Senior service

England’s over-65 team triumphed at the World Senior Team Championships, held in Prague last month. They began this event as second seeds behind the German team Lasker Schachstiftung, whose strongest player Artur Yusupov, originally from the Soviet Union, was once ranked third in the world. That crucial England-Germany match ended in a 2-2 tie, but England’s team of John Nunn, Glenn Flear, Tony Kosten, Peter Large and Terence Chapman scored more consistently against the rest of the field, helped by an outstanding 7/8 score for Peter Large.

In the game below, his primitive threat to the f7-pawn at move seven bears a funny resemblance to Scholar’s mate, which arises after 1 e4 e5 2 Qh5 Nc6 3 Bc4 Nf6?? 4 Qxf7 mate. Early queen development tends to backfire, as a decent player will parry the threat and later harass the queen. But Large’s move, used in many master games, is a venomous exception.

Peter Large-Leon Lederman

Fide World Senior Team Ch, Prague 2025

1 e4 c5 2 Nc3 Nc6 3 Bb5 Nd4 4 Nf3 g6 5 Bc4 Bg7 6 Nxd4 cxd4 7 Qf3 The natural defence 7…Nf6 runs into 8 Nb5 which attacks d4 and threatens e4-e5, and then 8…e5 allows 9 Nd6+ 7…e6 8 Nb5 The threat of Nb5-d6+ is awkward to meet. Best is 8…d5 9 exd5 a6 10 dxe6 fxe6 11 Na3 Nf6 when the wayward knight on a3 offers Black compensation for a pawn. But 8…Qb6 is outright bad, since 9 Qf4!, which a fork on c7. The move in the game runs into other unexpected tactics. 8…d6 9 Qa3 Ke7 Instead, 9…Bf8 sheds the pawn on d4, while 9…Be5 10 O-O threatens f4, with a huge advantage. 10 c3 e5 11 cxd4 exd4 12 Qf3! Back again. One beautiful point is that 12…Nf6 13 e5! dxe5 14 Qa3+ Ke8 15 Nd6+ is catastrophic.