There was sad news for the international chess community last week with the news of the death of the great Dutch grandmaster Jan Timman at the age of 74.
At his peak in the 1980s Timman was considered the world’s strongest player outside the Soviet Union, but he was much more than that.
He was also a very fine writer: if you check out any of his books you won’t be disappointed.
But Timman had a third string to his bow as well. Not content with being one of the world’s leading players, and one of the world’s best chess authors, he was also an aficionado and outstanding composer of endgame studies.
This is one of his simpler compositions. See how you get on.
Jan Timman 6th commendation The Problemist 2004
It’s White to play and draw.
As always in studies, there is good and bad news for you. The good news, I suppose, is that you’re a pawn ahead, and that you’ll be more than happy to share the point. The bad news is that your rook and knight are both under attack, and Black is also looking to deliver an Arabian Mate (Nf3 and Rh2#).
The week started with a Thames Valley Division 3 match between Richmond C and Ealing D at the Adelaide, in which we were hoping for a big win to increase our promotion chances.
We weren’t disappointed.
You can’t do better than that, can you? Well done to everyone!
Our other match this week was also in Division 3 of the Thames Valley League, with our D team visiting Harrow.
Although we outrated our opponents, we went down to a 4-2 defeat, not helped by a default. Harrow isn’t the easiest place to reach from here, so this was understanable.
Harrows’ board four player was Righit Radiya
Meanwhile, here’s the current league table, with two promotion places available.
Monday’s helpmate in 3 was composed by Charles Masson Fox (Deutsche Märchenschachzeitung 1931), the subject of my recent Minor Piece, which you can read here.
The solution (Black’s moves are given first in helpmates) is 1. d1R h7 2. Kd2 h8Q 3. e1B Qb2#.
Yes, it’s a pawn ending. But a pawn ending with a difference.
It’s a HELPMATE in 3 moves. Your mission is to find a sequence of three moves with Black starting (so BWBWBW) where White’s final move delivers checkmate.
This problem was composed by Charles Masson Fox (Deutsche Märchenschachzeitung 1931).
If you’ve never attempted a helpmate problem before, do have a go at this one.
CM Fox is the subject of my latest Minor Piece, which you can read here.
We’ve had a busy week, with two important Thames Valley League wins to report.
On Monday Richmond D visited high flying Ealing C in a TVL Division 3 match.
We were outrated on boards 2-6, but there were excellent wins for Tom and Barry.
We had no less than four matches on Tuesday. Our London League team faced their annual massacre against perpetual champions Wood Green.
It was good to welcome Callum back to the team, but unfortunately he didn’t get a game as his opponent didn’t turn up. There were also draws against GM opponents for Declan and Caspar, but the extended Lalic/Buckley family were too strong for the lower half of our team.
It was a packed evening at the Adelaide. Our TVB team, in need of points, wasn’t at full strength against Surbiton B.
The teams looked evenly matched: we had a big advantage on Board 6, but were slightly outrated on the top two boards. The match went very well for us, with wins for Jon, Matt and Polina (welcome back to the team). as well as draws for Bertie, Michael S (welcome to the team) and the ever generous Adrian. Well done everyone!
At the other end of the room, our E team faced Kingston C in their penultimate Division X match of the season, hoping for an important win.
The match again looked close on paper, but again everything went well, with wins for Abhay, Alex and captain Karl, along with a draw from Aditya against former RTCC member Nette Robinson. Congratulations to all of you!
Here’s the league table: you’ll see that we only need a draw from our match at Surbiton D on 11 March to guarantee first place.
Ten games in our two matches at the Adelaide, against closely matched opposition: six wins, four draws and no losses. What an amazing evening!
Our Fred Manning Trophy team had an away match against Ashtead A last Tuesday.
Captain Mike RC reports:
It was a tricky evening. Oscar and Peter made their Fred Manning and club debuts respectively. Mike Larby had a good win on board two, checkmating his opponent with just 1 minute remaining on his clock in a match that is played with no increments so he did well to hold his nerve. I unfortunately slipped into time trouble after spending too long calculating a line that won material but left me in a hopeless position trying to convert my small advantage in just 8 minutes. He just played on my time and I soon blundered under the pressure of trying not to flag.
Monday’s puzzle came from my game against Marcus Baker in the recent match between Richmond B and Wimbledon A.
I was white and the game started 1. c4 e5 2. Nc3 Nf6 3. g3 c6 4. Nf3 e4 5. Nd4 Qb6 6. e3 d5 7. cxd5 cxd5 8. Bg2 Bg4, reaching this position.
Here I played 9. f3, and, in a game of many mistakes, won a pawn, but then blundered, losing two pawns and the game.
Neither of us noticed, either in the game or in the post mortem, that I could have played 9. Nxd5, leaving me a pawn up with a decisive advantage regardless of whether he captured the queen or the knight.
I guess it didn’t occur to us that, instead of doing anything about my queen I could have played a move leaving my knight en prise.
Our week started with our TVB team returning to Wimbledon for a tough encounter with their A team.
We were outrated on every board so our defeat wasn’t unexpected, but there were some outstanding individual performances.
A great win for Tom along with excellent draws from Sampson and Bertie gave us two points. Well done to them!
On Tuesday our TVE team welcomed Surbiton D to the Adelaide for a Division X match.
An amazing result, and it’s great to see that our newer members, Alex and Oscar, are being given match play opportunities.
Here’s the league table. We need a win and a draw from our two remaining matches to win the division.
The week concluded with our Ellery Williams Trophy team making the trek to South Norwood, where they went down to a narrow defeat.
Congratulations to David and Peter for great results against much higher rated opposition.
This is a rapidplay league with rating limits: Board 1 not above 1900, others not above 1750. This year we’ve been struggling to field teams which are competitive on rating, but as a result some of our lower rated players have been able to gain valuable experience.
From my forthcoming book Chess Heroes Puzzles: Book 2.
White, to play, is a knight ahead, but his queen and rook are both hanging and his back rank is vulnerable.
This position is taken from my game with white against Chris Clegg (Richmond A v Kingston A, 2009).
Here’s the answer:
A complicated position: White is a knight ahead, but his queen and rook are hanging and there are potential back rank problems. The winning sequence is 1. Qxa6 Rd1+ 2. Qf1 Rxf1+ 3. Kxf1 Bxa1 White now only has a bishop and knight for the queen but his c-pawn is very strong. 4. c7 Qe6 (or Qe8) 5. Bd3 (threatening Ba6) 5… Qc8 6. Nh4 threatening both Bxf5 and Ng6+ followed by Ne7. Take 5 points for getting as far as move 3 and another 5 points for the whole variation.
If you enjoyed this puzzle, there are lots more where this came from. The book will be published on Amazon this Spring.
