England and the US both won team golds as a battle for supremacy in world senior chess intensified at Krakow, Poland, last week. The struggle had extra significance due to America’s over-50 squad of former Soviet grandmasters, while England’s teams included a trio who, nearly 40 years ago, had won silver behind USSR gold at the 1986 and 1988 Olympiads.
The bond among England’s over-65 team went even further back. Four of the five had played together in the England junior Glorney Cup team in 1972, including Terry Chapman, a consistently outstanding team player, who made the squad’s best individual score in Krakow of 83 per cent.
John Nunn, the individual world 65+ champion, won in the final round with an elegant 15-move victory against the dubious Ruy Lopez Schliemann.
There was another miniature from Michael Adams, the individual world 50+ champion, who defeated an Icelandic former world title candidate in 19 moves with a tactic reminiscent of the Scholar’s Mate plan beloved by beginners.
The US took the over-50 gold with 16/18, eight wins and a loss to Italy, who were second on 15 with England third on 14. Thirty-two teams competed. England won the over-65 gold with 16/18, ahead of Israel 15 and France 14. Thirty-three teams took part.
Senior chess in the US is financially rewarding, thanks to the patronage of FT reader Rex Sinquefield, who has made his home city St Louis a global centre for the game. Ninety over-50s competed last weekend for a $13,000 prize fund in the US Senior Open in Illinois, to be followed this week by the invitation US Senior Championship at St Louis, where the awards total $75,000.
Later this month, the annual British Championships in Hull will include Senior title contests for over-50s and over-65s. There the Senior awards will total just £1,700, with a tournament entry fee of £75. Nevertheless, for the past three years England have dominated over-65 team chess, in which the US have not competed, and held their own at over-50 level, where since 2022 the US team has won two golds and a silver to England’s gold, silver and bronze.
The England vs US competition is likely to become still more intense in 2025, when Gata Kamsky, the 1997 Fide world title challenger, will be eligible for the US over-50 squad, while Matthew Sadler, the leading grandmaster expert on artificial intelligence in chess, who has an inactive Fide rating close to the 2700 elite level, will be a potential England candidate.
Very young players have been in the news recently. Argentina’s Faustino Oro is the youngest ever international master at 10, while Bodhana Sivanandan has just been selected for the England women’s Olympiad team at nine.
Now there is a 10-year-old national champion. Last week, Abdalrahman Sameh Mohamed became Egyptian champion, outpacing a mammoth field of 369 players for a winning total of 10.5/11.
Ten wins and one draw, and he should also have won the 11th game, which he drew against the runner-up, who scored 9.5. Mohamed’s early rounds were against weak opponents, but his overall performance still clocked in at 2466, international master standard.
The prodigy participated in his first Fide-rated tournament only six months ago, and his coach so far has been his father, who does not play chess. He is now getting help from Egypt’s grandmaster Bassem Amin, and will travel to Astana, Kazakhstan, next month to represent his country in the Fide World Rapid and Blitz team championships.
Puzzle 2581
Magnus Carlsen vs Richard Rapport, Tata Steel Wijk aan Zee, 2018. White to move and win.
How did the world No 1 break through Black’s defences?
Click here for solution
