Gosforth teams extend lead in Northumbria League

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(Newcastle Chronicle, 31 January 2025)

Teams from Gosforth Chess Club are dominating the Northumbria League, leading the first, second and sixth divisions as the 2024-25 season goes into its fourth month. The club, which meets on Monday evenings at Gosforth Empire Club on Salters Road, now has a total of 10 league teams and is the undisputed powerhouse of Tyneside chess.


In Division 1, Gosforth Empire have extended their lead with 13 match points, ahead of Newcastle Dragons on 10, Newcastle University A 8, Jesmond Monarchs 7, Tynemouth A 6, Gosforth Salters 2 and Leam Lane Aces 0.

In Division 2, Gosforth Regents are two points in front on 10, ahead of Morpeth A 8, South Shields Arbeians 7, Forest Hall Dragons and Tynemouth B 6 each, Alnwick A 3 and Gosforth Centurions 2.

Leam Lane Bullets are the clear leaders in Division 3 on 9 points, ahead of Gosforth Ivy 7, Gateshead and Forest Hall Titans each on 6, Gosforth Hawthorns 5, Morpeth B 4, Gosforth Woodbines 3.

Division 4 is more of a three-horse race, with Tynedale A on 10, Forest Hall Phoenixes 9 and Newcastle Jesters 8 in contention. Further back are Newcastle University B 5, Tynemouth B 4, Gosforth Jedis 3 and Alnwick B 1.

South Shields Sand-dancers are leading Division 5 with 11 points, ahead of Jesmond Knights 10, Forest Hall Griffins 8, Tynemouth D 7, Gosforth Otterburns 6, Forest Hall Centaurs 4, Alnwick C and Morpeth C both on 3.

In Division 6, Gosforth Siths reign supreme so far with 12 points, ahead of Newcastle Cavaliers 11, Forest Hall Wizards 7, Newcastle University C 6 and South Shields Custodians both on 6, Cramlington Royals and Morpeth D both on 3, and Newcastle University Women on 2.

After four rounds in the Northumberland Individual Championships, a battle royal is under way in the Zollner (Open) tournament. There are three joint leaders – Tim Wall and Andy Burnett (Newcastle) and Husain Nakara (Newcastle University) – on 3 points. In the chasing group on 2.5 are Gustavo Leon Cazares and Jack Erskine-Pereira (Gosforth), Paul Dargan (Tynemouth) and Chris Izod (Jesmond).

The Sell (Under 2000) tournament has a clear leader, Alex Blake (Gosforth), with 4 points. In equal second place on 3 points are Stuart Skelsey (Forest Hall) and John Awesome (Newcastle).

There’s a three-way tie for the lead on 3.5 points in the Gilroy (Under 1700) tournament between Ian Rook (Forest Hall), Denise Mosse (Gateshead) and David Simm (Morpeth). Their nearest rivals are Darren McCarthy (Alnwick), Jonny Kearney (Tynedale) and James Phillips (Newcastle) on 3 points.

PUZZLES

Puzzle A: Erskine-Pereira-Benchebra, 2025. White to move.

Puzzle B: Patel-Gormally, 2025. Black to move.

Puzzle C: Gormally-Sowray, 2025. White to move.

Puzzle D: Wu-Kalaiyalahan, 2025. White to move.

ANSWERS:

A: 1 Bxb5! Rxd1 2 e6 1-0.
B: 1…Bxf2+! Kxf2 Qd4+ 0-1. If 3 Kg2 Nxd3.
C: 1 Re8! 1-0. If 1…Rxe8 2 Nxe8+.
D: 1 Rb6! 1-0. If 1…Rxb8 2 d8Q+.

Could Freestyle change the rules?

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(Newcastle Chronicle, 24 January 2025)

When players take part in the Northumbria Chess League, the game they play is the same one that has been played by standard rules for hundreds of years. But those rules, or at least who controls what the rules are, could now be under threat.

Freestyle Chess, a variant where the back-rank pieces on the chessboard are shuffled at the start of the game, was invented by former world champion Bobby Fischer, and is also called Fischer-Random or Chess960.

The current world No. 1, Norway’s Magnus Carlsen, is partnering with a German businessman, Jan Henric Buettner, to stage the 2025 Freestyle Chess Grand Slam Tour, a series of multimillion-euro elite tournaments. The first one runs in Weissenhaus, Germany next month. Further events will follow in Paris, New York, Delhi and Cape Town.

The Freestyle Chess Players Club has signed up Carlsen, the FIDE Classical World Champion Dommaraju Gukesh, Praggnanandhaa and Arjun Erigaisi (India), Hikaru Nakamura, Lev Aronian and Fabiano Caruana (USA), Nodirbek Abdusattorov (Uzbekistan), Alireza Firouzja (France), Vladimir Fedoseev (Slovenia) and Vincent Keymer (Germany).

