To Resign or Not to Resign...

 I was intrigued by this brevity I found in the Wolverhampton Express and Star for 11 October 1950...

The print is a bit fuzzy so here's the game in a more user-friendly format...

You will notice that the columnist awards an exclamation mark to Black's 5th and 6th moves. That said, he suggests that 7 Qh5 might have been tried, with 7...g6 being met by 8 Qg5+ and 7...f6 being met by "NxPch" except that there is no such move available so maybe he meant 8 Ng6+.

But anyway, here's a poser for you. What should White do in the final position after 6...Ke7? Should he (a) resign; (b) follow the columnist's advice and play 7 Qh5; or (c) play something else? (and if so, what?)

White was the Rev. (Eric) Gilbert Wood (1901-79), the Rector of Beckbury in Shropshire, who later retired to Hastings to spend more time with his chess pieces. I've found two more of his games which were also over in six moves.

On the above occasion the Resigning Rector clearly did the right thing as Bxf7+ followed by Qe6 mate is not hard to foresee.

In our final six-move fiasco, which pre-dates the other two, the Reverend Wood was the victor...

Imagine the elation the clergyman felt later on seeing the score published in CHESS magazine, where it was declared to be the shortest game of the 1948 British Championship congress. But, as it says in Proverbs 16:18, "Pride goeth before destruction, and an haughty spirit before a fall."

Here endeth the lesson.

MORE ADVANCED CHESS DATABASE SORTING

We've already had a look at ways of sorting a chess database using ChessBase. Let's quickly recap: in ChessBase you can sort a database based on the game date or the tournament start date. One or the other, but you can't combine the two, or add in more sort options as you can in more sophisticated items of software such as spreadsheets.

Just yesterday I needed to sort an old file of games from Division 3 of the 4NCL (British Team League), season 2001/2. There were 12 teams of eight players taking part in a all-play-all, round robin event between October 2001 and May 2002. I like to pack as much meaningful information into the Tournament field as possible, so I decided on the following standard name...

4NCL/2001-02/D3/xxx-yyy

... thus showing the league name, the season, the division, plus short codes (represented here as xxx and yyy) for the two teams involved in the match (e.g. WS = Warwickshire Select or PP2 = Poisoned Pawns 2nd team). Of course, this latter information can also be stored in the White Team and Black Team fields, but I like to have it visible in the tournament index.

I also use the round and sub-round fields, where the former is self-explanatory and the latter is used to show the board number within the individual match. My desired overall sort order is of course chronological. I like to group individual matches together in board order, top to bottom, as per the following image...

Image 1: the desired sort order for the 4NCL 2001/2 Division 3 games. Each eight-game match is grouped together with a discrete name, round by round, and in board order, top to bottom.

Image 1 above shows you the desired end product with the relevant data for each game, in what is probably the most logical order. 

That's how we want the database sorted, but let's suppose our starting point was the same database but in a completely random order, e.g. as shown below in Image 2...

Image 2: here's the same database but in scrambled order. What we want to achieve is to transform the random order of Image 2 into the logical sequence shown in Image 1.

OK, how to go about sorting the random order of Image 2 into the logical order shown in Image 1. 

HOW NOT TO SORT THIS DATABASE...

One thing we might try is to click (twice) on the Date tab, which produces the following...

Image 3: the database shown after double-clicking on the Date tab (encircled in red). But it's not the sort order we want as it groups all the board 1s together (see the column indicated by the arrow) rather than showing all the boards of each match grouped together. 

If you look closely at Image 3 you can see that our simple sort using the Date field has not worked as it groups together all the board 1s for a particular date, then all the board 2s, etc, etc. That's not what we want.

HOW TO SORT THIS DATABASE... SUCCESSFULLY, THIS TIME

OK, so let's go back to the start and see if ChessBase's built-in Sort Database function can do the trick. Go to the CB database window...

Image 4: using the built-in ChessBase sort function. Right-click on the database you want to sort, move the mouse down to TOOLS and then click where you see SORT DATABASE.

As explained in a previous post, you can sort a database from the database window. Highlight (single-left-mouse-click) the database you wish to sort, then right-mouse-click to display a further drop-down menu, move the mouse pointer to where it says TOOLS, which opens up a further drop-down menu, move the mouse pointer across to where it says SORT DATABASE and left-mouse-click.

You will be asked to choose between an ascending and descending sort - default is ascending so just click on OK.

