Snow Drops vs. Old Hands: 10-6 at Half-Time
The traditional "Snow Drops vs. Old Hands" tournament, the annual match between talented ladies and chess veterans, is under way in Podebrady, Czech Republic. After four of the eight rounds, the "Snow Drops" are leading 10-6. Can the legends fight back in the second half?
The Czech Republic already has a long chess tradition, and the restless chess organizer Pavel Matocha is mostly responsible for a chess calendar filled with nice events. There's the Cez Coal match, the Chess Train and also the "Snow Drops vs. Old Hands" tournament, the annual match between talented ladies and chess veterans.
This year the Snow Drops team consists of 30-year-old GM Viktorij Cmilyte (2506) of Lithuania, 21-year-old IM Maria Muzychuk (2491) of Ukraine, 20-year-old WGM Alina Kashlinskaya (2422) of Russia and 18-year-old WGM Nastassia Ziaziulkina (2350) of Belarus. The Old Hands are 61-year-old GM Iossif Dorfman (2580) of France, 66-year-old GM Boris Gulko (2543) of USA, 80-year-old GM Borislav Ivkov (2408) of Serbia and 78-year-old GM Wolfgang Uhlmann (2334) of Germany.
The tournament is held November 30th - December 8th, 2013 in the Zamecek hotel in Podebrady, a historical spa town in the Central Bohemian Region of the Czech Republic. It lies on the river Labe 50 kilometers east of Prague. As always, the tournament is a double Scheveningen match.
After four of the eight rounds, the young ladies are leadying 10-6. In fact all of them scored 2.5/4, or "plus one" and in all cases these were three draws and one win. And so, logically,it is quite a friendly tournament thus far with twelve draws and four wins. By now you must have reached another conclusion: the chess legends didn't win a single game yet.
In the first round the Snow Drops played with the white pieces and immediately scored two wins. Cmilyte beat Ivkov in a nice game that started as a Stonewall Dutch. White's funny doubled pawns on the e- and f-files eventually became a menacing force.
Kashlinskaya won against Ulhman, who is especially struggling so far in Podebrady. He is still faithful to his King's Indian and did well in the first round, but in a good position he lost on time:
Uhlmann lost two more games. In the third round his king didn't survive Muzychuk's strong attack in a Trompowsky:
And in the fourth round the 78-year-old lost an endgame that was extremely drawish. At the end Black is going to take on b4 and win the "pawn ending" on the queenside.
As always, the tournament includes a number of side events. The opening ceremony saw a simul by 85-year-old (!) Pal Benko, who will also give a lecture on Wednesday (the rest day) about his encounters with Bobby Fischer. Another simul will be given by Genna Sosonko, who will also join the commentators. The others are Jan Smejkal, Robert Cvek, David Navara, Radek Wojtaszek and Michal Konopka.
Snow Drops vs. Old Hands 2013 | Results & score
| I | II | III | IV | V | VI | VII | VIII | |
| Snow Drops | 3 | 2 | 2,5 | 2,5 | ||||
| Old Hands | 1 | 2 | 1,5 | 1,5 | ||||
| Total Snow Drops | 3 | 5 | 7,5 | 10 | ||||
| Total Old Hands | 1 | 3 | 4,5 | 6 |
Snow Drops vs. Old Hands 2013 | Individual score
| O1 | O2 | O3 | O4 | O1 | O2 | O3 | O4 | Total | ||
| S1 | Kashlinskaya Alina | 1 | ½ | ½ | ½ | 2,5 | ||||
| S2 | Cmilyte Viktorija | 1 | ½ | ½ | ½ | 2,5 | ||||
| S3 | Muzychuk Mariya | 1 | ½ | ½ | ½ | 2,5 | ||||
| S4 | Ziaziulkina Nastassia | ½ | ½ | 1 | ½ | 2,5 | ||||
| S1 | S2 | S3 | S4 | S1 | S2 | S3 | S4 | Total | ||
| O1 | Uhlmann Wolfgang | ½ | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0,5 | ||||
| O2 | Ivkov Borislav | ½ | ½ | 0 | ½ | 1,5 | ||||
| O3 | Gulko Boris | ½ | ½ | ½ | ½ | 2 | ||||
| O4 | Dorfman Iossif | ½ | ½ | ½ | ½ | 2 |
GM Ján Plachetka and GM Wolfgang Uhlmann with wives at the opening ceremony...
...where GM Pal Benko performed the drawing of colors
GM Boris Gulko picking his lot, hidden behind a square
WGM Anastasia Zjazjulkina's turn
GM Pal Benko endgame studies aficionado and composer, with his wife
GM Jan Smejkal a GM Iossif Dorfman chatting
A simul by GM Pal Benko, with Jiří Navrátil, Pavel Matocha and Vlastimil Chládek
The opening of the first round match
Peter Doggers joined a chess club a month before turning 15 and still plays for it. He used to be an active tournament player and holds two IM norms. Peter has a Master of Arts degree in Dutch Language & Literature. He briefly worked at New in Chess, then as a Dutch teacher and then in a project for improving safety and security in Amsterdam schools. Between 2007 and 2013 Peter was running ChessVibes, a major source for chess news and videos acquired by Chess.com in October 2013. As our Director News & Events, Peter writes many of our news reports. In the summer of 2022, The Guardian’s Leonard Barden described him as “widely regarded as the world’s best chess journalist.”
Peter's first book The Chess Revolution is out now!
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