3rd World Senior Team Championship Dresden

The 3rd Senior Team Chess Championship took place from 24 February to 4 March 2015 in Dresden, Germany, breaking all records for this kind of event. After the First World Championship in 2004, on the Isle of Man (12 teams) the FIDE Congress 2013 decided to stage three test events with the new age structure (50+ , 65+ , 50+ female) would take place in Vilnius (2014) and in Dresden (2015 and 2016). Based on the number of participants in Vilnius 2014 (28 teams) and the last European Team Championship of Seniors in Dresden in 2012 (72 teams), the organizing committee anticipated between 65 and 75 teams for 2015.

The 2015 Dresden Championship saw 45 teams in the 50+ section and 42 in the over-65 tournament, making for a total of 87 teams, the furthest travelling, at 12,000 km, coming from Argentina. The top teams were England I (Elo average 2570), Germany I (average 2482) and Slovakia (average 2462). There were few reports on the event, so we quote the indestructible Leonard Barden, who summarized the course it took in his Guardian chess column:

This week England came to the world over-50 senior team championship in Dresden with a top-seeded squad rated 90 points or more ahead of their rivals. Three of them – Nigel Short, John Nunn and Jonathan Speelman – had played in 1986 at the Dubai Olympiad, when England missed gold by just half a point after their Soviet rivals allegedly cheated by giving advice during play to England’s Spanish opponents in a key match.

The fourth GM at Dresden, Keith Arkell, is reigning European senior champion, while the reserve Terry Chapman had been a Speelman rival in his teens, had given up the game to make his fortune in the dotcom boom, and now sponsors the team.

Many over-50 ex-Soviet grandmasters have since emigrated, so Russia only fielded a team – which won easily – in the over-65 section, headed by two veteran GMs with links to Bobby Fischer. So the over-50 world title should have been a pushover for England, but they lost 1½-2½ to their only two serious rivals, Slovakia and Germany, when the normally dependable Arkell made errors in both key matches. There was a similar denouement in the 2014 championship at Vilnius against Lithuania.

Full tables of all 87 teams can be found here, and all pairings and results here. We hand over for a special report by GM James Plaskett, who played for England 2 and came very close to getting the gold medal for his performance at the Championship. He was narrowly beaten to it by John Nunn playing for England 1.

No Country For Old Men

By James Plaskett

From February 24th to March 4th 2015 the World Senior Teams Championships took place at the Wyndham Garden Hotel in Dresden, Germany. On February 15th I felt compelled to contribute to a thread at the Daily Mail Online on the 70th anniversary of the fire bombing of Dresden. In my opinion it was a war crime, and I did not salute the erection of a commemorative statue in London to "Bomber" Harris. Not everyone agreed. And then, curiously enough, just a few days after I found myself visiting the very place.

Much of the infrastructure of the beautiful city centre has been restored and it is now home to 500,000 people.
Scroll to the right to see the full panorama image from Wikipedia.

Some grumbling and disquiet was expressed amongst us mature GMs at the rounds starting at 9:30 a.m. every day. That appeared to have been framed around the desires of some of the aging band of competitors to fit sight-seeing in with the play. We'd have preferred more time to munch, browse and ruminate through breakfast.

Lubomir Ftacnik, Slovakia, vs Nigel Short, England One, in round four: draw

Slovakia, led by Ftacnik, Stohl and Timoschenko, emerged the victors. Personally, I was very disappointed to have outplayed Stohl but then let slip a massive structural endgame superiority. It was a situation where his utterly mangled pawns left Igor facing what he had supposed, rationally, was going to be an unpleasant if tenable afternoon.

Terry Chapman with John Nunn and Nigel Short [Photo Dagobert Kohlmeyer

England One, with GMs Short, Nunn, Speelman and Arkell were favourites, but Keith's form did not quite match his excellent previous performance in Senior events. A blitz tournament for teams of two was announced quite early on, but they altered the starting time, once again taking into account the vagaries of the older players, from five to four p.m., so I had to spectate and watch a visiting, sprightly Matthew Sadler partner Arkell to the top prize.

James Plaskett and Glenn Flear, Board two and one for England 2

In my opinion the following was one of the most interesting and, particularly from a psychological viewpoint, instructive games of the whole event. Comments are by me and Bernd Voekler.

Black is winning! Bernd Voekler ananyses the line 23.Qxe3 d5 24.Rgf1 in the notes above.
Watching the postmortem: former World Championship candidate Jon Speelman.

We are glad to reconnect with an old friend, GM Jim Plaskett, who lives in Spain and has been engaged in many other interesting areas of endeavour that have nothing to do with chess. In fact we can feel a special portrait report coming soon.