On the penultimate night of the Summer League, Dave Cole turned up of the two favourites but Kit Hopkins didnt, as Dave got 6.5/7 and George Horne got 5/7 in second this left a switch in overall leader now Dave lead (45.5) with myself [Alan Llewellyn] in second (42.5), Frank Whalley in third(41), Kit Hopkins in fourth(40.5).  What this means is as Dave has said he wont be there on the last week and even if i get 7/7 i will still only finish of 45, the best Frank can score if 7/7 is 43 while that leaves only Kit with a chance to beat Dave if he turns up he needs 5.5/7.  Below is an embarressing defeat for George against myself in the Dutch Opening its a well known trap.

Tonight Monday 23rd August 2021, The Lightning Tournament came to an end.  Matthew Mackenzie had already won it a Lightning night earlier but he wasnt to win it on the night as George Horne beat everyone to score 4/4 but his result was in vain as he started mid tournament and couldn't recover enough high scores. On the night, Matthew Mackenzie and Tevor Blower finihedjoint 2nd with 3/4.  What that meant to the final tables was Matthew M finished on 14.5 in first, I(Alan Llewellyn) finished way back with 11.5 in second, Kit Hopkins finished in third on 10, George Horne went up the field quickly to finish on 9.5 and Trevor Blower finished on 9 who never got his 4/4 that he often threatened to get. The winning position for George vs Matthew M is given below:-(Matthew takes the f4 pawn with his rook and loses to back row mate ie Qb1+)  

One thing to note is the chess season starts again in 1st September 2021 it runs till May 2022 and the serious long play games start then, although they wont actually start till we have had our AGM on the wednesday 8th September due to covid delays.  The Online County Championships continued with Cumbria winning against Berkshire, 7.5-4.5, we had a game head start in the 12 game match, and we didnt need it.  I was the only Barrow member playing and I was on board 10 and won. The scoresheet is given below for the match:-

Tonight Wednesday 18th August 2021, we didnt have a competition night just friendlies, but we had a new member, Oliver Campbell (who incidentally was a famous rugby player from the 1982 Ireland side but this was a different person because he was young but he still looked like a rugby player),  Matthew Paule was also there, a recent member, and myself(Alan Llewellyn) and Trevor Blower.     

In the third last summer league night the two favourites Kit Hopkins(182 ecf grade) and Dave  Cole(170 ecf grade) got a draw but early on , I (Alan Llewellyn) got lucky, against Dave, and in an innocruous position with his queen in a fearly open position it was rather unluckily trapped and I won, so that left Kit, who, only dropped a further half point against George Horne to win, George was a Queen up but ran out of time. The position where Daves Queen is trapped in our game is given below, if 1.Qd6 then 1...Bf8 is fatal for the Queen so dave played 1 Qxb7.

The final points were 1st Kit Hopkins 6/7, 2nd Dave Cole 5.5/7 and third myself 4.5/7 with the overall scores: myself 1st with 42, Frank Whalley 2nd with 41, Kit Hopkins 3rd with 40.5 and Dave Cole 4th with 39

Although on the face of it it looks good for me , there are two rounds to go and both Dave and Kit both have all there full scores to count and the best me and frank can add is 2 to our score so aslong as they both turn up they will finish 1st and 2nd...  

In the above diagram it is White to play and win, if you notice Black is one move away from mate, highlight below to find the only answer:-

 1 h7+ Kxh7 2 Rf7+ Rxf7(2...Kg8 3 Rg7+ Kh8 4 Rh1checkmate) 3 Rh1+ Kg8 4 Rh8 checkmate

In November 2021, the great Magnus Carlsen plays  against Ian Nepomniachtchi for the world championship. Recently I watched a video of Anatoly Karpov, commentating on his 1984/85 match with Garry Kasparov and I remembered in 1984 watching the coverage of this famous game below.  Anatoly won the match but not by the required amount of 6 games and he was rescued from exhaustion after hundreds of games by the FIDE organisation which abondoned the match.

An early win by Anatoly is given here, there were to be many encounters between them but Garry was to win all the remaining ones.  The games were of a particularly high level. 

