Friday 16 January 2009

European Open 1988

One of the small Canberra second-hand books shops I frequent is closing down. I feel partly responsible as although I was a frequent visitor, I rarely brought anything. It had a small collection of chess books (including copies of books I co-wrote), but I always felt they were over-priced.
But I did buy a book today, as the closing down sale has everything at half price. I would have brought more, except Henrik Mortensen (visiting from Denmark) cleaned out most of the better books just after Christmas!
The book I did get was of the 1988 European Open Chess Tournament. This event was slightly mis-named as although their was a large open swiss, the event was in fact headed by a 10 player Round-Robin. On the cover of the book is GM Ian Rogers, signifying the fact that he was a very convincing winner of this event. In a field that included Joel Lautier, Alexander Khalifman and John Nunn, Ian started with 5.5/6 and finished a full point in front with 6.5/9. Now my Dutch isn't that great (almost non-existent) but I think the book remarks that Ian was a late replacement for Jan Ehlvest, who I'm sure the rest of the field might have been happier playing!

Nunn,J (2620) - Rogers,I (2535) [C19]
Groningen Groningen, 1988

1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.Nc3 Bb4 4.e5 c5 5.a3 Bxc3+ 6.bxc3 Ne7 7.Nf3 Qa5 8.Bd2 Nbc6 9.Be2 cxd4 10.cxd4 Qa4 11.Rb1 Nxd4 12.Bd3 Ndc6 13.0-0 Qxa3 14.Rb3 Qc5 15.Rb5 Qa3 16.Qb1 a6 17.Rb3 Qc5 18.Rc3 Qa7 19.Be3 Qb8 20.Qb6 Bd7 21.Rb3 Qd8 22.Qc5 Bc8 23.Qc3 h6 24.Bb6 Qd7 25.Re1 0-0 26.h3 f6 27.exf6 Rxf6 28.Rbb1 Qe8 29.Bc7 b5 30.Ne5 Bd7 31.Ng4 Rf7 32.Qd2 Nf5 33.Ne5 Nxe5 34.Bxe5 a5 35.f4 a4 36.Ba1 Qf8 37.Re5 Rc8 38.Rf1 Nd6 39.Qe2 Nc4 40.Rxe6 Bxe6 41.Qxe6 Qc5+ 42.Kh1 Qc6 43.Bf5 Ne3 0-1

5 comments:

OzChess.com said...

Are you sure Joel Lautier played? I don't recall seeing his name in prominent tournaments until the mid to late 90's.

OzChess.com said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
OzChess.com said...

Incidentally, I put this John Nunn vs Ian Rogers game up on OzChess:

Nunn vs Rogers Game

Anonymous said...

what kind of a dumb remark is that from Ozchess? Shaun has the book in his hand and sees the name Joel Lautier. What else do you need? Just because your dumb and stupid doesnt mean that everyone else is too.

Kevin Bonham said...

OzChess.com is Alex Toolsie, so it would be a surprise if any remark he made on a matter requiring the slightest clue was anything other than dumb.