Dutch Treat

by Hans Ree

SCRIMMAGE IN SLOUGH

One often hears that true loyalty to one's chessclub does not exist
anymore now that most European top clubs hire mercenaries to
play for teams they are not emotionally tied to. That old-time
devotion to one's club must have been something marvelous. I
gained some insight into it when browsing through an old
magazine and finding the "club song" of that old and venerable
club from the Dutch city The Hague, Discendo Discimus. The
name is "mock Latin" and means "By learning we learn".

The melody is that of a well known Dutch song "Amid the
bronze-green oak trees" and the text, though losing something in
translation, is still quite forceful:

Hail Discendo Discimus/plunge into battle/Show that Thou art the
strongest club/in the whole of the Netherlands/Give mate to Thy
opponents/be not satisfied with less/Hail Discendo Discimus/three
times hail DD!/Hail Discendo Discimus/three times hail DD!!

At the end the simple "repeat" would not do justice to the force of
the club song, because where the first "hail" can still be seen as the
expression of a confident but modest devotion, in the repetition the
second "three times hail" grows to a real paroxysm of fighting
spirit and ruthless resolution.

One can imagine how the team members, after singing this song,
jumped into battle against competing clubs, swift as greyhounds,
hard as steel, tough as leather. And what would these heroes have
done if there was a chance to become champion of Europe in the
Russian city of Kazan? If necessary they would walk there
barefoot, ignoring the hardships. We speak of things long gone,
because the club song must have been written at a time when the
expression "Hail!" was still innocent and did not lead to dark
thoughts.

Recently the Dutch champion club Panfox from Breda played in
the preliminaries for the European championship in the English
town Slough, a suburb of London. Not however with the resolute
will to win of the heroes of the past as described above. From the
many strong foreigners that the club counts among its members,
only Julian Hodgson was called in. A spokesman for the club said
that one didn't really want to qualify for the finals, because the trip
to Kazan would cost the club about $50,000, wasted money
considering the lack of public interest in this championship.

The weakened Panfox team did reasonably well under the
circumstances, winning easily in the first round against the Belgian
team Tessenderlo. Then in the second round Panfox was
eliminated by Merkur from Graz, Austria. Well, from Graz, the
six-man Austrian team had three Russian players and a German.
On the last day Panfox gained third place by beating Oslo,
Norway.

But there were teams in Slough with a much more fanatic attitude.
Up to now the town was only known to me by a poem of the late
English Poet Laureate John Betjeman which starts with the lines

Come, friendly bombs and fall on Slough
It isn't fit for humans now
There isn't grass to graze a cow
Swarm over, Death!

In the finals between the home club Slough and Merkur the grim
atmosphere evoked in this poem seemed to have an unfavorable
influence on the chessplayers, because the game ended in abuse
and violence.

In time trouble, the English player Summerscale indicated that his
opponent, the Austrian Felsberger, was not writing down his
moves properly, but only marking how many moves had been
made. Summerscale had lost a piece, maybe as a consequence of
Felsberger's illegal practice, maybe not. Clocks were stopped.
Felsberger, who does not speak English, asked his captain Detter
what the problem was. From this point, I am following the English
version of what then happened.

Detter started Summerscale's clock, though it was Felsberger's
move. Summerscale stopped the clock, Detter started it again.
Detter called Summerscale a "motherfucker", thumped him in the
back and tore up a letter of protest that was hastily produced by the
English side.

According to the Austrians this version is greatly exaggerated and
the whole incident just a piece of chicanery by the English to save
a lost match. Anyway, after the first time control Summerscale,
who had a completely lost position by now, did not move anymore
and let his clock run. Eventually his flag fell and his game was
declared lost by the English arbiter Bob Wade. However, after
lengthy consultations with the furious Slough team Wade changed
his mind and now declared the game lost for Felsberger.

Now the Austrians were furious. What had Felsberger done to
deserve this draconian punishment? He had not written down his
moves, but this is considered a small offence, usually punished, if
at all, by giving the opponent a few minutes extra time, which
certainly would not have saved Summerscale, whose position was
beyond hope.

Had Felsberger won his game, the Austrian team would have
qualified for the finals in Kazan. Now Slough had qualified. Had
the English arbiter been as impartial as he should? The Austrians
were convinced he had not. And they were not alone. Afterwards
the Dutchman John van der Wiel wrote a letter in which he called
the arbiter's behaviour "almost criminal" and went on: "We
recommend to suspend the arbiter Bob Wade, who in recent years
time and again showed his incompetence and now has committed a
really capital blunder."

Merkur filed an official protest with FIDE. As chance would have
it, the men who have to handle this protest are both Austrian:
Jungwirth, president of the European zone and Stubenvoll, director
of the Europa cup for clubs. They will have a tough time coming
up with a just and impartial decision that will satisfy all.