Now if you go back and look at the database, you'll find yourself it looks like Image 1. Yes, it's good news, the operation was successful. Congratulations, you are now the proud owner of a logically-ordered sort database.

Here's how ChessBase have documented the Sort Database facility in the Advanced Database Management section of their CB14 Help pages.

► Sort database

Sort the games of a database according on year and tournament only and fixes this sort order. You have the choice between ascending or descending. This function is maintained from the CB 8 program because some users do not like to see that some functions are disappeared.

There you have it (in slightly sub-standard English): the tournament field is an integral part of the sort and helps to put the games in the order we need. (I was slightly perturbed to read the last sentence which seems to hint that the ChessBase company itself is not committed to the idea of retaining this function - which I would have thought was essential - but have, perhaps reluctantly, bowed to user pressure. Maybe I'm reading too much into it.)

WHAT HAPPENS IF YOU DON'T INCLUDE CODES FOR TEAMS...

Let's consider what happens if the tournament field doesn't include those team codes.

You will recall that we built in short codes denoting the teams into the tournament field, e.g. WS = Warwickshire Select, GUI3 = Guildford 3rd team. The underlying reason for including these codes was to make ChessBase's built-in sort function do the job properly. 

Or so I thought... before going on I should add that all of the games in this database have the White Team and Black Team fields filled in as you can see from this image of the Team index tag...

Image 5: the Team index tag shows the team names with dates and flags,
and tells us that all 480 games in the database have this information.

Now the test database includes the team fields but doesn't have short codes for the teams in the tournament field, so it shows as exactly the same for every game, thus 4NCL/2001-02/D3, indicating the identity of the competition, the season and the division of the league.

Image 6: the test database in random order, showing you the simplified tournament identifier, minus the short team codes, but showing full team information in the White Team and Black Team fields, as indicated by the red arrows.

Now we can run ChessBase's built-in Sort Database again (see Image 4 above) and see what happens.

Here I was agreeably surprised. Having read the CB14 Help information, I thought it might simply refer to the tournament field - now the same for all games, so no longer useful for sorting - and then refer to the date field and the round/sub-round data, producing a similar failure to the one shown in Image 3, with all the board ones grouped together in each round.

But I was wrong! It worked perfectly and produced the following result...

Image 7: a perfect sort, showing games grouped into matches, in board order. 

There you have it: ChessBase's sort worked exactly as required, grouping matches correctly in board order. And a bit of later testing showed me that it works correctly because it makes reference to the team names saved with each game and is 'clever' enough to use them to group games together into discrete matches. That seems to indicate that, to achieve a logical sort of a team chess database, you need either to supply different tournament fields for each match played or else make sure every game has the two teams identified.

A caveat: CB functions can differ between different versions of the software, and it is also important to apply all the software updates that are available. It is quite possible that earlier versions won't produce the same result.

A THIRD SCENARIO - NO TEAM NAMES

What happens when the games don't have team names for the players or different tournament data for each individual match? In those circumstances the sort function doesn't have anything to work from other than game date plus round/board numbers. So once again it gives you all the round 1, board 1s, followed by the round 1, board 2s, etc, which is not what is required.

A popular work-around in these circumstances is to edit the sub-round data so that the sort works. So, using our 4NCL example, you attribute a notional number between 1 and 6 to each of the six first-round matches. So for the first match you enter the sub-round data for board 1 as "11", board 2 as "12", etc, up to "18" for the bottom board. Then for the second match of that match you enter the top board sub-round data as "21" and the rest of the boards similarly "22", "23", etc. You can see that the software will then happily sort them into the desired order. But it's an unsatisfactory bodge of a solution, of course. If you publish games like this, end users may be puzzled as to what the significance of the sub-round data is.

That's it for this post. Good ChessBasing to all my readers.

Using ChessBase: To Sort or Not to Sort, That is the Question

This is the second in what could become a series of occasional technical posts about using ChessBase software. The first such post was a guide to sending games via email. This time I'm considering different ways to sort ChessBase databases and their pros and cons. 

Hereafter I'll abbreviate ChessBase to CB. Note that I use CB version 14 and you need to be aware that earlier or later versions of the software may work in a different way or have different menu designations.

DO YOU REALLY NEED TO SORT A DATABASE?

First, a philosophical question for the reader: do you really want or need to sort a database? The reason I raise the question is that there can be valid reasons for leaving a database unsorted. Sometimes it can be useful to retain the order in which games are added to a database (which would no longer be available after a sort). For example, the database which I use to store the entirety of games on the BritBase.info website which I maintain I often leave unsorted for long periods of time. It acts an an aide-memoire to see what I have added recently and what I have been working on. There are other ways of achieving this but the easiest way to do so is by leaving it unsorted. 

