Chess 497
PHILIDOR
V. Bartolovid (1st Prize, Hannelius
1966-7). White to play and mate in two moves; solution next week.
Solution to 496 (Loshinslcy-2nKN2Q/4pkNI/ 3P2p1/p2r4/1b2Rliplilr6/B7/5R2): Q-R7, threat 2 Kt-K6 mate. 1 . ,R-R4; 2 B-Kt5. 1 , R- KR6; 2 B-Kt3. 1 P-K4; 2 B-K3. 1 . B-B6:
2 B-K5. I . . . R-K4; 2 B x R. Good half-pin theme with the bishop shutting off the free rook.
Chess on the move
Everyone interested in British chess will be delighted that in their Christmas tournament for 1971-2, Hastings are going to make their Premier event a sixteen-player tournament in the top noE classification there will be eight grand- masters and four international masters in the sixteen. The main thing that has made this possible is the massive support of J. D. Slater of Slater, Walker, bat I am happy to say that the Friends of Chess have also—with Bovis Holdings and the Hastings council—played a substantial Parr.
The last major tournament in this country was the Staunton Memorial Tournament in 1951 (won by Gligorid) and before that the great Nottingham tournament of 1936; the latter was financed by the late J. N. Derbyshire and, with four past world champidns (Euwe, Alekhine, Capablanca and Lasker) and one future one (Botwinnik), was undoubtedly one of the strongest tournaments ever played. Capablanca and Bot- winnik tied for first place; this was the first great overseas triumph for the new Soviet school and the twenty-four year old Botwinnik filled most of the front page of Pravda with his victory. A great thing about a Ls tournament is that, apart from its inherent interest, one can qualify, by a good performance in one such tournament for an MI or a cia title. We have at least three players, Penrose (already an na), Keene and Hartston, who are fully capable of an no perfor- mance (or even better) and others such as Lee Basman, Whiteley and Corden who could do it on their day—not forgetting the Scots player Levy who unexpectedly got the mr title at the Praia da Rocha interzonal. Ray Keene, for example, made the splendid score of 71/11 in the very strong twelve- player Hastings event two )ears ago when he shared third place with Tukmakov behind Smys- lov and Gligori6; since 7{/15 would be enough for the um title there must be an excellent chance of his achieving this.
When we add to Hastings the holding of the Clare Benedict event in England for the first time ever this year, the England v West Germany ten-a- side match to be held in Cheltenham in spring 1971 and the intention that we shall compete in the ten-a-side European team tournament (two more 'first times') it really does seem that we may at last be beginning to see a major expansion in our international chess activity. I hope so; we have a lot of chess talent and, in an age when there is an increasing amount of leisure, I really don't see why we shouldn't use and develop it as fully as possible.
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