John Henderson Reports on the British Championships in Scarborough

Round 11 Friday 10th August 2001

A TAXING PAYOFF

IT’S the decisive, final round. You of course expect the top boards to be nothing short of a bloody gladiatorial contest a la Russell Crowe; after all, they should be fighting to the death with all that money at stake. Shouldn’t they?

But there are some things in life you take for granted, like death, taxes and last round draws. And sure enough, in walks tournament leader Joe Gallagher to the tournament hall, eyes definitely looking a bit red around the edges due to lack of sleep as he suddenly realised that by the end of the day he could have a big payday by being British Champion – or even involved in a playoff for the title. Lose the game, and he’s blown the big one.

His opponent, Keith Arkell, definitely looking more nervous than usual, shortly follows him into the hall. If Keith wins, then he’s involved in a playoff for the biggest cheque he’s ever seen (and will ever see). Play starts, and after 1 e4 e6 2 d4 d5 3 Nd2 Be7 4 Ngf3 Nf6 5 Bd3, suddenly Joe punts the draw offer! Without as much as a blink of his eyelid, Keith was sheepishly signing the scoresheets.

The audience moaned at this stage. I felt more sorry for Keith’s mum who had specially made the journey from far-off Derby to see her son “play” for the British crown. She had turned up 90-minutes before the start of play, and like some sort of Wimbledon Centre Court fan on finals day who had slept out the night before to guarantee the best seats, Keith’s mum had booked her’s right at the front beside the board he would be “playing” on.

And, within five minutes of seeing her son in action, she was as perplexed as everyone else in the tournament hall: why the short, GM draw? Turns out that Keith had spent three hours in the morning preparing for Joe on ChessBase (“Oh, good. He only plays 3 Nc3 against the French; I’ll play the McCutcheon – he wont expect that“) only to realise that he suddenly had a Tarrasch. For Joe’s part, he’d spent a good few hours on ChessBase also, noticing that Keith, if you play 3 Nd2 against him, would always play 3 ..dxe4. Both had gone way out of their preparation, and nobody particularly wanted to press the “gamble” button with money already in the bank.

This left everything to play for on the other top four boards: Hodgson vs. Wells, Hebden vs. Summerscale and Emms vs Lalic – a win in any of these boards and Congress Director Neil Graham gets what he’s been praying not to happen all week: The taxing problem of a big playoff on the Saturday when everyone just wants to go home.

And, despite the fact that they attempted to have a go at each other, with the advantage on various games swinging to and fro (especially Emms-Lalic), the sad fact is that nobody won to take the Championship into a dramatic playoff. Without realising it, Joe was soon to discover that after his five-move draw he would be having the £10,000 cheque to himself...or would he?

After Joe, seven others – Keith Arkell, John Emms, Danny Gormally, Mark Hebden, Julian Hodgson, Bogdan Lalic and Peter Wells – would share the remaining spoils of £9,000 (roughly £1,300 each) for second equal. But everyone forgot about someone else who had done well at the British: The Chancellor of the Exchequer (Britain’s Treasury Minister), a certain Gordon Brown of 11 Downing Street, who “won” £2,200 before Joe got to open his winners envelope!

Now that Joe is a citizen of Switzerland, his prize money was taxed at a whopping great 22% before being paid out! Roughly translated, it meant he was heading back to his Tax haven of Neuchatel with £7,800 instead of £10,000. It’s at times like this that you soon realise that the only difference between a tax collector and a taxidermist is that a taxidermist leaves the hide!

Joe was very sanguine about this last night when he celebrated his win in the pub; after all, he can go through the rigorous process of form filling to claim it back and paying a more realistic Swiss rate of around 10% when he gets home. I’ll give you a further tip, Joe. Do what I do: For several days before you put in the claim, carry your tax forms around under your armpit. No self-respecting Tax Officer is going to want to spend hours pouring over a sweat-stained document!

And, in a way, it’s fitting that the Chancellor of the Exchequer makes money out of chess – after all, we gave him his job title!

Look in any good quality dictionary under “Exchequer”, and you’ll discover that it came from counting out money on a very large chequer-board used for chess. In 1080 the Normans named their financial departments of State l'excheiquier after the chessboard, which was used as a form of abacus as they would tally up the squares with various sums of money on it.

And in another happy coincidence, the sponsors Smith & Williamson just happen to be tax consultants – maybe Joe can get some free advice when he goes up to collect the trophy today from their Group Managing Director, Gareth Pearce!

