CHESS MOVES The newsletter of the English Chess Federation | 6 issues per year | May/June 2015 John Nunn, Keith Arkell and Mick Stokes at the 15th European Senior Chess Championships - John with his Silver Medal and Keith with his Bronze for the Over 50s section IN THIS ISSUE - ECF News 2-4 Calendar 14-16 Tournament Round-Up 5-6 Supplement --- Junior Chess 6-8 Simon Williams S7 Euro Seniors 9-10 Readers’ Letters S36 National Club 10 Never Mind the GMs S44 Grand Prix 11-12 Home News S52-53 Book Reviews 13 1 ECF NEWS The Chess Trust The Chess Trust has now been approved by the Charity Commission as registered charity no. 1160881. This will be the charitable arm of the ECF with wide ranging charitable purposes to support the provision and development of chess within England. This is good news There is still work to be done to enable the Trust to become operational, which the trustees will address over the next few months. The initial trustees are Ray Edwards, Keith Richardson, Julian Farrand, Phil Ehr and David Eustace. Questions about the Trust can be raised on the ECF Forum at http://www.englishchess.org.uk/Forum/view- topic.php?f=4&t=261 FIDE – ECF meeting report FIDE President Kirsan Ilyumzhinov, ECF President Dominic Lawson and Russian Chess Federation President Andrei Filatov met in London on 11 March 2015. The other ECF participants were Chief Executive Phil Ehr and FIDE Delegate Malcolm Pein. The other FIDE participants were Assistant to the FIDE President Barik Balgabaev and Secretary of FIDE’s Chess in Schools Commission Sainbayar Tserendorj, who is also the founder and ECF Council member for the UK Chess Academy. Mr Filatov was in London to open his Art Russe exhibit at the Saatchi Gallery. Mutual congratulations were exchanged between Mr Lawson and Mr Ilyumzhinov on success in their respective presidential elections. Frank discussions about the 2014 FIDE election took place in a spirit of cooperation for the shared interest to develop chess. Issues included ECF’s continuing concern at the lack of advanced economy spon- sors for chess, the developments within FIDE which affect negatively efforts to attract them, the apparent waste of Mr Ilyumzhinov’s personal investment in chess since 1995, the effects of the AGON Memorandum (with Mr Ehr recommending financial transparency as the path to restoring public trust in FIDE’s long-term contract with AGON for the World Championship Cycle), the status of Mr Ilyumzhinov’s campaign pledges and the politicisation of international chess. Mr Ilyumzhinov’s clarified his pledge of $20 million, saying that it was to be spent through- out his term rather than to be deposited in FIDE account the very afternoon of the election as stated in his cam- paign speech. Mr Pein expressed dismay that Rex Sinquefeld’s pledge to support FIDE with $10 million if led by Kasparov’s team had been wrongly characterised. Mr Balgabaev gave assurances that a FIDE working group was progressing Mr Ilyumzhinov’s pledge of $500,000 for an Africa fund that Mr Ilyumzhinov, at the General Assembly, invited Nigel Short to direct. Mr Ilyumzhinov shared his plans for a children’s chess match between North and South Korean children along the Korean border and his plans to open a chess training academy in Ukraine. Mr Filatov, who was born in Ukraine, reviewed his and the RCF’s activity on behalf of Ukrainian children. Recognising the reality that chess, like other sports, can play a cultural role to ease geo-political tensions, it was agreed to explore the potential of a Russia-Ukraine-England match and a FIDE tournament in England. Mr Pein led a discussion about ways to energise chess through positive promotion of World Champion Magnus Carlsen, creative use of television (commending two Norwegian produc- tion companies) and a legal tip for FIDE’s plan to organise the next World Championship Match in the United States. The candid and cordial meeting ended with a commitment from Mr Ilyumzhinov to meet the ECF on his next visit to London. Chess business continued to feature on 12 March in a private viewing of The Legacy of WWII in Russian Art at the Saatchi Gallery. The Russian ambassador to the UK spoke about the importance of chess to Russian culture to an 2 audience that included venerable army veterans and many people sporting FIDE lapel pins! The ambassador noted with pleasure that the 2015 Women’s World Chess Championship was to begin on 15 March in Sochi. Several of Mr Ilyumzhinov’s London-based advisors and business associates exchanged ideas with Mr Ehr and ECF Non-executive Director John Foley