British Championships: Two GM with perfect scores

by ChessBase
8/2/2013 – After four rounds in the beautiful Torquay venue, GMs David Howell, and Stephen Gordon are in the lead with 4.0/4 points each. Four players follow half a point behind. We bring you a selection of interesting games to watch, plus a round three Game of the Day video lecture by Andrew Martin. An an historical review of the 1926 British Championship in Edinburgh, which was won by Fred Dewhirst Yates.

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A record-breaking number of over 1000 players are taking part in the 2013 British Championships, attracted by a combination of the beautiful venue and the fact that it’s the 100th in a series stretching right back to 1904. This year it is taking place in the Riviera International Centre in Torquay.

Use scroll bar to view the entire Riviera Centre venu

There are 23 different sections at the 2013 British Championships, catering for all ages and abilities, but the main focus of interest is on the Championship itself. There are 106 players taking part, of whom 33 are titled players, including thirteen grandmasters. The Championship runs from 29th July to 10th August 2013.

We brough you the results and pairings of round three in our previous report. Here now are selected games and Andrew Martin's video commentary of the Game of the Day.

Selection of games from round three

Select games from the dropdown menu above the board

Game of the Day Round three GB Ch 2013

GM David Howell, rated 2639, vs IM Yang-Fan Zhou, 2469: 1-0 in 73 moves!

GM Stephen Gordon, 2521, vs IM Daniel Howard Fernandez, 2346: 1-0 in 49

GM Daniel Gormally, 2496, vs GM Anthony Kosten, 2458: 0-1 in 21 moves

You will want to run through the moves of this games on our Javascript player:

[Event "100th ch-GBR 2013"] [Site "Torquay ENG"] [Date "2013.08.01"] [Round "4.3"] [White "Gormally, Daniel W"] [Black "Kosten, Anthony C"] [Result "0-1"] [ECO "A46"] [WhiteElo "2496"] [BlackElo "2458"] [PlyCount "42"] [EventDate "2013.07.29"] 1. d4 Nf6 2. Nf3 e6 3. g3 d5 4. c4 Bb4+ 5. Nc3 dxc4 6. Bg2 Nc6 7. O-O O-O 8. Re1 Rb8 9. e4 b5 10. e5 Nd5 11. Ng5 h6 12. Nge4 Be7 13. Qh5 Nxd4 14. Bxh6 gxh6 15. Rad1 c5 16. Rxd4 cxd4 17. Qxh6 Re8 18. Nd6 Bf8 19. Qh5 Bxd6 20. Re4 Bxe5 21. Rxe5 dxc3 0-1

IM Richard Palliser, 2453, vs GM Mark Hebden, 2555: 0-1 in 40 moves

Top 25 ranking after round four

Rnk Name
Score
Rating
TPR W-We
1 GM Howell, David
4.0
2639
3090 +0.69
2 GM Gordon, Stephen
4.0
2521
3010 +0.84
3 GM Hebden, Mark L
3.5
2555
2611 +0.23
4 GM Wells, Peter K
3.5
2479
2527 +0.14
5 IM Ghasi, Ameet K
3.5
2459
2547 +0.31
6 GM Kosten, Anthony.
3.5
2458
2557 +0.43
7 IM Hawkins, Jonathan
3.0
2517
2420 -0.36
8 GM Gormally, Daniel
3.0
2496
2481 +0.02
9 GM Lalic, Bogdan
3.0
2489
2392 -0.36
10 GM Williams, Simon
3.0
2481
2410 -0.25
11 IM Zhou, Yang-Fan
3.0
2469
2506 +0.28
12 IM Lane, Gary W.
3.0
2401
2441 +0.26
13 IM Bates, Richard A
3.0
2375
2283 -0.36
14 FM Eggleston, David
3.0
2363
2356 +0.10
15 IM Fernandez, Daniel
3.0
2346
2487 +0.78
16 FM Chapman, Terry
3.0
2308
2430 +0.75
17 IM Kolbus, Dietmar
3.0
2288
2510 +1.13
18 IM Rudd, Jack
3.0
2280
2376 +0.50
19 Mackle, Dominic
3.0
2216
2393 +0.87
20 Weaving, Richard
3.0
2196
2417 +1.11
21 GM Jones, Gawain
2.5
2643
2363 -1.12
22 IM Palliser, Richard
2.5
2453
2385 -0.18
23 GM Arkell, Keith C
2.5
2444
2317 -0.55
24 GM Ward, Chris G
2.5
2432
2380 -0.17
25 IM Knott, Simon J B
2.5
2318
2234 -0.32

