.Bg2 Rxf3 25.Qe1 Rxc3 26.Ra2 Rb3

and white resigns, he cannot defend against both Rb1 winning his queen and the potential checkmate on g2 should the rook move to defend the back rank. An excellent tactical display from Brogan!

0–1

Click below to see Damian's previous columns

December 4 November 26

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