With an exciting format guaranteed to produce plenty of thrills and spills, the Freestyle tournaments could be onto a commercial winner, just like other sports where breakaway projects have shaken up the game.

But the international chess federation, FIDE, has taken umbrage at the Grand Slam Tour, warning that if it calls itself a “World Championship,” anyone taking part in it will be banned from taking part in the FIDE Classical, Rapid and Blitz World Championships for the next four years.

Some of the top players have hit back, with Nakamura calling on his colleagues to refuse to sign FIDE contracts, which are due to be agreed by February 3. Where this leaves the chess world remains to be seen, but the worst-case scenario could see players from the top 10 banned from conventional world championships, and possibly even rival championships emerging.

In the North East, chess players have no conflicts over Freestyle versus conventional chess, merely seeing Freestyle as a fun extra addition to the game. Gosforth has organised Freestyle events, but mainly as a light-hearted alternative to conventional tournaments. There are certainly no plans yet for Freestyle leagues.

The first Freestyle Grand Slam event will be covered live (with commentary) from February 7-14 at freestyle-chess.com, lichess.org and chess.com.

PUZZLES

Puzzle A: Aronian-Ding, Freestyle 2024. White to play.

Puzzle B: Gukesh-Keymer, Freestyle 2024. Black to play.

Puzzle C: Aronian-Keymer, Freestyle 2024. White to play.

Puzzle D: Carlsen-Aronian, Freestyle 2024. White to play.

ANSWERS:

A: 1 Qg7+! 1-0. If 1…Rxg7 2 fxg7+ Kg8 3 Bxh7+! Kxh7 (3…Kf7 4 g8Q+ Rxg8 5 Bxg8+) 4 gxf8Q.
B: 1…Be6! 0-1. If 2 Qxe6 Qxa1+, or 2 Rxa4 Bxh3 3 gxh3 Nxc5.
C: 1 Rxd6+! cxd6 (1…Rxd6 2 Rxe8+ Kxe8 3 Qxg8+) 2 Rc4+ Qc7 3 Qxc7 mate.
D: 1 Rxb4! 1-0. If 1…Bxb4 2 Qd7+ Kb6 3 Rb1, or 1…Qe8 2 Rb7+ Kc8 3 Qa6 Kd8 4 c7+ Bxc7 5 Rd1+.

Leagues and Zollner close at halfway point

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(Newcastle Chronicle, 17 January 2025)

The North East’s main league and individual competitions are very close at the halfway point, with various teams and players in contention.

In the Northumbria League, all six divisions are too close to call, but teams from Gosforth, the region’s largest chess club, are leading in four of them.

In Division 1, Gosforth Empire (11 points from six matches) are now being challenged again by Newcastle Dragons (8 points from six matches), while in Division 2 Gosforth Regents are ahead by three points, but their nearest rivals South Shields Arbeians have a match in hand.

Division 3 is being led by Gosforth Ivy by one match point, but their closest competitors have two matches in hand. The clear favourites in Division 4 are Forest Hall Phoenixes, who are a point ahead and have a match in hand over Newcastle Jesters.

In Division 5, South Shields Sand-dancers are ahead by 2 points, while in Division 6 the Gosforth Siths are leading Newcastle Cavaliers by 2 points.

In the Northumberland Individual Championships, open to players throughout the North East, reigning champion Tim Wall has suffered his first loss in a few years, and now has three points from four games. Wall’s loss was to his Newcastle club colleague, Andy Burnett, who now joins him in the lead on 3/4.

There are five other players on 2/3 who could reach 3 points after Round 4: David Armbruster and Gustavo Leon Cazares (Gosforth), Husain Nakara (Newcastle University), Chris Izod (Jesmond) and John Boyd (South Shields).

In the Sell (Under 2000) tournament, Alex Blake (Gosforth) leads with 3/3, followed by Paul Bielby (South Shields) on 2.5, and Stuart Skelsey (Forest Hall), John Awesome (Newcastle) and Andrew Robinson on 2.

And in the Gilroy (Under 1700) tournament, Denise Mosse (Gateshead) has moved into the lead on 3.5/4, ahead of Darren McCarthy (3/4), Martin Brookes (Tynemouth), David Simm (Morpeth), Ian Rook (Forest Hall), Thomas Cameron (Newcastle University) and Tom Krause (Gosforth) on 2.5/3.

Northumberland’s open team will play in the Northern Counties Championship on Sunday February 2nd, versus Yorkshire, Greater Manchester and Merseyside at Bradford Latvian Club.

