Welcome to the
Celebration 83rd Hastings International Chess Congress. Once again,
we are all gathered here at the Horntye Park leisure centre, to see in new
English chess year, in the traditional fashion. The organisers of the world’s
greatest and most famous chess event naturally felt they should employ the
world’s greatest and most famous onsite chess reporter to cover the event.
Sadly, he was not available, so I got the job instead…
This year’s
Hastings Masters boasts a field of just over 100 players, including 16
Grandmasters and the same number of IMs. The leading seeds are Vadim Malakhatko
of The Ukraine, and Boris Chatalbashev of Bulgaria. The English challenge is
headed in rating terms by 20-year old Gawain Jones, who has had a spectacular
year in 2007, and is now firmly established as one of England's Olympiad side.
It is also very nice to welcome back two highly experienced, non-resident
British GMs, in Stuart Conquest and Glenn Flear. The former, of course, grew up
in Hastings, and so carries the hopes of many local supporters.
The use of
accelerated pairings meant that there were far fewer easy first-round games for
the top seeds than would usually be the case in a Swiss event. This was
confirmed on the top four demo boards, which produced a loss and three draws for
the favourites. The loss came on top board, where Malakhatko over-pressed
against the young German player Sebastian Bogner, and saw his advantage turned
completely on its head.
Malakhatko had spent the whole game trying to exploit Black's imprisoned bishop on b7, but now the worm turned, as Black struck back with the sacrifice 37... Rxd4! 38.exd4 e3 39.Rc2 Qxb4 Now White can draw by either 40 Re2 or 40 Qxb7, in both cases allowing perpetual check. Instead, the GM tried for more with 40.Qc7??, and after 40...Qe1+ 41.Kh2 exf2 42.Rxf2 Qxf2 43.Rxb7 Qg3+ 44.Qxg3+ hxg3+ 45.Kxg3 Rd8 was facing a lost rook and pawn ending, which he was unable to hold.
Richard Bates very nearly downed the second seed, but at the very end of the session, was unable to convert a two-pawn advantage in the endgame, with only increment time remaining on his clock. Jones's choice of 1 Nf3 Nc6!? failed to ruffle Simon Knott, who held a solid draw, but there were smooth wins for Mark Hebden and Stuart Conquest. The most entertaining game of the day was Jack Rudd's chaotic attacking effort against Tahirov:
Rudd,Jack (2332) - Tahirov,Farhad (2540) [B07]
Hastings Masters (1.8), 28.12.2007
1.e4 c6 2.d4 d6 3.f4 Nf6 4.Bd3 e5 5.Nf3 Nbd7 6.0–0 exd4 7.Nxd4 Nc5 8.Nc3 Qb6 9.Kh1 Bg4 10.Be2 Be6 11.e5 dxe5 12.fxe5 Nfd7 13.Nxe6 fxe6 14.Bg5 Qc7 15.b4 Qxe5
Black's highly ambitious opening has been a disaster, and now the simple 16 Qd2 would have left his position virtually resignable. Instead, Rudd played the second-best (but still very strong) 16.Bh5+ g6 17.Qg4?! 17 Qd2 was still good enough. 17...Be7 18.Bxe7 Kxe7 19.bxc5 Raf8 20.Qh4+ Nf6 21.Rab1 b5 22.cxb6! Qxc3 23.bxa7 gxh5 Now simply 24 a8(Q) wins a piece on f6, but Rudd, playing at his usual breakneck speed, chose 24.Rb7+? Kd6 25.Rd1+? Now 25 Qf4+ e5 (25...Kc5 26 Rb8) 26 Qh6 was stronger. Nd5 26.Qe7+ Ke5 27.Qg7+ Ke4 and, with his flag tottering, Black had somehow crawled out.
Play stumbled on as follows: 28.Qg5 Rhg8 29.Qxh5 Ne3 30.Qxh7+ Ke5 31.Rb3? Nxd1! The move Rudd had missed. 32.Qh5+ Rf5 33.Qe2+ Kf6 34.Rxc3 Nxc3 35.Qe1 Nb5 and Black eventually rounded up the a-pawn and won. 36.Qh4+ Ke5 37.g4 Rf4 38.h3 Rf7 39.Qg3+ Kd5 40.Qb8 Rff8 41.Qb6 Nd6 42.Kg2 Ra8 43.Qc7 Rgf8 44.Qd7 e5 45.g5 e4 46.g6 e3 47.c4+ Kc5 48.g7 Rfe8 49.Kf1 e2+ 50.Ke1 Rad8 51.a8Q Rxa8 52.g8Q Rxg8 53.Kxe2 Rxa2+ 54.Kf3 Rf8+ 0–1 A tragic loss for Rudd, and a very lucky escape for Tahirov.
Of course, modern chess is all about opening theory. The morning Christmas Special tournament saw a brave attempt to improve the theory of the Slav Defence. After the moves 1 d4 d5 2 c4 c6 3 Nc3, the Black player produced the fascinating innovation 3...Bb4!!??!, doubtless a laudable attempt to accelerate his piece development by dispensing with "superfluous" pawn moves. His opponent failed to find the refutation of this ingenious TN, and it was only some 4-5 moves later that one of the Masters' players looked at the board, and noticed that Black had somehow developed his bishop from f8, without moving either the e7 or g7 pawns. Quite correctly, the spectator pointed this out to the arbiter, who, in the finest traditions of spoilsport officialdom, told the players that they had to return to move three and start again. Another new opening wrinkle bites the dust...