Chess Moves 2008 November-December.pdf

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November / December 2008
13th I.B.C.A. Olympiad, Heraklion 2008
The International Braille Chess
Association (I.B.C.A.) 13th chess
Olympiad for blind and visually
impaired players took place from
18th – 29th October 2008 in the
beautiful city of Heraklion on
the Greek island of Crete. The
tournament consisted of 9 rounds,
with a rest day on Friday 24th. The
final round occurred on Tuesday
28th with a wonderful closing
ceremony on the evening.
32 countries participated in this
Olympiad and the United Kingdom
team were seeded 8th. The UK team
consisted of: 1. IM Colin Crouch
(2359), 2. Chris Ross (2172) [captain],
3. Graham Lilley (2115), 4. Stephen
Hilton (1907) and 5. Bill Armstrong
(1964) [reserve].
NEWSLETTER OF THE ENGLISH CHESS FEDERATION
£1.50
Grandmaster Neil McDonald and International Master Chris Beaumont
accompanied the UK team and provided magnificent and salient
assistance during the tournament, providing indepth constructive pre-
match preparation and instructive post-mortem analysis.
Naturally, Russia played former World champions Sergey Krylov and
Sergei Smirnov, as well as the current Champion Vladimir Berlinsky
and were seeded number 1. Ukraine came a very close 2nd seed with
the current women’s World Champion Lubov Zsiltzova-Lisenko. Other
strong competitors were Poland, Germany, Spain, Serbia and Lithuania.
United Kingdom got off to a flying start with 2 excellent wins over The
Netherlands in round 1 and Finland in round 2. Having bagged 2 wins
out of two (the tournament was ran on match-points, not game points),
we were already in the lead, joint 1st with a few other countries.
Round 3 saw us pitted against Serbia, who were seeded number 3 in
the tournament. After a long and tense match, Hilton lost on board 4
and Lilley got a credible draw on board 3. It was therefore up to the
top two boards to pull something out. Ross had an excellent attacking
game (see p18) and left it up to his top board to bring the bacon home
for the team, which he duly did with some excellent positional play.
Photograph – Colin Crouch with his silver medal.
Cont. on page 7
Editorial
I attended the AGM in Birmingham in
October and received with great pleasure
the President’s award. Thank you all for
the warm reception this presentation
received. Last time I attended a meeting in
Birmingham I had armed police visiting my
hotel room (nothing to do with me I hasten
to add), this time on leaving Charing Cross
station for the return journey to Hastings a
fight broke out in the next carriage, police
were called and eventually the combatants
were led away in handcuffs, who says chess
meetings are boring or perhaps I should
just stay at home.
The National Chess Library continues to
thrive and I thank all of those who have
donated their books to our collection.
This is the final issue of ChessMoves before
Christmas and I would like to extend
seasons greetings and to wish you a
happy and prosperous New Year with a
personal thank you to all ECF Members
and subscribers who keep us going.
Cynthia Gurney, Editor
ECF News
ECF Vacancies
The English Chess Federation (ECF) is seeking to appoint a number
of officers as shown below. Reasonable expenses incurred in fulfilling
the duties of the post will be reimbursed.
Anyone wishing to discuss this post should contact the ECF Office by
15th December at office@englishchess.org.uk or 01424 775222.
Director of Finance
Manages the preparation of the annual statement of Accounts of the Company
and presents it on behalf of the Board, duly audited, to the Annual Meeting of
Council. Oversees the records kept by the ECF Office, ensures they are accurate
and adequate for accounting purposes and for the preparation of VAT and other
statutory returns. Guides the work of the accounting staff in the Office.
Prepares the Federation’s annual budget, in liaison with the individual ECF
Directors, the Board and the Finance Committee. Produces for the Board periodic
management information and forecasts of income and expenditure; takes
remedial action, as may be required, in consultation with the Chief Executive and
the Board. Is responsible for the collection of Game Fee by the Manager of Finance
and Management Services and office staff and provides forecasts of Game Fee
income. Evaluates the various risks to which the ECF is exposed and proposes to
the Board the appropriate course of action, including, as appropriate, insurance.
Provides general advice to the Federation on financial matters, taxation, statutory
accounts and reporting requirements. Must possess, and provide evidence of, an
appropriate accounting qualification.