In the Summer League things are hotting up, with Dave Cole winning on the night 7/7, George Horne getting 5.5/7, and Frank Whalley and Jon Duffield joint third on 4/7 this left the top three 8 best scores unchanged, myself(Alan Llewellyn) on 41.5, Frank Whalley on 41 and Trevor Blower on 38 but coming very fast is Dave Cole with 33.5 with three night still to go and all of them to count for Dave.   Mention should go to Matthew Paule who got a draw and a bye on 1.5pts-for a beginner thats fantastic and he gave everyone a tough game. The 6th round(of the night) gme between myself and Matthew Paule is given below:-

Instructions on joining the Online 4NCL Congress for Matthew Paule:-additional note you must complete the fair play decleration during the process see link below

https://www.4ncl.co.uk/data/4NCL_fairplay_guidelines_congress.pdf

Click on the next link under the paragraph but first become an ecf member and information on joining- its 7.50pound entry(to the congress) if you are an ecf member or supporter- it is £12.50 if not member membership to the english chess federation(ECF) is free for juniors in their first year click https://www.englishchess.org.uk/ecf-membership-rates-and-joining-details/ to go to theyre site.Things to know before joining the ECF / renewing your ECF membership … 1) The ECF membership year is fixed, and runs from the 1st September to the 31st of the following August. New memberships purchased from 15th May 2021 onwards are valid until 31st August 2022. In any membership year, the earlier you join the more benefit you get from your membership! 2) The ECF’s online membership site address is https://ecf.azolve.com 3) Junior Silver membership is available FREE to junior players who have not previously been members of the Federation in any category. When you log in as a new member at https://ecf.azolve.com, choose ‘Free Junior Silver’, and please make sure you complete the process, as although no money changes hands, the FJS must still be ‘purchased’ or the membership is not valid 4) PARENTS — if you are adding two or more children to the ECF membership database at this time, make sure you CHOOSE a USERNAME for each of them in turn, rather than accepting the default (your email address) as each subsequent child added will otherwise trigger a ‘username already in use’ dialogue box. In addition, please note you DO NOT have to register with the ECF in order to register your children, unless you wish to be a supporter (£10.00) or desire your own membership as a chess player. 5) In case of difficulty (lost usernames, password lost or forgotten) in the first instance, email the office staff, who will respond as soon as possible. Please note office hours are 9.00am to 5.00pm Monday to Friday.

https://www.4ncl.co.uk/fide/online/arrangements_10.htm-the link for information on the congress-you wont have a fide registration it doesnt matter, join the improvers 1100 rating section give your chess.com rating as evidence unless this is higher then enter the 1400. before you press enter congress join Lichess and give them your handle in the entry form.

 lichess is where the tournament is held it is the 10th online 4ncl congress and entries close friday 13th August a link below to lichess is included.

https://lichess.org/

 There were 6 of us in the Lighning League, tonight the 9th Aug 2021, including both Matthew Mackenzie and Matthew Paule, and Jon Duffield, George Horne, Trevor Blower and myself, what happened was Matthew Mack. won with 4/4 and George finished 2nd with 2.5/4, what this means is Matt Mack. has won the Lightning League with a best 4 results total score of 14.5 as both Kit Hopkins (who can possibly score 14) and myself(Alan Llewellyn)(who can possibly score 13.5)cant reach him. Congratulations go to Mack. , a night before the end night.

Below is a puzzle from the game Kaidanov vs Anand Moscow 1987 , where white has a good win, white to move, highlight below the diagram to get the answer...

1 Qf7+ Rxf7 2 Ng6+ Kg8 3 Rh8 checkmate

The roll of honour has been updated see here...

In the Summer League, Dave Cole came back against myself after a uncharacteristic gift of a piece  saw a draw offer by him which after rejecting, i gave away my Queen and resigned.  Dave went on to score 7/7 and myself(Alan Llewellyn) in second with 5.5/7, and although that took me to a total of 41.5 in the best 8 scores with Frank Whalley in second on 41, Trevor Blower third with 38, the person who is coming now with the best score and four full scores to count is Dave Cole with 26.5, I think Dave or Kit Hopkins(if he returns) with three full scores to count with 34.5 are favourites. 

