Luke McShane wins Igualada

8/26/2005 – One of England's great chess hopefuls, 21-year-old Luke McShane, scored an important victory in the Magistral Ciutat d'Igualada that ended last weekend. The young philosophy student scored two wins and four draws for a 2748 performance against Kortchnoi, Beliavsky and Volokitin. Final report.

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The Magistral Ciutat d'Igualada is being held from August 16–21, in a town just north-east of Barcelona, Spain. It is a double round robin with Andrei Volokitin, Viktor Kortchnoi, Alexander Beliavsky and Luke McShane. The official web site has portraits of the four participants, small news reports (in Spanish) and a few pictures.

A few days ago we reported that Alexander Beliavsky was leading after four rounds of this four-player double round robin. He was followed by veteran Viktor Kortchnoi and youngster Luke McShane. Well, the 72-year-old Kortchnoi lost his penultimate game to 19-year-old Andrei Volokitin and his last game to 21-year-old Luke McShane, in both cases with the white pieces.


The public watching the two games in progress


Prize giving, with Volokitin, Korchnoi, Beliavsky and McShane (6-9 from left)

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The Elephant Gambit

The Elephant Gambit (1.e4.e5 2.Nf3 d5!?) has never really been given the attention it deserves. It is a very useful surprise weapon. Let us list the advantages of playing this particular opening: 1) Shock value 2) It is very aggressive. Black can take over the initiative early. 3) Many tricky lines 4) Unorthodox. Black is basically taking the game to the opponent as early as move two. Not many openings do that! It's a perfect opening for young players and club players to adopt. Let Andrew Martin select a repertoire for you on this 60 mins, which, if used with discretion, will rack up the points. I am sure that you will enjoy this unusual tour of the Elephant Gambit.

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