Develops the ECF approach to membership (of all types), membership fees
(including Game Fee) and benefits (including grading and representation)
attaching to membership.
Gerry Walsh presenting me with my award.
Contents
IBCA Olympiad ..........................................FC, 7
Editorial ...............................................................2
ECF News ........................................................2-4
Report on Grading Anomalies ................5-6
Obituary ..............................................................6
International News................................... 7-10
Junior News ..............................................10-17
Games.........................................................18-20
Littlewood’s Choice ..................................... 20
Book Reviews ................................................. 21
Results Round-Up...................................22-23
Grand Prix........................................................ 23
Calendar of Events ....................................... 24
Manager of ICT
Reports to the Chief Executive.
Provides advice to the Board on all ICT matters.
Supports the Office to ensure that the Office ICT is maintained.
Provides advice as necessary on upgrades to the Office ICT infrastructure.
Chairs the ECF IT Committee.
Manager of British Chess Championships
Reports to the International Director.
Organises the British Chess Championships and associated annual Congress.
Immediate jobs include
* Finding a venue for the 2010 Championships.
* Resolving the budget for the 2009 Championships in Torquay.
Producing the entry form for the same for distribution in February.
An honorarium will be considered for a suitably qualified candidate.
CHESSMOVES – NOVEMBER / DECEMBEr 2008
Copy Deadline
10th January 2009
2
Manager of
Congress Chess
FIDE Delegate:
G F Walsh
Chairman of the Finance Committee:
M J Adams
Members of the Finance Committee:
R A Clark; J A Philpott FCA, D I W Reynolds;
A C Martin
Reporting to:
President:
Post
Award Committee
Personnel Committee
1
Chief Executive:
Company Secretary
2
Manager of Women’s Chess
Manager of ICT
3
IT Committee
Strategic Planning Officer
Delegate to CCPR
Minutes Secretary
Home Chess
Chairman of the Governance Committee:
J A Philpott
Members of the Governance Committee:
R J Haddrell, A T Leadbetter, J L Paines
Auditor:
Goatcher Chandler
John Wickham, Stan Goodall, Bob Jones
Robert Richmond, John Wickham,
David Anderton, Susan McFarland
Geoff Steele
Meri Lyell
To be advertised
Appointment of a committee left for new
Manager of ICT
Vacant to be advertised
David Sedgwick
Julie Johnson
New post to be advertised
Dave Thomas
Geoff Jones
Dave Welch
Dave Welch
Cyril Johnson, Julie Johnson,
David Welch
Dave Welch
Andrew Martin
Discontinued
Lawrence Cooper
To be advertised
Bob Jones
Stewart Reuben (Chair),
Alan Beardsworth, Jana Bellin,
Ray Edwards, Glen Flear, Harriet Hunt,
Jonathan Parker, Richard Palliser
Stewart Reuben (Chair), David Anderton,
Ray Edwards (replaces John Littlewood)
Action deferred
To be advertised
Reports to the Director of Home Chess.
Organises all other ECF tournaments,
other than those that are the specific
responsibility of another Director.
Organises the ECF Grand Prix and ensures
the safe custody and maintenance of all
playing equipment, including Internet
equipment, belonging to or used by the
Federation.
Makes recommendations regarding the
appointment of persons as ECF Arbiter, ECF
Senior Arbiter and International Arbiter. Is
responsible for the ECF Chess Calendar.
Strategic Planning
Officer
Reports to the Chief Executive
Provide advices on the identification of
corporate strategies and prepare the
following documents on an annual basis
according to the following schedule:
* Long-term Strategic Plan
* Annual Business Plan
* Report against previous year’s
business Plan
Liaises with the ECF Directors and
Managers to obtain inputs to the Strategic
Planning documents in a timely fashion.
Provides a report for each Board meeting
on progress.
The SPO will be invited to attend the Board
meeting at which Strategic Planning is a
priority.
Manager of Congress Chess
4
Manager of Grading & Rating
Manager of Arbiters
Chief Arbiter
Curator of Equipment
Committee for County Champ.
