Chess News

Malcolm Pein on…The Final Four

Malcolm Pein

April 30, 2021

Malcolm Pein’s coverage of the FIDE Candidates Tournament takes a short rest as he turns his attention back to the Four Nations Chess League in today’s Daily Telegraph column. Who are the final four? Over to Malcolm, to find out…

Malcolm Pein on…The Final Four

The top teams avoided any upsets as the pool stage of the 4NCL Online League concluded. Chessable White Rose I were the only side to finish on 100 per cent in Division One, as they qualified for the semifinal stage alongside their second team, Guildford Young Guns and Celtic Tigers & Sharks. The semifinals will take place on Tuesday, May 4; the final a fortnight later.

Internet chess is mainly the domain of the young, but not always; 63-year-old grandmaster Mark Hebden led the way with 6/6 for Guildford. White Rose’s Oskar Hackner also did very well to amass 6.5/7, while Calum MacQueen of Alba finished with 6/7.

Two IMs do battle in a critical line of the Caro-Kann, one where Alireza Firouzja has tried to make 6…h6!? work of late, although after 7.Nbd2 Nd7 8.Nb3 g5 9.Bd2, Black’s inferior development would eventually cost him in the brutal encounter; So-Firouzja, Magnus Carlsen Invitational 2021, as we saw last month.

J. Jackson – R. Pert
Barbican vs Brentwood

1.e4 c6 2.d4 d5 3.e5 Bf5 4.Nf3 e6 5.Be2 Ne7 6.0-0 Ng6 7.Be3 Nd7 8.Nbd2 f6 (Consistent with 6…Ng6. 8…Be7? 9.Ne1 would menace g4 and f4) 9.exf6 Qxf6 10.Ne1 (Beginning to regroup. 10.Bg5!? Qf7 11.c4 is also possible) 10…h5!? (Simply 10…Bd6 11.Nd3 0-0 followed by …e5 looks very pleasant for Black) 11.Ndf3 Bd6 12.Bg5!

(Occupying the hole and now the battle will revolve around the e5-square) 12…Qf7 13.Nd3 h4 14.Re1 Nf6? (The consistent as well as AlphaZero-like 14…h3! 15.g3 0-0 is quite nice for Black) 15.Nfe5! Bxe5 16.dxe5 Ne4 (Risky as the knight won’t have many squares, but 16…Bxd3 17.Bxd3 Nd7 18.c4! also leaves Black in trouble) 17.Be3 0-0-0!? (17…b6 would have created an escape square for the knight) 18.f3 Kb8

Test Your Strength

White now sacrifices the queen. Can you spot the calm and strong idea he missed?

19.fxe4? dxe4 20.Nc5!? Rxd1 21.Raxd1 Ka8? (Far too materialistic, if not a mouse slip. 21…Kc8! 22.Rd7 Qxd7 23.Nxd7 Kxd7 may even slightly favour Black) 22.Rd7 Qe8 23.Rxb7 Nxe5 24.Rc7! (Black is simply too vulnerable on a7) 24…Rf8 25.Na6 Rf7 26.Rd1 (White dominates the board) 26…Qf8 27.Rxf7 1-0 If 27…Nxf7 28.Rd7 or 27…Qxf7 28.Rd8+ Kb7 29.Rb8#.

Highlight the space below this line to reveal the answer.

19.Rf1! followed by Qe1! leaves Black losing material, since if 19…b6 20.Nb4 or 19…Qe7 20.fxe4 dxe4 21.Bc5 Qe8 22.Bd6+.

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Malcolm Pein

Malcolm Pein is a British International Master, chess organizer, author and journalist. He was a child prodigy and a former British Junior Champion. He qualified for the International Master title in 1985. Malcolm is a distinguished writer, journalist and editor. He has been a chess correspondent of the Daily Telegraph and Sunday Telegraph for over 30 years, has written numerous chess books and is the Executive Editor of CHESS Magazine. In 1992, he founded the London Chess Centre, a games store in central London and the UK's only chess shop. He is also the founder and CEO of Chess in Schools and Communities, a UK charity whose aim is to introduce chess to state schools and has taught the game to over 250,000 children since its inception in 2009. Malcolm is also well-known for his chess event management. He was responsible for the pre-planning of the World Chess Championship match between Garry Kasparov and Vladimir Kramnik in London 2000. In 2002 he was appointed as Technical Director of the 'Brains in Bahrain' match between Vladimir Kramnik and the computer program Fritz. In 2009, Malcolm devised and organized the 1st London Chess Classic - the UK's first world-class elite all-play-all tournament since the 1980s which ran annually until 2019. Malcolm is also very active with the English Chess Federation. In 2016, he was appointed as the Manager and Captain of the England national team. He was also appointed as English Chess Federation delegate to the European Chess Union and FIDE and is the Director of International Chess. In 2018, he also stood for the post of Deputy President of FIDE. In 2021, Malcolm joined the ranks of Chessable authors by bringing the highlights of his column in the Daily Telegraph in the form of an interactive Chessable course, titled Telegraph Tuesday. Profile photograph © Lennart Ootes