I have been too busy even to go to the chess club recently due to being in the Online British Championships Qualifier 2021,  I had run ins wth a few players over 200 grade (one the son of Malcolm Pein), and a junior rated about 170 of 11 years old.  I finished with 2/5 in 56th out of 98.  

 Anyway I appologise for being away here is some important news, there is an EGM arranged for the 4th August 2021 and the pairs have been brought forward to the 1st sept and the agm brought forward to the 8th September full details can be found on here

I will be posting updates again as usual and going to the club, in the Lightning tournament (4 rounds) on Monday 26th July 2021, Matthew Mackenzie increased his lead to 13.5 ater scoring 4, this was George Hornes first Lightning of the year and he came second with 3 on the night, and that is also his total score.  Overall I (Alan Llewellyn) am still second with 11.5, Kit Hopkins third with 10 and Trevor Blower fourth with 7.    

In the Summer League, tonight(28th July 2021), Dave Cole made a welcome return to the club and duly finished with a perfect 7/7, Frank Whalley and George Horne finished in joint second with 5/7. The overall scores (from best 8 results are):-

41 Frank Whalley, 39 myself, 38 Trevor Blower, 34.5 Kit Hopkins, 32 Jon Duffield and Dave Cole  the possible favourite (because he has so many results to full score)  on 19.5

Tonight(mon 19th July 2021) we had six members turn up including the return of George Horne and Matthew Paule the 15 yo who gave a good account of himself. George also gave a good account of himself coming second with 5.5/7 also with that score was the vastly improving Trevor Blower, but I finished top with 6/7(Alan Llewellyn).  The overall scores have been talleyed and Frank Whalley is ahead with 40.5 with myself in second on 39, Trevor Blower in third on 37, Kit Hopkins in fourth on 34 snd Jon Duffield in fifth on 30. If Kit turns up his full points will count as its 34 from 5 nights and 8 nights count, all the others mentioned upto fifth place have come all 8 nights so have to knock off theyre worst results.  

The above diagram is from my game with George(from the 19th July Summer League), he as white is to play and he offered a draw, because after 1 e7 Bxe7 2 Nxe7 gxf4 the position is a total draw. But after 1 f5!! i am totally lost, so I was lucky to get a draw...

white to move in the game Bartolovich vs Abkin from 1902 st Petersburgh in the diagram below:-

Highlight below for the answer to the above puzzle:- 

1.Qf6+ Kg8 2.Qg7+!! Kxg7 3 h6+ and stalemate after king moves

In the Online County Championships the county (Cumbria) got smashed by Essex 9-3, this occured on saturday 17th July 2021. David Wright a previous Barrow member, got beat on board 9 , and so did I on board 10- i was doing ok buts just hit a brick wall with my mental stamina and made a horrendous howler see the diagram below, I play 1 a3?? and after the obvious 1...Bxf2 i am totally lost. My vision of the whole of the board had gone due to tiredness.

Hi Cumbrian chess players,

 I am looking into the possibility of creating a Cumbrian Chess Team maybe called the CUMBRIAN CHESS POETS, for the 4NCL League otb For next season beginning in November 2021 and going on to May day 2022. The format is a weekend away in Bolton or Doncaster, it would Mean one nights sleep, 69 pound single occupancy Saturday night, travelling down for the afternoon Saturday game and travelling back After the morning game on Sunday. 

There would be about 10 pound needed for petrol money and there are 5 weekends each about a month apart. If you want to play National chess in the 3rd division north of the national league you will have to be a ecf gold member. But maybe a payment of 20 pound or So by each club each weekend could help with the costs and make them manageable also a pool of players could be used we need 6 in a Team,

 also the county could provide the 75 pound or so registration fee in order to support the idea, and also pay for travel to the car Travel providers in Carlisle and Barrow, one car taking 3 people from each city as the main hub. Its just an idea at the moment but if anyone is interested to play email:Andy McAtear below-

andymcatear@btinternet.com

In the summer league night of 14th July 2021, not only did Kit Hopkins the leader not turn up but Dave Cole, the strongest challenge to Kit, didnt turn up either.  Theyre were only a few of us, and I(Alan Llewellyn) won with 6.5/7 points with Jon Duffield in second with 5.5/7.  The tally of the 8 scores( the best eight are counted), will be conducted on monday but(I think) Kit is still ahead with Frank Whalley and myself in that order.