National stage draw
Curator of Equipment
Junior Chess
International Chess
Manager of Coaching
Junior Selection Committee
5
Alternate Director
Manager of British
Championships
4, 7
British Championships Publicity
Officer
International Selection
Committee
List of 2008
Appointments
President:
G F Walsh
Chief Executive:
C E Majer
Non-Executive Directors:
A C Martin; J R Wickham
Director of Home Chess:
C F W Johnson
Director of Junior Chess & Education:
P W Purland
Director of International Chess:
S Reuben
Director of Marketing:
P J B Wilson
CHESSMOVES – NOVEMBER / DECEMBER 2008
International Senior Selection
Committee
Chess For Schools
Marketing
Manager of CfS
6
Publicity Officer
1) It was agreed that Personnel subcommittee should be a balance of board directors and others. The Finance
Director is a member of the PSC ex officio.
2) CM/JAP to liaise with Geoff to ensure that he is able to continue in the post.
3) The incumbent Bruce Holland is standing down on grounds of ill heath. Consequently, the post will be advertised.
4) Posts to be advertised in ChessMoves and other chess magazines.
5) In his report submitted by email, PP had expressed a reluctance to have a selection committee, and his wishes
were deferred to.
6) The Manager of CfS post will be advertised when the Holloid situation has clarified.
7) SR indicated his wish to stand down as Manager of the British Championships.
3
ECF
Book of the Year 2008
The judges this year had no difficulty choosing
a book which gives a remarkable inside view of
match play chess at the highest level.
ECF Award
Winners 2008
From London to Elista Evgeny Bareev
and Ilya Levitov New in Chess pp398
£21.95
This volume, which is in three parts, covers in sequence
the three world title matches Kramnik has played. The first
part “Overthrow of a Colossus” was his defeat of Kasparov in London 2000; the second
“Photo finish in Brissago” was the 2004 drawn match against Leko where Kramnik
held onto his title by winning the last game. Lastly, “Big Brother in Elista” refers to the
controversy- ridden match with Topalov in 2006 which Kramnik won on the tie break.
Grandmaster Bareev was one of Kramnik’s seconds for the first two matches and a
closely involved spectator in the match with Topalov. Levitov is a journalist and an
enthusiastic amateur chess player. There are also contributions from Smyslov, and two
of Kramnik’s other seconds Lautier and Svidler.
The basis of the book is a dialogue between Levitov and Bareev. Levitov, a spectator
and outsider to the professional chess world, seeks to understand the complex inner
workings of world championship chess matches. Bareev as the professional insider
explains what is going on. Bareev also annotates all the games in depth concentrating
on the critical moments of play in the openings and the interface between the
contestants.
Well written and translated the quality of the book resides in the open and frank way
Bareev answers the questions. Amongst the many subjects discussed (and we can
only list a few here) are stress, opening preparation, team working, relations with
Kramnik, the opponents, fatigue and exhaustion of players and seconds. But above
all the narrative captures very well the psychological issues behind the drama of the
matches. When will Kasparov’s fight back take place? How to keep an ailing Kramnik
going when behind in his match with Leko? And last but not least can Kramnik keep
his composure after being defaulted a game against Topalov?
London to Elista gives a unique insight into world championship chess. Without doubt
this is one of the most original and interesting books to have won the Book of the Year
award.
Ray Edwards
Julian Farrand
David Friedgood
President’s Awards for Services
to Chess 2008
David Ingram Dickson
Peter Purland (ECF Director of Junior Chess)
presenting David Dickson with his award.
Magazine of the Year 2008
Correspondence Chess, edited by Neil
Limbert
Neil Limbert receiving his award from ECF
Director of Home Chess Cyril Johnson.
Special thanks to New in Chess for donating
the prize ‘From London to Elista’ - ECF Book
of the Year 2008.
ECF BATSFORD COMPETITION
Congratulations to the SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER Winner
Coventry
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Omar Jassim from
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The first correct entry drawn
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on10th January 2009 will win
a Batsford voucher for any
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book on their current list.
Please send your answer (just the first move is sufficient) on a postcard to the
Website of the Year 2008
www.chessdevon.co.uk
Bill Frost with his certificate and prize.
Special thanks to New in Chess for donating
the prize ‘From London to Elista’ - ECF Book
of the Year 2008.
CHESSMOVES – NOVEMBER / DECEMBEr 2008
4
Report on Grading anomalies
– Why are they Needed
Grading has been around for about half a century. The idea behind
the BCF/ECF system is that a player graded (say) 10 points higher
than his opponent would be expected to score 6/10 against that
opponent. (Expected percentage score = 50 plus the difference
in grades.)
