The H E Atkins Memorial Tournament, 15–17 September 2006
This tournament is named after the Leicester chess player Harry Ernest Atkins (1872–1955). He won the British Championship nine times between 1905 and 1925. He played for the British Olympiad team in 1927 and 1935. Although he only played a few international tournaments, his record includes victories over Rubinstein and Tartakower at the London Tournament of 1922. He was retrospectively awarded the IM title in 1950 for his pre-war record. At the opening ceremony, the Mayor of Leicester described him as the greatest chess player Leicester had ever produced. It’s interesting to speculate how he would have fared against Leicester’s other contribution to the world of chess, GM Mark Hebden.
I don’t often play tournaments. I entered this one for three reasons. First, I grew up in Leicestershire and I remember playing in the Atkins Memorial in the early 1980s. If anything is my local tournament, this is it. Second, I wanted some practice before the new Home Office season started. Third, I’ve developed my opening knowledge over the summer and I wanted to try out some new lines.
The venue was the Wyggeston and Queen Elizabeth I College, next to Leicester University and south of the city centre. All the tournament sections took place in one big hall. I had entered the Premier, the top section but not called an Open because for some reason it was limited to players graded under 220. The winner qualified for the British Championships in 2007. The other sections – Major, Intermediate, and Minor – were limited to under 140, under 120 and under 100 respectively. The time limit was 40 moves in 1 hour 40 minutes, then all remaining moves in a further 20 minutes.
The first thing I noticed about the Premier was how small it was: only 18 players. The other sections weren’t much bigger. At its heyday in the 1980s, the tournament attracted over 300 entries. The second thing was that there were no players graded over 200 in the Premier. The leading players were Martin Burrows (191), Tomasz Swiatloch (188), Michael Barnes (186), myself and Alan Byron (181), Alan Edwards (180) and Chris Rice (177). The lowest-graded player was 135 and the average grade was 165. This merely added to the pressure and I started out with a strong feeling of chess nerves.
In the first round I had white against Peter Jaszkiwskyj (155). This was ironic. I had already played Peter four times in the Civil Service League and Commercial League in London. Both of us had travelled a long way for this tournament and now we found ourselves playing each other. For a moment I thought of asking for my money back. Then sense prevailed. I played the Scotch (1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.d4) and for a while the game followed the same path as in one of our previous encounters in 2005. Peter was the first to deviate, but it didn’t do him any good and I soon had a promising attacking position. At move 17 I turned down the chance to sacrifice a piece to open up his king position with a very strong attack. This was what’s known as one of the “critical points” in a game. Peter recovered from that to nullify my pressure and simplify the position. Eventually we reached a rook and knight ending where I had the initiative and a slightly better pawn structure. I think Peter had some drawing chances but he played too passively and allowed me to catch his king in a mating net. For the moves and analysis, click here.
My reward for winning in round 1 was to find myself black in round 2 against the highest-graded player, Martin Burrows. The opening was a Sicilan Najdorf (1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 d6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nc3 a6). White has at least five serious alternatives at move 6. Martin chose 6.Bc4, the favourite of Bobby Fischer. Play continued 6...e6 7.Bb3 b5 8.f4 and in an unfamiliar position I continued with the routine 8...Be7 (8...Bb7 is better). Martin seized the chance to attack with 9.e5 dxe5 10.fxe5 Nfd7 11.Bxe6 Nxe5 12.Bxc8 Qxc8 13.0-0 0-0 14.Nf5. Black is already under a lot of pressure. I managed to avoid getting mated, but couldn’t stop him simplifying into a knight and pawn ending a pawn up. After a few more moves it was clear that I was going to lose so I resigned.
On Saturday afternoon, in round 3, I had white against Andrew Talbot (169). It was another Sicilian Najdorf. I played the English Attack with 6.Be3 and play continued 6...e5 7.Nf3 Be7 8.Bc4 Be6. With more experience of this opening I would have known that this was a mistake. White should continue 9.Bxe6 fxe6 10.Ng5 followed by Qf3 and Qh3 when the attack on the e6 pawn is awkward for Black. However, I transposed back into the main line with 9.Bb3 0-0 10.0-0. The line with 7.Nf3 is more positional than others with the aim being to restrict Black’s play. I got a good position out of the opening – my knight occupied the hole on d5 and Black had a backward pawn on d6 and a bad dark-squared bishop behind it. But it wasn’t enough to win: either he defended well or my technique wasn’t up to it. After about 60 moves we agreed a draw. Ours was the last game to finish.
