Chess
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Your support makes all the difference.THE EUROPEAN Junior Championships finished on Saturday in Litohoro in Greece after nine hectic days, with a total of 349 boys and 276 girls taking part in the 10 sections.
Once the scourge of junior events, the English contingent, sponsored by Saitek, didn't win any medals this time, though Gawain Jones came close in the boys' under-12 before losing in the final round. He still made our best overall score - seventh equal, on 6/9 - while David Howell (b u-10), Melanie Buckley (g u-18) and Rosalind Kieran (g u-16) made 5.5/9; Stewart Haslinger (b u-18), Matthew Broomfield (b u-16) and Jessica Gilbert (g u-12) 5; Thomas Rendle (g u-14) 4, Aly Wilson (g u-14) 3.5 and Yasmin Ball (g u-10) 3.
The 16 from the other home countries did poorly, though three of the six Scots - Joseph Redpath (b u-14), Colin Hall (b u-12) and Elaine Rutherford (g u-16) made 50 per cent; as did two of the seven Welsh - John Tabatabai (b u-14) and Annie Powell (g u-14).
Not great results - but before criticising it's worth reflecting that chess is hard enough psychologically even for strong players; and how much worse it must be when you are surrounded by coaches much stronger than yourself.
Black was doing well after 18 ...Rxf2! but 21 ...bxc6 22 dxc6 d5 was safer than 21 ...Qc5 and 23 ...Na6?? - a gross blunder - 23 ...h5 was correct. If 31 ...dxc5 32 d6, the pawn queens.
White: Gawain Jones
Black: Dorian Vicol
Centre Counter
1 e4 d5
2 exd5 Nf6
3 Nf3 Nxd5
4 d4 Nf6
5 Be2 Bf5
6 0-0 e6
7 Bf4 Bd6
8 Bxd6 cxd6
9 c4 0-0
10 Nc3 Nbd7
11 d5 e5
12 Nh4 Bg6
13 Nxg6 fxg6!?
14 Qd2 Qb6
15 Rab1 Nc5
16 b4 Nce4
17 Nxe4 Nxe4
18 Qe3 Rxf2!
19 c5 Rxf1+
20 Rxf1 Qxb4
21 c6 Qc5?
22 Qxc5 Nxc5
23 Bg4 Na6??
24 cxb7 Rb8
25 Be6+ Kh8
26 Bc8 h5
27 Rf8+ Kh7
28 h4 Nc5
29 Rf7 Ne4
30 Rc7 Nc5?
31 Rxc5 g5
32 Ra5, and White soon won.
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