Relaxing in the beautiful Torquay setting of the British Championship 2013

The English Riviera Wheel, which takes you 60m hight over Torquay

Photos provided by Brendan O'Gorman and Keverel Chess


To really appreciate how far the event has come in its 100 years, one needs to take the opportunity to look back at some of the milestones on the way – the great characters, the champions and their games. To do this, IM Andrew Martin is using his computer skills to pick out some key games from the past and run his expert eye over them. Similarly, Bob Jones, local chess history writer, is compiling a set of ten pages, each on a past champion and one of his/her games. These will appear, one at a time, in the daily championship bulletins.

British Champions & Their Games - No. 3

1926 – Edinburgh

Just as Atkins’ promotion to college principal forced him into a long withdrawal from tournament chess, his mantle alighted on a Yorkshire trainee accountant. However, unlike Napier and Atkins, Fred Dewhirst Yates [Note: the well-known British author Leonard Barden informed us that is the correct name, while the popular rendering as “Frederick Dewhurst Yates” is erroneous] forsook formal training to become a chess professional. In international tournaments he tended to beat the best players but lose to the back-markers, which often kept him out of the prizelists. Two tournament wins and four draws against Alekhine speaks for itself, and there were many others who felt the sharp edge of his combinative sword; Reti (4), Bogoljubov & Tartakower (3 each).

Yates (above) won the British Championship six times, in 1913 (Cheltenham), 1914 (Chester), 1921 (Malvern), 1926, 1928 (Tenby) and 1931 (Worcester). The fact that Atkins, in a short return to the event in 1924 & ’25, regained his title including two head-to-head wins against Yates, points up the unfulfilled potential Atkins always had.

It is well-known that he died of carbon monoxide poisoning in his Bloomsbury lodgings at the age of 48. His best games collection was unfinished and completed by W. Winter under the original title 101 Of My Best Games of Chess.

Andrew Rowland Benedick Thomas (right) had much in common with Atkins; maths teacher, pianist, vacation chess-player, and inevitably his chess suffered as a consequence. This was his first tilt at the event, and he went on to amass 113 points in the British Championship over the years. A much fuller biography may be found here.

 

[Event "British Championship Edinburgh"] [Site "?"] [Date "1926.07.19"] [Round "?"] [White "Yates, F. D.."] [Black "Thomas, A. R. B. ."] [Result "1-0"] [ECO "C48"] [Annotator "Jones,Bob"] [PlyCount "42"] [EventDate "2013.07.15"] [SourceDate "2013.07.17"] 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nf6 3. Nc3 {Yates was not fond of playing against the Petroff Defence and almost invariably adoted this move in his tournament practice.} Nc6 4. Bb5 Bc5 $2 {an inferior defence. Either the usual} (4... Bb4 {or Rubinstein's}) (4... Nd4 {are preferable.}) 5. O-O O-O ({Or} 5... d6 6. d4 exd4 7. Nxd4 Bd7 8. Nf5 Bxf5 9. exf5 O-O 10. Bg5 {is also favourable to White.}) 6. Nxe5 Re8 7. Nf3 Nxe4 8. d4 Nxc3 9. bxc3 Bf8 10. Bg5 $1 Be7 (10... f6 {seems slightly better.}) 11. Bf4 Bf6 12. Qd2 a6 13. Bd3 d6 14. Rae1 Ne7 $2 ({This loses quickly.} 14... Be6 {should have been played.}) 15. Bg5 $1 Bxg5 16. Qxg5 Bd7 17. Qh5 f5 ({If} 17... h6 18. Ng5 hxg5 19. Qh7+ Kf8 20. Qh8+ Ng8 21. Bh7 { with mate to follow.}) ({or} 17... g6 18. Qh6 f6 {to prevent Ng5} 19. Nh4 { followed by Re3 oe Nxg6 leavesd Black helpless.}) 18. Ng5 h6 19. Qf7+ Kh8 20. Ne6 Bxe6 21. Rxe6 {A remarkable position. Although the forces are level, Black has no moves left. White threatens Rfe1 winning the N and if} Ng8 {or} (21... Nc6 22. Qxf5 {forces mate in a few moves.}) 1-0


Links

The games are being broadcast live on the official web site and on the chess server Playchess.com. If you are not a member you can download a free Playchess client there and get immediate access. You can also use ChessBase 12 or any of our Fritz compatible chess programs.


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