John Nunn, the former top-10 player and author of several instructional books, recovered the form of his best years at age 67 last week when the grandmaster from Bude in Conrwall won the world 65+ senior championship in Assisi, Italy. Nunn scored nine out of 11, and won all his six games with White, including a vital win in what had seemed a drawn final round queen and knight v queen and bishop ending.
The championship was a competitive event of 192 players, where Nunn’s only defeat, in round eight to Jens Kristiansen, could have proved costly. The Dane led by half a point going into the final round, and had the better tiebreak. Then Kristiansen failed to find a hidden drawing resource in his own endgame with bishops of opposite colours, was caught by the pack, and finished out of the medals. A Fide online report gives fuller details, plus photos from the award ceremony.
2022 has proved a vintage year for England’s seniors, half a century after the Bobby Fischer v Boris Spassky match in Reykjavik which sparked many chess careers. Nunn in his youth was a mathematics prodigy, and when he went to Oxford at 15 was the youngest undergraduate since Cardinal Wolsey in 1520, a record broken later by Ruth Lawrence. He became a lecturer at Oriel but in 1981 switched to professional chess.
In June this year England’s 50+ and 65+ squads won the world senior teams at Acqui Terme, Italy, while last month England 50+ won the European title in Dresden, Germany. It was striking how Michael Adams, 51, and Nigel Short, 57, who in their prime challenged for world crowns, raised their game at critical moments when the gold medals seemed in danger.
There is a feeling among the survivors of England’s silver generation, who finished second to the former Soviet Union in three successive Olympiads in the 1980s, that the supreme prize of finishing in front of the USSR unjustly escaped them. In 2004 Adams would normally have expected to defeat Rustam Kasimdzhanov and so qualify for a title unifying match with Garry Kasparov, for which plans were already well advanced in London.
Another pivotal moment was the 10th round of the Dubai Olympiad in 1986. At the end of round nine England were clear leaders, a full point in front of the US and two ahead of the USSR. They had beaten the Americans and drawn with the Soviets, so were also ahead on match points.
Excitement was building in London as chess fans saw the results. The Guardian was preparing an editorial praising England’s achievement and calling for better government recognition.
England had already met their three nearest rivals, so were paired with Spain in fifth place. After round 10 got under way, the Spanish captain and trainer, the Soviet GM Tamas Georgadze, began talking to both Spanish and USSR players. Georgadze was then seen discussing a move with Spain’s board two, to whom Nunn had just offered a draw, which was refused. The England team were psyched out, and were beaten 3.5-0.5. Spain later collapsed and finished 24th, and stricter regulations were introduced for the rest of the Olympiad, but the damage was done.
At the end, the Soviet team, led by Kasparov and Anatoly Karpov at their peak, won gold with 40/56 game points, with England second on 39.5. If, as happens now, Olympiad match points had taken priority over game points, England would have taken gold with 12 wins, a draw with the USSR, and the controversial loss to Spain. Nunn and Short both played on that England team in Dubai 36 years ago, so it is understandable that they were highly motivated in 2022.
Magnus Carlsen was a last-minute substitute in the online 32-player Mr Dodgy Invitational last week when David Howell had internet connection problems. The event, now in its third year and won twice previously by Anish Giri, is the brainchild of Michael Duke, a Scottish resident of Sweden who has become a cult figure for his witty comments on chess site comments pages, and who personally selects the players. The time limit is a searching five minutes each, with no per move increment.
That Carlsen agreed a week-long commitment at minimal notice to such a tournament with, for him, a modest $15,000 prize fund, shows that the world champion really loves the game. Of his 15 great predecessors, probably only Mikhail Tal would have acted similarly.
At the 1960 Leipzig Olympiad, the top teams including the USSR and USA were accommodated at the Hotel Astoria in the centre of the city. There were a couple of sets and boards in the lounge, where every night the great names would gather for five-minute blitz, watched by an admiring throng of masters. Tal, Viktor Korchnoi, and Tigran Petrosian were there from the Soviet team, Fischer and William Lombardy from the American, and Miguel Najdorf from Argentina.
The format was simple. If a player failed to win, he would vacate his seat and be replaced. The quality of the games was high, and the sextet were evenly matched, although over many evenings Petrosian just shaded it. Tal and Korchnoi were often the last to finish, still blitzing away at 1am.
On the morning of the final day, before the closing ceremony, there was an official Olympiad blitz. Tal had lost to England’s Jonathan Penrose the previous day, but still turned up for this event. He had one memorable game there, against Manuel Aaron. The Indian, who had beaten former world champion Euwe in the Olympiad proper, survived a lost position by catching Tal in a stalemate trap.
Carlsen won his Mr Dodgy preliminary group with 11.5/13 despite a loss to England’s Gawain Jones, who wrote “I finally managed to take down Magnus”, a reference to Wijk aan Zee 2018, where Carlsen blundered a piece early on but still created a swift winning attack.
In the knockout stages, the world No 1 was imperious, beating the UAE’s Salem Saleh 7-0 then impressively trouncing the rising US star Samuel Sevian, 21, by 7-1.
Carlsen met his aide Daniil Dubov, who had been in good form, in Thursday’s final. It was another one-sided encounter, 6.5-1.5, as the champion completed his week’s work with an 80% total over 49 games.
3844 1 gxh7+! Kxf7 (if Kxh7 2 Rcg6! and Rh4+ forces mate) 2 Rf6+! Kxf6 3 Rg8 and the pawn queens.
