England’s over-50s team have won bronze medals at the World Senior Championship for the second consecutive year, missing gold and silver by the narrowest of margins.
Fielding an all-grandmaster five-man squad headed by the former elite GMs John Nunn and Jonathan Speelman supported by Mark Hebden, Keith Arkell and Glenn Flear, England were the No2 seeds in the 57-team contest in Dresden.
In 2015 England fielded Nigel Short and were seeded No1 but lost crucial matches against their only serious rivals, Slovakia and Germany. At Dresden 2016 it was again the Germans who proved the bête noire, causing England’s only individual match defeat.
Final scores were: Germany 16 match points (26.5 game points); Armenia 16 (26); England 15 (27.5). Hebden won the board three individual gold with 7.5/9. The other four England GMs also won individual medals: Nunn silver with 6.5/8, Speelman bronze with 6/8, Arkell silver with 6/7 and Flear silver with 2.5/5. Despite this unlucky near-miss England remain one of the top countries in over-50s chess and this is also a historical reflection of successes in open competition in the 1980s when the team won three Olympiad silver medals, surpassed only by the golden Soviets with Garry Kasparov and Anatoly Karpov.
This year’s world over-50 championship was stronger and more representative than 2015 with teams from Canada, Mongolia and Tunisia adding an intercontinental flavour. If legends from the United States and Russia take part in future, the competition’s growing credibility will be boosted further.
For the moment the England veterans have clearly proved their potential to win gold in 2017. It is now up to the English Chess Federation to find a sponsor who likes backing winners and can boost publicity and support for the event and the team, as well as bringing back Nigel Short on top board.
One of the best wins at Dresden was scored by GM Jim Plaskett for the England B team against the former Olympiad gold medallist Rafael Vaganian. The Armenian is suspect against opening surprises, so Plaskett unleashed a rare and seemingly innocuous speedy queen swap against the Alekhine’s Defence 1 e4 Nf6, improving with 10 Ng3! over the routine 10 Bc3. This brought an immediate dividend as Vaganian, not liking 11...Bh8 12 Bh6, chose the bizarre 11...Bxb2+. Black regained the piece but White took control on the king side with a rook invasion which won a piece with mating threats.
Jim Plaskett v Rafael Vaganian
1 e4 Nf6 2 Nc3 d5 3 e5 d4 4 exf6 dxc3 5 fxg7 cxd2+ 6 Qxd2 Qxd2+ 7 Bxd2 Bxg7 8 0-0-0 Bf5 9 Ne2 0-0?! 10 Ng3! Be6 11 Nh5 Bxb2+? 12 Kxb2 Bg4 13 Re1 Bxh5 14 g4! Bg6 15 h4 f6 16 h5 Bg7 17 g5 Rd8 18 Bd3 fxg5 19 Bxg5 Nc6 20 Bxe7 Nxe7 21 Rxe7 Rac8 22 Bf5 Kf8 23 Re3 Rb8 24 Bxh7 Kg7 25 Bd3 Kh6 26 Re7 Rf8 27 Rxc7 Bg8 28 Rg1 Rxf2 29 Reg7 1-0
3450 1 Nxg5! so that if Kxg5 2 Rxe6 (threat 3 f4 mate) Nf6 3 f4+ Kg6 4 g5 with Rxf6+ wins easily. Black tried 1 Nxg5 Nf8 but soon lost two pawns down.
