Chess - The Scotsman 06/07/2012

TOMORROW sees the start of one of the most eagerly awaited events in recent years on the domestic calendar, the 119th Scottish Championships in Glasgow (7-15 July). It promises to be one not to be missed, with a strong entry of 139 players in the Open headed by ten GMs and 13 IMs, including seven former Scottish champions.

This is the fifth year of what looks to be a success story of an international open format, which has attracted a truly cosmopolitan field with contestants from as far as India, Kazakhstan, Belarus, Bulgaria, Iceland and Hungary. The national title, though, will go to the highest-placed Scot, with GMs Colin McNab and Keti-Arakhamia-Grant being the most likely home winners, but the ratings favourites for the International Open title are Hungarian GMs Robert Ruck and Imre Hera.

“See Glasgow, see culture,” was the popular PR slogan during Glasgow’s term as the 1989 European City of Culture, and there’s also a spectacular and historic backdrop for this year’s championship, with the venue being the Robert Adam-designed Trades Hall in the Merchant City, built in 1794.

Play gets underway each day at 1pm with spectators welcome. Further details at the championships’ excellent website at www.chessscotland.com/scottishchampionship2012. And to whet your appetite, today’s game shows top seed Robert Ruck outplaying the six-time Russian champion, Peter Svidler, in a win that gave Hungary a shock victory over the Russians during the Bled Olympiad of 2002.

P Svidler - R Ruck

Bled Olympiad, 2002

Sicilian Najdorf

1 e4 c5 2 Nf3 d6 3 d4 cxd4 4 Nxd4 Nf6 5 Nc3 a6 6 f3 Qb6 7 g4 h6 8 a3 e5 9 Nf5 Bxf5 10 gxf5 Nc6 11 Bc4 Nd4 12 Nd5 Nxd5 13 Bxd5 Be7 14 Qd3 Bg5 15 b4 Rc8 16 c3 Nb5 17 Bb2 Bh4+ 18 Kd1 a5 19 Rc1 Ke7 20 Rc2 axb4 21 axb4 Rhd8 22 Rg2 Bg5 23 h4 Bf6 24 Ke2 Rd7 25 Bc4 Nxc3+! 26 Bxc3 Rdc7 27 Rgg1 Rxc4 28 Rc1 Qa6 29 Kf2 Qc6 30 Bd2 Bxh4+ 31 Kg2 Bg5 32 Bxg5+ hxg5 33 Rcd1 Rd4 0–1