John Henderson on the Terence Chapman vs Garry Kasparov Charity Odds Match

Game 1

WHO’S THAT CHAPMAN AT MY DOOR?

“I have a dream.” Where have I heard that before? But Terry Chapman – he of the eponymously (or should that be epawnymously?) titled IT Group fame - had, what he calls, “childhood dreams.” Nothing too outlandish, just your usual wish list: 1, Make a million (done), 2, Play the greatest chess player in the world in a match (done), and 3, World domination (still to do).

In the last eighteen months he’s seen the first of those early dreams come to fruition when he completed the floatation on the London Stock Exchange of the IT consultancy he founded – The Terence Chapman Group, valued at £100 million – with a high-quality client base that includes major institutions such as Deutsche Bank, JP Morgan, and Prudential Bank.

As a junior, Chapman was also a good chess player. A former British under-14 champion and England junior international captain, he decided to give up chess in the 1980s to make – which he did – his fortune in the City. Up until recently, he was probably the strongest player to head a UK public company behind the likes of Gareth Pearce (another strong junior internationalist who gave up chess at around the same period), Managing Director of accountants and private bankers, Smith & Williamson, sponsors of the British Chess Championships.

So who is the strongest player to head a UK public company? Step forward none other than GM Dave “Honest, I’m a Bolton boy at heart” Norwood, who in January of this year became the Chairman of merchant bankers, Beeson Gregory. Apparently when he took the hot seat, Dave’s first executive order was to ban himself from playing on the ICC during office hours! “Mr Norwood! Our stocks are rapidly going down!” “Oh, hold on until I finish this bullet game!”

Until recently, Chapman played on average 10 games a year – all that his busy schedule could take. But his deep interest - and pockets! – were never far away from chess. A couple of years ago, his company became a mainstay of the UK chess scene through generous sponsorship of the congress Grand Prix circuit - where more than 15,000 congress players in the UK compete on the circuit for the Grand Prix, which has been staged annually since 1974 - and the Terence Chapman junior chess awards; GM Luke McShane being the latest winner of the gold medal and the £1,000 prize.

Chapman was lured back into the limelight in chess after a quiet evening out with friends, discussing the art of chess, when someone put the question to him: “What would you need to beat Garry Kasparov?”. Our Tel promptly quipped that “two pawns should do it!”. His dream suddenly became a nightmare when Garry Kasparov decided to pick up the gauntlet – but at a price.

A deal was soon struck by Chapman guaranteeing a sizable sum to Kasparov’s favourite charity: Garry Kasparov! Or, to be precise, the Garry Kasparov Chess Academy in Jerusalem, a non-profit making organisation that specialises in the development of chess in schools worldwide. The wager was struck: Garry agreed to play for nothing, and in return for playing Chapman in this special odds charity match, £100,000 is to be given to the Academy.

A very successful businessman, Chapman doesn’t do anything half-heartedly. He took the challenge so seriously that he returned to the tournament circuit and in the last eight months has played about 40 match and tournament games in preparation. He also decided to bring in some top-notch trainers to better prepare him for Gazza: Doctor John Nunn and Jon Speelman! Terry has been devoting 2-3 evenings a week and on average 10 hours at weekends with the deadly duo as they worked out how best to take on Kasparov with a two pawn and time advantage. He’s been playing training matches not just with Nunn and Speelman but also with Fritz specially programmed for the handicap. And, to top all that, he’s spent the last week in the run up to the match with his support team in country retreat in Oxfordshire before returning to London, and the match venue of Simpson’s-in-the-Strand – a venue that became synonymous in the past with odds games.

Odds games are certainly a rarity in chess these days and are seldom seen due to the advancement of the modern game. And this is what makes it all the more intriguing. In the 30 odd years that I’ve been playing and involved in the chess scene, I’ve never witnessed such a match.

It’s all a glorious throwback to the romantic era of the game at the tail end of the 19^th century, when it was commonplace among the chess elite. Stars such as Howard Staunton, Paul Morphy, Wilhelm Steinitz and Johannes Zukertort would amuse the Victorian high society for a fee by playing against rich amateurs in their gentlemen’s clubs or Simpson’s-in-the-Strand in London.

Fast-forward a couple of centuries to Simpson’s-in-the-Strand, and all of a sudden it’s making a comeback thanks to the interest generated by this weekend’s four-game charity match.

While everyone and his dog makes Kasparov the odds-on favourite, the Great One himself wasn’t so sure about the outcome of the match himself – even predicting he would lose! Come day one, and we could see why Garry thought he might lose – despite luckily winning game one!

