Snowdrops defeat Old Hands by 17.5:14.5

Snowdrops vs Old Hands 2013

The Snowdrops are represented by Lithuanian GM Viktorij Cmilyte (30, from Lithuania, rated 2506), IM Maria Muzychuk (21, Ukraine, 2491) WGM Alina Kashlinskaya (20, Russia, 2422) and WGM Nastassia Ziaziulkina (18, Belarus, 2350). The "Old Hands" are GM Iossif Dorfman (61, France, 2580) GM Boris Gulko (66, USA, 2543), GM Borislav Ivkov (80, Serbia, 2408) GM Wolfgang Uhlmann (78, Germany, 2334). The event is taking place at Hotel Zámecek in Podebrady, the rate of play is 90 minutes for 40 moves, 30 minutes for the rest, with an increament of 30 seconds per move.

Round six (reports by GM David Navara)

In our previous report the Snowdrops' team was leading the Oldhands by five points (12.5-7.5), with all four female players scoring better than their male counterparts:

On Friday, in round six, Jossif Dorfman beat Marija Muzychuk and brought about the first team win by a Veteran over a Snowdrop in this year's event. Muzychuk made mistake in the middle game and for the experienced player Dorfman it was not hard to turn that into victory.

Unfortunately, this victory did not mean any change in the overall score of the Old Hands, because Alina Kashlinskaya won against Borislav Ivkov. It was not easy for her: in spite of her material advantage the Serbian legend resisted and created new interesting counterplay with mate threats. In the end it didn't work out and Alina achieved her third victory in this event.

Jossif Dorfman (standing) chats with Borislav Ivkov before his game against Alina Kashlinskaya

Wolfgang Uhlmann did not find the winning move in a better position and
his game between against Victoria Cmilyte ended in a draw

Anastassiya Ziaziulkina vs Boris Gulko was also drawn

So after three quarters of the event the Snowdrops were still five points in the lead.

Round seven

The smooth progress of Snowdrops was broken in the seventh round. Maria Muzychuk did not appear for the game against Wolfgang Uhlmann because of health problems. Boris Gulko beat Alina Kashlinskaya in a rook ending, and the other two games – Dorfman-Cmilyte and Ivkov-Ziaziulkina – were drawn. So after this round the advantage of the young ladies had shrunk to three points.

Above we see Boris Gulko analysing his win against Alina Kashlinskaya, with Anand second GM Radoslaw Wojtaszek (notation in hand), Schachmagazin 64 editor IM Otto Borik (glasses and beard) and GM Genna Sosonko (right) watching.

This meant that in the final round the Old Hands could theoretically clinch overall victory by winning all four games, or tie the Snowdrops by winning three.

GM Genna Sosonko, 70, gave an eleven-board simultaneous display on the free day

Jana Maríková, a young Czech junior representative, who recently became champion of the Czech Republic under eighteen years, was also among the opponents of GM Sosonko. She fought excellently and during the ending she had a draw within reach – but was outfoxed by the veteran GM (see analysis here).

Round eight

It was not to be: the Snowdrops held the Veterans to draws in all four games, three in 22 moves or less, one (Ziaziulkina vs Uhlmann) in 83 moves. So the final score of the 6th year of Snowdrops and Old Hands was 17.5:14.5. Among the four Snowdrops, Viktorija Cmilyte, Mariya Muzychuk, Alina Kashlinskaya and Anastasiya Ziaziulkina wasn't a single weak link. Here are all the results and scores:

Team results

Individual results

This year was not really good one for GM Wolfgang Uhlmann (above right with organiser Pavel Matocha). He had a few really good positions, some of them winning in a single move, but that one move eluded him every time. When we note that some of the Old Hands, with higher ratings, did not fight at all in several games and took fast draws with the white pieces, there is no doubt who should be the winner.

The best individual result goes to Alina Kashlinskaya, receiving her prize from Pavel Matocha.
Alina scored five points in eight games, with a performance of 2561

She had been preparing for the match with her boyfriend GM Radoslaw
Wojtaszek (above), who is the second of former world champion Vishy Anand

With 4.5/8 points Boris Gulko was one of the two best Old Hands

The legendary grandmaster and problemist Pal Benko, 85, speaks to the guests

Links Official tournament site All games in PGN You can use ChessBase 12 or any of our Fritz compatible chess programs to replay the games in PGN. You can also download our free Playchess client, which will in addition give you immediate access to the chess server Playchess.com.