Last year, the anachronistically named British Chess Federation finally acknowledged reality by becoming the English Chess Federation. The piecemeal disintegration of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland began at the Folkestone Olympiad in 1933, when a Scottish team made its first appearance alongside the BCF team, possibly, in that depressed era, to bolster the numbers in an otherwise underrepresented event. The remaining UK glue held together until the Skopje Olympiad of 1972, when the Welsh dragon breathed its fiery flame in the international arena. Guernsey and Jersey followed later still.
The Ulster Chess Union's application to join FIDE was shelved at Turin this year. The motive for this rebuff is transparently one of crude political expediency. Either FIDE must insist on a single UK federation (unpalatable for the powers that be, as it would ruffle feathers and cost votes), or it should allow all constituent parts of the country to become members. Dispassionately speaking, you cannot pick and choose in such circumstances; alas, logic rarely counts when vested interests are at stake.
Now that we have an English Chess Federation, perhaps we can also have an English Championship?
I won this event on the only occasion it was held, in 1991, so I assume I am still the reigning champion. I am hoping to emulate the late Kim Il Sung of North Korea: with a little luck, when I snuff it, my son will nominate me "Eternal English Champion" so that I might lead a contented afterlife. Pity I don't also have a republic to plunder: I will have to leave that to others in the chess world.
Major European countries have proper championships. The Dutch, who finished well ahead of us in Turin, have a closed event with virtually all their leading players participating. This year Sergey Tiviakov - formerly of Russia - triumphed. He was in pretty good form, as this clash with the legendary Jan Timman shows.
Tiviakov, S (2669) - Timman, J (2616) Dutch Championship, 28/06/2006 1.e4 c5 2.c3 (More often seen at club level than among GMs. It has the advantage of sidestepping masses of theory. The downside is it is objectively not great) Nf6 3.e5 Nd5 4.Nf3 Nc6 5.Bc4 Nb6 6.Bb3 c4 7.Bc2 Qc7 8.Qe2 g5! (The most active) 9.h3 Bg7 10.0-0 Nxe5 11.Nxg5 d5 (My friend, four-time Russian champion Peter Svidler, assures me that Black is better here.) 12.a4 h6 13.Nf3 Nbd7 14.Re1 Bf6 15.d4 cxd3 16.Bxd3 Nxd3 17.Qxd3 Nc5! (A sacrifice for activity) 18.Qxd5 Be6 19.Qh5 Rd8? (Timman has played well so far, but castling queenside was both more natural and stronger. The king is less comfortable in the middle than on c8) 20.Nd4! Bxd4 21.cxd4 Nb3 DIAGRAM 22.Nc3! (Obvious and good) Nxa1 23.Rxe6 (White's activity more than compensates for the small material deficit) Nb3 24.Be3?! (Missing 24.d5!! Nxc1 25.d6! Rxd6 26.Nb5! winning brilliantly) Nxd4 25.Re4 Nc6 26.b4 (Nevertheless White has rich compensation) Rd3 27.Nd5 Qd6 28.Nf4! Rxe3 (Looks like a mistake but 28...Rd1+ 29.Kh2 leaves Black helpless against the threat of b5 and Bc5 e.g. 29...b6 30.Re6! Qd7 31.Rxc6 Qxc6 32.Qxd1 winning) 29.fxe3 Nd8? (In a difficult position Timman succumbs to the pressure. The only hope lay in 29...Rg8 30.b5 Rg5! - the vital intermezzo - 31.Qe2 Ne5 with chances of survival) 30.Nd5! e6 (If 30...Ne6? 31.Rxe6! Qxe6 32.Nc7+) 31.Nf6+ Kf8 32.Rd4 Qc7 33.Rd7 Qc1+ ( If 33...Qc8 34.Qd1! Nc6 35.Qd6+ Kg7 36.Nh5+! Kg6 37.Qg3+ leads to mate) 34.Kh2 Kg7 35.Qe5 Black resigns. The myriad threats are unstoppable.