 In the Lightning Tournament Kit Hopkins the leading player in our tournament, didnt show again and there were only four of us in the night of monday 12th July 2021.  Matthew Mackenzie did show and he got beat by me (Alan Llewellyn. I finished on 4/4 with Matthew on 3/4.  The overall standings were tallyed of the tournament (which is best 4 results) and Matthew is leading with 12.5  -I am second on 11.5 and Kit Hopkins is on third with 10.

In one of the biggest physical chess (called otb=over the board) meetings held since covid, Trevor Blower and myself(Alan Llewellyn) have finished joint 2nd in a field of 34 keen Chess players both with a score of 4/5.  It was in the Minor section. The diagram below shows a position fro one of my games can you guess the unexpected move I made-highlight the space below the diagram to find out what I played...   

I played 1...Bb1!! here which wins on the spot, 2 Kxb1 Kc3 and i hoover up the pawns

In the Summer League on Monday 5th July 2021, there were only four of us there, this created the rediculous situation that we all got 4 points for just turning up. But as Kit Hopkins, didnt show, who has dominated the tournament from the near beginning, certainly since usual winner Dave Cole has had to retire from the tournament for a few weeks due to health grounds(we hope he returns to health soon), who would win was up in the air. It wrested to Trevor Blower to final get the result he has long been threatening to win it with 6.5/7. I(Alan Llewellyn) came second on 5.5/7 and Frank Whalley and Jon Duffield finished on 5/7

In the Online County Championships, on Saturday 3rd July, Cumbria got well and trully defeated by Gloucestershire. They lost 9-3 with David Wright winning on board 10, a past Barrow member(now back at Ulverston), and also myself(Alan Llewellyn) winning a tough battle on board 11 of 12. Below is a interesting position from the my game vs Vince Southcott right at the end...

highlight the space below to see how the game went:-(White, ie me,to move)

45.Qe6+!! Ke8 46.Qd6!! h5 (if 46...Qxd6 47 Kxd6 and the pawn cant be stopped) 47.d8=Q+(the Queen is lost and its over-Vince resigned there).

The above diagram is got through the line (called the Morra Gambit) 1 e4 c5 2 d4 cxd4 3 c3 dxc3 4 Nxc3 Nc6 5 Nf3 d6 6 Bc4 Nf6 7 e5 and hides a fabulous and unexpected trap after the error 7...Nxe5?? the reply 8 Nxe5 dxe5?? is answered by 9 Bxf7+!! Kxf7 forced then 10 Qxd8 winning the Queen.  I have just learnt this line in my chess study.

Today in the summer league there were just 5 of us, Kit Hopkins won again with 7/7 , Frank Whalley finished second with 5.5/7 and Trevor Blower finished third with 5/7.

I(Alan Llewellyn) was up a full Queen vs rook against Kit Hopkins but his class shone through to keep advancing a pawn to the seventh rank and then double up rooks, he came through that scare only to lose on time in a fairly even endgame against Trevor Blower, he stepped over the 10 seconds a move allowed-you have to make youre move on the 10 second mark. Matthew Mackenzie-the other star player at our club-won from the position shown in the above diagram, I am Black and i played 1...Rxc3!! and after 2 Qxc3 Qxc3 3 Nxe4 Rde1 4 Nxc3+ black has an advantage but I was later outplayed. That left the decider between Kit and Matthew and although Kit won it, it meant Matthew and Kit tied for first place on 3/4.

Below is a real treat, Mikhail Tal known as the Riga Magician from the candidates match vs Bent Larsen in 1965, the match was even 4.5-4.5 going into the final game and in this game 10 Mikhail plays like a world champion again (his treatment for various debilitating illnesses had knocked him for 6 after becoming world champion in 1960/61)

On monday the 21st of June, the Summer League saw Kit continue with his near 100% record in the tournament so far, with 7/7 (his only loss of points was a draw vs Dave Cole on the first night), in second was Frank Whalley on 5.5/7 (-note-this is a correction) and third was Jon Duffield on 4.5/7.

