To My Valentine...

John B. Henderson • February 14, 2023

A few years back, I was amused and both saddened, but not at all surprised, to read Matthew Sadler’s New in Chess review of Bob Jones and Owen Hindle’s wonderful little book on a long-forgotten Victorian master: “If any of you have heard before about Cecil de Vere," the reviewer poignantly pondered, “…then I guess you are the two people who wrote this book!”


For those who don’t know this old master from the past, Cecil Valentine de Vere (to give him his full monicker) was born - fittingly, given his name - on Valentine’s Day in 1846, but he died in destitute from tuberculosis at the tragically young age of 29 in 1875. And if you have never read Jones and Hindle’s entertaining and enlightening biography on him, “The English Morphy”?, then you really should.

His death was a sad and rather squalid end for someone who only a few years earlier had been dubbed with the sobriquet “A Young Morphy”, by no less a figure than Wilhelm Steinitz, the first world champion-to-be. And much like the American enigma Paul Morphy, de Vere was just as big an enigma and could have been best described as the ‘pride and sorrow’ of British Chess.


At his peak, in 1866, de Vere - with youth on his side - was seriously being talked about as a potential world champion. That year, he had won the first British Chess Associations Challenge Cup (the forerunner of the British Championship - and he was the youngest player to win the title until Nigel Short) with a 100 per cent score. 


This was followed by another big win at Redcar and respectable showings in the top international arena at Paris and Dundee. But Dundee proved to be his Waterloo, so to speak, because in the northern industrial Scottish city, the rot set in with a diagnosis of TB that ultimately lead into a spiral of alcoholism, ill-health, and ultimately a premature death.

 

Try to picture the scene, if you will: One day you are seen as the new darling of the game and dazzling the cream of elite chess in Dundee, the next you go to a Scottish doctor with a bad cough, and it all ends in a tragic spiral of your promising career being curtailed, and ultimately ends in an early death. Such were the vagaries of life for a chess master during the Victorian era!


On a more cheerier note, in honour of Valentine’s Day 2023 for all you young chess lovers, legendary American GM and composer, Pal Benko, created the suitable heart-themed puzzle in today’s diagram. It’s White to play and mate-in-two, and you will find the solution at the bottom of today’s game.

Cecil Valentine De Vere - Wilhelm Steinitz 

Dundee International Congress, 1867

Ruy Lopez, Berlin Defence

1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 Nf6 The dreaded Berlin Defence - but this was in an era when the Berlin was all the rage, and not the more modern-day 'Wall' variety with the queen exchange and an early endgame scenario. Men were men back then: they played for the cut-and-thrust of a swashbuckling game! 4.0-0 Nxe4 5.Re1 And this was basically how they took on the Berlin back then - playing for lots of tricks and activity. 5...Nd6 6.Nxe5 Nxe5 7.Rxe5+ Be7 8.d4 f6 9.Re1 Nxb5 10.Qh5+ g6 11.Qxb5 c6 12.Qb3 d5 13.c4 Kf7?! This is typical of Steinitzian style. The first World Champion would often use his king in the opening or in the middle-game as an active piece. But here, in way be the lesser of two evils, as he has to get his king out from the middle of the board, and he can't castle as 13...0-0 14.cxd5 cxd5 15.Nc3 picks up the d-pawn. What he's hoping for, is to get the same variation with the big difference being that he can play ...Be6 defending the pawn. But De Vere brilliantly refute's Steinitz's concept. 14.Nc3 dxc4 15.Qxc4+ Kg7 16.d5 cxd5? "A frightful error of judgment," commented Steinitz. "The isolated passed pawn could certainly never have been as dangerous as the openings given by this capture at once to all the hostile pieces. Black ought to have played 16...c5." 17.Nxd5 Bf8? Yet another big error from Steinitz, who didn't see De Vere's next move. Instead, he had to accept he was in a bad way and try to limp on with 17...Bd6 18.Bf4 where White has a big - almost winning - advantage. 18.Nxf6!! A stunning blow that rips the defences around Steinitz's king. 18...Qxf6 The only move as 18...Kxf6?? 19.Qh4+ loses not only the queen, but also shortly after it, the king. 19.Bd2 b5 20.Qd5 b4 21.Rac1 It's not so much love from Valentine, more like 50 Shades of Grey, as De Vere's pieces become the epitome of domination. 21...Qf7 22.Qxa8 A more fitting finale would have been 22.Bh6+! Kg8 23.Qxa8 Bxh6 24.Rxc8+ Bf8 (If 24...Kg7 25.Rxh8 Bg5 26.Rb8 and Black can quickly resign.) 25.Qc6! and Black is in zugzwang. 22...Be6 23.Qe4 Bxa2 24.Qe5+ Kg8 There's nothing left now but to make a quick exit, as even 24...Qf6 25.Bh6+ Kf7 26.Rc7+ is overwhelming. 25.Rc7 Qd5 26.Qxd5+ All roads lead to Rome here, but De Vere could have rubbed in his dominance with the clinical finish of 26.Qf6 Qxd2 27.Rg7+ Bxg7 28.Re8+ Bf8 29.Rxf8#. 26...Bxd5 27.Re8 1-0 Steinitz can't avoid the lose of the bishop on f8 with mate.


