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!
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