Emms,J (2532) - Lalic,B (2528)

1 e4 c6 2 d4 d5 3 exd5 cxd5 4 c4 Nf6 5 Nc3 e6 6 Nf3 Bb4 As noted from the Gormally vs Wells game from earlier in the tournament, this IQP position can be reached via the Caro-Kann, the Nimzo-Indian or the Queen's Gambit Declined. 7 Bd3 dxc4 8 Bxc4 0–0 9 0–0 b6 10 Bg5 Bb7 11 Ne5 Bxc3 There's also the possibility of 11 ..Nc6!? 12 Bxf6 Qxf6 13 Nd7 Qh4 14 Nxf8 Rxf8 15 Ne2 Rd8 with good compensation for the material. 12 bxc3 Qc7 12 ..Nbd7!? 13 Nxd7 Qxd7 14 Bxf6 gxf6 15 Re1 Kh8 16 Bf1 Rg8 17 Re3 Rad8 18 Qe2 Qc6 19 f3 Qc7 20 Qf2 Qf4³ 1/2–1/2 Lin Weiguo-Alterman,B/Beijing 1997. 13 Bb3 13 Re1!? Nbd7 14 Nxd7 Nxd7 15 Bd3 13 ..Nc6 14 Bxf6 gxf6 15 Ng4 Emms had a draw in hand - but playing for a win would have given him a playoff with Gallagher for the title: 15 Qg4+ Kh8 16 Qh4 fxe5 (16 ..Qe7?? 17 Nxc6 Bxc6 18 Bc2 wins as f5 drops the queen.; 16 ..f5? 17 Qf6+ Kg8 18 Rae1 Qd8 19 Qh6 Nxe5 20 Rxe5) 17 Qf6+ Kg8 18 Qg5+= 15 ..f5 16 Nf6+ Kg7 16 ..Kh8?? 17 Qh5 Kg7 18 Qg5+ Kh8 19 Qh6 mates. 17 Nh5+ Kh8 17 ..Kg8? 18 Qd2 f4 19 Nxf4 with a big plus. 18 d5! Rad8?

18 ..exd5 19 Nf6 (with the threat of Qh5 mating) 19 ..Qd6 20 Nxd5 Rad8 21 Qh5, and White has an advantage here due to the better minor pieces and those weak f-pawns. 19 c4? Missing the win - and the playoff for the British title! 19 Qc1! exd5 (19 ..Ne5 20 Qh6 Nf3+ 21 gxf3 Rg8+ 22 Ng3 Rg6 23 Qh4 winning.; 19 ..Rg8? 20 dxc6 Qxc6 21 f3 Rd3 22 Nf4 Rxc3 23 Qb2 e5 24 Rac1 Qc5+ 25 Kh1 Rxc1 26 Rxc1 Qe3 27 Bd5 winning.) 20 Qh6 f6 21 Nf4! and Black can't defend against all of the threats: Nxd5, Ne6 and Ng6+. 19 ..e5 20 Qd2 Nd4 The game has now swung to Lalic - he's the one now looking to met Gallagher in the playoff! 21 f4 f6 22 Rae1 b5! 23 fxe5 23 cxb5? Nxb3 24 axb3 Rxd5 25 Qb4 Rfd8 26 Re2 (26 Nxf6 Rd2! 27 Nd5 (27 Rf2 Qb6!) 27 ..Qc2 (27 ..R8xd5?? 28 Qf8#!; 27 ..Bxd5? 28 Qxd2 Bxg2 29 Qxg2 Rg8 30 fxe5 Qc5+ 31 Kh1 Rxg2 32 Kxg2 and White can't lose.) 28 Ne3 Rxg2+ 29 Kh1 Rxh2+ 30 Kg1 Rh1#) 26 ..Rd4 27 Qe1 Qb6 28 Kh1 Be4! wins. 23 ..fxe5 24 Qg5 bxc4 25 Bxc4 Bxd5 26 Bxd5 Rxd5 27 Re3 Rc5 28 Qh6 Rf7 29 Ree1 Qb6 30 Qg5 h6 31 Qg3 f4 32 Qh4 f3! 33 Rf2 Rc2 34 Kh1

34 ..Nf5? Unbelievable! Lalic vs. Gallagher for the British title was all there for the asking. Unfortunately, Lalic was unable to pick up the invitation: 34 ..fxg2+! 35 Rxg2 Nf3! 36 Qe4 (36 Qg3?? Rxg2 37 Qxg2 Nxe1 38 Qa8+ Kh7 39 Qe4+ Qg6!) 36 ..Rxg2 37 Kxg2 Nxe1+ 38 Qxe1 Qb2+ 39 Kg3 Rf5 40 Qd1 Rg5+ 41 Kf3 Qb7+ 42 Ke3 Qb6+ 43 Ke4 Qg6+ 44 Ke3 Rxh5 45 Qd8+ Qg8 46 Qf6+ Kh7 47 Qe7+ Qg7 and wins - easily. 35 Qa4 fxg2+ 36 Rxg2 Rxg2 37 Kxg2 with an easy win. 37 ..Qb2+ 38 Kh1 Nd6 39 Qa5 Kh7 40 Qd5 Qf2? There was one, last try for the playoffs: 40 ..Rf2! 41 Kg1 (41 Qd3+ Kh8 42 Qg3 Qb7+! 43 Kg1 Rf5! wins.) 41 ..Rf5! 42 Rf1 Rxf1+ 43 Kxf1 Qxh2 44 Qxd6 Qh1+ 45 Kf2 Qxh5 46 Qe7+ Kg8 47 Qxa7 and Black can have a go at winning this notoriously tough, Queen and pawn ending. ½–½

You can contact John Henderson at: jbhthescots@cableinet.co.uk

The views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of TWIC, Chess & Bridge Ltd or the London Chess Center.