Chess
By PHILIDOR 246. W. A. SHINKMAN (1st Prize, Huddersfield, 1877) BLACK (4 men)
WHITE (5 men)
WHITE to play and mate in two moves; solution next week. Solution to No. 245 (Stocchi): R—Kt 7. This is a 'threat separation' problem; the key move threatens three mates (R x P, Q x P and Q—K 5) but after any Black move the mate is unique, viz. 1. . . B x R; 2 Q x P. . . P—B 5; 2 R x P. . . P—B 3 or B4; 2 Q—K 5 thus 'separating' the mates. Knight moves produce three further mates I ... Kt x R; 2 Q—QB 2. . . . Kt x B; 2 Q—QKt 2. I . . . Kt x Kt; 2 Q—Q 2. A beautiful example of the problemist's problem, with
the technical task achieved with economy and elegance. This week's problem in an older, simpler style is equally attractive.
WRONG, WRONG, ABSOLUTELY WRONG
My forecasting has reached a new low level previously unapproached ; I failed even to include the new British champion, the twenty-one-year-old Oxford undergraduate Peter Lee—the youngest player ever to win the title—in my list of possible winners, and I have never been more pleased to be wrong. Lee's experience in the Students' Tournament, where he captained the most successful British team ever to compete, clearly brought him on a great deal and he deserved to win at Hastings.
But it was not only his winning that was satisfactory ; all the top placings were encouraging for the future of British chess. Dr. Jonathan Penrose, champion from 1958 to 1963 and still only thirty, shows a return almost if not quite to his old form—a fact which emphasises the credit due to Lee—and was the only unbeaten player, sharing second place with Norman Littlewood ; the latter also showed much better form than for some time, and I hope he will now fulfil his great promise. Michael• Franklin in fourth place was the oldest player to reach the top six, and he is only in the middle thirties ; finally the youngest player in the tournament, eighteen-year-old William fiartston, shared fifth and sixth with another of the younger players, Michael MacDonald-Ross. Owen Hindle did not quite come up to expectations, but I have no real doubts of his ability and future performance; the champion, Michael Haygarth, was disappointing, and the one really depressing result was Peter Clarke's long string of draws—he seems to have forgotten how to try to win.
These disappointments are a minor matter ; what is significant is that a new generation of strong players has arrived., Lee, Hartston, Keene and Basman are a quartet that offer a real challenge to their seniors and a chance of a stronger international team than we have had for many years.
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