After a drubbing 6.5-3.5 by Cheshire and North Wales, in the Online County Championships Minor Open round 1, we came up against easier opposition this second round, in the form of Somerset who we put to the sword 7-3. David Wright was playing for the Cumbria team, a past temporary Barrow Club Member but he must have had a problem because he did a no-show and got defaulted. I played in the 10th board place against someone who had a rating of 1192 officially but who was better than that as he had a 1500 elo, chess.com server rating

Below is a position from my win in the match at a vital moment, 16 Be2-f3 Qf6-g6 were the previous two moves to reach th diagram position. The threat is 17...Rxf3, how can White gain the initiative?

Highlight below for moves played:- 

The game went 17 Qxd4!!(the threat of Qd5+ winning the rook on a8 more than makes up for loss of Bishop) 17...c6 18 Qd6! (this time Rxf3 is met by Qxg6) 18...Rf6 19 Qg3! Qf7 20 e5 Rg6?? 21 Bh5! and I went on to win

Above is a diagram from the National Problem Solving Competition 2021 check out details of entering here Chess: your chance to enter the Winton British Solving Championship | Financial Times (ft.com) It is White to move and mate in two with the best defence by Black-highlight the area below to see the solution

1 Qa8 and a-1...Bb8 2 Qa1#, b-1...b5 2 Qxa7#, c-1...Nf moves 2 Qd5#, d-1...Ng moves 2 Qe4#, e-1...g6 2 Qh8# and black must make one of those moves-ie he is in zugwang after Qa8...

There were 6 of us at the Summer League night on the 16th June 2021. On that Wednesday, Kit Hopkins kept up his winning ways with a 7/7 score on the night, while I(Alan Llewellyn) was the closest with 5.5/7 in second and Frank Whalley achieved 5/7 in third.

Well it was another poorly attended lightning, one potential player(Peter from new zealand) came too late to enter(7:15pm is the cut of time) but there were then 5 players entered for the round with two 180 grades it was always going to be difficult but as there was an odd number one player each round got a bye for the 4 rounds. The unlucky non-bye player was Kit Hopkins again because he kept on winning in the first three rounds but there was not to be a repeat of his first night victory as despite Matthew Mackenzie only getting a draw against me first round, Kit lost against Matthew. That left Matthew on 3.5/4 with Kit on 3/4 and i (Alan Llewellyn) got 2.5/4 with Jon Duffield on a creditable 2/4 and showing just how difficult the event was the strong Trevor Blower only got 1/4

I, Alan Llewellyn entered the world famous online Hampstead Congress, due to reduced numbers of entrants everyone was placed in the Open section, I started badly losing first three including a rapidplay game that was a repairing but i got a 1 point bye that 3 rd round. The usual time control was 60 10 and it was held on zoom and has sophisticated anti-cheating technology. Anyway i won my last two games including against a famous junior and ended up in joint 3rd place with 3/5...the games are above.

Tonight there were only five of us but no competition on, the position from a friendly game between Martin Gawne and Sherri Bell is shown towards the end, in the game the position was simply repeated and though it was drawish there was a checkmate on for Sherri if Martin erred.

Tonight (mon 7th June 2021) Kit Hopkins got an advantage over Dave Cole in the Summer League with Kit winning their individual game to finish on 7/7 and Dave on 6/7 (only losing to Kit) Frank Whalley is the best of the rest having got 5/7. Above are two loses from the Summer League on the 7th,I wasnt sure of some of the later moves in our games are recorded right, the same may be true of the other game i recorded a few weeks ago on here. He plays to such a level i find it hard to remember his play.

Above is from a position from 'Chess' Magazine- it was shown to four promising 14 year olds who all found the answer but they had a hint before hand. Can you find the continuation which doesnt win but gives black an edge-note all other moves are losing. highlight below to see the answer:-

 1...Rxh2!! 2 Rxh2 Qxa3!! 3 bxa3 Bxa3+ 4 Kb1 Nc3+ 5 Ka1 Bb2+!! 6 Kxb2 Nxd1+ 7 Kc1 Nxe3 and black should convert the endgame

A full list of events online and otb(over the board meaning physical games) can be found on the English Chess Federation website look for the calendar tab but highlighted events can be found on this site on the events page here.  

