Battle commences
Article posted on 19th October, 2009 – 12.19pm
ONE of the largest fields of chess players ever assembled in Guernsey locked horns yesterday as the 35th Intertrust Guernsey International Chess Festival got under way.
One hundred and twenty-one entrants from 17 nations will compete at the Peninsula Hotel throughout this week, all hoping for a share of the £4,220 prize fund.
This year’s Open Tournament features three giants of the game: Grandmasters Bojan Kurajica – representing Bosnia and Herzegovina – Oleg Korneev of Russia and the Swedish defending champion, Tiger Hillarp-Persson (pictured).
International Master Robert Bellin is taking his 24th crack at the title, which he has already won six times. Meanwhile, Dutchman Jan Havenaar and Germany’s Rudiger Von Saldern each return to Guernsey having missed only one festival out of the 35 held to date.
Round one of the Open Tournament went very much with the form book, with wins for all of the main pre-tournament favourites.
Source: http://www.thisisguernsey.com
Where’s Guernsey?
Guernsey is one the Channel Islands off the coast of France, it has a regular week long festival of chess in October, a relaxed pace, it is one game a day over seven days starting at 2pm, it’s a good place for a relaxing holiday and some chess. I played the open and lost most of my games, but I did win one!
de Kleynen,H.J. – Henbest,Kevin [E99]
Guernsey Open Rd6 2009
1.d4 Nf6 2.Nf3 g6 3.c4 Bg7 4.Nc3 0… See More–0 5.e4 d6 6.Be2 e5 7.0–0 Nc6 8.d5 Ne7 9.Ne1 Nd7 10.Be3 f5 11.f3 f4 12.Bf2 g5 13.h3 Rf6 14.Nd3 Rh6 15.Re1 Nf6 16.Bf1 Ng6 17.c5 Nh8 18.cxd6 cxd6 19.Qb3 Nf7 20.Rec1 g4 21.hxg4 Bxg4 !22.fxg4 Nxg4 23.Nb5 Qg5 24.Nb4 Rh1+! 25.Kxh1 Qh5+ 26.Qh3 Nxf2+ 27.Kg1 Nxh3+ 28.gxh3 Ng5 29.Nxd6 Nxh3+ 30.Bxh3 Qxh3 31.Nf5 Rf8 32.Rc2 Rf6 33.Rg2 Rg6 34.Ne7+ Kf7 35.Nxg6 hxg6 36.Rc1? 0–1
OK I messed up at the end, but it was fun to play Bxg4 and Rh1+. I got the ideas from the Korchnoi -Fischer blitz game from Novi Said 1970, where he plays Nh8!