Pal Benko solution: 1. Qd6+ Bxd6 Nd8# or 1.Qd6+ Qxd6 2.f5#

The 42 Paradox

By John B. Henderson • October 2, 2023
Well, well, well. After rampaging his way through many of the finals and opponents throughout the 2023 Champions Chess Tour, Magnus Carlsen’s “final boss” reign came to a screeching halt in what proved to be an enthralling AI Cup Grand Final on Friday, as the favourite was beaten not once but in three games, and over two matches, by Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, who sensationally grabbed the last remaining spot in the Champions Tour Final in December. Earlier, Carlsen had defeated MVL in the final of the winners’ bracket, before the Frenchman gained the right to a rematch in the double-elimination contest by beating Ian Nepomniachtchi in the final of the losers’ bracket. In the Grand Final, buoyed up and firing on all cylinders, MVL beat Carlsen by a 2½-1½ score.

We'll Meet Again

By John B. Henderson • September 29, 2023
The self-proclaimed “final boss of chess” does what the final boss of chess does best of all: Magnus Carlsen beat Maxime Vachier-Lagrave in the final of the AI Cup winners’ bracket, the sixth and final leg of the 2023 Champions Chess Tour regular season, to reach yet another Grand Final in the novel double-elimination contest. But it wasn’t without an epic bare-knuckle street fight from both players, as MVL proved to be a worthy opponent for what looked to be an unstoppable Carlsen, who narrowly prevailed in the Armageddon to take the match 3-2. "This is the sort of thing that happens when you play Sicilians in every game," said a magnanimous Carlsen in victory after four fighting Sicilians left the match tied at 2-2.

Tiers For Fears

By John B. Henderson • September 27, 2023
Fans were treated to arguably the greatest online rivalry in chess history recently, with the Chess.com Speed Chess Championship Grand Final showdown between Magnus Carlsen and Hikaru Nakamura seeing the Norwegian narrowly snatch victory by a solitary win to end the American speed maven’s hopes of a sixth successive victory. But Carlsen’s narrow win left the salivating fans feeling they’d been denied seeing this epic gladiatorial speed contest going into overtime - but they didn’t have to wait long for the rivalry redux, as a couple of days later, both Carlsen and Nakamura went head-to-head yet again in the opening day of the AI Cup, the sixth and final leg of the 2023 Champions Chess Tour regular season.

Bossing It

By John B. Henderson • September 25, 2023
Magnus Carlsen more than lived up to his self-proclamation of being “The Final Boss of Chess” with a revenge-is-sweet narrow victory over fellow chess influencer Hikaru Nakamura, as he denied his long-time arch-rival a sixth successive Chess.com Speed Chess Championship title last Friday. Last year, it was Nakamura who narrowly squeaked home by one point - this time, in yet another thrilling match consisting of three different speed limits - 5+1, 3+1 and 1+1 (more commonly known as ‘bullet’) - between the two speed titans, it again ended with the same scoreline, though this time seeing Carlsen triumph by a solitary win after two pulsating hours of thrilling play, as he took the $150,000 2023 Speed Chess Championship presented by Coinbase, 13.5-12.5.