whilst admiring an impressive array of iconic Russian art commemorating World War II. – Dominic Lawson, Phil Ehr, Malcolm Pein 2015 Yearbook erratum Please note – for the Devon County Chess Association — Congress Secretary and Treasurer: Alan Crickmore, 550 Budshead Road, Whitleigh, Plymouth PL5 4DG Tel: 01752 768206 Email: [email protected] Arbiters Course Matthew Carr, ECF Manager of Arbiters (Home), is organizing an Arbiters Course on Saturday 19th September – Sunday 20th September 2015. Registration costs £20. There will be an exam at the end of the course. You must be an ECF bronze member or higher to take the test. The venue is Ryecroft Community Hub in Walsall, West Midlands Lecturer – David Welch, ECF Chief Arbiter If you would like more information or to apply for the course please contact Matthew Carr on [email protected] or [email protected] Obituary – Colin Stamford Crouch Ph.D Colin Crouch died at home in Harrow in April 2015. He was 58, having been born in 1956 in Bushey, in Hertfordshire. He lived most of his life in Harrow and was a pupil at Haberdashers, once a chess power-house. He was a student first at Cambridge and then Durham Universities. He won the British Under 16 Championship in 1972 with 10.5/11! In 1974 he won the Under 18. Colin was a very experienced international master with a peak International Rating this century of 2448. There are nearly 1000 of his games on ChessBase dating back to 1973; he having joined Harrow Club in 1970. He was first internationally rated, at 2300, in 1977, but he was not awarded the International Master title until 1991. Much of his chess was played in England, although he was also active in Scotland and played some events elsewhere. He scored 7/9 in the Hastings Challengers of 1991-1992 including a very original win over Valeriy Neverov. This result qualified him to play in the Hastings Premier of 1992-3. He did not disgrace himself in a field that included Judit Polgar and Evgeny Bareev, scoring 3½/14 in this 8 powerful double round all-play-all. At the end of 2004 Colin had a stroke from which he never fully recovered. This left him with sight only in half of one eye. He decided to concentrate more on chess following that as he wanted to prove he had recovered his intellectual capacity and felt that the logic of chess lent itself more to that ambition. He continued to play against sighted players and last played international chess March 2014 in the 4NCL. His last tournament was the London Chess Classic Open of December 2013 where he scored 4½/9. He won the silver medal in 2008 in the IBCA Olympiad on board 1. He played Board 1 for England in the Chess Olympiad for the Blind of August 2012 where he scored 7½/9, although he gave up playing against blind players 3 as he didn’t find the opposition strong enough. Colin wrote 15 books on chess which have been well-received. The most recent is ‘Magnus Forces – How Carlsen beat Kasparov’s Record’. He learnt to use a computer for this purpose and after he became partially sighted, used the only type-face he could read. He also coached chess, particularly at Pinner Junior Chess Club. He designed a very spe- cialised Crouch Swiss Pairing System. It was used around 2000. It never caught on: peo- ple distrust anything new; it is heavily reliant on accurate ratings; the two top players may meet as early as round 2. Thus he was something of a polymath. His Ph.D thesis was on ‘Economic Geography of Recession in the UK; the early 1980s and historical perspective’. So much hap- pened in that period in England that it ended up as three very large A4 volumes and wasn’t completed until 1989. He was also politically active. He predicted the recent bust and also the breaking-up of the British two-party sys- tem. Our condolences to his family. – Stewart Reuben Obituary - Craig Woolcock It is with great sadness that I have to report the sudden death of Craig Woolcock at the all too young age of 42. I have known Craig for over 20 years and his warm, calm personality has enhanced many social occasions on the chess circuit. Craig was a very talented chess player who won many tournaments in England and Wales, frequently with the maximum score. He was a member of Barry Chess Club for 20years and will be sadly missed by his many friends and colleagues ... [picture by Brendan O’Gorman] - Colin Gardiner Three C’s Chess Club – ECF Club of the Year 2014 Award Almost a hundred parents, children and chess players, all part of the Three C’s Chess Club in Oldham, joined together to receive the ECF accolade of “Best Chess Club in England”.