Chess is coming home – to Chester-le-Street
THE FIFA World Cup this year didn’t just inspire footie fans, it also got North East chess players thinking: ‘If football is coming home, maybe chess can, too. County Durham team West Auckland won the first World Cup trophy in 1909, so why can’t the North East host a Chess World Cup?’
With such typical bravado, the event was organised at the Park View Community Association in Chester-le-Street last weekend. It attracted a very strong field – and produced some surprising results.
Interestingly, it was graced by two of the North East’s all-time greats: the legendary David Mooney, of Sunderland, who beat allcomers in North East tournaments in the ’80s and ’90s, but has been in virtual retirement from the chess scene for 20 years, and Graeme Oswald, of Durham, who last played over-theboard in the British Championship in 2012, when it was held in North Shields.
To say both these fantastic players haven’t played at all in recent decades isn’t true, however. For many chess players, work and family often don’t leave time for lengthy over-theboard tournaments, so they have been keeping themselves in fighting trim by playing on the internet.
‘So, what’s the Chess World Cup?’ you may ask. It’s based on the idea of qualifying groups of four, where each player plays the others once. This meant three games on Saturday, rather than the traditional two. Then on Sunday, players went through to more traditional Swiss tournaments, where they played another three games. (Unlike the football World Cup, no one got knocked out – they just played people on the same score as themselves.)
It’s fair to say this experimental system took a bit of getting used to – but it seemed to be enjoyed by the vast majority of players.
Also in the tournament was young chess prodigy Yichen Han, of Forest Hall Chess Club. Earlier this month, we reported that Yichen won the British Under-11 and Under12 titles in Hull, and since then he has also beaten English Grandmaster Mark Hebden – an amazing result for a 10-year-old!
The Saturday groups produced some fairly predictable winners: David Mooney, Graeme Oswald, Yichen Han and Forest Hall’s Tim Wall all went through victorious, while other qualifiers included Mick Riding of Gosforth, Collin Smith of Peterlee, and Peter Wells of Gateshead.
On Sunday, in the A Group, Yichen upset the grading form book by beating Tim Wall handsomely, but then was himself beaten by Graeme Oswald in a thrilling last-round finish. Tim produced a strong attack to overcome David Mooney in the final game to join Yichen Han and Graeme Oswald for a three-way tie for first place on 5/6. Ray Wynarczyk of South Shields came 4th with 4.5, while David Mooney finished with a very respectable 3.5 (after having taken a half-point bye on Sunday morning).
Sunday’s B Group also saw some excellent performances. Newcomer Raj Mohindra finished in first place with a score of 4, ahead of Paul Bielby (South Shields) on 3.5. On 3 points, in equal third place, were Stan Johnson (also South Shields) and 11-year-old Alex Rudzenis of Forest Hall Juniors (who scored 3/3 on Sunday after winning an under-14 tournament with an impressive 7/7 in the same venue on Saturday).
Game of the Week
As well as our usual puzzles, here are the moves of one of the decisive games from Chester-le-Street, in which Tim Wall and David Mooney resumed their (very friendly) rivalry from 25 years ago! After a slow start, Tim’s pieces gradually take up menacing positions, and he breaks through David’s central defences with a devastating knight jump.
Chester-le-Street World Cup Round 6 White: Tim Wall Black: David Mooney
1.b3 d5 2.Bb2 Nf6 3.e3 g6 4.c4 c6 5.Nf3 Bg7 6.Be2 O-O 7.O-O Bg4 8.d3 Nbd7 9.Nbd2 e6 10.h3 Bxf3 11.Nxf3 a5 12.Qc2 Re8 13.cxd5 exd5 14.Rac1 Qe7 15.a3 Qd6 16.Rfd1 Bh6 17.Bf1 Qe7 18.Re1 Bg7 19.Qb1 Nf8 20.e4 dxe4 21.dxe4 Nh5 22.Bc4 Ne6 23.Bxg7 Kxg7 24.Qb2+ Kg8 25.Nh2 Nf6 26.e5 Nh5 27.Ng4 Qg5 28.Rcd1 Rad8 29.Rd6 Kh8 30.g3 Kg7 31.Kh2 Kf8 32. Red1 Ke7 33.Bxe6 fxe6 34.Nf6 Rxd6 35.exd6+ Kf7 36.Nxe8 Kxe8 37.d7+ Kd8 38.Qh8+ 1-0 (Black resigns)
■ This week’s puzzles both feature one of the most spectacular tactics in chess – the Smothered Mate.