2019-08-10 The Spectator

LIFE

22 Rfe1 Rf7 23 Bxg6 hxg6 24 Qe5 Kf8

25 Qxd4 Kg8 26 Qe5 Kf8 27 Re3 Black is

embarrassingly impotent in the face of the

e-file pin. 27 ... a5 28 Rae1 Ra7 29 Qg5

Qd8 30 Qh4 Ke8 31 Bxe7 Black resigns

Adams-Ashton: British Championship,

Torquay 2019 (see diagram 3)

Here 32 ... Kh7 keeps the black disadvantage

to a minimum. Instead he was too anxious to

chase the white queen. 32 ... Rd6 33 Qe8+

Kh7 34 Qe4 Qxe4 35 Rxe4 Now the black

queenside pawns are terribly vulnerable. 35 ...

Rd7 36 Rc4 Kg6 37 Rc5 Black resigns

Mickey Adams won the British Championship,
which finished last week in Torquay, for the
seventh time. Leading scores (out of nine) were as
follows: 1. Adams 7½; 2. Howell 7; 3= Haria and
Palliser 6½; 5= Gordon, Tan and Houska 6.
Jovanka Houska has now won the British
Women’s Championship a record nine times.
The key element in Adams’s success was his
deadly ability to score with the white pieces,
racking up five wins from five games as White. This
week, an excursion around the Adams Avalanche.

Adams-Gordon: British Championship,
Torquay 2019

Black is relying on the pin along the a4-e8
diagonal to regain his pawn but he is in for a nasty
surprise. 15 b6! Nxa4 16 Rxa4 Bxa4 17
Qxa4 White’s sacrifice of the exchange is
overwhelming. He has a monster passed b-pawn
and his knights utterly dominate the light squares.
17 ... f6 17 ... Nf6 is met by 18 Bg5, maintaining
light square control. 18 Nd2 Rf7 19 Nc4 Qd7
20 Qxd7 Rxd7 21 Be3 f5 22 f3 Black has no
counterplay whatsoever. 22 ... Bf6 23 Rb1 Bd8
24 Na5 Rb8 25 Nc6 Rbb7 26 Na5 Rb8 27
Nc6 Rbb7 28 a4 Kf7 29 a5 Nf6 30 Ndb4
Black resigns White will win the a-pawn and his
passed pawns will be decisive.

Adams-Pert: British Championship, Torquay 2019
(see diagram 2)

White’s next establishes a crushing pin from
which Black never really escapes. 21 Bd6 Qe8

In Competition No. 3110 you were invited to

provide a version of the hokey-cokey filtered

through the pen of a well-known writer.

Thanks to George Simmers and C. Paul

Evans, I now know that doing the hokey-

cokey — said by some to have been com-

posed by Puritans in the 18th century to

mock the Catholic mass — could constitute

a hate crime. Mr Evans weaved this into his

amusing take on Kipling’s ‘If’. Equally enjoy-

able were reworkings by D.A. Prince, David

Silver man and John O’Byrne of Henry Reed’s

‘Naming of Parts’ (‘Today we have shak-

ing of parts...’) and Walt Whitman’s ‘Song

of My Self- Humiliation’, courtesy of Mark

McDonnell. There was so much to admire.

How I hummed and hawed before settling

on the six below, who earn £25 each.

Out on the dance-floor, the clock at ten-twenty,

We dance to a rag-time, or is it a waltz?

My feet are flirtatious, but no cognoscenti,

And I lose the first set, scoring two double faults.

But oh! the conductor! He straightens his baton

And taps out a rhythm that gladdens my thighs,

As we fish with our left arms, and, following pattern,

Retrieve them, and swivel, but never capsize.

Oh hokey, oh cokey, with part-genuflection,

Extending our triceps with vim and abandon!

Now for the right arm, and forward direction,

And back, and so careful there’s no one to stand on.

The left leg and right leg take turns, with a flourish,

Before the whole person hurls forth with a shout,

And now I’ve a partner with needs I must nourish,

For that’s what the dancing is really about.

Bill Greenwell/John Betjeman

If you can join a group at merry-making

And lose your inhibitions for a while,

Can dance around and copy all their shaking,

And make each foolish gesture with a smile.

Swing each leg in and out and wildly shake it,

Then do the same odd movements with your arms,

Go wrong, be ridiculed, and simply take it,

And carry on, dismissing all your qualms.

If you can watch your mother let her hair down

And hear the shy and reticent all shout,

Not bother whether this is high- or lowdown

Just clap and yell: ‘That’s what it’s all about!’

If you can sing out ‘rah, rah’, loud and hearty,

Can sound as if you’re really having fun,

Then you have grasped the spirit of the party —

And you’ll have done the Hokey-Cokey, son.

Alanna Blake/Rudyard Kipling

Do not go gentle. Drink till you are tight

And do the hokey-cokey. Seize the day!

Barge like a bull before you say goodnight.

Then wave your arms and legs with all your might.

Turn dizzy like a little child at play.

Do not go gentle. Drink till you are tight.

PUZZLE NO. 566

White to play. This position is a variation from
Adams-Pigott, Torquay 2019. How can White
crash through to gain a winning position? Answers
to me at The Spectator by Tuesday 13 August or
via email to [email protected]. There is a
prize of £20 for the first correct answer out of a
hat. Please include a postal address and allow six
weeks for prize delivery.

Last week’s solution 1 Qxf8+
Last week’s winner Nick Lee, Isleworth,
Middlesex

Chess

Adams Avalanche

Raymond Keene

Competition

Redoing the hokey-cokey

Lucy Vickery

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Diagram 2

Diagram 3

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