In the Summer League, the other major tournament this summer, we had four new members join the competition those were Kit Hopkins, Sherri Bell, Robert Jones and a young 15 yo (I wont give his last name out of online security principles but his first name is Matthew).

The run away winners were Kit and Dave Cole both achieving a score of 6.5/7-the only points dropped by both sides was a draw against each other.

The Lightning Tournament for this summerstarted on monday 31st may 2021, which is normally held in winter, but was delayed by covid last year but is in the current season 2020-21.  The first round was really between the two top players in the club Matthew Mackenzie and Kit Hopkins.  They saw a titanic struggle which kit just came up winner, above is a video of my gme vs kit. See if you can spot the missed mate at the end for kit. highlight the space below:-note/the move he played was certainly good enough to win anyway.

 Instead of te final move Ra8?, 1 Rxg5+ Kh8 2 Be5+ f6 3 Bxf6# it was missed a few times by white

The diagram above is from an online friendly rapidplay game showing how ridiculous online chess can be-its against a strong club player from america, i played the incredibly dense 17 Qb3?? after only a seconds thought, he paused and thought for several minutes with me hovering over the resign button(because of Nxb3) when he came up with the totally inspired 17...Nf3+?? and after 18 Bxf3 Rxf3 19 Qxb7 he trumped that disaster with 19...Rb8?? and so after 20 Qxf3 it was him who resigned-the moral of the story is never resign prematurely in onlie chess even rapid.

The rules to the club competitions have been updated in the light of the new rating system from the english chess federation which gives a 4 digit value in most cases not 3 ain the old system, to see the new rules look here. They can also be found at the bottom of the competitions page by clicking on the competitions tag. 

The results from the abondoned club championshihave been updated in the competitions page, the archive can be found here   and the itenerary for this summers events starting in June 2021 and going on until september 2021 when the season begins again has been updated in the season itenrary word document, a link of which can also be found on the competitions page and be found here.

The chess club started up again on Wednesday the 19th May 2021, the people there were Dave Cole, Trevor Blower, Frank Whalley, Scott Bower, Jon Duffield, Dave Martin, Martin Gawne, myself(Alan Llewellyn), a visitor from Morcambe chess club, Michael Farthing and two other new members, Kit Hopkin and Sherri Bell.

Ian Nepomniachtchi is the challenger to Magnus Carlsens crown as Anish Giri lost to Alexander Grischuk, and Maxime struggled to get any attack going against Nepo. Even though there is a round to go Nepo cannot now be caught as if Anish wins the final round and Nepo loses, it is decided on tie-break which the first tie-break is head to head results and Nepo beats Anish on them.  

 

 Standings of the 2020–21 Candidates Tournament
Rank Player Score H2H Wins SB Qualification IN Giri FC MVL AG Ding Wang KA
1  Ian Nepomniachtchi (RUS) 8.5 / 13 - 5 51 Advance to title match ½ 1 ½ ½ ½ 0 ½ ½ 1    1 1 1 ½
2  Anish Giri (NED) 7.5 / 13 - 4 46 0 ½ ½ 1 ½ ½ ½ 0 1 ½ 1 ½ 1
3  Fabiano Caruana (USA) 7 / 13 1.5 3 43.25 ½ ½ 0 ½ 1 ½ ½ ½ 0 ½ 1 1 ½
4  Maxime Vachier-Lagrave (FRA) 7 / 13 0.5 3 45.25 1 ½ ½ ½ ½ 0 ½ 0 1 ½ ½ 1 ½
5  Alexander Grischuk (RUS) 6.5 / 13 - 2 44 ½ ½ 1 ½ ½    1 ½ ½ 0 ½ ½ ½ 0
6  Ding Liren (CHN) 6 / 13 - 3 36.75 0 ½ 0 1 ½ ½ 0 1 ½ 0 ½ ½ 1
7  Wang Hao (CHN) 5 / 13 - 1 30.75 0 0 ½ 0 0 ½ ½    ½ ½ ½ 1 ½ ½
8  Kirill Alekseenko (RUS) 4.5 / 13 - 1 29 ½ 0 0    ½ 0 ½ 0 1 ½ 0 ½ ½ ½

It was a very eventfull saturday after on friday Anish Giri was the only one of the main candidates to win, while MVL stumbled out of contention with loss, that meant there were only three in contention ian nepo on 7/11, anish giri on 6.5/11 and Fabiano Caruana on 6/11, while MVL won against Krill Alekseenko in round 12, the game of the round was Fabiano Caruana vs Anish Giri, practicaly to decide who of them will put up a challenge to Nepo's lead in the tournament.