Chapman,T - Kasparov,G

Charity Odds Match (1)

1 Nf3 d5 2 d4 c6 3 c3 Bf5 4 Bf4 Nd7 5 e3 Qb6 6 b3 Ngf6 It's a standard New York set-up for Kasparov against Chapman's London System. 7 Bd3 g6 8 Qc2 e6 9 Nbd2 Nh5 10 0–0 Nxf4 11 exf4 Qc7 12 Ne5 [12 g3 was also worthy.] 12 ..Bxd3 13 Qxd3 g5! Undermining White's grip on the e5-square. 14 fxg5 Nxe5 15 dxe5 Qxe5 16 Nf3 Qf4 17 Qd4

[A difficult moment for Chapman. Apart from exchanging the queen's and heading for an ending (seems a good idea being two pawns up), Chapman also had the option of attacking the king, with 17 g6!? ] 17 ..Qxd4 18 Nxd4 [Taking back with the pawn looked - and felt - more natural as it allows White to support the push of the h-pawn. 18 cxd4!? Ra3 19 h4! Bd6 (19 ..Bb4 20 Rfc1!) 20 g4 Ke7 21 h5 Rha8 22 Kg2! Rxa2 23 Rxa2 Rxa2 24 h6 And the advanced h-pawn is going to be problematic for Kasparov.] 18 ..Ba3 19 Ne2?! [Not the best. Simply defending against ..Bb2 - and also threatening b4 hemming in the bishop - looked good. 19 Rfb1!? c5 20 Nf3 Ke7 21 h4] 19 ..Ke7 20 g3 Bb2 21 Rad1 Rxa2 22 Rd2 Rha8 23 Kg2 c5 24 h4 b5 25 h5 Kf8 26 Kf3 [Swapping off a set of rooks may well have made White's task all the easier: 26 Rb1 Ba1 27 Rxa2 Rxa2 28 Kf3 Bb2 29 g4 and White's going to be hard-pushed to lose this.] 26 ..R8a3 27 Kg4 Rxb3 28 Nc1 Ra4+ 29 f4 Bxc1 30 Rxc1

The essence of this endgame is that White's h pawn is quicker and if he also succeeds in penetrating with his rook should Black allow a file to open, then the rook and the h pawn force the king away from the f7 pawn and that falls and white wins. It all happens pretty fast. If Black keeps all files closed particularly by leaving his rook on the a file then the key idea is to open a file with f4-f5!, when that happens fxe6 creates two connected and they win so it has to be met by exf5. 30 ..Kg7 At the time this move of Kasparov's was criticized as the commentary room felt he should have just "got on with it.". However, it may be a necessity if he's looking for the win: [30 ..Raa3 31 f5! Rxc3? (31 ..exf5+! 32 Kxf5 Rxc3 33 Rxc3 Rxc3 34 Rxd5 b4 35 h6 (35 g6 fxg6+ 36 hxg6 Rxg3=) 35 ..Kg8 36 Rd8+ Kh7 37 Rf8 Rf3+ 38 Ke4 Rf1 39 Rb8 Rb1 40 Rf8 draws) 32 Rxc3 Rxc3 33 fxe6 fxe6 34 Rf2+ Kg8 (34 ..Ke7 35 g6 Ra3 36 h6 and the pawns romp home.) 35 g6 Rc4+ 36 Kg5 and the Black king is in danger of being mated 31 h6+ Kh7 [Much better was 31 ..Kg6! 32 Rh1 Kh7 , gaining a move.] 32 Kh5 b4 [32 ..Rc4 33 f5 exf5 (33 ..Rbxc3 34 g6++-) 34 Rxd5 Rbxc3 35 Rxc3 Rxc3 36 Rd7 Kg8 37 Rd8+ Kh7 38 Rf8 And wins, if Black cannot defend f7 in positions like this with Ra7 its over.] 33 cxb4

[33 f5! exf5! 34 Rxd5 and again if f7 goes its over so 34 ..Rb2! Threatening mate 35 Rxf5 Rh2+ 36 Kg4 bxc3+? (36 ..b3+! 37.c4! (37 Rf4 b2!µ) 37..b2 38.Rxf7+ Kg8 39.Rg7+ Kh8 and now 40.Re1 Rxc4+ 41.Kf5 Re2! saves it because the b pawn queens with check. If White plays 40.Rd1 here then Rd4 blocks and so Black saves the game by offering his rook to stop the back rank mate threat. After 36..bxc3+? 37 Kf3 Kg6 38 Rxc5 wins. 33 f5! Rxc3 34 g6+ mates. 33 ..Rxg3 34 bxc5? [Catastrophe for Chapman! 34 Rxc5 Rxb4 35 Rf2 Rg1 36 Rf3 Rh1+ 37 Kg4 Rg1+ 38 Kh5 Rh1+ 39 Kg4=] 34 ..Rxf4 35 Rh2 f6 36 gxf6 Rxf6 37 Kh4 Rg8 0–1

The views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of TWIC, Chess & Bridge Ltd or the London Chess Center.

You can contact John Henderson at: jbhthescots@cableinet.co.uk