Autumn for competitive players marks the start of a new season. Britain’s club amateurs are enrolling in teams, brushing up their opening repertoire and looking to achieve a higher grade or rating, the benchmark for improvement.
National leagues are also getting under way. England’s 4NCL stages its opening weekend on 11-12 November and before that, next weekend at Coventry, its individual Open will qualify the winner to the valuable eight-player British Knockout Championship in London in December.
Guildford remain the heavy favourite to retain the league title. The Surrey club’s financial backing far outstrips that of their rivals, who when they view Guildford’s squad and its serried ranks of grandmasters must feel like a mid-table Premier League team facing a mix of Manchester City and Paris Saint-Germain.
Some important national leagues, like those of France and Russia, use a different type of schedule and play the entire season’s matches over a single week at one venue. The most important league which uses the 4NCL model is Germany’s Bundesliga, which kicked off its 15-match season last weekend.
National leagues are a vital income source for many GMs, especially since it is possible and even normal for elite players to compete for several teams in different countries in the same season.
England’s No1, Michael Adams, is a regular for Germany’s strongest team, Baden-Baden, but the usually reliable Cornishman had a nightmare moment last Sunday when, standing just slightly worse from his favourite 3 Nd2 French Defence, he allowed a crushing queen check which led to immediate defeat. On the credit side for the English mercenaries IM Lawrence Trent, who is seeking the GM title, scored a good draw against the highly rated Pavel Eljanov to follow up his recent halving with the former world champion Vlad Kramnik.
White’s 6 Nb3!? below is a pragmatic psychological approach. The Sicilian Najdorf 5...a6 intends e7-e5 attacking the d4 knight, so moving this piece away first can provoke mental confusion. The simplest answer is still e7-e5, but the database shows that most black players, including strong GMs, choose something different.
Here Black prefers e7-e6, and the game follows a well-known pattern with castling on opposite sides. Visually Black seems under pressure, but the computer is unimpressed with White’s attack until 21...Ne7? when 21...exd5 22 Bxd5 is level. Two moves later, Black can still hold his own by 23...dxe5 24 Qxg6+ Kf8, but castling followed by 24...dxe5? set up White’s smart win in the puzzle diagram.
Mateusz Bartel v Robert Kempinski, Bundesliga 2017
1 e4 c5 2 Nf3 d6 3 d4 cxd4 4 Nxd4 Nf6 5 Nc3 a6 6 Nb3!? Nc6 7 Be3 e6 8 g4 h6 9 Bg2?! Ne5 10 h3 Nc4 11 Qe2 Qc7 12 O-O-O Bd7 13 f4 Rc8 14 Rd3 b5 15 a3 a5 16 Nd4 Qb8 17 b3 Nxa3 18 g5 b4 19 Nd5 Ng8 20 g6 fxg6 21 e5 Ne7? 22 Nxe7 Bxe7 23 Qg4 O-O? 24 Qxg6 dxe5? (see puzzle diagram)
3518 25 Be4! (threat 26 Qh7+ Kf7 27 Bg6+ Kf6 28 fxe5+ and wins) Bf6 26 Nc6! (26 Qh7+ Kf7 27 Nc6 also works) 1-0 If Bxc6 27 Qh7+ Kf7 28 Bg6+ Ke7 29 Bc5+ wins at least the queen.
