Blues in balance — and a heroine of chess

The 141st Varsity chess match between the teams of Oxford and Cambridge Universities, held at London’s Royal Automobile Club on March 04 , ended, after multifarious vicissitudes, in an honourable 4-4 draw. Cambridge thus stemmed Oxford’s recent advances to retain their overall lead, by 60 wins to 58, with 23 drawn.

The most brilliant game was won by Daniel Gallagher against the Oxford captain, Max French. The prize, a Barry Martin portrait of two times match sponsor, and inventor of Mind Maps, Tony Buzan, was determined by a Committee of three, composed of myself, Grandmaster Jon Speelman and the indefatigable match commentator, Grandmaster Matthew Sadler. Barry himself, perhaps the world’s strongest chess playing artist, is himself a former sponsor. The role of ceremonial orator was assumed by our Editor at TheArticle, Daniel Johnson, while distinguished guests included the chess historian Richard Eales and the 1965 British champion, Peter Lee, who represented Oxford while still champion in the (also drawn) contest of 1966. During the course of that pre Cretaceous competition Lee won the following dramatic game against two times future British champion, Bill Hartston. 

The match was expertly organised by RAC stalwarts, Henry McWatters, Henry Mutkin (an Oxford veteran of the 1957 match) and Stephen Meyler, who together masterminded what is now well established, not just as the Boat Race of the Brain, but also the jewel in the crown of the UK annual social chess scene. I always feel flattered by Stephen’s description of our judging triumvirate as TWM, the Three Wise Men.

Arbiters were Matthew Carr and international superstar Shohreh Bayat. The story of how a woman from Iran came to referee that most quintessentially British chess function, and the oldest and longest running chess match in the world, is a fascinating one. In what follows I am largely indebted to information culled from the outstandingly informative RAC match programme.

In February 2020 Shohreh had been acting as the Chief Arbiter for the Women’s World Chess Championship, divided between Vladivostok and Shanghai and won by Ju Wenjun. By March of the same year, she was exiled from Iran and living in London. If a week is a long time in politics, a month can be a long time in chess!

I too have suffered from the regime change in Iran, which toppled the imperial Pahlavi dynasty. Back in the Cretaceous period I was chess tutor to the Imperial family, in the person of the Shah’s London dwelling nephew, Prince Bahman Pahlavi. My reward, apart from lunch with Marshal of the Iranian Air Force, the Shah’s imposing brother, was to be an imperial tour of Iran, including Tehran and Isfahan. Before I could claim my prize, the Shah had fallen and Ayatollah Khomeini had seized power. The Ayatollah was obviously not going to be sympathetic to any kind of tutors to the Imperial Court, least of all chess, which was borderline anathema to the strictest of Islamic theocrats.

Shohreh’s offence in the eyes of the Iranian theocracy was to display excessive visible hair, peeping out from under her hijab, while conducting her arbiting duties.

The RAC bulletin continues the story: “Having being ordered to cover-up – Shohreh did the opposite in defiance of the Ayatollahs and their repression of women. Shohreh’s stance meant that she would face arrest and imprisonment should she return to Iran and was forced to make the difficult decision to go into exile. Fortunately she found a warm welcome in the UK and officiated at the Varsity Match in Mach 2020, her first post-exile engagement. Since then, she has prospered as an international arbiter and campaigner for human rights.”

Unbelievably, things then got even worse for our heroine.

While officiating for FIDE, the world chess federation, as an arbiter at the 2022 Fischer Random World Championships, Shohreh decided to wear a shirt with the Iranian protest motto “Women, Life Freedom”. This provoked a rebuke from the Russian pro-Putin FIDÉ President, Arkady Dvorkovich, who ordered her to remove it. Shohreh demanded that this Ukase be presented to her in written form, but nothing materialised.

Next month Shoreh will be presented with the Women’s World Courage Award, at a ceremony in the White House, presented in person by the First Lady, Jill Biden.

Shoreh has also developed an alternative career, in the tradition of Grandmaster Aron Nimzowitsch, who lectured regularly in the 1920’s against the evils of Communism, and of former world chess champion, Garry Kasparov, who lectures and writes frequently against the evils of Putinism. In addition to her professional chess activities, Shohreh has become a speaker on matters Iranian and in particular women’s rights, whose services are very much in demand. In January of this year, Shohreh spoke at Oxford University and in February at Cambridge. In June she will be the Chief Arbiter of Norway Chess, which is likely to be the strongest tournament in the world this year.

I conclude with a ringing peroration from the RAC Bulletin: “Shohreh’s wish for Iran is – Iranian people are fighting for Human rights and that is why our motto is Women, Life, Freedom.  We call it the first woman-led revolution in the world, in which we are fighting for freedom, and democracy, because we don’t want Ayatollahs to treat us as second class citizens. I wish for freedom and democracy and to be able to see my parents again.”

With a deferential bow to the preceding Suffragette Movement (see Dr Di Atkinson’s excellent book) this is a sentiment with which this column, and I believe all three Wise Men, can most wholeheartedly concur.

Finally, practically an obituary; what we understand will be the last classical games that World Champion Magnus Carlsen will play while still in possession of that title. He will soon relinquish it to either Jan Nepomniachtchi or Ding Loren, as they play-off for the vacated crown of chess, and supplant Carlsen as the next official world champion.

Norway Clubs Championship:

Carlsen (Offerspill) vs. Tallaksen (Stavanger) Round 1

Carlsen (Offerspill) vs. Hammer (OSS) Round 2

Howell (Vålerenga) vs. Carlsen (Offerspill) Round 3

Raymond Keene’s latest book “Fifty Shades of Ray: Chess in the year of the Coronavirus”, containing some of his best pieces from TheArticle, is now available from  Blackwell’s . His 206th book, Chess in the Year of the King, with a foreword by The Article contributor Patrick Heren, and written in collaboration with former Reuters chess correspondent, Adam Black, is in preparation. It will be published later this year.  

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