VIEWING SORTED DATA IN AN UNSORTED DATABASE

It is also worth noting that CB has facilities which allow you to view games in various logical orders even when a CB database as a whole is unsorted. We can think of these as a temporary sort. 

For example, you can still view a specific player's games in chronological order despite the database being unsorted. You can do this via the Player Index, which is one of the best features of the software. 

Here are the steps to see a player's games in chronological order in an unsorted database:

• In the database window, CTRL+P takes you to the player index (or click on the Player tab if you are already in the list window for that database). 
• Then find and highlight the player you are interested in and you should see a list of games on the right side of the screen. 
• At the top of the right hand window, you can now click on the Date tab to show you the games of that player in chronological order (you can click multiple times to see the game in descending order, revert to ascending, etc)

Note that the above steps produce no permanent change to the database order. It's simply a temporary way to view data in a desired order. 

Much the same can be done to view games played in a specific tournament where the individual games could be anywhere in an unsorted database. The Tournament Index is another excellent CB feature which many users neither use nor appreciate.

Here are the steps to see the games of a tournament in round order in an unsorted database:

• In the database window, CTRL+T takes you to the tournament index (or click on the Tournaments tab if you are already in the list window for that database). The left-hand column shows the tournament names while the right-hand column shows the games contained in the highlighted tournament.
• Then find and highlight the tournament you are interested in. A good way to do this is to use the search window at the bottom of the left-hand column. (see the image below) Click in the box there and type in, e,g. "1973 hast" and it should show you entries for the 1973/74 Hastings tournament. But type quickly! This is a quirky feature of CB which triggers a matter of seconds after you start typing in the box. It doesn't wait for you to press send after typing. Remember the old proverb "he who hesitates is lost": when you're used to the speed-typing necessary to use it properly, you'll realise it's a powerful search facility which finds what you want very well. Alternatively, just page down alphabetically, or use the Tournament Start Date tab to navigate to what you want.
• Once you've highlighted the tournament you are interested in, you should see a list of games on the right side of the screen. 
• They may not yet be in round order, so click on the Round tab in the right-hand window and they should now be displayed in round order.

A ChessBase Tournament Index window, with the search field encircled in red. Use this facility to find specific years, tournaments and places on your database - but type fast!

ARE YOUR PLAYER AND TOURNAMENT INDEXES IN GOOD SHAPE?

A snag (there are always snags in CB): your Player Index and/or Tournament Index may not be in good enough shape to make the above work to perfection. 

For example, you may have different versions of a player's name, e.g. a well-known Norwegian player may be listed as Carlsen, Magnus or Carlsen, M or Magnus Carlsen or heaven knows what else. You'll need to sort this out before a temporary sort can include all of said player's games. I might write another post about how to do that in due course.

Also note that the CB Player Index places surnames which start with a lower case letter below all of those which start with an upper case letter. Hence, for example, "de Veauce, Louis" (and a multitude of Dutch "van"s) will be below "Zukertort, Johannes".

Even more likely is that you will have different versions of a tournament's games. For BritBase I try to standardise tournament identifiers but it takes time and it is understandable that many CB users are less careful about this. This might be the subject of another post in due course.

HOW GOOD IS YOUR START DATE?

Warning: a major snag with the Tournament Index is that the start date is often either missing or wrong. Inexperienced inputters may be oblivious to the need for, or the existence of, a start date as it does not appear in a CB game window, nor does it show in the basic CB 'save game' window. Start dates are only readily visible on a Tournament Index page where you can see them given in the 'Tournament start' column.

The start date is the date on which a tournament or competition begins and will (or should) be the same for every game played in that specific competition. 

When a game is input and added to a database, the basic 'save' screen invites the user to type in a game date. However, there is an additional start date which can (and should) be entered in an additional window which only appears when you click on the 'Details' button in the basic 'save' window.

Inexperienced ChessBase game inputters often neglect to include the start date.
Clicking on the DETAILS button (circled in red) leads to the following screen...

... where you can input the tournament start date in the field circled in red. Unless the date entered here is accurate, then a Method 2 sort will not produce accurate results.

An example of a Tournament Index window, with the tournament start date encircled in red.

