Talk by Peter Sowray
: Created:08 Sep 2013 , byThis year Peter entertained Ealing members with extensive coverage of a wonderful win by Cenek Kottnauer, a British chess stalwart after his emigration to Britain in 1953.
In 1946 Prague played Moscow in a match. The Czechs lost heavily with stars such as David Bronstein and Vassily Smyslov achieving excellent results. Alexander Kotov also produced brilliant games but his one loss was to Cenek Kottnauer.
Cenek's win was a classic and the Queen's Gambit Declined Semi-Slav line in his win over Kotov is still a main variation in the Encyclopaedia of Chess Openings. The variations are thrilling and as usual our members were highly vocal in suggesting good moves.
Answering a supplementary question about who will triumph in the World Championship match this Autumn in Chennai, Peter leaned towards Magnus Carlsen but we detected some fence-sitting about the outcome so Viswanathan Anand's prospects should not be dismissed.