Local entries welcome for Northumbria Masters

(Newcastle Chronicle, 16 August 2024)

North East players are welcome to enter the 7th Northumbria Masters Congress at Darlington’s Dolphin Centre, which takes place over the Bank Holiday weekend, from Thursday 22 to Monday 26 August. Entries are being accepted online until August 21 to give players the chance to play in the North of England’s premier international chess festival.

It’s easy to enter, just register at: https://northumbriamasters.com. Organisers expect a total of about 150 participants, including entries from Northumberland, Tyne and Wear, Durham and Cleveland, as it gives local players the chance to gain an international (FIDE) rating and to play against titled players.

Participants play a total of nine games each at the Dolphin Centre, with a total of over £6,000 in prizes at stake. Spectators are welcome at the Dolphin Centre from 10am-2pm and 3pm-7pm (Thursday to Sunday), while final round takes place on Bank Holiday Monday from 10am-2pm.

The Grandmaster and International Master tournaments will also be broadcast live on lichess.org.

The congress will welcome a total of nine Grandmasters (GMs) and 11 International Masters (IMs), who are coming thanks to generous support from various sponsors, including the English Chess Federation and the Chess Trust. In the Masters Open, six GMs are expected to play, including England’s Mark Hebden, Scotland’s Matthew Turner, Belgium’s Alex Dgebuadze and Norway’s Frode Urkedal.

In the GM Round Robin, aimed at producing GM norms for up-and-coming players, Northumberland’s GM Danny Gormally will be taking on GMs Eldar Gasanov (Ukraine) and Keti Arakhamia (Scotland), plus Sohum Lohia, Alex Golding and Jonah Willow (England), Conor Murphy (Ireland), Nikolas Wachinger (Germany), Elliot Papadiamandis (France) and Ondrej Svanda (Czech Republic). The GM norm will be 7/9.

In the IM Round Robin, IMs Peter Large (England), Gavin Wall (Ireland) and Angus Dunnington (Scotland) face Gosforth’s James Moreby and Jude Shearsby (England), Newcastle’s Andy Burnett (Scotland), Petr Hollan (Czech Republic), Zala Urh (Slovenia), Santhosh Abhyuday (India) and Moritz Collin (Switzerland). The IM norm is 7/9.

There are two more tournaments aimed at giving local players the chance to gain international experience and improve their ratings. The Challengers (Under 2000 FIDE) and Major (Under 1700 FIDE) run alongside the Masters Open, GM and IM tournaments in the Dolphin Centre’s historic Victorian Central Hall, so that all participants will be able to watch the grandmasters in play.

PUZZLES

Puzzle A: Kools-Fernandez, Zeeland 2024. Black to play.

Puzzle B: Carlsen-Rapport, Astana 2024. Black to play.

Puzzle C: L’Ami-Syrev, Zeeland 2024. White to play.

Puzzle D: Collin-Waldhausen Gordon. Dortmund 2024. Black to play.

ANSWERS:

A: 1…exf3 2 Nxf3 (or 2 Bxf3 Nxf3+ 3 Nxf3 Ne4) 2…Ne4 0-1.
B: 1…Rxe3+! wins. If 2 fxe3 Rxe3+ 3 Re2 (or 3 Kd1 Qb1 checkmate) 3…Bg3+ 4 Kd1 Rd3+ 5 Rd2 Qxd2 checkmate) 3…Qb1 checkmate.
C: 1 Rc7+! Qxc7 2 Qxf6+ Kg8 3 Qf8 checkmate.
D: 1…Bc4! 2 hxg4 Rxd1+ 3 Rxd1 Qf2 checkmate. If 2 Qxc4 Rxd1+ 3 Ke2 (3 Rxd1 Qf2 checkmate) 3…Qf2+ 4 Kd1 Ne3 checkmate.