OK, YOU REALLY WANT TO SORT THE DATABASE - HERE'S HOW

I'm assuming that you, the reader, have now read all the disclaimers and warnings and suggested alternatives but are still bent on sorting the database and want to know how. "A most courageous decision, minister!" as Sir Humphrey would say in the TV show Yes, Prime Minister.

No, seriously, it's not that big of a deal but I really must insist that you do one thing before taking any of the steps below and that is...

BACK UP YOUR DATA!!

... and don't come whining to me if you fail to do this and it all goes horribly wrong.

Backing up a database - or creating an archive, as it sometimes referred to - is essential before major changes such as sorting. It's also good practice when you've entered an appreciable number of new games. It's easy and doesn't take any time at all (assuming the database you're saving isn't a whopper).

How to back-up 

• go to the Database window
• highlight the database you want to back up
• CTRL+Z
• it offers you Encrypted or Unencrypted, Take the default option (unencrypted) and click OK.
• it will then prompt you to save to a file (suffix *.cbv). Its suggested name will usually be OK for most purposes so you can simply click OK.

That's it, you're done. You can sleep easy in your bed knowing that all those positional masterpieces you played for Little Piddlington 'C' team in division five of the Barsetshire League, contributions to the theory of Damiano's Defence, etc, are saved for posterity.

Sorting a CB Database

There are actually two ways of sorting a CB database which I shall dub Method 1 and Method 2. In a Method 1 sort, the basis for the sort is the game date. It takes no account of the start date or whether the database has games from different competitions. Hence it will probably only be useful for sorting a database of games from a specific tournament or (division of) a league. A Method 2 sort is based on the start date and can be used on a database which has many different competitions included in it, but depends on the start dates of games to be accurate in order to produce a reliable chronological order.

Something to be aware of is that a Method 1 sort only works with absolute precision when you have a full date for each game. Thus, if a game has only the year and not month or day, it will sort those games at the start of that year. Let's imagine you played in Hastings Challengers 1973/74. If any of your 1974 games doesn't have a full date and is just dated "1974" then the sort defaults to the beginning of the year - it will plonk the 1974 game right in the middle of those Hastings games after the December 1973 rounds but before the January 1974 ones. (Even if the game is dated "1.1974" i.e. sometime in January 1974, the same will happen.) That's not the end of the world as this can be manually adjusted later. Another anomaly: if you have entered the games of a rapidplay tournament (all played on the same day) in the order you played them but not specified the round numbers, then a sort of either method can randomise the order in which they appear. In this case you might want to add round numbers to those games before proceeding. 

Here's how to apply Method 1.

1) in the game list, click on the date tab to put the games in chronological order (click the tab a second time and it will put them in reverse chronological order) - when it shows the order you want (presumably oldest game first), you are ready to proceed. What you have done so far is a temporary sort which we now want to make permanent...

2) click on the GAMES drop-down menu right at the top of the page (n.b. this is not the Games tab immediately above the list of games, but the top-level drop-down menu item that comes after STATISTICS)

3) click on the FIX SORT ORDER option. It will ask you to confirm, click OK.

That should do it. (It's just possible that it's different in your version of CB - mine is CB v14 - but I think it's a fairly standard feature.)

An example of a ChessBase game list: to effect a temporary sort of the games into chronological order, simply click on Date (encircled in red). (N.B. don't confuse the 'Games' tab (also encircled in red) with the 'Games' item in the top-level menu). Now, let's suppose you've clicked on Date and want to make the sort permanent...

... the games are now in strict chronological order (but notice how games from different sections are mixed up together - you may or may not want this - also, games without month or date go before the others... and one game looks to have an inaccurate date). If you're happy with this temporary sort, you want to click on 'Games' from the top-level drop-down menu, in order to access the 'Fix Sort Order' button.

Method 2 is an arguably simpler way to sort a database which produces almost (but not quite) the same chronological order. Before doing so, the same recommendation as before - make a back-up. You should also take heed of the above warning about 

Method 2 does basically the same thing as Method 1 but there is a subtle difference. For example, unlike Method 1 which works on strict chronological order based on the game date, a Method 2 sort uses as its basis the start date. If you have games played in the same event with identical tournament identifier and start dates, but which are played on different dates spread over the course of a chess season, then it will use the start date to group them together in a block regardless of the fact that games in other competitions may have been played between the event's start and end dates. (And, as pointed out above, if you know the start dates for games in the database to be wrong or missing, then a Method 2 sort will produce unsatisfactory or unreliable results.)

