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ContentsEditorial.................................................................................................................4Malcom Pein on the latest developments in the game

60 Seconds with... Matthew Lunn............................................................7Find out all about our regular contributor

All Rise for King David....................................................................................8David Howell fought the hardest to win the Winter Classic

How Good is Your Chess? ..........................................................................14Daniel King pays homage to the genius that is Baadur Jobava

Schism after Schism .....................................................................................17Bobby Priestly reflects on the cyclical nature of club politics

Gawain in the Gulf.........................................................................................18Gawain Jones successfully defended his Dubai Open title

Wesley in Wonderland .................................................................................22So claimed his first U.S. title and is now 67 games unbeaten

You Beauty!......................................................................................................30Matthew Lunn presents some quite gorgeous moves

Opening Trends...............................................................................................32The Caro-Kann suffers, whereas the London remains popular

Llandudno! ........................................................................................................33Alex Holowczak previews the 2017 British Chess Championships

Never Mind the Grandmasters................................................................34Carl Portman knows the value of a rook on the seventh rank

Find the Winning Moves .............................................................................36Can you do as well as the players at the 4NCL and in the UAE?

Again...and Again ...........................................................................................40Amatzia Avni instructs with a tour of some repeated motifs

Studies with Stephenson............................................................................43Brian has been rather busy on the organising front

This Month’s Masterpieces .......................................................................44Two lovely, inspirational attacking games from the 4NCL

Nunn - Again! ..................................................................................................46John Nunn returned after 38 years to the East Devon Congress

Home News.......................................................................................................48Rising teenager stars have done well in several weekend Opens

Overseas News ...............................................................................................51Vassily Ivanchuk defeated Hou Yifan 3-1 in a match in Shenzhen

Solutions............................................................................................................54

New Books and Software...........................................................................55Bologan and Moskalenko have impressed Sean Marsh of late

Forthcoming Events .....................................................................................57

Saunders on Chess ........................................................................................58John enjoyed being given a book by Al Horowitz

Photo credits: Check & delet P.4 Roger Bennett (p.6, right), Chess Club & Scholastic Centerof Saint Louis (pp.6, lower; 12; 22-24; 26-28; 53), dubaichess.ae (p.21, lower right),Calle Erlandsson (p.15), Bob Jones (pp.46-47), Daniel King (pp.19-21, bar lower), RayMorris-Hill (p.45), Brendan O’Gorman (p.48-49, upper), Lennart Ootes (pp.1; 5; 6, top; 9;44; 51), John Saunders (p.49, lower), Sophie Triay (p.52).

ChessFounding Editor: B.H. Wood, OBE. M.Sc †Executive Editor: Malcolm PeinEditors: Richard Palliser, Matt ReadAssociate Editor: John SaundersSubscriptions Manager: Paul Harrington

Twitter: @CHESS_MagazineTwitter: @TelegraphChess - Malcolm PeinWebsite: www.chess.co.uk

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2017 US Chess Championship, Saint Louis, Missouri, USA (29 March - 9 April 2017)

Player Rating 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 Pts TPR

1 Wesley So 2822 x 1  ½  ½  ½  ½  ½  ½  ½  ½  1  1  7 2774

2 Alexander Onischuk 2667 0  x ½  1  ½  ½  ½  ½  ½  1  1  1  7 2788

3 Fabiano Caruana 2817 ½  ½  x ½  0  0  ½  1  1  1  ½  1  6.5 2737

4 Hikaru Nakamura 2793 ½  0  ½  x 1  1  ½  ½  ½  1  ½  ½  6.5 2740

5 Varuzhan Akobian 2645 ½  ½  1  0  x 1  1  1  0  ½  ½  ½  6.5 2753

6 Yaroslav Zherebukh 2605 ½  ½  1  0  0  x ½  ½  ½  ½  ½  1  5.5 2692

7 Samuel Shankland 2666 ½  ½  ½  ½  0  ½  x ½  ½  1  0  ½  5 2650

8 Gata Kamsky 2659 ½  ½  0  ½  0  ½  ½  x 1  0  1  ½  5 2651

9 Daniel Naroditsky 2646 ½  ½  0  ½  1  ½  ½  0  x ½  ½  ½  5 2652

10 Ray Robson 2668 ½  0  0  0  ½  ½  0  1  ½  x ½  1  4.5 2621

11 Jeffery Xiong 2674 0  0  ½  ½  ½  ½  1  0  ½  ½  x 0  4 2583

12 Alexander Shabalov 2556 0  0  0  ½  ½  0  ½  ½  ½  0  1  x 3.5 2563

Hikaru Nakamura had plenty to ponder during the 2017 U.S.Championship. We certainly can’t remember when he last went onsuch a lengthy drawing streak and against sub-2700 opposition.

