Archive: UNCUT! 10

The Sean Marsh Chess Column UNCUT! Column 10 January 2002 GM David Bronstein Simultaneous Display Yarm School, 14/1/2002 Local chess was given a late Christmas present when one of the greatest players in the history of chess came to our county for two nights of chess heaven. Grandmaster David Bronstein needs no introduction from me; I’ll just jump straight into an account of his activities while he was here. First up was a simultaneous display at Yarm School. This was his third in our county in about a decade, and the latest in a very long series of such events in our area. Previously, we have had visits from Botvinnik, Stein, Zatulovskaja, Smyslov,Gligoric, Korchnoy, Tal, Larsen, Short, Keene, Suba, King.....I may even have missed some. This was a well-attended display and our players were an excellent mix, with experienced players, county champions and juniors all taking part. Here are the scores: Andrew Killick 0.5 Garry Hewitt 0 Ian Peden 0 Joe Richardson 0.5 Jamie Peden 0 Richard Hall 1 Peter Nevard 0 John Garnett 0.5 James Thorne-Wallis 0 Sean Marsh 0 Matthew Jackman 0 Chris Duggan 0 Nick Webb 0 Brian Clark 0 Dominic Leigh 0 Terry Legge 1 David Richardson 0 Dennis Sawdon 0 Robin Killick 1 Keith Rattue 0 Graham Edwards 0 George Laszlo 0.5 Chris Edwards 0 Kevin Winter 0.5 William Place 0.5 Andrew Watts 0.5 Bronstein scored +16, =7, -3. The last game finished at exactly 11.00 p.m.,when the Grandmaster offered Stokesley’s Joe Richardson a draw in a Rook and pawn ending. Joe offered to resign instead, thinking he was losing a critical pawn, but Bronstein typically pointed out a drawing resource! Terry Legge, Richard Hall and Robin Killick all won, with the latter comingin for special praise from the Grandmaster. Robin sacrificed a piece in the goodold style and won in Bronstein style! I am hoping to present one or two of the games in a future column. An Evening with David Bronstein Claxton Hotel, Redcar 15/1/2002 This was a wonderful evening. For virtually four hours, our Grandmaster guestwent through some of his brilliant games and shared his theories and ideas on awhole range of chess topics. Can you imagine having some of Bronstein’s games presented by the man himself - battles with other chess giants, such as Keres -complete with extraordinary anecdotes? It was a chess-lover’s dream come true. Here, we heard stories covering the Grandmaster’s chess life; from being taught the moves, through the cold war years, right up to the present day and his battles with the latest chess computers. Then, when it was gone 11.00 p.m., having asked us several times to give him‘just five more minutes’, he finally confessed to being a little tired. At 78, so he should have been! Those who dared to miss this event missed something very special indeed; the opportunity of a lifetime. David Bronstein - living chess legend and hero of chess players everywhere,we thank you for two wonderful evenings!