C h il l in g h a m A r m s , N e w c a s t l e U p o n T y n e . 28th A u g u s t September 1996 Annotations by •. Tim Wall, Leon Pliester, and the players CHESSBASE OPERATOR: MARK HOUL5BY EDITOR 1ST NORTHUMBRIAN MASTERS The Chillingham, Newcastle upon Tyne 28 August - 1 September 1996 After the successful all-play-alls and Scheveningen team events held in Newcastle over the past year, I felt it was time to hold a bigger Swiss event which aimed to give opportunities to a broader group of players. Not knowing quite what sort of response to expect, I was very pleased when we attracted 40 players from 8 different countries, including International Masters Leon Pliester (Netherlands), Steffen Pedersen (Denmark), Douglas Bryson and Jonathan Rowson (Scotland), Graeme Buckley and Andrew Whiteley (England) as well as English IM Elect Simon Ansell. In the end, out of the various contenders, two players stood out by their consistency and professional approach: Leon Pliester, in contrast to some of the other faltering IMs, kept himself at the top of the table and didn't look back. From the moment he arrived at Newcastle Airport and took out his laptop, Leon was a picture of concentration throughout, clearly relishing the challenge and getting a well-deserved tournament victory. In second place was young Londoner Danny Gormally (19), registering his first IM norm (with half a point to spare!), who demonstrated quick thinking and alevel-headed approach that augurs well for the future. Other notable performances were achieved by John Shaw (Scotland),Gavin Wall and James Cobb (both England) who all narrowly missed EM norms. I understand that John has come very close once or twice before, so like Robert the Bruce and his spider. I'm sure he’ll succeed in the end! Juniors also did well, with FM Karl Mah finishing 3rd equal and some very young players making bold progress in the world of International chess: Kanwal Bhatia (Newcastle) aged 15, completed a full International rating of 2024; Martyn Jones (Durham) aged 11, made a part rating of 2100; Tania Sachdev (New Delhi, India) aged 10, made a part rating of 2060; and Gawain Jones (York) aged 8 (!), scored 2/9 in his first ever International event. Flying the flag for the North-East on 5/9 were Charlie Storey (Newcastle) and Chris Ray (Cramlington) with very good performances, Charlie defeating top seed Jonathan Rowson in an exciting battle. As for yours truly... ? Well, I must confess that I’m not really "Wonderwall" and I did find the pressure of trying to play and organise a bit too much this time, but I still enjoyed the chess and the friendly atmostphere as always. A lot of good work by several people is always needed if any event is going to run smoothly and this tournament was no exception. In particular, the Arbiting team of Simon GiUam and Lara Barnes were exceptional, with Lara also putting in many hours at the computer, sending out invitations, preparing for the tournament, printing out results and inputting games. Simon even helped out by playing a game in the tournament, thereby making it possible for "KC’Joshi to complete his full rating. We were helped by the computer expertise of Mark Houlsby (Games Editor) and John Tumock (Computerised Pairings Mastermind) who enabled us to understand the workings of "Protos" and produce fast, accurate pairings in time for the next round. Working behind the scenes to make sure that things happened was our Treasurer, Nigel Johnson, helping me to stay on budget and guiding me through the maze of forecasting and cashflow problems. I would also like to thank the following people for their support: The British Chess Federation The Friends of Chess Chess Events Limited Northumberland Chess Association Durham County Chess Association Tynebridge Office Equipment Bill Penny, Clive Waters, Lara Barnes, Stefan Hartman, Mark Houlsby, Dave Ledger and Jonathan King for being such generous hosts to visiting players -and- (last but not least!) The staff at the Chillingham Arms for their warm welcome! We hope to run the 2nd Northumbrian Masters at the same time next year (9 rounds in 6 days, in the last week of August) with maybe a new Tournament Director (if I am otherwise engaged!) Till then, happy hacking and best wishes! Tim Wall Tournament Director September 1996 (Many apologies for the late appearance of the bulletin. This was due to technical problems with computer disks, but happily GM Julian Hodgson came to the rescue to supply a back-up copy when all else failed! Many thanks, Jules and Lizette ...!) 