126th Varsity Chess Match: Oxford University v Cambridge University, 8 March 2008

Last Edited: Monday March 10, 2008 5:47 PM

Report by John Saunders: The 126th Varsity Chess Match between Oxford University and Cambridge University was held at the RAC Club, Pall Mall, London on 8 March 2008, sponsored by Henry Mutkin. The match arbiters were Bob Wade and David Sedgwick, with Eddie Penn as always producing an excellent match programme.

View/download 2008 Varsity Oxford-Cambridge match games

The teams and guests before the start: host Henry Mutkin and GM Ray Keene hold the Margaret Pugh Trophy,
with guest of honour Daniel Johnson standing beside them.

Oxford captain Steffen Schaper won the toss and chose to take White on the odd-numbered boards. The match commenced around 12.23pm, with the time control set at 40 moves in 2 hours, followed by one hour for all remaining moves. The fight was intense and spectators (who included GMs Jonathan Speelman, Michael Stean and Ray Keene) had to wait until 3.35pm before the first game finished, with Oxford scoring first blood on board four - Robert Seaton beat Stuart Robertson with Black, playing a brisk Dutch-style kingside attack. At 4pm Cambridge levelled the scores when their board three Adam Eckersley-Waites emerged triumphant from a messy tactical game. Fifteen minutes later Cambridge took the lead when Agnese Salputra overstepped the time limit on board eight (her position was worse anyway). But Oxford struck back to level the score at 2-2 at 4.25pm when Graham Morris completed an efficient demolition job on board seven.

Photo left shows guest of honour Daniel Johnson making the ceremonial first move on top board on behalf of Oxford's Tom Eckersley-Waites.

So there were four games completed and four still going at the time control. A good time passed before the next game finished, when the two players on board six decided discretion was the better part of valour and agreed to a draw in a tricky position. Later analysis suggested that Black (Oxford) might have emerged a pawn to the good but whether it was winnable remains a moot point. That left boards 1, 2 and 5 still going. The top board had looked very favourably for Cambridge since before the move 40 time control so the Light Blues seemed better placed. At 5.20pm board two was agreed a draw as the position was repeated - Fritz entirely concurs with this decision, scoring the position when the draw was agreed at exactly 0.00, repetition or no repetition. Soon after, Board one ended in the inevitable Cambridge which meant they were one up with one to play. However the Cambridge man on board five was a pawn down with his king horribly exposed to various checking possibilities. The icy-cool computer assesses the position as perfectly defensible but, with the clock ticking and your team's hopes of victory riding on your shoulders, it was a very difficult thing for a flesh and blood chessplayer to find a series of precise moves.

Schaper (Oxford) - Tyomkin (Cambridge)
Board 5: White has just played 52 Bg6-f7+

The Oxford player had just played a little combination to reach this position - one which had occurred to some of us spectators. The Cambridge player must have seen that 52...Kxf8 is answered by 53 Qg8 mate, but played 52...Kf6?? to which White replied 53 Qg6 mate. Game over, match drawn. However there is another possibility here which does not end in mate and which had, in part at least, occurred to the spectating BCM editor: 52...Bg3! 53 hxg3 Re1+ 54 Kf2 and now the clever idea which I confess I had not seen: 54...Qh6!! 55 Rg8+! (55 Kxe1 Qc1+ leads to perpetual check) 55...Kxf7 56 Qf3+ Kxg8 57 Kxe1 Qc1+ 58 Qd1 Qe3+ 59 Kf1 - well, perhaps White could still win this endgame anyway. Also, Cambridge cannot consider themselves too unlucky as they were probably worse on board six when the draw was agreed. On the whole, a just result.

At the post-match dinner, IM Bob Wade announced that Robert Seaton of Oxford had won the best game prize for his win on board four, which had been the first game to finish. Well done to him.

Glory is shared: Oxford captain Steffen Schaper and Cambridge non-playing captain Richard Lee hold up the trophy

So Cambridge still lead the series by 56 wins to Oxford's 51, with 19 matches drawn.

All photos © 2008 John Saunders

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