Staunton Memorial Rd.1 Report: Kasparov Crushed!
The big news at the opening ceremony was the demolition of Garry Kasparov by the Dutch side, which destroyed him 5 times while smashing Britain 6-0. Not at chess, of course.
In honor of sponsor Jan Moll, who owns a Formula One racing operation, players determined the colors for the first round by racing miniature cars to knock down a big photo of Garry Kasparov. The best UK driver from last year, Jovanka Houska (though not having a driver's license) is not playing this year and the men turned in disgraceful performances, losing every race. Bob Wade, at 87 years of age, was allowed to use a substitute driver, but no luck there, either.
Round 1 got off to a promising start for the tournament, with 4 decisive games out of six. Timman demolished Bob Wade's unorthodox opening play. Mickey Adams shpwed superb technique in destroying Smeets, whose opening innovation (Qf3) was unimpressive. We all wonder why he chose Bb2 instead of the standard g3. Alex Chernaiev should have been able to hold against Wele's ambitious exchange sac, but faltered. Speelman was expected to hold with his beautiful knights, but played passively in the endgame and lost. Peter Wells only made one error, accepting a draw in a position where he had great winning chances. L'Ami never pressured Short, but didn't allow any vigorous play either.and the game was not of much interest.
Channel 4 did extensive filming, and the reporter will send me a link once their story is available online. I'll let you know. I hope the games will be posted here soon.
Regards from London. The event is free so if you are in the area drop into Simpson's anytime after 2 pm, daily.
Here are the key games from Round 1
