A question of mobility

One of the changes which the "white heat of technology" has brought to chess has been in the responsibilities and required skills of the arbiter. In the old days, the latter was required to know the rules, watch the clocks, silence the spectators, etc. In the 21st century, however, he also needs a good measure of technological ability as well. When it comes to setting the clocks at the start of the game, for example, the main skill of the arbiter of yesteryear lay in preserving a stock of those little metal winders, that Murphy's Law decreed would always be missing from every chess clock in the land of Caissa. Nowadays, however, with clocks having ceased to possess minute and hour hands, and instead offering a bewildering array of buttons and programming instructions, the arbiter needs a degree in advanced electronics, just to be able to set the wretched contraption to show 2 hours.

Another problem is mobile phones. With the draconian penalties in force for players whose mobiles ring during the game, most players hand in their phones to the arbiter, at the start of the session. Judging by the tempting selection of expensive-looking gadgetry which I find lying in front of me each day at Simpsons, an unscrupulous arbiter could make a fortune if he absconded with the loot in mid-round. But the honest arbiter can still face a few problems, as I witnessed recently at a weekend congress. Halfway through the round, a player's mobile lying on the arbiter's desk suddenly rang. The arbiter pressed a few buttons, satisfied himself that he had now turned it off, and went back to his work. Moments later, it rang again. Once more, assorted buttons were pressed and the phone put down, only to be picked up again suddenly when voices emerged from it. The red-faced arbiter was then heard muttering profuse apologies down the line, having inadvertently dialled the emergency services!

Fortunately, no such problems arose in Monday's 5th round of the 2008 Staunton Memorial. Speelman and Timman played the event's first real grandmaster draw, but most of the other games saw stirring battles. Bob Wade was paired with what was jokingly described to him before the game as a "promising youngster", namely Mickey Adams. The latter had little if any advantage, until Wade weakened at moves 29 and 30, after which a pawn was lost and the White position soon collapsed.

Short-Cherniaev was a strange game. The latter's opening play looked horrific, and after less than 10 moves, he was objectively dead lost. However, Short failed to play very incisively, and at move 28 he even came to me and jokingly suggested that I start drafting his obituary, on the grounds that he would probably do away with himself if he failed to win the position - "...and I am doing a very, very good job of screwing it up!". However, Chernaiev immediately erred again, and then resigned in a position which did not really look that much worse than he had had for most of the game.

Peter Wells gained a dangerous-looking attack against Smeets' king, but used a huge amount of time on the clock. A massive time-scramble saw Peter finally lose the thread at move 34, and when his flag fell three moves later, he was already losing on the board as well.

L'Ami-Sokolov was another hugely complicated game, which culminated in a major time-scramble. Sokolov's 23...Na3+? should have lost (23...f5 is better), but L'Ami returned the compliment with 26.Qxa3? instead of 25.Nf6+. However, an even more striking miss occurred a few moves later:

Here, with both flags hanging, Sokolov blundered with 33...Qc5?? and should have lost at once after 34. Rd8+. Instead, L'Ami played 34.Qd4??, and the game eventually simplified to a drawn queen ending.

The day's other game saw Van Wely score an important win over his compatriot, Werle:

Staunton Memorial (5), 11.08.2008

1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nf3 d5 4.Nc3 c6 5.Bg5 h6 6.Bh4 dxc4

The ultra-sharp Moscow Gambit, one of the most trendy lines at top GM level over the past year or so. Van Wely has spent a lot of time working with Kramnik over this period, and can be presumed to have devoted many hours of analysis to this line, so it was certainly brave of Werle to head down the main line.

7.e4 g5 8.Bg3 b5 9.Be2 Bb7 10.h4 g4 11.Ne5 Nbd7 12.Nxd7 Qxd7 13.Be5 Qe7 14.b3 cxb3 15.axb3

15...Bg7

To the best of my database's knowledge, this is a new move, although a more natural one is harder to imagine.

16.0-0 0-0 17.Bxg4 c5 18.Nxb5 Rfd8 19.Bf3 cxd4 20.Nd6?

Imaginative, but not good after Van Wely's brilliant reply. Simply 20 Rc1 would have retained some advantage.

20...Ng4!!

An even more imaginative response!

21.Bxg4?

After this, the resulting opposite-coloured bishop position favours Black. 21.Bg3 was better.

21...Bxe5 22.Nxb7 Qxb7 23.f4 Bg7 24.Qd3 Rac8

The weakness of the dark squares in White's camp, especially c3, gives Black a clear initiative and Werle was now running short of time.

25.Rac1 Qe7 26.Rc4

26.g3 Rc3 is no better.

26...Qxh4 27.Bh3 Rxc4 28.bxc4 e5 29.c5 exf4 30.c6 Be5 31.Rc1 Bc7 32.Bd7

Here, too, 32.Rb1 Rd6, with moves like f3 in the air, is no better for White.

32...Rb8 33.e5 Rb2 34.Qe4 d3 0-1