The Under 1450 Counties Championship is being played (also at Bradford) on March 9, and the Northern Counties Under 16 teams tournament is taking place in Swinton, Manchester on February 23.

Anyone wishing to play for the Northumberland teams in these competitions can contact team captain Tim Wall on: timpeterwall@gmail.com.

PUZZLES

This week’s puzzles all feature dramatic king hunts.

Puzzle A: Wall-Burnett, 2025. Black to play.

Puzzle B: Carlsen-Nakamura, 2023. White to play.

Puzzle C: Fedoseev-Salem, 2024. Black to play.

Puzzle D: Tabatabei-Praggnanandhaa, 2024. White to play.

ANSWERS:

A: 1…Rh7! 0-1. If 2 Re2 dxe3 3 Rxe3 Qh2 mate.
B: 1 Rxc5+! Bxc5 2 Rc7+! Kxc7 3 Qxc5+ Kb7 4 Qd5+ Kb8 5 Be5+ 1-0. If 5…Ka7 6 Bd4+ Kb8 7 Qd6+ Kb7 8 Qd7+ Ka6 9 Qc6+ Ka5 10 Bc3 mate.
C: 1..Qxh5+! 2 Qxh5 Ra1+ 3 Bc1 Rxc1+! 0-1. If 4 Kxc1 Bf4+ 5 Kd1 c2+ and mate follows.
D: 1 Re7+! Kxe7 2 Qxg7+ Ke8 3 Re1+ Kd8 4 Qf6+ Kc7 5 Qd6+ Kb7 6 Re7+ Ka6 7 Qxc6+ Ka5 8 Rb7! 1-0.

Playing by Magnus’s rules

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(Newcastle Chronicle, 10 January 2025)

One of the great things about chess is that the rules are the same for everyone. Certainly, if you play in the Northumbria League, rules are applied equally without fear or favour – no matter who you are.

Yet the recent World Rapid and Blitz Championships in New York showed that there is sometimes one rule for VIPs, and another for everyone else. The “Jeansgate” scandal involving Magnus Carlsen erupted, almost derailing both events and prompting a rash of media stories worldwide.

Carlsen, the world number one for over a decade, is pure box office, and his very presence in a competition tends to attract big money sponsors. But the extent to which Carlsen can bend competition rules is now being tested – as FIDE, the international chess federation, seems willing to compromise for him.

In New York, FIDE imposed a dress code that required the players to wear formal attire, not jeans. Carlsen turned up for Day 2 in jeans, was fined $200, and then defaulted in one game, knocking him out of contention.
In response, he withdrew and was only persuaded to play in the World Blitz after the head of FIDE, Russian Arkady Dvorkovich, allowed him to play in his jeans again.

Then, to rub in the point that Carlsen can do things differently, the Norwegian agreed to share the World Blitz title with Russia’s Ian Nepomniachtchi rather than play out a long series of sudden death games. This unorthodox finale was also approved by Dvorkovich, against FIDE rules.

All of this comes against the background of a wider power struggle in the chess world between Carlsen and FIDE. In 2023, Carlsen abdicated his Classical World Championship title (where players have longer for their moves), asking for a combination of Classical, Rapid and Blitz games instead. He is also involved in a multi-million dollar Freestyle Chess championship (where the back-rank pieces are shuffled randomly) that wants to call itself a World Championship – much to the annoyance of FIDE, which sees itself as the governing body of all forms of chess.

Below the 2700-rated grandmaster level, the financial conditions available to Carlsen and his rivals are unattainable, and only the very top players worldwide can master the very tricky Freestyle Chess variant. All of which may ironically make Carlsen look like an enfant terrible akin to one of his biggest critics, the American grandmaster Hans Niemann.

But on the other hand, FIDE has become increasingly bureaucratic and inflexible, particularly since being controlled by a series of Russian officials. Where the Carlsen v FIDE feud is headed, no one knows. It all seems a world away from the Northumbria League.

PUZZLES

Puzzle A: Karthikeyan-Mamedov, 2024. White to play & win.

Puzzle B: Can-Svane, 2024. Black to play & win.

Puzzle C: Jones-Adams, 2024. White to play & win.

Puzzle D: Caruana-Donchenko, 2024 (variation). Black to play & win.

ANSWERS:

A: 1 Qxf5+! 1-0. After 1…gxf5 2 Rh6+ Ke7 3 Nxf5 mate.
B: 1…Qb4+! 0-1. If 2 Ke5 Qe1+ wins the queen.
C: 1 Rf8! Rf6 2 Rdd8 1-0.
D: 1…Ng3+! 2 hxg3 Rh6+ 3 Qh5 Rxh5 mate.