MARK RUBERY CHESS
Here is a chess trivia question for you: Which South African born chess player has beaten a World Champion? The answer is the 1983 SA Closed Champion Donald MacFarlane. Whilst playing in England’s strongest Open event of the time, he defeated a promising 16 year old from India in the following game.
Anand,V (2385) – MacFarlane,D [D42] Lloyds Bank op London, 1985
1.e4 c6 2.c4 d5 3.exd5 cxd5 4.d4 Nf6 5.Nc3 e6 6.Nf3 Be7 7.cxd5 Nxd5 8.Bd3 Nc6 9.0-0 0-0 10.Re1 Nf6 11.a3 b6 12.Bg5 Bb7 13.Bc2 Re8 14.Qd3 g6 15.Rad1 Nd5 16.Nxd5 Qxd5 17.Bb3 Qa5 18.d5!? (This looks dangerous for Black but MacFarlane is not without resources) … Bxg5 19.dxc6 Ba6 20.Bc4 Bxc4 21.Qxc4 Bf6 22.Re2?! (Losing momentum instead 22 Rd7! Bxb2 23 Red1 poses Black more problems) … Red8 23.Rxd8+ Rxd8 24.c7 Rc8 (Not 24 ... Rd1+ 25 Re1 Rxe1+ 26 Nxe1 Qxe1+ 27 Qf1 winning) 25.Rc2?! (The flashy 25 Rxe6?! is adequately met by … b5! 26 Qe2 Rxc7. 25 Qc1 with a complex position) … Qd5! (A strong centralizing move where White has the unenviable choice of giving ground or entering a difficult ending) 26.Qxd5 exd5 27.Kf1 Kf8 (And Black is already better as his bishop will dominate the knight) 28.Ke2 Ke7 29.Kd3 Kd7 30.Nd2 Rxc7 (With an extra pawn the South African shows a steady hand in converting the ending into a win) 31.Rxc7+ Kxc7 32.b3 Kd6 33.Nf1 b5 34.Ne3 Bb2 35.Nc2 a5 36.f3 Ke5 37.g3 g5 38.a4 bxa4 39.bxa4 Kd6 40.Ne3 Kc5 41.Kc2 Bd4 42.Nf5 Bg1 43.h3 Kb4 44.Nd6 f6 45.Ne8 Bd4 46.Kd3 Ba1 47.Nc7 Kxa4 48.Nxd5 Kb3 49.Ne3 a4 0-1
The next year the South African defeated the 15 year old Michael Adams convincingly and then in Fischeresque fashion left competitive chess returning only recently at the Four Nations Chess League in the UK.
The first chess column to establish itself was that of George Walker in Bells Life in 1834, which survived until 1873. From February 15, 1845 onwards it faced competition from Howard Staunton’s column in the Illustrated London News, a column that outlived Walker’s, but only by 5 years. During this time a chess column also appeared in the Pictorial Times lasting from February 1845 to June 1848. In 1882 Henry Bird in his Chess History and Reminiscences estimated that there were 150 chess columns. Less than thirty years later in 1913 Harold Murray in his History of Chess estimated there existed at least 1,000 chess columns worldwide.