For example, if your 4NCL games for a season, played, let's say, between October 2001 and May 2002, all have the same tournament identifier, a Method 2 sort will use the start date as the basis of the sort to place the first game, and then the rest of the season's 4NCL games immediately after them. There will follow all the other non-4NCL games played in that season subsequent to the 4NCL first round. So you could find a game played in the 4NCL on 1 May 2002 followed by a game played in the London League on 10 October 2001. This doesn't have to be the end of the world but you should be aware. 

1) in the initial database window, left-mouse-click to highlight the database you are intending to sort

2) right-mouse-click the database to show a sub-menu

3) hover over TOOLS which will show a further sub-menu

4) click on SORT DATABASE

5) it will offer you a choice of ascending and descending order. Click OK.

2024 Kingston Invitational Tournament - Postscript

 Just to say that my coverage of the 2024 Kingston Invitational tournament has now been moved to its rightful home, the Kingston Chess Club website, as was always the intention. I hosted it here on my personal blog for various technical reasons, mainly because the organiser's computer decided to expire a matter of days before the tournament started. I shall leave these pages in place anyway, but please do visit the Kingston website where the game-viewing facilities are particularly good.

2024 Kingston Invitational, Day 5, Rounds 8 & 9, 16 August

The finish to the 3rd Kingston Invitational resembled the never-ending traffic jam which crawls past the venue: a four-player pile-up. Scoring 6½/9 were Maciej Czopor (who took the trophy on tie-break), Vladyslav Larkin, Roland Bezuidenhout, and Stanley Badacsonyi who also became the inaugural winner of the Barden Cup for the best score of a player under 16 (and he's still only 14) and went through unbeaten.

Four winners with the organiser Stephen Moss (2nd from right): Roland Bezuidenhout, Vladyslav Larkin, Maciej Czopor (trophy on tie-break) and Stanley Badacsonyi (with the Barden Cup)

The tournament has been a great success thanks to the fifth man in the above photo, organiser Stephen Moss, whose brainchild it has been. I remember writing somewhere that chess organisers rank next to God in the chess pantheon as without them there would be no organised chess. So, before proceeding to a description of the day's events, we must stand and salute the tournament's Godfather. I kiss your hand, Don Stephen.

ROUND 7¼

Before round eight started, there was the small matter of concluding round seven. This epic game had been adjourned at 10pm the previous evening on move 203 and resumed at the unearthly hour of 8.15am on Friday. The two players, 14-year-old Billy Fellowes and Peter Lalic duly continued, but the younger player's game started to worsen very soon and by move 219 it was apparent that his position was resignable. The fact that White didn't resign at that point or soon after is not something that deserves criticism since that is the norm for junior chess and what he will be accustomed to. The game carried on to move 272, which at first was thought to be a record for OTB rated chess but turns out not to be, as several other games have been found which went on longer. The game has led to a great deal of harrumphing amongst the chess chattering classes. I don't propose to say more about it here, but I might do in the October issue of CHESS (which you simply must subscribe to in order to be well-informed about chess).

ROUND 8

Three players started the round in the joint lead and three players ended it thus, but they were not the same players. Stanley Badacsonyi drew with his second IM in a row when he played out a draw with Vladyslav Larkin, but IM Conor Murphy, winner of last year's Kingston Invitational, lost to South African FM Roland Bezuidenhout and was replaced by him at the head of the score table.

Stanley Badacsonyi makes his debut as an FM versus IM Vladyslav Larkin

Badacsonyi had White against Larkin and the opening, according to ChessBase software was a "Pirc Miscellaneous" though Black never fianchettoed his f8 bishop. The queens came off early and Stockfish claimed a small advantage to Black. Nevertheless, Badacsonyi played accurately and any trace of a Black edge dissipated. At the end there was a curiosity where Black gave up the exchange, but in a position where the opposing rooks had little chance of exploiting this, so a draw seemed a fair result.

FM Roland Bezuidenhout had to beat IM Conor Murphy twice to move into a tie for first place

Meanwhile Murphy-Bezuidenhout began with a Rauzer Sicilian, with Black trying a pawn sacrifice to get queenside play. It could have been countered more energetically but Murphy, playing the white side, was curiously hesitant and soon drifted into a disastrous position and Black's counter crashed through. Or very nearly... a false step suddenly spoilt the black position and Bezuidenhout found himself having to win the game all over again. Conor Murphy might have dug himself out of a hole a second time but this time failed to find a way out. His chances of prolonging his reign as the Kingston Invitational champ now hung by a thread going into the final round.

