Brits Blown Away

FM Steve Giddins reports on round 6 of the Hastings Masters

The sixth round of the 2010/11 Hastings Masters was not a great day for the Brits. The top four boards saw four British players facing four foreign players, but despite having White in three of the games, the net British takings were just half a point. Even that came in rather controversial and disappointing fashion, as Gormally-Istratescu ended in a repetition after just eight (!) moves. On top board, David Howell's impressive run of wins came to an end, as he lost rather a feeble game against rating top seed Edouard. Howell departed from his usual 1.e4 in favour of the d-pawn, but seemed unfamiliar with the resulting Benoni position. A queenside pawn push only resulted in weaknesses and the loss of the initiative, and in time-trouble, the Black passed c-pawn was suddenly queening.

Hastings Masters (6.1), 02.01.2011

19 b4?! This leads to a weakening of the kingside structure. 19...Bxf4 20 gxf4 Qf6 21 Rb1 cxb4 22 Rxb4 Rac8 Black already has a firm initiative, and with time-trouble approaching, David collapses rather quickly. 23 a5 b5 24 a6 Rc4 25 Rxc4 bxc4 26 Kh2 Bb5 27 Ra5? c3 28 Qe3 c2

29 Rxb5? Qa1 0–1 Not a good day at the office for Howell.

Mark Hebden was another who had a day to forget.

Hastings Masters (6.3), 02.01.2011

Mark's favourite "Barry System" has not yielded a very impressive position, and now the Indian IM struck with the combination 19...Rxe3! 20 Rxe3 Re8 and White is already pretty much busted. Hebden tried 21 Re1 Rxe3 22 Qxe3 Bxe3+ 23 Rxe3 but could not hold the ending. 23...g5 24 Kb2 h5 25 h3 f4 26 Re5 Qxf3 27 Rxg5+ Kf7 28 h4 b4 29 Rf5+ Kg6 30 Rg5+ Kf6 31 Ba7 Qc3+ 32 Kb1 Qe1+ 33 Kb2 Qxh4 34 Rxa5 f3 35 Ra6+ Kf7 36 Bc5 f2 37 Ra8 Qh3 0–1

To complete the British disaster, Richard Bates lost the exchange against the young Indian player Prasanna and was ground down. This leaves the 16-year old Indian talent in joint first on 5/6. Kotronias won his third straight game to move within half a point of the leaders, whilst on board 6, young Ryan Rhys Griffiths held Neverov to a solid draw. Thomas Rendle provided some British cheer, by ending the fine run of the Indonesian lady, Chkartina.

There were few publishable games at the top, and overall, yesterday's round was more characterised by blunders than brilliancies. There were certainly one or two corking examples of the former, so I will cheer you up with a bit of Monday morning schadenfreude. I will spare the players' blushes by withholding names, although my nasty streak compels to point out that you can always identifying the culprits, by searching for the positions amongst the complete round 6 PGN file, which is available on the official website!

11...g6?? 12.Qxf6 1-0

9...b5?? 10 Bd5 Nxd5 11 Qxd5 1-0

18 Bh3?? Bxf2+! 19 Kxf2 Nb6 0-1

17...Raf5?? 18 g4 d5 19 Qxf5 1-0

After two-thirds of the tournament, four players share the lead on 5/6: Edouard, Prasanna, Shyam and Howell. Thy are followed at half a point's distance by Istratescu, Rendle, Kotronias and Gormally. Amongst the 4-point group, mention should be made of Adam Ashton, Jovica Radovanovic and, especially, Gunnar Berg Hanssen of Norway, who is rated just 2218.

One of the nice things about Hastings is the respect and affection it inspires amongst many of our foreign visitors. This year, they include Russian IM, Sergey Salov. Remarkably enough, I once played Sergey in a rapidplay tournament in Moscow, held at the famous Moscow Central Chess Club in 1992! Understandably, Sergey had long forgotten about that, when he approached me a few days ago, asking about any local museums or other sources, where he could see photos and memorabilia from the 1895 edition and other past Hastings tournaments. I was delighted to be able to point him in the direction of both the Hastings Museum, and also the splendid Hastings & St Leonards Chess Club, which has a wealth of photographs from past years.

Yesterday, Sergey won a very nice game against Roger de Coverly, which he has volunteered to annotate for the bulletin, together with a unique dedication. I therefore hand you over to Sergey:, to take up the story:

Notes by International Master Sergey Salov

I should like to dedicate the following game to the memory of Harry Golombek. Many years ago, in 1963, I had the pleasure of meeting Golombek, when he came to Moscow, to act as one of the arbiters at the world championship match between Mikhail Botvinnik and Tigran Petrosian. The Swedish Grandmaster, Gideon Stahlberg, was the other arbiter. I was present as a 16-year old demonstration board operator. Harry Golombek impressed me as a very interesting and friendly man, but also a strict arbiter, who paid great attention to detail. 

Hastings Masters 2010/11 (6), 02.01.2011

1 Nf3 c5 2 g3 Nc6 3 d4 cxd4 4 Nxd4 Qb6 5 Nxc6 Qxc6 6 f3 e6 7 e4 [7 Bg2 Bc5 8 e3 Nf6 9 0–0 d5 10 c3 0–0 11 Kh1 e5 12 Qe2 a5 13 Nd2 b5 14 b3 a4µ Bertram, A - Shulmann, Y, USA, 2001; 0:1, 21] 7 ..Nf6 8 Nc3 Bb4 9 Bd2 0–0 10 Bd3 [10 e5 Ne8! 11 Ne4 Be7 12 Bg2 f6 13 f4 Kh8 14 0–0 Qb6+] 10 ..d5

11 0–0 [11 e5 Nd7 12 Qe2 f6 13 exf6 Nxf6 14 0–0 Bd6] 11 ..dxe4 12 fxe4 e5 13 Qf3 Bh3 14 Rfe1 Bc5+ 15 Kh1 Ng4 16 Nd1 [16 Re2 f5 17 Nd5 Kh8 18 exf5 Nf2+µ] 16 ..Rad8 17 Ne3

17...f5! 18 Bc4+ Kh8 19 Bd5 fxe4 20 Qxf8+ Bxf8 21 Bxc6 Nf2+ 22 Kg1 Rxd2 23 Bxb7 [23 Nc4 Rxc2 24 Bxe4 Nxe4 25 Rxe4 Bc5+ 26 Ne3 Re2 27 Rd1 h6 28 Rd3 Bd4!!] 23 ..Bc5 24 b4 Bb6 25 Nc4

 25...Ng4+ 26 Nxb6 Rg2+ 0–1