3rd World School Championships - Round 3

By What Tent Hum?

Monday… or is it Tuesday? Whatever, it is a work day. But not for us Assorted Hangers On, the hardest work today is going to be stone skimming across the dead calm sea. No one is in double digit bounces yet, but a whole rule set is beginning to be formed. The most contentious decision yet to be taken is whether to open the competition to man made 'stones' (or 'bouncers' as they are technically known). Looney Toot and yours truly have spent the morning assessing the merits of all the bouncers they can see on the beach, and the conclusion is that man-made ones have an unfair advantage. Still, the jury is out. But this is how new future Olympic events are created, and now there is even an indoor version being developed albeit no one else should be using the pool at the time. Remember, you saw it here first!!

But do not be fooled into thinking this is some sort of holiday, far from it! It is tough work, hours of preparation and table tennis culminating in games of chess requiring an exam-like state of concentration for hours at a time, everyday for 8 days. And that is just the AHOs developing strategies for being able to procure drinks during dinner! For the Players it is actually even harder. Which brings me to the question: how did I get here? [more like 'why did you get here?' - ed.] Ok, so forgetting the bigger question and focusing on just the last 100 or so hours, here goes:

The England party, led by Partridge Tunneller, met at Gatwick (South) on a damp, grey English evening in late April. No problems there - even the Quad Leonine Nuns showed up with minutes to spare before the flight took off. Hasty lost all his liquid and gel toiletries at security. Never mind, a generic chemists shop named after heavy weather footwear gladly refilled his bag. And only the Overdrawn Nomad Welder lost his ticket between passport control and the boarding door …

It truly was an overnight journey. We took off from Gatwick at 22:30 and landed in Thessaloniki at 03:30am local time. The flight was reasonable - the same air crew as last year according to some! But when 4 land-sea-air rescue workers boarded, complete with a hard hat each but none for us, it was not clear if this was a reassuring or worrying sign. Having meandered sleepily if not slothfully through passport control, and picking up our luggage with none missing, we figured the lone coach in the entire airport car park must be for us - and if it wasn't, it was going to be! The highlight of an otherwise uneventful coach trip of just over an hour was watching various people chatting to the person next to them without realising they had fallen asleep mid-conversation! On arrival at the hotel (the sumptuous Pallini Beach, replete with pool side café and beach bar - have I told you about them?) at just after 5am local time, a beachhead was established in the lobby. But lo! It was as if they were expecting us and had already allocated rooms so in a matter of mere minutes the entire party straggled off to various rooms for some horizontal kip. Except of course for those hardened travellers who headed for the bar ...

So here we are, I think that just about brings you up to date. The party has been renewing friendships from last year, and first timers to Halkidiki have been marvelling at the pool-side café and the beach bar. The weather has been great, the pigeons have settled in the outfield, and there is not a pedalo in sight. As I write, we have now reached the end of day 3 of the tournament and face the torment of The Double Round Day. More of that, the Greek evening and our daily routine in future reports from your insipid reporter!

But now the Chess bit:

In Round 3 the squad have moved back into Round 1 mode, with early results going England's way. Callum, George and Daniel win comfortably against South African opponents, George beating Callum's opponent from Round 1 although ending the game with slightly fewer queens. Then Ed V-R and Saravanan come out with wins. The mood is dampened slightly when Joseph gets into a terrible position and ends up resigning, but there are still many players at the boards. Jessica secures a draw but is somewhat disappointed. David Grant and Patrick Stevens both fight long battles but succumb in the end. That leaves Samuel playing the unseeded Russian, always a worry - but not for Samuel who plays 'one of the best games I have ever played' (highlights to be provided with tomorrow's report!) to win. Charlie Hierons meanwhile is playing the highly rated 2 nd seed and even to the uninitiated observer it is clear that after 90 minutes he is not only still in the game but giving his opponent plenty of food for thought. That much is confirmed when they agree a draw and Charlie, having now played both the highly rated and seeded Indians, this time rightly takes a share of the spoils. Last up is Lateefah: looking to become with Samuel the only England players on 3 out of 3, she plays a long game and comes out winner!

So it is an ebullient England party that decamps to dinner, tonight it is just Lateefah who plays too long to enjoy the delights of the all-you-can-eat-buffet (at least before the coaches have had their 'share'). No England players were paired against each other today, and when the pairings finally come out for tomorrow it transpires that there are to be no Eng vs Eng in Round 4 either, the first round on the Double Round Day… Overall for Round 3 the result is 8 out of 12 for England, so we now have 20½ out of 36 after 3 rounds!

The results of Round 3 are as follows:

The draw for Round 4:

As per Round 2, some very tough draws for England players in the first round to be played on the two round day. Jessica and Lateefah are both playing WFMs, with Lateefah on board 1 in the Girls U15. Samuel is on board 1 in the Boys U13 playing Daniel's opponent from round 2 so the extra experience of the opponent from that game may come in handy! Daniel meanwhile is surprised to have drawn the top seed in the U13s. It is going to be tough to hit the 50% mark, and it is going to be a long, gruelling day ...

The Players' results to date:

One instructive highlight from Round 2:

(1) Sourgkounis, Angelos - Franklin,Samuel [B21]
World Schools Chess Championships, U13B, Kallithea, Greece 29.04.2007
Annotated by Mad Haunt.

1.e4 The following game is a trappy way to play against the Morra Gambit (and in my opinion quite a good way!), such a popular choice with club players. 1...c5 2.d4 cxd4 3.c3 dxc3 4.Nxc3 Nc6 5.Nf3 e6 6.Bc4 In general Morra Gamibt players set up in the same way, with a Queen on e2, Rook on d1, and Bishop on c4 6...Qc7 In fact perhaps the best set-up for white is not to castle but play an early Qe2, and after Nf6 go e5 7.0-0 Nf6 8.Qe2 Ng4 setting the so called 'Siberian Trap' 9.Rd1 [9.h3?? is the usual way that people fall into this one, allowing 9...Nd4! winning the queen due to the threat of mate on h2] 9...Bc5 10.Rf1? [10.Be3 is the only move here, but after 10...Nxe3 11.fxe3 black is better] 10...Nd4

11.g3 Nxe2+ 12.Nxe2 and Sam converted his extra queen after another 30 moves or so 0-1

And now, re-branding our new featured introduction:

******** Great Chess Moments from History ********

And finally, Kids Korner!

I failed to make the chess team because of my height. (Woody Allen)

But not really finally, because today there is more!! I can introduce a brand new brand new feature called:

Facts For the Memory

[... or useless facts about chess you could do without knowing - ed.]

The longest chess game is 269 moves (Ivan Nikolic - Goran Arsovic, Belgrade 1989) which ended in a draw after over 20 hours of play. The longest game in a World Championship match was Korchnoi-Karpov, Baguio 1978. It was drawn (stalemate) in 124 moves.