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Malcolm Pein on…The Young Guns Going For It

Malcolm Pein

May 25, 2021

Malcolm Pein catches up with the recent 4NCL action in today’s Daily Telegraph column, as he reports on the ‘Young Guns going for it’ with a semi-final success.

Malcolm Pein on…The Young Guns Going For It

Celtic Tigers & Sharks faced Guildford Young Guns in the final of the 4NCL Online League. Three of the fancied sides reached the semi-finals this time around. The outsiders after a fine campaign, which included defeating Barbican, were Chessable White Rose II, who were swept aside 3-1 by the Tigers

The winners of the inaugural competition, Chessable White Rose I, have never lost a match in the 4NCL Online, but for a second successive season they were eliminated on board count after 2-2 draw with Guildford.

For Guildford, Matthew Wadsworth held Gawain Jones to a draw with black on board one, but Mark Hebden lost his 100 per cent record as he was defeated in a chaotic encounter by James Adair on board three. IM Christof Sielecki blundered (see below) meaning that the match was Guildford’s after Harry Grieve somehow held an endgame two pawns in arrears against fellow Kamil Plichta on bottom board.

Test Your Strength

A. Suarez Real – C. Sielecki

What win did Black miss here?

70…Nxg6+? 71.Ke3 Ke5 (71…f4+ 72.Kd4 f3 73.Kxc3 f2 74.Bd3 Nf4 75.Bf1 is also a draw, as is 71…Nd5+ 72.Kd4 Nge7 73.Nd6 and Nb5) 72.Bxf5! (A good practical choice. 72.Kd3 Nd5 73.Nc5 Ngf4+ 74.Kc4 Ne2 would still make White sweat to hold the draw) 72…Nd5+ (72…Kxf5 73.Kd3 Na4 74.Nd6+ Ke5 75.Nb5 Nf4+ 76.Kc2 followed by Nxc3 is just a draw as two knights cannot, of course, force checkmate against a lone king) 73.Kd3 Ngf4+ 74.Kc2 Kd4 (Again, if 74…Kxf5 75.Nd6+ followed by Nb5 and Nxc3) 75.Nd6 Ne3+ 76.Kb3 Nxf5 77.Nb5+! (The same motif, although 77.Nxf5+ Kd3 78.Ne3! also draws) 77…Kd3 78.Nxc3 Nd4+ 79.Kb4 Nfe6 80.Nd5 Ke4 81.Nc3+ Ke5 82.Kc4 Kd6 83.Nb5+ Nxb5 84.Kxb5 draw

H. Grieve – K. Plichta

Black has just blundered with 28…Qa5-a2?? (28…Rd5 or 28…Qb4 would have been very equal). What had he overlooked?

Highlight the space below this line to reveal the answers.

Answer One:

70…Nd5+! 71.Kg3 f4+! 72.Kf2 Ne3 wins, since after 73.Be4 c2 74.Bxc2 Nxc2 75.Nd6 Kxg6 White won’t manage to sacrifice his knight for the remaining pawn.

Answer Two:

29.b3! Qa5 (29…Qa3 30.Nc4 forks too) 30.Nc4 Qc5 31.Nxe5 Qxe5 32.Rd6! a5 33. Qd4 1-0

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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