Chess no. 408
PHILIDOR 'Black White 10 men 8 men
H. V. Tuxen (1st Prize, Magazinet, 1940). White to play and mate in two moves; solution next week. Solution to no. 407 (Grant): B – Q 4, no threat Nine variations in which Black moves interfere with other Black pieces, e.g. 1 . . . R – Kt 3; 2 K – Q 8. 1 . . . R – B 3; 2 K x P.
The Lugano Olympiad In a week's time the eighteenth chess Olympiad starts at Lugano. Fifty-four countries (a record) will be competing and thC event will last for just over three weeks. Who will win and how shall we do?
The first question is easily answered; the USSR have won eight times in a row from 1952 to 1966 (the event takes place every two years) and there is every expectation that they will make it nine. Our own ambition is more modest—to get into the first group in the finals. The event is divided into two parts; first there is a qualifying event in which seven groups of seven or eight teams each—seeded so that each group is of roughly the same strength—play an all v. all within each group. The first two teams in each group go into the A finals (the true championship), the next two into the B finals, the fifth and sixth teams into the C finals and the others into the Ds. We are usually on the border between A and B. This year we have, on paper, our best team for very many years. Jonathan Penrose—unable to play in 1964 or 1966—will be on board one, a great strengthening of the side; the veteran Cennek Kottnauer, who did extremely well on top board at Tel Aviv in 1964, is at number two; Peter Clarke, top at Havana in 1966 and a tough. steady, experienced player, is on board three; Raymond Keene, a Cambridge University student and the best of all our young players, will be a really formidable number four; Peter Lee and Michael Basman, also very good young players, are on five and six. Except for Bill Hartston, who was unavailable, this is the best possible team; and it is a team with a future—three players of twenty- five or under and only one of over forty. All British players will wish it the best of luck.
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