England’s woeful performance at this week’s European team championship in Crete began with a 2-2 draw against the minnows from Moldova and ended with a brutal defeat, 0.5-3.5, by Hungary. They were the No4 seeds but finished 16th in a field of 40 countries. Meanwhile the favourites, Russia and Azerbaijan, fought out the gold medals, which the Azeris took by a surprisingly comfortable 3-1 margin in their individual match.
Team failure is often offset by a strong individual result but this time there were none. All five Englishmen played around 100 points below their normal rating and only Gawain Jones, with 3/5, surpassed 50%. A major worry is Michael Adams’s current poor run. The Cornishman, 45, ranks alongside Nigel Short as England’s best ever player. He has consistently held his place among the world’s best 20-25 grandmasters well into his 40s, but in recent months his rating has dropped to a five-year low. Adams is now in danger of losing his elite 2700 rating status.
England has six GMs in the world top 100, the five who played in Crete plus Matthew Sadler. David Howell, at 26, is the only one still in his 20s. No other English player has the form credentials to challenge the established team, so to avoid a steady and persistent decline as the current squad ages the search for new young blood will become urgent.
There is a dearth of obvious candidates. England has none of the fast advancing teens and pre-teens whom the rising chess nations like India, China and the US have developed. The pair seemingly with the best chances are Alan Merry, 21 this week, who last weekend won the 4NCL Open at Coventry to qualify for next month’s eight-player British Knockout Championship where he will take on the big guns, and Dan Fernandez, from Manchester’s 3Cs club which has developed many junior talents, who at 22 has just become England’s newest and youngest GM. Fernandez’s Fide world rating is 2500, Merry’s only 2422, so both need a r quantum jump to reach the top flight.
English chess could do with a junior like Nodirbek Abdusattorov. The 13-year-old from Tashkent, Uzbekistan, whose progress has several times been highlighted in this column, has just become the second youngest GM in chess history by securing his third and final norm at St Petersburg. He reached GM three months younger than the world champion, Magnus Carlsen, and his record is only surpassed by Sergey Karjakin, the defeated 2016 world title challenger, who achieved it at 12 years 7 months.
Abdusattorov showed below the importance of being alert for central opportunities when your rival delays castling. India’s Babu Lalith should probably have preferred 11 Nf3, even though c5-c4 gives Black an active pawn majority. But the real step to disaster was 15 Ne4? (15 Bg3!) which allowed the killer 16…Bb3! so that if 17 Qxb3 Qxf2+ 18 Kd1 Qd2 mate. If 19 Bxf8 instead of 19 Qh4 then Re8+ 20 Kf2 Re2+ mates. At the end if 20 Kf2 Qd2+ 21 Kg1 Qe3+ and Qxe7 when Black is a piece up with a winning attack.
Babu Lalith v Nodirbek Abdusattorov. Moscow Aeroflot 2017
1 d4 Nf6 2 c4 e6 3 Nc3 Bb4 4 Qc2 d5 5 cxd5 exd5 6 Bg5 h6 7 Bh4 0-0 8 e3 Be6 9 a3 Be7 10 Bd3 c5 11 dxc5? d4 12 exd4 Nc6 13 Nge2 Nxd4 14 Nxd4 Qxd4 15 Ne4? Nxe4 16 Bxe7 Bb3! 17 Qe2 Nxf2! 18 Qxf2 Qxd3 19 Qh4 Bc4 0-1
3520 1…Rh2! 2 Qxh2 Rxc3+! mates or wins the queen.