HCC vs The "Chessmater"
Blitz match - HCC vs. the "Chessmaster"

On Monday, October 5, 1998, four representatives from the Harvard Chess Club came to the Au Bon Pan in Harvard Square to participate in a blitz match against the self-proclaimed "Chessmaster", Murray Turnbull. The idea for the match was proposed by the Crimson, and due to extremely short notice about the match, Harvard was unable to send more representatives. The four representatives were former HCC president Chris Chabris '88, former Yale(!) chess club president, and current Harvard head tutor of economics Andrew Metrick, faculty advisor Noam Elkies, and the current HCC president Woody McClelland '00. Each representative played one blitz match (5 minutes for each side) against Turnbull (after, of course, Andrew paid him $10 for the time committment to the match). Chris started game one with the Black pieces using the Classical Defense (3...Bc5) against Turnbull's Ruy Lopez, and with extremely energetic play, won a pawn very early in the game. He then finished the game with the same energy, giving Harvard a 1-0 lead in the match.

Next up was Andrew, who had the White pieces, and was able to build up a dominating space advantage, which led to a powerful assault on the kingside. Unfortunately, he missed some good continuations, enabling Turnbull to trade off pieces, stop the attack, and get into an ending where Andrew's pawns were simply too weak to be defended. Murray then finished accurately, tying the match at 1-1.

In the third game, Noam had the Black pieces, and Turnbull once again played the Ruy, but this time with Murray playing an Anti-Marshall line with 8. a4. Noam seemed cramped throughout the game, and this showed most on the clock, as he fell behind several minutes trying to find ways to come up with counterplay. In the end, he was forced to lose a pawn, and his flag fell during the pawn-down ending. This gave Murray a 2-1 lead with one game to go, ensuring him at least a draw of the match.

In the final game (moves shown below), Woody had White against Turnbull, and the game turned into a strange Closed Sicilian structure, with Black castling queenside, and White castling kingside. Turnbull missed the opportunity to trade pieces in the middlegame, which allowed Woody to mount an assault on the queenside which ultimately proved decisive. With this result, the match ended tied at 2-2.

White: LM Woody McClelland (2311)
Black: NM Murray Turnbull (est. 2250)
Closed Sicilian

1. e4 c5 2. Nc3 Nc6 3. g3 g6 4. Bg2 Bg7 5. d3 e5 6. Be3 d6 7. Qd2 Be6 8. f4 Qd7 9. Nf3 h6 10. 0-0 Nge7 11. a3 0-0-0 12. Rb1 exf4 13. gxf4 f5 14. b4 fxe4 15. dxe4 cxb4 16. axb4 d5 17. b5 d4 18. bxc6 Nxc6 19. Nxd4 Nxd4 20. e5 Nc6 21. Qf2 g5 22. Nb5 Na5 23. Nxa7+ Kb8 24. Bb6 Qa4 25. Bxa5 Qxa5 26. Rxb7+ Ka8 27. Rb5+ Bd5 28. Rxa5 Black resigns (1-0)

I would personally like to thank everyone who participated in this match, and I hope that it can be done again sometime. I would also like to thank Annie Zaleski, who took pictures, arranged for Turnbull to come, and wrote the article about the match. My apologies to those who were unable to play due to the short notice; this match will be better organized the next time it is done. An article was written about the match on the October 8th issue of FM magazine (which comes with the Crimson) if you want to check it out. So long for now!

Summary provided by Woody McClelland '00

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