 All the games had results on saturday with Liren Ding winning against Grischuk, but the result which i have encluded in the games list was Hoa Wang vs Ian Nepo which started rather rediculously, almost in choriagraphed style but Ian wore Hoa down to maintain his lead. It is a rest day today but going into the final rounds it is between Anish Giri(a dutch man born in russia but half nepalise) and Ian Nepo(sorry again for not spelling his full name but it is a journalists nightmare of a name), a russian, although MVL plays Nepo in round 13 with the black pieces and if he wins that still has a mathematical chance of what could be a three way tie for the lead.

 Standings of the 2020–21 Candidates Tournament
Rank Player Score H2H Wins SB IN Giri MVL FC AG Wang Ding KA
1  Ian Nepomniachtchi (RUS) 8 / 12 - 5 44.5 ½ 1 0 ½ ½ ½ ½ 1 1 1    1 ½
2  Anish Giri (NED) 7.5 / 12 - 4 41.75 0 ½ ½ ½ ½ 1 ½    1 ½ 1 ½ 1
3  Maxime Vachier-Lagrave (FRA) 6.5 / 12 - 3 38 1    ½ ½ ½ 0 ½ 0 ½ 1 ½ 1 ½
4  Fabiano Caruana (USA) 6 / 12 - 2 36 ½ ½ 0 ½ 1 ½ ½ ½    ½ 0 1 ½
5  Alexander Grischuk (RUS) 5.5 / 12 - 1 34.25 ½ ½ ½ 1 ½ ½    ½ ½ ½ 0 ½ 0
6  Wang Hao (CHN) 5 / 12 1.5 1 27.5 0 0 ½ 0 ½    ½ ½ ½ ½ 1 ½ ½
7  Ding Liren (CHN) 5 / 12 0.5 2 29 0 ½ 0 ½ 0 1 ½ 1 ½ 0 ½ ½   
8  Kirill Alekseenko (RUS) 4.5 / 12 - 1 26 ½ 0 0    ½ 0 ½ 0 1 ½ ½ ½ ½

It is a rest day  in the candidates tournament Thursday 22nd April 2021, and there is no play today.  Play will resume Friday 23rd April and will continue,daily, till the next rest day on Sunday 25th April. Now coverage of this tournament by me will not continue until Sunday Afternoon 25th when i will talk about the previous two days. This is due to two games i am going to play friday and saturday in the internet chess club 45 minute 45 second increment League.    

The Candidates Round 10 of 14 rounds

 The above game wasnt the decisive one today but it was the most exciting with Fabiano Caruana of USA playing some amazingly exciting moves against Liren Ding the other Chinese player in the tournament.  The reason I didnt show Nepo's win vs Aleeksenko is that I suspect the Russians are upto their old tricks, I could be wrong but in the past the Russians have deliberately fixed games to further their chosen champion.  Both are Russians, they don't have to compete against each other but fixing the result of a tournament hurts western players and it hurts chess.

The results after round 10 are given below:-

The above game was the only descisive game of today in the candidates between the Chinese hope, Wang Hao and the Dutch favourite Anish Giri who after this impressive win joins the other two western players chasing after the russian Nepo of the unpronounceable name.  Incidentally MVL was on the ropes again in his game with Liren Ding but a mixture of extreme luck and great play from MVL saw him keep his challenger status open.  