This tournament is more civilised than some in that they don’t play on Saturday evening so we were spared three games in one day. I went into Leicester city centre and, on the advice of the Good Beer Guide, tracked down a real ale pub called “Out of the Vaults”. This has 12 real ales on tap. I settled for Attila from the Oakham Brewery – a thick golden beer weighing in at 7.5%. The pub is also a favourite with rugby supporters and is frequented by the former England hooker Brian Moore, described locally as “the most prolific beer drinker in the country”. They hold a beer festival in his honour on his birthday in October.
With chess on my mind I didn’t make a session of it. But the Attila must have had some effect as my results improved on Sunday. In round 4, at 9.30 on Sunday morning and not very awake, I had black against Ray Wynarczyk (150). This was one of those death or glory games for me – win and your season is back on track, lose and your season goes into nose-dive. At 1.5 out of 3, I hadn’t exactly set the tournament alight. As it turned out, this was my most exciting game of the tournament. Once again it was a Sicilian Najdorf, again with 6.Bc4 e6 7.Bb3 e5, but now he varied with 8.Bg5. We continued to develop pieces but I must have missed the best line. He built up a strong attack, as you expect on the white side of a Najdorf, but my counterplay was missing. Eventually he sacrificed a piece to open up my king. This time, however, my defence was up to it. He ran out of checks and I mated him. Looking at the game afterwards we agreed that the sacrifice was unsound, although it certainly gave him lots of play. For the moves and analysis, click here.
At the start of the last round, Martin Burrows led on 3.5 out of 4, followed by Michael Barnes and Alan Byron on 3, and David Coates (161), Alan Edwards, Chris Rice, Tomasz Swiatloch, Andrew Talbot and me on 2.5. The pairings on the top 5 boards were Swiatloch–Burrows, Barnes–Byron, Edwards–Talbot, Toon–Rice, and Coates–Jaszkiwskyj (Peter J was in a group on 2 out of 4). I worked out that I could still tie for first place if I won, Burrows lost, and Barnes and Byron drew. Unfortunately none of these events came to pass.
My game against Chris Rice, on board 4, was yet another Sicilian Najdorf. I repeated the line I’d played against Andrew Talbot – 6.Be3 e5 7.Nf3 Be7 8.Bc4 – and now he varied with 8...Nc6. With hindsight I should have played 9.a4 here to restrain his queenside play, but I castled instead and he played ...b5 straightaway. I put my bishop on d5, followed up with Bg5, and exchanged off both bishops for his knights. Again I got a good position out of the opening with a positional bind and an unbreakable hold on the d5 square. For almost all this game I was convinced I had good winning chances. However, towards the end he found a resource allowing him to liquidate to a drawn ending. So I finished on 3 out of 5.
On board 1, Swiatloch drew with Burrows in another Najdorf. Swiatloch won the exchange in the 6.Be2 line and Burrows had to defend very accurately to survive. On board 2, Barnes beat Byron with a Queen’s Gambit Declined Exchange Variation. On board 3, Edwards easily beat Talbot on the black side of a Nimzo-Indian Defence Classical Variation. And on board 5, Coates and Jaszkiwskyj shared the points after a complex-looking Ruy Lopez.
The leading scores were:
1= Barnes, Burrows – 4 out of 5
3 Edwards – 3.5
4= Byron, Coates, Rice, Swiatloch, Toon – 3.
What did I get out of the tournament? It was hard work in that there were no easy games and most of mine lasted three hours or more. I came away with a grading performance of 178: close enough to my actual grade to be reassuring. I had a good workout in the Sicilian Najdorf (4 games out of 5 in this variation, and it wasn’t a themed tournament either). And it certainly did provide good practice for the new season which starts in a couple of weeks. I can hardly wait…