Friday, October 18, 2019

Oakham School International Invitation Tournament

     Back in 1988 from March 28 to April 5, Oakham School was the venue for a 52-player Swiss tournament that was won by James Howell who scored 7.5-1.5. 
     Boris Gelfand, Michael Adams, Lasha Dzhandzhava and Lucas Brunner scored 6.5-2.5. Plus scores were achieved by: Ivan Sokolov, Jon Arnason, David Norwood, Grigory Serper, Matthgew Sadler, Tibor Fogarasi and Catalin Navrotescu. 
     Oakham is in the East Midlands of England, 28 miles south-east of Nottingham and in the 2011 census it had a population of 10,922. The town has one of Europe's largest man-made lakes and a castle famous for its collection of ceremonial horseshoes; since the late Middle Ages, every time a peer of the realm visits Oakham for the first time they are bound to present a horseshoe to the lord of the manor. 
     The following game between Ivan Sokolov and Lucas Brunner was mentioned in the notes in his book Winning Chess Middlegames: An Essential Guide to Pawn Structures under the heading of playing with an isolated Pawn in a position he designates as Structure 2.5. 


     In his book Sokolov wrote that isolated Pawn structures arise from different openings (Tarrasch Defence and Semi-Tarrasch, Queen's Gambit Accepted, Queen's Gambit Declined, Nimzo-lndian Defence, Meran Variation, Ragozin Variation, Petroff Defence, etc.) and are therefore very important positions to understand, regardless of the opening preferences a player may have. 
     In addition to explaining the main strategic ideas of different isolate d-Pawn structures okolov also presents a lot of information about the openings played. He flatly states that if the reader takes enough time to study these positions he should be well-armed to meet a number of variations in practical play. 
     If you’re interested in this book you can take a gander inside it on Amazon, but before buying it you should also take a look at the reader reviews to see if the book might be helpful. Check it out
     Ivan Sokolov (born June 13, 1968) was originally from Yugoslavia and won the 1988 Yugoslav Championship. In 1995 and 1998 he won the Dutch Championship. He currently lives in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates where he is head coach at the Abu Dhabi Chess And Cultural Club. 
     Lucas Brunner (born May 29, 1967) is a Swiss GM. He moved to West Germany as a child where he won the German U20 Championship and earned his IM title in 1986. He returned to Switzerland in 1990 and became the first Swiss-born GM when he achieved the title in 1994, the same year he won the Swiss Championship. 

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