World Seniors

[Hugh Brechin]

Craig looks to be doing rather well!

[David G Congalton]

A great result for Craig today. Well played. Good luck tomorrow against Vaisser. Was he last year's winner?

Good luck also to Phil. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that he can go throught the whole tournament unbeaten.

Alastair and Alan have also scored well among such quality opposition.

[Alastair White]

I think Okhotnik who Craig beat today won last year and Vaisser the year before. He played Cebalo, a previous winner, yesterday so a tough draw in the last 3 rounds. I wonder if there is a possibility of a GM norm?

[Alastair White]

As predicted, Craig vs Okhotnik was well worth watching on the live games - for anyone who missed it:[pgn][Event "22nd WSCC Open"]
[Site "Kamena Vourla"]
[Date "2012.11.23"]
[Round "10.8"]
[White "Pritchett, Craig W"]
[Black "Okhotnik, Vladimir"]
[Result "1-0"]
[ECO "C41"]
[WhiteElo "2348"]
[BlackElo "2433"]
[PlyCount "123"]
[EventDate "2012.11.13"]
[EventRounds "11"]
[EventCountry "GRE"]

1. e4 d6 2. d4 Nf6 3. Nc3 e5 4. Nf3 Nbd7 5. Bc4 Be7 6. O-O O-O 7. Re1 c6 8. a4
a5 9. h3 Nb6 10. Bf1 Nfd7 11. Be3 Bf6 12. b3 exd4 13. Nxd4 d5 14. exd5 Nxd5 15.
Nxd5 cxd5 16. Qd2 Nc5 17. Rad1 b6 18. Nc6 Qc7 19. Bb5 Be6 20. Bf4 Qb7 21. Be5
Bxe5 22. Nxe5 Rac8 23. Qd4 Ne4 24. c4 Nf6 25. Re3 Rfd8 26. Rf3 Ne4 27. Rfd3 Nc5
28. Rg3 f6 29. Ng4 Kf8 30. Nxf6 dxc4 31. Nxh7+ Kg8 32. Nf6+ Kf7 33. Nd7 Rxd7
34. Qxg7+ Ke8 35. Qh8+ Ke7 36. Qh4+ Kf8 37. Qh8+ Ke7 38. Rg7+ Bf7 39. Rxf7+
Kxf7 40. Qh7+ Ke8 41. Qg8+ Ke7 42. Qg7+ Kd8 43. Qf8+ Kc7 44. Qf4+ Kd8 45. Qf8+
Kc7 46. Qxc5+ Kb8 47. Rxd7 bxc5 48. Rxb7+ Kxb7 49. Bxc4 Kc6 50. g4 Rf8 51. Kg2
Kd6 52. Kg3 Ke5 53. h4 Rd8 54. h5 Rd1 55. h6 Rh1 56. f4+ Ke4 57. g5 Rg1+ 58.
Kf2 Rg4 59. h7 Rh4 60. g6 Kxf4 61. g7 Rh2+ 62. Kg1 1-0[/pgn]

[J DURNO]

great game. Good luck to all in final round.

[Alastair White]

Craig has 7/10 and will be on the live boards again today, Black against GM Anatoly Vaisser (FRA), who was champion in 2010. That's going to be a tough one.

Danish IM Jens Christansen is still leading on 8.5/10 after beating GM Jansa yesterday, and plays GM Ceballo today. A draw would give him first place and a GM title. His closest challenger for the title is GM Sveshnikov, who plays GM Balashov.

Phil is now going well with an unbeaten 6/10. Alan and myself are on 5/10. As my opponent today is not FIDE rated, I am guaranteed a 2100+ rating whatever the result.

The games start today at 15.00 local time (1.00 pm in Scotland).

[Craig Pritchett]

All back now from an unusually grey and wettish Greece (though still distinctly warmer than Scotland).

Congratulations to the new senior world champion, Jens Kristiansen (Denmark), who outprepared and outplayed the field just enough to edge the event deservedly ... with a big win with Black against Yuri Balashov in the middle perhaps the main reason for his extra half-point at the end ahead of Vaisser and Sveshnikov in Silver and Bronze positions. Alan Borwell, Alastair White, Philip Guilian and myself all enjoyed ourselves (see full results at the CS homepage link to the event). Alastair's result was the highest above his own rating.

Re - another thread, I've certainly no objection to being on "live" boards and feel that, like digital clocks and time increments, they are good for chess - not least for sponsors and the game's public interface. It surely wasn't such a bad advert for Scottish chess to have had my win against the reigning (now ex) world seniors champion, Vladimir Okhotnik, sent live round the world? Albeit chaotic and full of entirely human errors (the most critical, fortunately, made by my opponent)!

And a coaching test for juniors: DON'T turn on an engine and go ruthlessly looking for the game's key positional and tactical turns AND both players' improvements without one!! Good chess brain training, in my view, that can and should be done (at least) for all of one's own won, drawn and lost games.