2013 Snowdrops v. Veterans

Yes, it's that time again.  The lovely ladies versus the old wrinkled dudes :)

I'd forgot, actually, it was even going on -- sorry.  Leonard Barden's column reminded me:

Women's team close to upsetting veterans with strong showing in Prague

• Leonard Barden
• The Guardian, Friday 4 January 2013 17.55 EST

 

Snowdrops v Old Hands is a biennial match in Prague where a quartet of septuagenarian grandmasters takes on four young female talents. The GMs try to use their strategic skills to compensate for diminished stamina and tactical alertness while their opponents must cope psychologically with their instinctive awe of famous names.

The first such events, Women v Veterans, were named after dances of the host countries, and included top female GMs right up to world champions and the Polgars. The men were mostly legends from the golden Soviet generation and honours were about even.

On paper the GMs in Prague, who included three former world title candidates, were clear favourites against the inexperienced women's team. But at halfway the women led 10-6, driven by impressive play from India's Tania Sachdev. In the second half one of the local Czechs froze and lost all four games, enabling the GMs to edge 17-15 ahead at the end. Sachdev, India's No3 woman, continued her fine run and was the highest individual scorer with an unbeaten 6/8.

Given that the men's team was equal in stature to those of the 1990s, the likely conclusion is that women at the top 50-100 level are continuing to gain ground on their male contemporaries. There used to be an invisible rating barrier for the best female GMs around 2500 but now this has risen to 2600, with Judit Polgar alone reaching 2700.

Sachdev's most convincing game demonstrated her tactical awareness. Her opponent in his heyday was a rival of Bobby Fischer and Boris Spassky but Wolfgang Uhlmann's sense of danger deserted him as his rooks were stranded on the queen's flank while the white army cornered his king.


See article for diagrams and PGN.