Varsity match | 3 March 2016

On Saturday 5 March the 134th Varsity Match between the teams from the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge takes place at the Royal Automobile Club, Pall Mall. As has become traditional, the annual clash between our premier academic institutions is supported by Henry Mutkin, the doyen of the RAC chess circle. The scores so far are 58 wins to Cambridge, 53 to Oxford with 22 draws. Spectators are welcome, although standard dress rules for London clubs are in force.

It is a source of constant bemusement to me that although Cambridge award half-blues for representation in the Varsity Match, Oxford still deny that honour to their chess representatives. Given Oxford’s great chess tradition, which includes grandmasters and British champions such as Adrian Hollis, John Nunn, Jon Speelman, George Botterill and Peter Lee, it is strange that the university authorities continue to deprive their outstanding chessplayers of due recognition.

This week a game between two former top boards from the Oxford and Cambridge sides and a puzzle from the Varsity Match of 2013.

Keene-Lee; County Match 1970; King’s Indian Defence

1 Nf3 g6 2 c4 Bg7 3 d4 Nf6 4 g3 0-0 5 Bg2 d6 6 0-0 Nbd7 7 Nc3 a6 Unusual, but cunning. Black’s intention is to meet 8 e4 with 8 … c5 9 d5 b5 gaining active play for his pieces on the queenside. 8 d5 Since Black’s obvious intention is to play … b5 at some point I decided to manoeuvre a knight towards c6 to take advantage of this. The advance d5 is the necessary preliminary to this operation. 8 … e6 9 e4 Nc5 In the later game Anic-Theon, France 2002, 9 … Re8 was tried. 10 Nd4 exd5 11 cxd5 Re8 12 f3 a5 To secure the position of his knight against the possible threat of b4.