Move 2 and a quiz!

[andyburnett]

One of my opponents in last year's Commonwealth Championship, Aravindh Chithambaram, has had a lot of publicity in the last few years - and rightly so! He is an extremely talented boy, already a GM at 15, who I reckon will become one of the world's top players in due course.

A Chessbase article from yesterday shows his talent very clearly - he defeated a 2349-rated FM after moving his rook on move 2!! (Against me he played 1.Nc3!)

[pgn]1. Nf3 Nf6 2. Rg1[/pgn]

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Quiz question: Which titled Scottish player has also moved his rook on move 2, and what were the moves??

[Clement Sreeves]

[Event "BCF-ch"]
[Site "Eastbourne"]
[Date "1973.??.??"]
[Round "1"]
[White "Sully, David John"]
[Black "McKay, Roderick M"]
[Result "1/2-1/2"]
[ECO "A01"]
[BlackElo "2330"]
[PlyCount "49"]
[EventDate "1973.08.??"]
[EventType "swiss"]
[EventRounds "11"]
[EventCountry "ENG"]
[Source "ChessBase"]
[SourceDate "1999.07.01"]

1. b3 Nh6 2. Bb2 Rg8 3. g3 d5 4. Bg2 Nc6 5. f4 e6 6. Nf3 Be7 7. O-O Nf5 8. e3
Bd7 9. Qe2 g5 10. Ne5 gxf4 11. Rxf4 Bf6 12. Nxc6 Bxc6 13. Nc3 Be5 14. Rg4 Rg6
15. Rxg6 hxg6 16. d4 Bg7 17. Rf1 Qe7 18. Nd1 O-O-O 19. c3 e5 20. Qf2 Qd6 21. g4
Nh6 22. Qg3 exd4 23. Qxd6 Rxd6 24. cxd4 Bb5 25. g5 1/2-1/2

[andyburnett]

Spot on Clement I thought I'd seen it in a Dougie Bryson chess column of old, played in an allegro event in Scotland, but perhaps it was the game you give above (which I have stuck in pgn tags for online play-through)?

[pgn][Event "BCF-ch"]
[Site "Eastbourne"]
[Date "1973.??.??"]
[Round "1"]
[White "Sully, David John"]
[Black "McKay, Roderick M"]
[Result "1/2-1/2"]
[ECO "A01"]
[BlackElo "2330"]
[PlyCount "49"]
[EventDate "1973.08.??"]
[EventType "swiss"]
[EventRounds "11"]
[EventCountry "ENG"]
[Source "ChessBase"]
[SourceDate "1999.07.01"]

1. b3 Nh6 2. Bb2 Rg8 3. g3 d5 4. Bg2 Nc6 5. f4 e6 6. Nf3 Be7 7. O-O Nf5 8. e3
Bd7 9. Qe2 g5 10. Ne5 gxf4 11. Rxf4 Bf6 12. Nxc6 Bxc6 13. Nc3 Be5 14. Rg4 Rg6
15. Rxg6 hxg6 16. d4 Bg7 17. Rf1 Qe7 18. Nd1 O-O-O 19. c3 e5 20. Qf2 Qd6 21. g4
Nh6 22. Qg3 exd4 23. Qxd6 Rxd6 24. cxd4 Bb5 25. g5 1/2-1/2[/pgn]

Ok, so somebody plays 1.Nf3 Nf6 2.Rg1 against you. How do you respond? Like Black did in the game linked above? Or is there a better way for Black to make Rg1 look pretty useless?

[Clement Sreeves]

I would play my move in less than 30 minutes.

And if I were Aravindh Chithambaram, I would be looking at Richard Rapport's distinct lack of progress in the last few years and wondering if I shouldn't stick to the main lines.

Clearly a very talented player though!