Maciej Czopor, playing White, opened with an English against Kenneth Hobson. The Polish FM steadily improved his position and piled on the pressure until Black allowed his light-squared bishop to be trapped and captured. Black had some nebulous compensation thereafter but it was never enough.

Mark Josse, playing the black side of a non-standard Sicilian set-up, seemed to keep Gavin Wall comfortably at bay until he (Josse) unaccountably shed two pawns on moves 38 and 40, and that was the end of the story.

Peter Large (White) against Michael Healey started with a Bb5 Sicilian and proceeded in orderly fashion until Black committed a calamitous gaffe which I'm sure he will be delighted to see reproduced here (sorry, Mike).

ROUND 9

As the final round began, players on the top three boards all had an interest in the top prize, which was £1,000, descending steeply to £300 for second and £100 for third. Badacsonyi, Bezuidenhout and Larkin were on 6, while Murphy, Czopor and Wall were half a point behind on 5½.

Roland Bezuidenhout (right) shakes hands with Stanley Badacsonyi at the start of their game

Roland Bezuidenhout was White against Stanley Badacsonyi in the top board battle between two 6-pointers. The opening was a Symmetrical English. White tried to mix things up a little but the canny youngster managed to dampen it down a little. When the last of the queenside pawns disappeared on move 39 the players decided a draw was the only result.

Last year's winner Conor Murphy drew and thus failed to displace Vladyslav Larkin from the top prize

Last year's winner Conor Murphy, playing the black side of a Catalan, couldn't make much impression on Vladyslav Larkin. As with the top board, the imminent disappearance of all queenside pawns was the signal to abandon the struggle, in just 22 moves.

Maciej Czopor (right) defeated Gavin Wall to claim a fourth share of the top prize money

That meant that the three leaders from the morning round, Badacsonyi, Larkin and Bezuidenhout, knew they had shared first prize, but by the time the games had ended another player had already reached the a score of 6½ as Maciej Czopor had scored a quick win with Black against Gavin Wall. 

That settled the division of the money prizes, with each of the four on the top score receiving £350 each. 

Young Star Supratit Banerjee and Old Master Peter Large provided entertainment

There was plenty of entertaining chess played on the other boards, as is so often the case in the last round when players are tired and go on tilt. Here's an episode from the game between Supratit Banerjee and Peter Large.

Late-night/early morning marathon man Peter Lalic suffered as a long day wore on.
Here he faces Matthew Payne in the final round and punts the Elephant Gambit.

Casting our minds back to round 7¼, we'll recall that Peter Lalic played some 70+ moves in the early morning adjournment session. That must have taken a lot out of him as in round 8 he lost quite quickly to Remy Rushbrooke. In the final round he seemed to rediscover his energy and was clearly winning when he reached the following position against Matthew Payne:

That's about it from, except for the best game prize which is as yet undecided. I'm going to sleep on it. Watch this space!

Final Crosstable

2024 Kingston Invitational, Day 4, Rounds 6 & 7, 15 August

The two overnight leaders Conor Murphy and Stanley Badacsonyi drew their seventh round game and have been caught in the lead on 5½/7 by slow-starting Vladyslav Larkin who scored his fifth successive victory in beating Maciej Czopor. Two players, Kenneth Hobson and Roland Bezuidenhout, are on 5/7. Two rounds remain.

ROUND SIX

A clash between the two overnight leaders, Stanley Badacsonyi and Conor Murphy, might have been expected in the morning but the 14-year-old player from East Finchley was otherwise engaged and took a half-point bye. His prior engagement was a family trip to learn (and hopefully celebrate) his elder brother's A-Level results, which is something which has become quite a thing in the UK. For those not familiar with the British educational system, A-Level (A stands for 'advanced') exams are taken around the age of 18 which largely determine which university the student goes to (or not, as the case may be).

The Browning Version of the Ruy Lopez led only to a draw against Murphy

Instead Murphy was paired with FM Alex Browning. The German-registered player, with White, played the slightly unusual 5 d4 line in the Ruy Lopez. Black equalised fairly easily against this. With a largely symmetrical pawn structure and level material, little else of note occurred and the result was a draw.

Zhuo Ren Lim was a pawn down against Maciej Czopor but his position was solid as a rock

The battle of the two FMs, Maciej Czopor against Zhuo Ren Lim, promised to be a livelier affair after opening with a Najdorf Sicilian side-line. Czopor (White) managed to exchange queens and gain a pawn but his position wasn't conducive to exploiting his material advantage and the game eventually fizzled out to a draw.

