BYRON JACOBS

The chess world was subject to an unusual flurry of media attention recently when eight-year-old David Howell became the youngest person ever to defeat a grandmaster in a formal competition. His victim was the highly respected (and very strong) grandmaster Dr John Nunn who, as well as being one of the foremost theoretical experts around, has also been ranked in the top 100 in the world for most of his career. The game was played at the Third Mind Sports Olympiad, a fine event which featured numerous different thinking activities and took place at the Olympia Conference Centre, London, in August. Among the many chess tournaments on offer were a powerful international event, various rapidplay competitions (30 minutes per player per game) and blitz competitions (5 minutes per player per game). It was in one of these blitz competitions on the final day that young David slew his Goliath.

It should be pointed out that although strong players can play to a very high standard in five-minute chess, it is also possible for them to make dreadful blunders. However, in the case of the Nunn-Howell game, this did not happen. Admittedly it is not a game that Nunn will want to show his grandchildren, but it did not feature any horrendous oversights. Nunn's major mistake against Howell, as he admitted, was simply to underestimate the opposition. He played far too passively and allowed his young opponent to develop a strong initiative which he quickly converted into an extra pawn and a winning endgame. In international football it has become something of a cliché to say that there are no easy matches any more. However, chess grandmasters should also be warned - there are no easy juniors any more, either.

Howell has a remarkably mature approach to chess positions. It is not unusual to find a junior who is highly adept at tactics, but the extraordinary feel for the game that Howell demonstrates is normally only something that develops with many years' experience. Here are two extracts from recent games by him. First, the historic win against Nunn.