After a pause during the pandemic, the Hastings Chess Congress returned for its 96th edition in the days after Christmas, with renewed support from software company Caplin. A newly published book, The Chess Battles of Hastings by Jürgen Brustkern and Norbert Wallet (New in Chess, 2022), offers an enjoyable chronicle of the event’s rich history. Among the vignettes of congress luminaries, one anecdote caught my eye. One year in the 1980s, heavy snowfall caused the heating in the playing hall to fail, to which most players responded with an early draw offer. But grandmaster Murray Chandler persevered for five hours, he and his opponent ‘like two Eskimos, in woollen hats and winter coats’, and became joint winner thanks to his victory.
I assume that this year’s winner, the Lithuanian grandmaster Sarunas Sulskis, had no quarrel with the elements, but his tournament victory owed much to doggedness at the board. In the second round, he squeezed a 120-move win from the notoriously toilsome endgame of king, rook and bishop against king and rook. In the fourth round, he reached a position which looks a whisker away from a draw, since the f7 pawn is attacked, and 73…Rd6+ 74 Ke5 Rd8 75 Kf6 achieves nothing.
Conor Murphy-Sarunas Sulskis
Caplin Hastings Masters, Dec 2022
Sulskis began with a crafty sidestep: 73…Kg8! If 74 Rxf7 Rd6+ 75 Ke7 Rd7+ 76 Kxd7 Kxf7 and the d-pawn is unstoppable. So: 74 Ke7 Rb8 75 Ra4? The decisive error. Back-pedalling with 75 Kf6! was necessary. After 75…Rb6+ 76 Ke5 Black must jettison the d-pawn, as 76…Rb5 77 Kf6 d4 78 Ra8+ draws comfortably. A better try is 75…Rb6+ 76 Ke5 Re6+ 77 Kxd5 Kg7, but the endgame is drawn. The simplest method is to harrass Black’s king and pawn from the front, beginning with 78 Ra1. Rb6! Cordoning off the White king. 76 Rg4+ Rg6 77 Rd4 Re6+ 78 Kd7 Re4 79 Rxd5 Kg7 80 Kd6 Kg6 81 Rd1 f5 White’s wayward king means that an exchange of rooks is out of the question, so the pawn cannot be stopped. 82 Rg1+ Kf6 83 Kd5 Rg4 84 Re1 Ra4 85 Rg1 f4 86 Rg8 Kf5 87 Rf8+ Kg4 88 Ke5 f3 White resigns
A critical game was played in the penultimate round, where the veteran English grandmaster Mark Hebden was on the brink of victory, but missed his chance to overtake Sulskis.
Sarunas Sulskis-Mark Hebden
Caplin Hastings Masters, Jan 2023
59… Kb6 59…Kb4 60 Rh4+ Ka5! is the winning line, since 61 Rh5+ Rb5! shields the king, and after 62 Rh3 Kb4 the king can hide from lateral checks on b2. 60 Ke2 In the nick of time. a3 61 Rh1 Kb5 62 Kd2 Ka4 63 Rh4+ Rb4 64 Rxb4+ Kxb4 65 Kc2 a2 66 Kb2 a1=R 67 Kxa1 Draw agreed
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