Vladyslav Larkin is fast gaining on the leaders, scoring a brilliant win in round 6

Board three was the scene of an exciting showdown between Michael Healey (White) and Ukrainian IM Vladyslav Larkin. The opening was 1 b4, or the "Polish Orangutan" as the software I use likes to style it. (Are there orangutans in Poland? I think we should be told.) There was nothing much wrong with the opening phrase of the game for White but when he dared to fork his opponent's knight and pawn, he was suddenly "terminated with extreme prejudice" (if I may borrow a euphemism from Apocalypse Now). The killer move, 14..d4, had to be calculated with great precision: Larkin proved equal to the task.

IM Gavin Wall gave a master class in how to win a level rooks and pawns endgame

Gavin Wall scored an instructive win against Zain Patel, similar in a way to the Larkin win for the suddenness with which the game turned, but this was a more positional version of the same.

ROUND SEVEN

Stanley Badacsonyi gave Conor Murphy a fright but the game ended in a draw.

After his dominating performance in the 2023 Kingston Invitational and other recent competitions, plus his near 300 point rating superiority, IM Conor Murphy might have been expected to overcome Stanley Badacsonyi in their top board encounter in the Thursday afternoon, but it was the 14-year-old who came closest to winning the game. A draw was probably enough to take Badacsonyi over the threshold of 2300 for his FM title (subject to confirmation).

The opening was a side-line of the McCutcheon variation of the French Defence. After the queens came off in a level position, Murphy, playing White, had a slight edge but mishandled it and allowed Badacsonyi to equalise. Murphy then overdid it in trying to win and for a fleeting few moves stumbled into a technically lost position. That said, it would have required a counter-intuitive, super-GM/Stockfish-level move (not to mention plenty of time on the clock) to seal the deal for Black, who shouldn't beat himself up too much for missing it.

The top boards in round 7 practise synchronised handshaking
which is going to be trialled as a sport at the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics. 

Vladyslav Larkin defeated Maciej Czopor after an innocuous opening became unexpectedly sharp. The Polish player, with Black, missed an opportunity to hold after which White's kingside assault broke through.

Who dares wins: Roland Bezuidenhout took a big risk against Bob Eames and it paid off.

The game between Roland Bezuidenhout (White) and Bob Eames seemed to be pootling along in fairly normal fashion when the South African suddenly launched a sacrificial attack. It was dangerous, though probably unsound, but Black failed to follow up accurately and duly lost.

There was more risk-taking on board five where Alex Browning (playing Black) was outplaying Kenneth Hobson. Then, on move 39, calamity: Browning, the exchange and a pawn up, took a pawn and allowed a mate in two.

I think I'll leave it there for now. It was an exhausting round to watch, let alone play, which might account for some of the mistakes made. Everyone is getting tired. One of the games from round 7 has not yet finished. They had reached move 203, in a position where one pair of queens, bishops and pawns had been exchanged, when the arbiters decided enough was enough and asked them to adjourn. The game is due to be resumed at 8.15am tomorrow, with round 8 scheduled for 10.00am. 

Round eight starts at 1000 BST on Friday 16 August, with round nine (the final round) at 1530 the same day. Follow the action live at Lichess.org and find the latest results at chess-results.com. Also look out for me on X/Twitter for regular comments - @johnchess - and also @KingstonChess.

2024 Kingston Invitational, Day 3, Rounds 4 & 5, 14 August

 Just beyond the halfway point of the tournament we now have two joint leaders on 4½/5: IM Conor Murphy and CM Stanley Badacsonyi. They haven't yet met, and won't do so in round six as the youngster from North London is taking a half-point bye in that round. In third place is Polish FM Maciej Czopor on 4/5 while a further seven players have 3½.

ROUND FOUR

After all those things I wrote in my last report about the absence of quick draws, etc, the round four top board game between Maciej Czopor and Conor Murphy ended in a draw in 15 moves. This coincided with the fact that I was late in arriving. Consequently I failed in my photographic duties and missed the chance to snap them... 

As King Charles I said, "I see the birds have flown."

TS Venkataramanan vs Stanley Badacsonyi: an entertaining scrap.
And on the next board, in-form Bob Eames overcame Mike Healey

That left the third of the three leaders, Stanley Badacsonyi to battle it out against T S Venkataramanan and he did so successfully to wrest the sole lead with 4/4. It was great fight, reflecting credit on both players.

