Chess - The Scotsman 09/04/2012

How does Black win?

AGE shall not wither them, as top seeds Russia 1 narrowly retained their European Senior Team Championship title in Slovenia last Thursday. They edged out their compatriots Russia St Petersburg to take the gold medal. It was the same Russian squad that won the title last year, led by GM Evgeny Vasiukov.

In 2011, the top-board individual gold medal went to Scotland’s IM Craig Pritchett, who couldn’t play this year due to family commitments. Pritchett – who beat Vasiukov, to inflict on the Russian his only defeat – will no doubt have a wry smile on his face seeing that this year’s top-board gold medal went to the indefatigable Viktor Korchnoi, the world’s oldest active grandmaster. The 81-year-old multi-time former World Championship challenger scored 7.5/9, yet despite his heroics his Switzerland team just missed out on the team bronze to Montenegro.

Without top star Pritchett (and also IM Roddy McKay, who, now 60, is eligible to play on the Seniors tour), the Scotland 1 team, with 8 points, slipped to 27th place and Scotland 2 finished in 38th equal with 6 points. Scotland 1: FM Phil Giulian, 3.5/7, FM Peter Jamieson, 5/8, Gerald Bonner, 2/7, Alastair White, 3/7 and Alan Borwell, 4.5/7. Scotland 2: Douglas McKerracher, 4/8, Ian Marks, 3.5/8, Stephen Smith, 1.5/7, George Murphy, 3.5/8 and Hugh Flockhart, 1.5/5.

P Kendall - P Jamieson

European Senior Team Ch., (1)

Modern Defence

1 e4 g6 2 d4 c6 3 Nc3 Bg7 4 Be3 d6 5 h3 Nd7 6 Nf3 Qc7 7 Qd2 b5 8 Rd1 Bb7 9 Bd3 Ngf6 10 0–0 0–0 11 Bh6 b4 12 Ne2 c5 13 dxc5 Nxc5 14 Bxg7 Kxg7 15 Qxb4 Ncxe4 16 Ned4 Nc5 17 Be2 Rab8 18 Qc3 Rfc8 19 Qe3 Bxf3 20 Bxf3 Rxb2 21 g4 h6 22 g5 hxg5 23 Qxg5 Nh7 24 Nf5+ Kh8 25 Qe3 Ne6 26 Bd5 gxf5 27 Bxe6 Rg8+ 28 Kh1 Rb5 29 Qd4+ Re5 30 Bxf7 Rg7 31 Bd5 Nf6 32 c4 Nxd5 33 cxd5 Re4 34 Qb2 Rh4 35 Rd3 Qc4 36 Rg1 Qxd5+! 37 Kh2 Qe5+ 38 Qxe5 dxe5 39 Rd8+ Kh7 40 Rxg7+ Kxg7 41 Rd7 Ra4 42 Rxe7+ Kf6 43 Re8 f4 44 h4 Rxa2 45 Kg2 Kf5 46 h5 Ra6 47 Re7 e4 48 h6 f3+ 0–1