The original lists were quite small, comprising only the strongest
players in the country, but within a very few years it was noticed
that grades, for no identifiable reason, were gradually slipping. Sir
Richard Clarke, who introduced the system, realised that it should
be monitored carefully and felt it ought to be corrected if necessary
every 4 years. Unfortunately he had not today’s means of analysing
data. The number of players has increased enormously since his
day, but the basic system has been largely untouched.
One difficulty was that results, even after the overhaul of the system
in 1998-1999, were often submitted or stored in a “bundled” form
(Player X, Games Y, Points Z) which did not lend itself to detailed
analysis. By 2002 the incidence of bundles was much reduced in
favour of actual game results (which are now the norm), and by
2005 we had sufficient information to permit analysis over a four-
year period. It was then apparent that results did not match the
theoretical expectations. Players who outgraded their opponents
by 10 points were scoring approximately 58% rather than the
expected 60%. The system had become “stretched”.
There may be several separate reasons for grades to inflate, deflate
or stretch out, but the main one is very simple: if we don’t play
lots of games against opponents who also play lots of games,
the list is bound to become gradually stretched. This has been
demonstrated by mathematical modelling, but the results cannot
easily be summarised in a meaningful way. We are looking at ways
of making this information available to those who are interested.
We have now been able to review the system and restore the old
standard that a 10 point grade difference gives an expectation
of 6/10 and so on. The review has covered much ground. Most
grades have changed quite a lot, because the stretching goes
back a long way. The effect of the review is the same as would
have been achieved by gentle corrections every few years.
Old Grades remain official in 2008-9, with New Grades published
only for reference. Starting with the 2009 list, Old Grades will no
longer be produced. Old Grades (even 2008) will have no effect on
future New Grades.
The process of review will continue so that any future drifting can
be corrected. Some further work is needed to find out how Junior
grades change. In the past, we have assumed that increasing age
is the only factor; but this needs to be validated.
How Have the New Grades Been Calculated
The initial calculations were on games played from 2002 to 2006.
They were not performed season by season, but on the whole
four-year period in a single operation.
Standardplay
First it was necessary to establish a pool of sufficiently active
players, and to eliminate distorting effects from improving juniors.
So all games of players who were juniors in all or part of the period
were removed. Players with less than 40 games remaining were
then also removed.
CHESSMOVES – NOVEMBER / DECEMBER 2008
The elimination process was repeated till no one had less than 40
games, leaving a core of players who were active enough to give
reliable results.
Grades were then calculated iteratively for these players. Using
the resulting grades as a starting point, calculations were done
for all games in the four-year period to produce 2006 grades for
everybody.
Rapidplay
Rapidplay grades were calculated in the same way, except that
no player met the 40-game requirement so 30 games were used
instead. The 2006 Rapidplay grades were then adjusted so that, on
average, players with at least 30 games at both rates of play had
the same grade in both.
2007 and 2008 grades
With the 2006 grades established, Standard and Rapid grades
were calculated for 2007 and 2008 in the usual way.
2009 grades
Will simply continue the process, using as their starting point the
2008 New Grades already calculated.
Junior increments
The increments used have been suggested by an analysis of
results, and they are different for Standard and Rapid. (But less so
than appears, because the Rapid increments are applied twice a
year on a compound basis.)
Age
0-11
12-14
15-17
Standard
15
10
5
Rapid
3
2
1
What is the Effect
Standardplay grades around 210 - 219 will, on average, remain the
same. Below this, grades will go up; and the lower the grade, the
more it will go up. Rapidplay grades, on average, will go up more
than Standard because they start from a lower base.
Changes can be roughly broken down as follows:
Standard
Adult New Grade = 0.79 x Old Grade + 45
Junior New Grade = 0.76 x Old Grade + 64
Rapid
Adult New Grade = 0.76 x Old Grade + 49
Junior New Grade = 0.93 x Old Grade + 40
Note that these “formulae” are true on average only, and cannot
be applied to individual players. Different players are affected
differently.
FIDE conversion: FIDE = New ECF x 8 + 650
Negative grades
A beneficial side-effect of the switch to New Grades is that it
much reduces the number of negative grades (which are actually
published as 0).
Negative grades 2008, A - E:
Standard
Rapid
Old Grades
34
537
New Grades
1
171
5

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