1st Northumbrian Masters 2 A96 B08 23.Re1 Kf7 24.Kc2 c6 25.Kd3 g5 □ Ledger, D.J. □ Ray,C. 26.hg6+ Ng6 27.Re8 Nf4+ 28.Ke3 ■ Williams,S. ■ Young,J.J. Ng2+ 29.Kf3 Ke8 30.Kg2 Kf7 31.Kg3 1st Northumbrian Masters (1) 1996 1st Northumbrian Masters (1) 1996 Kf6 32.f4 c5 33.Kh4 Kg6 34.Kg3 c4 35.Kh4 b5 36.a3 l.d4 e6 2.c4 f5 3.g3 Nf6 4.Bg2 Be7 1.e4 d6 2.d4 g6 3.Nc3 Bg7 4.Be3 lA-'A 5 Nf3 d6 6.0-0 0-0 7.Nc3 a5 8.Qc2 Nf6 5.Nf3 0-0 6.Qd2 Bg4 7.Ng5 e5 Nc6 9.e4 e5 10.de5 de5 11.Rd1 Qe8 8.de5 de5 9.Qd8 Rd8 10.Bc4 Rd7 12.Nb5 Qh5 13.h3 fe4 14.Ng5 Nb4 11.h3 h6 12.Nf7 D97 □ Pedersen,S. ■ GormallyJO. 1st Northumbrian Masters (1) 1996 l.d4 Nf6 2.c4 g6 3.Nc3 d5 4.Nf3 Bg7 5.Qb3 dc4 6.Qc4 0-0 7.e4 Na6 8.Be2 c5 9.d5 e6 10.0-0 ed5 11.ed5 Bf5 12.Rd1 Nd7 13.Bg5 Ne5 14.Qf4 Qd6 15.Nb5 Nf3+ 16.Qf3 Qe5 17.Rd2 Nb4 18.Bf4 Qf6 19.Nd6 h5 20.Nf5 Qf5 21 B e3 Qf3 22.Bf3 c4 23.Bc5 c3 15.Qa4 h6 16.Ne4 Ne4 17.Be4 Bc5 b5 13.Nb5 Rdl+ 18.Be3 Be3 19.fe3 Qh3 20.Bg2 Qg3 1-0 21 Kh1 Rf2 22.Nc7 Qg2# Dave must have thought: why prolong the agony? 0-1 COO □ Sachdev,T. ■ McMlchael,R. A20 1st Northumbrian Masters (1) 1996 □ Jones, G. ■ Campbell, E.S. l.e4 e6 2.d3 d5 3.Nd2 Nf6 4.Ngf3 1st Northumbrian Masters (1) 1996 Be7 5.g3 b6 Black delays 0-0 because he suddenly recognises a position familiar l.c4 g6 2.g3 Bg7 3.Bg2 e5 4.Nc3 d6 to him, but from White's point-of-view. 24.Bf8 Rf8 25.bc3 Bc3 26.Rad1 Bd2 5.Nf3 f5 6.d3 Nf6 7.0-0 0-0 8.Bg5 (I.b3 often leads to this kind of position.) 27.Rd2 b6 28.h3 Rd8 29.d6 Na6 Nbd7 9.Qd2 c6 10.Rfe1 Rf7 11.a3 6.Bg2 Bb7 7.e5 Nfd7 8.0-0 c5 9.Re1 30.Re2 Qf8 12.b4 h6 13.Bf6 Nf6 14.h4 Be6 Nc6 10.Nf1 Usual but effective, 'A-'A 15.c5 e4 16.Nh2 dc5 17.bc5 Qc5 especially if Black ca3tles short This £) oft 18.de4 fe4 19.Rac1 Qa3 20.Ne4 Kh7 en finds a good home on g4. Qc7 11 .Bf4 21.Nc5 Bc8 22.Nf3 Nd5 23.Ne4 Bf5 h6 12.h4 0 -0 -0 ...going for it! Black A80 plans to open O g & » h . 13.Ne3 [A£)d5] □ OkosiemeJ. Nf8 14.h5 g5 15.hg6 Ng6+ ■ Bhatia,K.S. [A h5-h4; Xe5] 16.C3 hS 17.Ng5? 1st Northumbrian Masters (1) 1996 Giving up a &, but the White position looks somewhat uncomfortable in any 1.d4 f5 2.Bg5 Nf6 3.e3 c6 4.Nd2 d5 case. Nf4 18.gf4 Bg5 19.fg5 Ne5 5.Ngf3 Be6 6.Ne5 Nbd7 7.Ndf3 g6 20.d4 Ng6 21.Q13 Nh4? 8.c3 Ne4 9.Bf4 Bg7 10.Bd3 Ndf6 [Q 21...1dg8->] 22.Qg3 Qg3 23.fg3 11.h4 Qc8 12.Qe2 Ng4 13.Ng4 fg4 Ng2 24.Ng2 Rhg8 25.Re5 Rg7 14.Ne5 Rf8 15.f3 gf3 16.gf3 Rf4 26.Nf4 Rdg8 27.g6! Black missed this 17.fe4 Rf8 18.ed5 Be5 19.de6 Bg3+ move when he swapped ®s. White's pieces 20.Kd1 Qe6 21.Qd2 Rf2 22.Be2 become very active. fg6 28.Re6 Rf8 0 -0-0 23.Qd3 c5 24.h5 Qc6 25.e4 29.Rd1 Rf5 30.Rde1 h4 31.Rg6 Rg6 cd4 "Fe Fi Fo Fum!" roared the Scottish giant 32.Ng6 Rg5 33.Nh4 Rg3+ 34.Kf2 to our plucky little hero. " I smell the bloo Rg4 35.Nf3 a5 36.Re7 Ba6 37.Re5 d of an Englishman!" Bb7 38.Re7± It’s hard for White to find a Suddenly the room was silent until a plan. Black went astray with 21...£lh4 Knight whizzed through the air and little when continuing the attack was a much Gawain cried "Check!" more promising alternative. "Oops!" cursed big Eoin under his breath. 'A~'A "Another blooming McShane/Macaulay Culkin/ child megastar - don't you just love'em!" A80 24.Neg5+! hg5 25.Ng5+ Kg8 26.Nf7 □ Jones, M. Bc3 27.Nh6+ Kh7 28.Qg5 Be1 ■ King,J. 29.Nf5 gf5 30.Qf5+ Kg7 31.Re1 Qe7 1st Northumbrian Masters (1) 1996 32.Bd5 cd5 33.Qd5 a5 34.Rb1 Rc8 26.Qg3 dc3+ 27.Ke1 Re2+ 28.Ke2 35.Rb7 Rc7 36.Qd4+ Kh7 37.Qd3+ I.