Thanks to the sponsorship of the Sinquefields, St. Louis is firmly on themap and there was plenty of media attention at this year’s U.S.

Championships, and not just from the fine in-house team at the venue.

Gata Kamsky receives some important instructons from one of theofficials at the Chess Club and Scholastic Center of St. Louis. Kamsky

struggled a bit at the start, but did produce a fine new idea in hisfavourite London System, as we’ll see later on in these pages.

Sam Shankland (standing, right) is used to long unbeaten runs, butwhile he drew with the top three seeds, he suffered defeats at thehands of both Akobian and young Xiong - the latter giving the 16-year-old star his only victory of a tough appearance in Saint Louis.

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May 2017

The East Devon Congress was founded in1976, in the afterglow of the Fischer-Spassky match, and was the brainchild of KenSchofield, a member of the Exmouth ChessClub. It attracted 123 players in threesections and first in the Open was JonathanKinlay, son of the Editor of the SundayExpress and future hedge fund manager.Entries rose to 180 the following year whenShaun Taulbut and Stuart Hutchings sharedfirst place. In 1978 entries fell to 145 and theubiquitous David Rumens was clear first on4½/5, probably with the help of at least oneGrand Prix Attack. Then, in 1979, the event attractedsponsorship from the locally-based London &Manchester Assurance Group. Prize moneywent up and with it so did the entry – to 219,probably the highest ever. The clear winneron 4½/5 was a young student with long curlyhair and a brown corduroy jacket, by thename of John Nunn. Four straight winsfollowed by an easy draw was enough to puthim ahead of a string of ‘names’, like Rumens,Plaskett, Blackstock, Franklin, Sowray, A.R.B.Thomas et al. This was undoubtedly a high point for theevent, but in the face of a continuingproliferation of weekend congresses, it hadachieved enough momentum to keep it goingfor the next three decades. It moved from theuniversity campus to the Corn Hall in the citycentre, but rental charges soared, entriesstarted to fall off a little each year and a hintof pessimism about its future viability beganto take hold. Then in recent years a private benefactorcame forward to safeguard its financial futureand this year a new Tournament Directorstepped up to the plate in the shape of TimPaulden, whose main claim to fame, hitherto,was not his Doctorate in Mathematics, butthat he was once in the same school chessteam as our esteemed Editor, Richard Palliser,in the current UK City of Culture, Kingstonupon Hull. Tim brought a fresh drive to proceedings,starting with the creation of a new website forthe event (eastdevonchesscongress.com), withthe facility to receive paid entries online. Byremoving the need for entry forms,chequebooks, stamps, trips to the nearestpost box, etc, this is the way forward for allcongresses and was probably one factor inthe increase in entries this year. Gerry Jepps,

who has devised his own method for theFrome Congress for the past two years,confirms this effect. Tim has also helped setup a similar system for the venerablePaignton Congress in 2017, and otherWestcountry events will surely follow suit. Another facility of this new method is thatit automatically lists on the website thenames of all those who have already entered,and this is proving another encouragementfor potential entrants. Certainly once thename ‘John Nunn’ appeared in the lists, the

buzz of local interest was palpable, with thecommon question “Why – after all these years?”. John hadn’t played at Exeter for 38 years,since that single victory in 1979 – so whatwas different this time? Now, one can onlyimagine the concentration required of himbeing co-director of a successful publishinghouse, Gambit Publications, not only writinglong definitive tomes on endings andproblems, but typesetting them as well. As an antidote to all this, in recent yearsJohn has found a quiet bolt-hole on the North

Some 38 years after his first victory in Exeter, John Nunn returned to the East Devon Congress. Bob Jones reports

Nunn - Again!

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Job done just like in 1979 - John kindly agreed to leave the trophy with the organisers.

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