Bob Eames won his third game in a row, beating Mike Healey. Black chose to decline a Morra Gambit but soon came to regret it as White created something resembling a Maroczy Bind, followed by a powerful queenside pawn storm.

All gambit pawns gratefully accepted: Jem Gurner beat Peter Lalic

The Malaysian FM Zhuo Ren Lim had a good win against Matthew Dignam after tempting his opponent into accepting an unusual counter-gambit against a c3 Sicilian. Alex Browning also won when his kingside attack crashed through against Supratit Banerjee. Elis Denele Dicen found herself ground down in a long rook and pawns endgame by Tom Villiers. Peter Lalic was another Morra Gambiteer, but his gift was accepted by Jem Gurner, who also gratefully annexed a second and then a third. Lalic reduced the deficit from three to one but at the cost of ruining his position.

Ewan Wilson was two pawns up with a good chance of winning but the capture of a third saw him facing (Kenneth) Hobson's choice...

Zain Patel won a tricky endgame in round four

Zain Patel won against Edmond Andal after the Philippines player missed a saving move in a rook and pawns endgame.

ROUND FIVE

Stanley Badacsonyi put up a tough rearguard to preserve his lead, now shared with Conor Murphy

In round five the leader, Stanley Badacsonyi, found himself paired with the number three seed FM Maciej Czopor. White opened with something I've not seen before - 1 d4 Nf6 2 Nc3 d5 3 Bf4 e6 4 Nb5!? - but that might be because my chess knowledge, such as it is, is firmly rooted in the 20th century, before he was born. It didn't work out particularly well and White's slow development led to some problems along the e-file which he could only meet by surrendering the right to castle. However, Czopor's advantage was dissipated by an ill-judged queen exchange and he was unable to dominate the ensuing double rook ending in the way that he might have expected. Badacsonyi's recovery after mishandling the opening show he is a tough fighter.

Murphy-Eames was a long struggle which the Irish IM finally won

That left last year's winner IM Conor Murphy with the task of defeating Bob Eames with White to tie with Badacsonyi for the lead. Eames defended a Benkö Gambit. Murphy sacrificed the exchange for a pawn, making two in total with the addition of the traditional Benkö pawn. Stockfish was unimpressed, judging the position to be level but, as is so often the case, the practicalities of the position told a different story, with Black being faced with a series of difficult defensive problems while the white king remained safely out of harm's way. That said, Eames coped with most of them extremely well, before stumbling over the final question posed by the relentless Irish examiner.

The highlight of the afternoon for me was not one of the games but a pleasant chat with one of the player's coaches who was present at the venue. Here's his photo...

Zhang Pengxiang is in Kingston as coach to Jack Liu - but take a look at his chess CV below...

Zhang Pengxiang is a 44-year-old Chinese grandmaster, who is currently rated 2567 but with a peak rating of 2657. He is less active as a player these days, concentrating on his work as a chess coach, but his chess CV includes some awesome achievements. In 2001 he qualified for the FIDE World Championship in Moscow when the format was knock-out matches of two classical games followed by rapid and blitz tie-breakers. In the first round he drew the two classical games but won both the subsequent rapidplay games to eliminate his opponent... who was Anatoly Karpov. It's worth reading the description of this extraordinary achievement on his Wikipedia page. 

Zhang has played in Britain twice before. In 2007 he was part of the powerful Chinese team which overcame the British team in a match-tournament held in Liverpool. His results on that occasion were wins against Mickey Adams, Jonathan Rowson and Nick Pert, draws with Nigel Short and Gawain Jones, and a solitary loss to David Howell, for a rating performance in excess of 2700. More recently he was invited to play in the 2023/24 Hastings Masters by tournament director Stuart Conquest and finished 2nd to Abhijeet Gupta with an unbeaten 7/9.

Zhang has a charmingly modest demeanour and it was a real privilege to chat with him. And how great for young players like Jack Liu that they get the opportunity to learn from him. 

On that upbeat note I shall close this report for now - it's gone 1am in the morning and I'm an old gent who needs his sleep. But I might add a few more observations tomorrow.

Round six starts at 1000 BST on Thursday 15 August, with round seven at 1530 the same day. Follow the action live at Lichess.org and find the latest results at chess-results.com. Also look out for me on X/Twitter for regular comments - @johnchess - and also @KingstonChess.