White: Summerscale Black: Felsberger 
1.Ng1-f3 Ng8-f6 2.c2-c4 c7-c5 3.Nb1-c3 b7-b6 4.g2-g3 Bc8-b7
5.Bf1-g2 e7-e6 6.O-O a7-a6 7.Rf1-e1 d7-d6 8.e2-e4 Bf8-e7
9.d2-d4 c5xd4 10.Nf3xd4 Qd8-c7 11.Bc1-e3 O-O 12.Ra1-c1
Nb8-d7 13.f2-f4 Ra8-c8 14.b2-b3 Rf8-e8 15.Be3-f2 Be7-f8
16.h2-h3 g7-g6 17.Nd4-e2 Qc7-b8 18.g3-g4 b6-b5 19.Ne2-g3
h7-h6 20.c4xb5 a6xb5 21.Nc3xb5 Rc8xc1 22.Qd1xc1 Re8-c8
23.Qc1-d1 Bb7-a6 24.Nb5-d4 e6-e5 25.Nd4-e2 d6-d5 26.g4-g5
e5xf4 27.g5xf6 f4xg3 28.Bf2xg3 Ba6xe2 29.Bg3xb8 Be2xd1
30.Re1xd1 Rc8xb8 31.e4xd5 Nd7xf6 32.Bg2-f1 Nf6-e4 33.Kg1-g2
Rb8-c8 34.Bf1-c4 Kg8-g7 35.a2-a4 Bf8-b4 36.Rd1-d4 f7-f5
37.Bc4-b5 Bb4-c5 38.Rd4-d3 Kg7-f6 39.a4-a5 Kf6-e5 40.Bb5-c4
g6-g5 41.a5-a6 h6-h5 42.Rd3-d1 g5-g4 43.Rd1-b1 f5-f4 and here
the game was first declared lost for white and later lost for black.

And now for some more edifying games from Slough. The next
one is a typical Hodgson adventure. His piece sacrifice is born out
of bad necessity and certainly not correct, but creatively weaving
ever new threats against black's king in the centre, he manages to
reach an ending that even stands better for him at the moment a
draw is agreed.  

White: Hodgson (Panfox) Black: Razuvaev (Merkur) 
1. d2-d4 Ng8-f6 2. Bc1-g5 e7-e6 3. e2-e4 h7-h6 4. Bg5xf6 Qd8xf6
5. Nb1-c3 d7-d6 6. Qd1-d2 g7-g5 7. 0-0-0 a7-a6 8. g2-g3 Nb8-d7
9. f2-f4 Bf8-g7 10. Ng1-h3 Qf6-e7 11. Kc1-b1 b7-b5 12. Bf1-g2
Bc8-b7 13. e4-e5 0-0-0 14. a2-a3 b5-b4 15. Bg2xb7+ Kc8xb7 16.
Nc3-e4 d6xe5 17. f4xe5 Nd7xe5 18. Qd2-g2 Ne5-c6 19. Ne4-c5+
Kb7-b6 20. Qg2-e2 Rd8xd4 21. Qe2xa6+ Kb6xc5 (See Diagram)
22. Nh3-f2 Rh8-b8 23. Rd1xd4 Bg7xd4 24. Nf2-e4+ Kc5-d5 25.
Rh1-e1 f7-f5 26. Ne4-d2 Qe7-c5 27. Qa6-e2 e6-e5 28. g3-g4
Nc6-a5 29. Qe2-f3+ Kd5-d6 30. g4xf5 Qc5-d5 31. Qf3-e2 Kd6-d7
32. f5-f6 Rb8-f8 33. Re1-f1 Na5-b7 34. Qe2-h5 Rf8-f7 35. Qh5xh6
Qd5-g2 36. Qh6-g6 Nb7-d6 37. Qg6-d3 Qg2xh2 38. c2-c3 b4xc3
39. b2xc3 Bd4-b6 40. Nd2-c4 Qh2-h7 41. Qd3xh7 Rf7xh7 42.
Nc4xd6 Rh7-h8 43. Nd6-f7 Rh8-b8 44. Kb1-c2 Bb6-e3 45.
Nf7xe5+ Kd7-e6 46. Ne5-c6 Draw

White: Chernin (Merkur) Black: Van der Wiel (Panfox) 
1. Ng1-f3 d7-d6 2. g2-g3 e7-e5 3. Bf1-g2 f7-f5 4. c2-c4 Ng8-f6 5.
b2-b4 e5-e4 6. Nf3-d4 d6-d5 7. c4xd5 Nf6xd5 8. b4-b5 Nd5-f4 9.
g3xf4 Qd8xd4 10. Nb1-c3 Bf8-c5 11. e2-e3 Qd4-c4 This looks
nice for black but his queen is getting on the wrong track.12.
Bc1-b2 0-0 13. Rh1-g1 Rf8-f7 14. Ra1-c1 Qc4-b4 15. Qd1-c2
Bc5-d6 16. Nc3-d5 Qb4xb5 (See Diagram) 17. Nd5-f6+ Kg8-h8
18. Bg2-f1 Qb5xb2 Things have gone wrong for black surprisingly
fast. After e.g. 18...Qa5 19. Qb3 his position falls apart. 19.
Qc2xb2 Rf7xf6 20. Qb2xf6 Not necessary, but a nice way to finish
the game. 20...g7xf6 21. Bf1-c4 Bc8-e6 22. Bc4xe6 Nb8-a6 23.
Ke1-e2 Na6-c5 24. Be6xf5 Ra8-d8 25. Rg1-g3 Black resigned.

This column first appeared in the Dutch newspaper
"NRC-Handelsblad" September 27, 1997. Copyright 1997 Hans
Ree, All Rights Reserved.