This weekend, most of the country’s best chess players will be in cerebral action in Hinckley, Leicestershire – taking part in rounds 7 and 8 of the Four Nations Chess League.

Oxford 1 will no doubt be handed a beating in their meaningless (as far as the league tables are concerned) encounter with Guildford’s world-class line-up in round 7 – but then must recover quickly to gain vital points against whoever they are matched with, in round 8.

Grandmaster Peter Wells will be in Leicestershire since he is certainly one of the UK’s finest – though earlier this month he was well beaten by Cumnor first team’s Gareth Stevens. To be fair to Peter, he was playing around 30 other games at the same time in his annual Witney simultaneous display.

Nevertheless, Gareth played a terrific game – and it’s not every day a grandmaster is downed by a player rated ECF 142 – so here is the game.
White: Peter Wells
Black: Gareth Stevens
1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nc3 c5 4.d5 exd5 5.cxd5 d6 6.e4 g6 Peter has been giving an annual simultaneous at the Witney club for several years now and in the event four years ago in this same position, he chose the aggressive 7.f4 against Dave Hackett.
Then, after the further moves 7...Bg7 8.Bb5+ Nbd7 9.e5 dxe5 10.fxe5 Nh5 11.e6 Qh4+ there was fire on board and Dave used the complications to his favour to beat the grandmaster. Perhaps Peter remembered this game when choosing a quieter 7th move this time.
7.h3 Bg7 8.Nf3 0–0 9.Bd3 a6 10.a4 Nbd7 11.Bf4 Qe7 12.0–0 h6 13.Re1 Nh5 14.Bh2 Ne5 15.Be2! Nd7 16.Nd2! Nhf6 17.Nc4 Ne8 18.a5 Ne5 19.Nb6 Rb8 20.f4!? Nd7 21.Nc4 b5!? The alternative, 21...Bxc3?, is as suspect as it looks and after  22.bxc3 Qxe4 23.Bf1! Qf5 24.Rxe8! Rxe8 25.Nxd6 White wins material.
22.axb6 Bd4+ 23.Kh1 Nxb6 24.e5?! Of course, had Peter noticed 24.Na5! Bd7 and then 25.e5! it would have taken him about a second to realise that this was right course.
24...Nxc4! 25.Bxc4 Rxb2 Well played by Gareth and now he has counter-play.
26.Ne4 Rb6?! 27.Ra2 Bf5 28.Ng3 Ng7 29.Bd3?! Bxd3 30.Qxd3 Qb7! 31.Ne4 dxe5 32.fxe5 Nf5 33.d6 Kg7 34.Nf6?! c4! A great move; sacrificing a pawn and the support for his d4 bishop just to gain control on b1.
35.Qxc4 Rb1 36.Qf1 Rb3!? 37.Qxa6? Missing the threat. 37.Ne4 was the move.
37...Rxh3! Suddenly the threat of Ng3 checkmate is on the board and White has no good way to stop it. 0–1

  • It only seems like five minutes – actually it’s been four months – since Magnus Carlsen defeated Vishy Anand to become World Champion.

Already though ‘the candidates’ – the best of the rest – are in competition to decide who will challenge Magnus for his title in November 2014. The Candidates tournament is taking place in Khanty Mansiysk in Russia.
The final round is played on March 30 and, of course, there will be live coverage all over the Internet. The games start around 10am UK time. Enjoy!