Today’s blog has very kindly been written for us by our minutes secretary, Neil Irving. Take it away Neil…
One of my few remaining ambitions in chess was to represent Scotland in an international team tournament. Having just passed the age of 50 I was now qualified to play seniors chess, so I was delighted to see a notice on the Chess Scotland website looking for players for the world senior team championship in Durres Albania. I was particularly attracted by the tournament being held in Albania as this was country I had long wanted to visit.
The tournament was held in the Grand Blue Fafa beach resort hotel which is about 10km from Durres – the second largest city in Albania. The accommodation and food were included with the tournament entry fee so the only thing that I needed to organise was the flights. The hotel was excellent for the event: clean, modern and comfortable with plenty of space for the players and an excellent buffet restaurant, although there were a few parts of the hotel where the standard of construction left something to be desired. The main picture is the hotel pool at twilight.
The tournament was played in a basement. I thought this was fine, but some players found it a little cramped, and there was no access to tea and coffee. The picture was taken by Bob Kane of part of the playing area:
I had my first encounter with anti-cheating measures at international tournaments – in addition to the usual prohibition on mobile phones, players were not permitted to wear watches or use their own pens. Karen Howie of Scotland was one of the fair play judges.
Scotland fielded 3 teams – 2 in the over 50s and 1 in the over 65s (the senior seniors). I was playing for Scotland 2, with the rest of the team consisting of Martin Mitchell, Rosie Giulian, Stephen Pimental and Douglas Heatlie. I was particular grateful to Stephen who took on the role of team captain, and to Andrew Burnett who was the head of the Scotland delegation and did a lot of organisation and admin on our behalf – for example. Also playing in the tournament from Edinburgh Chess Club were Alastair White who was playing for the Scotland over 65s team, and Bob Kane who was captaining England 6 also in the over 65s.
There was a great team spirit among the Scotland teams, and most evenings were spent in the hotel bar analysing the days games. This picture was taken during a brief power cut, which did not halt analysis.
Each match consisted of 4 boards, so one member of the team was rested for each match. In addition, this being a senior’s tournament the Friday was a rest day for the whole tournament, and the time control was a leisurely 90 minutes for 40 moves plus a 30-minute quickplay finish with 30 seconds a move.
Scotland 2 were seeded 30th from 36 teams, and we achieved almost exactly our expected position – finishing 31st with 3 wins, 1 draw and 5 losses. Given my playing strength board 2 was a bit of challenge. I was outrated by all but one of my opponents and scored 2.5/7. This was actually ok given the opposition – I faced 3 FIDE Masters in my 7 games, losing to two of them and drawing with Willy Ickl (representing Liechtenstein) and I gained a few ELO points. My best game was a win against 4-time British women’s champion WGM Sheila Jackson which is published in Scottish Chess. The key tactic from my other win is shown below.
For the other Edinburgh players Bob Kane scored 4/9 on board 2 for England 6 and Alastair White 2/6 on board 3 for Scotland in the over 65’s.
I have played in many overseas tournaments, and generally enjoyed them, but this one was special because I was part of a team. The venue was excellent and I really enjoyed the company. Edinburgh chess club has a lot of strong players over 50, and I would highly recommend senior team tournaments to all of you. I will be looking to play in similar events in future.
To finish a couple of positions from the tournament.
Neil Irving (Scotland 2) vs Nicolae Oacnea (Canada – Montreal). In this position my opponent played 16…Nd4?? What had he missed?
Bob Kane had the following position in round 4 against Serhii Nikolaienko of Finland 4. White to play and win:
Answers next time.
Thanks Neil, the Edinburgh Chess Club is very proud to have players representing Scotland on the world stage!
[Solution to the Richardson Cup blog position is …Bd4+ when capturing the bishop allows mate in one with …Ne3 and playing Kh1 allows mate in one with Ng3++ an unusual double check and mate]