Death, Taxes, Magnus & Hikaru

By John B. Henderson • September 22, 2023
With a smorgasbord of online chess events out there now, the granddaddy of them all is surely the Chess.com Speed Chess Championship , with a $150,000 prize fund that determines just who is the best blitz and bullet players. It has become the perennial fan-favourite with arguably the best viewing experience - and the fans are set for yet another spectacular finale later today, as the two rivals who dominate the roll of honour, Magnus Carlsen and Hikaru Nakamura, get set for another explosive showdown in the 2023 final. Friday’s final and commentary, free to view, starts at 14:00 ET (11:00 PT; 20:00 CEST; 23:30 IST) on Chess.com. Carlsen and Nakamura have won each edition since the inaugural Speed Chess Championship event in 2016 - Carlsen won the first two speed titles before taking a hiatus, only for Nakamura to rule the roost, winning four more times.

A Messi Kid

By John B. Henderson • September 19, 2023
India today is a land of amazing young talents and prospects in chess, with the country seemingly having a never-ending production line of prodigies rolling off the factory conveyor belt. But for some countries, such as Argentina, prodigies only seem to come around with all the regularity of Halley’s Comet . One of the first notable post-war chess prodigies was Oscar Panno from Buenos Aires, who became the first world-class player born in South America. In 1953, at the age of 17, he became only the second World Junior Champion , having won the coveted youth title ahead of a strong cadre of future elite-level Grandmasters such as Boris Ivkov (who in 1951 was crowned the first World Junior Ch), Bent Larsen, and Fredrik Olafsson.

The Great Rook 'n' Roll Swindle

By John B. Henderson • September 14, 2023
“Chess is a cruel game. We all know that feeling when your position has gone awry and everything seems hopeless. You feel like resigning. But don’t give up! This is precisely the moment to switch to swindle mode. Master the art of provoking errors and you will be able to turn the tables and escape with a draw or sometimes even steal the full point!” So wrote David Smerdon, an Australian chess grandmaster and one of his country’s leading behavioural economists, on the back cover of his witty and wickedly entertaining, not to mention the much-lauded and deserving 2020 ECF Book of the Year winner, The Complete Chess Swindler (New in Chess).

No Country For Young Men

By John B. Henderson • September 11, 2023
With the top teenage talents being overshadowed in the Tata Steel Chess India Rapid in Kolkata by a dominant performance from seasoned veteran Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, there were hopes of a homeland comeback in the follow-on Blitz tournament - and one looked to be on the cards, only for another “old guy”, this time Alexander Grischuk, crashing the teenage party by capturing the second, even faster speed title. Early doors, all eyes were firmly on Rameshbabu “Pragg” Praggnanandhaa, with his flying start of a perfect 5/5 on the opening day of the two-day double-round contest. But that was as good as it got for the 18-year-old Candidate-qualifier, who could only finish the day on 6.5/9, and despite being the sole leader, he held what looked a very slender half-point lead over nearest rivals Santosh Vidit and Grischuk, ominously the only unbeaten player.

My Indian Summer

By John B. Henderson • September 8, 2023
The past couple of years have proved to be a major one for India - not only a global player with world leaders descending this week in New Delhi for the G20 Summit and recently successfully landing a spacecraft on the moon but now also a fully-fledged chess superpower, with many exciting young talents set to make the country a dominant force for the foreseeable future. Many would even speculate that Indian Chess could well turn into a hegemony, in much the same way as the Soviets dominated the chess scene in the 1945 post-war period until its collapse and ultimate dissolution in 1991. The latest big chess tournament to be held in India coincides with the G20, with the fifth Tata Steel Chess India Rapid & Blitz - a spinoff from the larger Dutch super-tournament, the Tata Steel Chess Masters in Wijk aan Zee - taking place 5-9 September in Kolkata.

Me & The Kids

By John B. Henderson • September 4, 2023
The fifth and latest leg of the Champions Chess Tour , the Julius Baer Generations Cup more than lived up to its name with the world No.1, Magnus Carlsen, after overpowering Alireza Firouzja in the winners’ final, to effortlessly cruise his way into the Grand Final, declaring: “It’s just me against the kids now!” After three clean kills that included a brace of back-to-back 2½-½ victories over Iranian Amin Tabatabaei and his old title foe Caruana, Carlsen proceeded to sweep Firouzja 3-0 to reach the Grand Final of the contest - but it wasn’t lost on the “old man” that non of his old rivals were left in the competition, and that meant that Denis Lazavik (16), Nodirbek Abdusattorov (18), and Firouzja (20) were the only three left standing to see who would go forward to meet him in the Grand Final.
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