 

 Standings of the 2020–21 Candidates Tournament
Rank Player Score H2H Wins SB IN FC Giri MVL KA Wang AG Ding
1  Ian Nepomniachtchi (RUS) 5.5 / 9 - 3 23.5 ½ ½ 1 0 ½ 1    ½ ½ 1   
2  Fabiano Caruana (USA) 5 / 9 0.5 2 22.75 ½    ½ 1 ½ 1 ½ ½    ½ 0
3  Anish Giri (NED) 5 / 9 0.5 2 21.5 0 ½ ½    ½    1 1 ½ ½    ½
4  Maxime Vachier-Lagrave (FRA) 5 / 9 - 2 21.75 1    ½ 0 ½ ½ ½ ½    1 ½
5  Kirill Alekseenko (RUS) 4 / 9 2 1 17.5 ½    ½ 0 0    ½    ½ 1 ½ ½
6  Wang Hao (CHN) 4 / 9 1 1 16.75 0 ½ ½ 0 ½    ½    ½ ½ 1
7  Alexander Grischuk (RUS) 4 / 9 1 0 18.75 ½ ½ ½    ½ ½ ½ 0 ½    ½   
8  Ding Liren (CHN) 3.5 / 9 - 1 16 0 1    ½    ½ 0 ½    0 ½ ½

the above game is from the candidates round 8 from Erakeritenburg in West Russia (apparently named after a wife [,Catherine] of Peter the Great), its between two of the Westsbig chess hopes in the tourney the American Fabiano Caruana [who challenged for the title unsuccessfully against Magnus in 2017] and as black Maxime Vachier-Lagrave who was a joint leader of the tournament at the half way stage.  Well Fabiano came prepared with a fantasticline against Maximes pet poisoned pawn Najdorf Sicilian, this opening is named after the Argentinian player  Miguel Najdorf who invented it almost a centuary ago, i am not sure who invented the exact poisoned pawn variation, probably Bronstein.

The win for Fabiano takes him to second spot along with Maxime, who loses first spot to Ian Nepo, who drew, the scores are below:-

 Standings of the 2020–21 Candidates Tournament
Rank Player Score H2H Wins SB IN FC MVL Giri Wang KA AG Ding
1  Ian Nepomniachtchi (RUS) 5 / 8 - 3 18.75 ½ 0 ½ 1 1    ½ ½    1   
2-3  Fabiano Caruana (USA) 4.5 / 8 1.5 2 18.5 ½    1 ½ ½ ½    1    ½ 0
2-3  Maxime Vachier-Lagrave (FRA) 4.5 / 8 0.5 2 17.75 1    ½ 0 ½ ½ ½ ½    1   
4–5  Anish Giri (NED) 4 / 8 0.5 1 15.75 0 ½ ½    ½    ½ 1 ½    ½
4–5  Wang Hao (CHN) 4 / 8 0.5 1 14.5 0 ½ ½    ½    ½    ½ ½ 1
6-7  Kirill Alekseenko (RUS) 3.5 / 8 1.5 1 13.5 ½    0 ½    0    ½ 1 ½ ½
6-7  Alexander Grischuk (RUS) 3.5 / 8 0.5 0 14.25 ½ ½    ½ ½ ½    ½ 0 ½   
8  Ding Liren (CHN) 3 / 8 - 1 12 0 1    0 ½    0 ½ ½    ½

The Candidates Tournament (a proper physicaly played) 2021 concludes today and for the next few weeks in Russia to decide who plays the off form Magnus Carlson in November this year in Dubai.   I will have extensive coverage on this website-the favourites are Ian Nepo and MVL (appolougies for the shortened names but they both have complex names to spell) the first is a improving Russian and the second is an established Frenchman. Details of todays games after they are played this evening...(wrote at 13:56 19/04/2021). 

SOUTH LAKES CONGRESS 2021 & 2022 

Now society is opening up with lockdown easing, we were looking at the possibility of holding the 2021 South Lakes Chess Congress (SLC) later this year. Unfortunately the Kendal Leisure Centre is not available for the remainder of the year and therefore we have to announce that the 2021 event is cancelled. The good news though is that we plan to hold the 2022 event in Kendal on the weekend of June 3rd, 4th and 5th. The Kendal Leisure Centre is booked and we hope to see you there; an entry form will be available at the end of the year. Keep well and safe Thanks The SLC Organisers 

Cheers Dave