Chess: Nunn leads England over-65s to gold at world senior championships

John Nunn, the world over-65 champion, led England’s over-65 team to gold medals on Thursday at the world senior team championships in Krakow. His colleagues Tony Kosten, Jonathan Mestel and Terry Chapman all won individual medals, while Paul Littlewood won a team gold.

England over-50s again finished behind the United States, while ­England over-50 women narrowly missed their third successive gold as both 50+ squads had to settle for third.

England are the most successful nation in European senior team chess, following their clean triple gold sweep at the continental championships in Slovenia in May. However, world titles are harder, as was shown in 2023 and again this week.

England won over-65 gold for the second time in three years, but narrowly missed a hat-trick of victories in the women’s over-50 and again fell short in the Open over-50.

There the US team of former Soviet grandmasters, which won in 2023, again proved too strong, even though the intended American top board, 2583-rated Vladimir Akopian, had to be replaced late.

England regained the over-65 gold medals, which they won in 2022 but were then unexpectedly dispossessed by Germany in 2023. Krakow also saw another competitive performance by England’s over-50 women, who got close to taking gold for the third year running, this time against a stronger field than in 2022 or 2023, but were edged out in the final round by Estonia and the US.

Nunn, the individual world 65+ champion, won the top board gold medal. He often looked a class ahead of his rivals, and impressed particularly in the final round with his crushing 15-move victory against the Ruy Lopez Schliemann 1 e4 e5 2 Nf3 Nc6 3 Bb5 f5.

John Pigott, of England’s second team, England 2, was the surprise top board silver medallist with an excellent unbeaten performance, whose highlight was Pigott’s fine attacking victory against an eminent Slovak grandmaster.

Michael Adams, the eight-time British and reigning world 50+ champion, was a tower of strength on top board. In the England v Iceland over-50 match, Adams defeated a former world title candidate in just 19 moves. The other four England grandmasters performed well, but dropped half points and occasional full points in key matches.

In total, 10 English players won individual board medals. Adams (50+) Nunn(65+), and Kosten (65+) won gold; Pigott (65+ 2nd team), Chapman (65+) and Keith Arkell (50+) won silver, and Mestel (65+), team manager Nigel Povah (65+ 2nd team), Stephen Dishman (50+ 2nd team) and Nigel Davies (50+) won bronze.

In the three years 2022-24, the US has now won the over-50 gold twice and England once. This US hegemony looks set to continue in 2025, when the Americans can potentially field 2615-rated Gata Kamsky, who challenged Anatoly Karpov for the Fide version of the world title in 1997 and who turned 50 last month. Kamsky plays little over the board now, but is still very active in Chess.com’s online Titled Tuesday, where he leads the senior players.

Realistically, England will need a significantly strengthened over-50 team for 2025 in order to compete for gold against what is likely to be a highly rated US squad. There are two obvious world-class candidates.

GM Matthew Sadler, the popular writer, commentator, and twice British champion, has not competed over the board for several years but still has a 2694 inactive Fide rating. This would even make him the England No 1 rated player at open level if he could be persuaded to make a comeback. Sadler turned 50 in May this year, so is newly eligible for the 50+ team.

GM Nigel Short, 59, the former world title challenger, played successfully in England’s world 50+ gold medal team in 2022, but has not been included since for unclear reasons. Short now competes much less than he did due to his work as Fide director for chess development, but still retains a high 2595 Fide rating. His acclaimed book “Winning” about the highlights of his career, is now available in paperback.

The English Chess Federation can be justifiably proud of its over-50 and over-65 successes in the past three years, but the growing US challenge, and the incipient American monopoly of the most competitive team event, needs to be addressed by the England selectors in the next 12 months.

3928 The game ended 1 Qh6! Kxg8 2 Nxe6 (threats Qg7/Qf8 mate) Kf7 3 Qf8+! and mates after Kxe6 4 Qe8 mate or Kg6 4 Qg7+ Kh5 5 Qxh7 mate.