The oldest chess fixture

Today, hosted by London’s Royal Automobile Club, the world’s longest established chess fixture will continue into its third century. Cambridge University now leads by the narrowest of margins (60 wins to 59) against Oxford, and if the latter triumph in today’s annual clash, then the scores will be equalised.

In this column I preview the contest, and profusely thank Stephen Meyler of the RAC for giving me access to the official advance information on what is the undoubted highlight of the British social chess calendar.

The idea of a regular chess match between Oxford and Cambridge Universities was first suggested in 1853 by Howard Staunton.

In 1871 the Oxford University Chess Club challenged Cambridge to a match but at that time, the Cambridge Club was reserved exclusively for dons, who refused the challenge from the undergraduates. Not until 28 March 1873 did the first official over-the-board Varsity Match take place at the City of London Chess Club. Since then it has become the oldest continuous fixture in world chess, interrupted only by the war years. The winning team is awarded, to hold for a year, a handsome gold cup presented in 1953 by Miss Margaret Pugh.

A women’s board was introduced in 1978 to determine the result in the event of a drawn match. However, since 1982 the matches have comprised eight boards, with at least one female player in each team, the board ranking being determined solely by playing strength.

To emphasise the undergraduate nature of the competition, all players must be resident bona fide students of the universities with at least three members of each team studying for a first degree.

In the 20th century it is remarkable how many British Champions had played in the Varsity Match. In addition to those named below, Henry Atkins, William Winter, Alan Phillips and Hugh Alexander played for Cambridge, while Leonard Barden and Peter Lee played for Oxford. A feature of recent years has been the increasingly international nature of the teams.

Looking at the history of the match, Cambridge retained the lead in the series until 1956 when Oxford won 4–3, Henry Mutkin winning on board three for Oxford. Then Oxford went ahead until 1970 when Cambridge, perhaps inspired by the presence of myself and Bill Hartston, began a remarkable run of 11 straight victories. In their wake came a procession of first-class Cambridge players, including Welsh champions Howard Williams and John Cooper, GMs Michael Stean and Jonathan Mestel and IMs Paul Littlewood and Shaun Taulbut. Although Oxford had its stars too (GMs Jon Speelman, John Nunn and Peter Markland together with IMs Andrew Whiteley and George Botterill), Cambridge had greater strength in the lower boards.

However, in 1981 the tide turned and Oxford, with GMs William Watson, Jonathan Levitt, Colin McNab, David Norwood, Peter Wells, James Howell and Dharshan Kumaran, reinforced by IMs David Goodman, David Cummings, Ken Regan, Geoff Lawton and Stuart Rachels, achieved a run of eight consecutive victories.

In the 2019 match the Chinese GM and four-times Women’s World Chess Champion Hou Yifan played for Oxford on board one. She is a chess prodigy and the youngest female player ever to qualify for the title of Grandmaster ( GM) and the youngest ever to win the Women’s World Chess Championship.

In 1973 the event was held for the first time at the clubhouse of the Royal Automobile Club in Pall Mall, London for the Centenary match. By invitation of the Royal Automobile Club Chess Circle Committee, the match has been played at this ideal venue every year since 1978.

2025 Varsity Chess Match

Match Pairings

                                           OXFORD                                         CAMBRIDGE

Board one:                      Tom O’Gorman             vs.         Alex Leslie

Board two:                      Dan Gallagher (c)          vs.         Freddie Hand

Board three:                   Ashvin Sivakumar         vs.         Cameron Goh

Board four:                     Aron Saunders              vs.         Remy Rushbrooke

Board five:                      Thrish Karthik                vs.         Ranesh Ratnesan (c)

Board six:                        Jem Gurner                     vs.         Sacha Brozel

Board seven:                  Connor Clarke               vs,         Julia Volovich

Board eight:                   Imogen Camp                vs.         Ilya Misyura

(C) stands for team captain.

My own record for Cambridge in the Varsity match (mainly playing on board one) consisted of three wins and one draw with no losses. The game which I have chosen this week was the most impressive I witnessed during my time representing the light blues.

Martyn J Corden vs. Arthur Howard Williams

Varsity Cambridge-Oxford, 1970, Cambridge, board 2

1.e4 Nf6 2. Nc3?!

This move will hardly have struck fear into the mind of his opponent. Although Kamsky and Gashimov have ventured this variation, 2. e5 is essentially mandatory if White wishes to test the Black defence, a provocative line championed eponymously by Alexander Alekhine.  

2… d5 3. e5 d4 4. exf6 dxc3 5. bxc3 exf6 6. Nf3 Bd6 7. d4 O-O 8. Bd3!? TN

A more modern game, Sieiro Gonzalez-Almeida Quintana, Santa Clara, 2005, varied with 8. Be2. However, when the move was submitted to our engine, it somewhat surprisingly came back with the text move as its top recommendation.

8… Re8+ 9. Be3 Bg4 10. O-O c6 11. h3 Bh5 12. c4 Nd7 13. c5 Bc7 14. g4 Bg6 15. Nh4 b6 16. cxb6 Nxb6 17. Nxg6 hxg6 18. Kg2?

White should take prophylactic action against Black’s next with 18. Qf3 or Re1, which adds a necessary layer of essential defence around what is about to transpire.

18… Qd6!!

And now the threat becomes fully evident. White cannot simultaneously counter the double attack on h2 with mate and, after the exchange sacrifice with 20… Rxe3, the almost equally vulnerable g3 square.

19.Rh1

Nor does 19. Rg1 fare any better, for example: 19… Qh2+ 20. Kf1 Qxh3+ 21. Rg2 Rxe3 22. fxe3 Nd5 23. Qd2 Nxe3+ 24. Kg1 Bb6 25. Be4 Rd8 26. c3 Nxg2, and Black is winning.

19… Rxe3 20. fxe3 Qg3+ 21. Kf1 Nd5 22. Qe1 Nxe3+ 23. Ke2 Qd6 24. Qf2?

Disastrous! While White has to come to terms with the terminal decline of his position, there is no reason to refuse material when it is on offer. After all, 24. Kxe3 Qf4+ 25. Ke2 Re8+ 26. Kd1 Rxe1+ 27. Rxe1, is no less horrid than what is coming down the line.

24… Re8 25. Qxe3 Rxe3+ 26. Kxe3 Qg3+ 27. Kd2 Ba5+ 28. c3 Qf2+ White resigns 0-1

For the record:

29. Be2 Qxd4+ 30. Ke1 Qf4 31. Bd3 Bxc3+ 32. Ke2 Qd2+ 33. Kf3 Qxd3+ 34. Kf2 Bd4+ 35. Ke1 Qg3+ (35… Qe3+ 36. Kd1 Qf3+ 37. Kc1 Qf2 38. a3 Bc3 39. Rh2 Qxh2 40. Ra2 Qxa2 41. g5 Qd2+ 42. Kb1 Qb2#) 36. Kd1 Qf3+ 37. Kc1 Qf2 38. a3 Bc3 39. Rh2 Qxh2 40. Ra2 Qxa2 41. g5 Qd2+ 42. Kb1 Qb2#

Ray’s 206th book, “  Chess in the Year of the King  ”, written in collaboration with Adam Black, and his 207th, “  Napoleon and Goethe: The Touchstone of Genius  ” (which discusses their relationship with chess) can be ordered from both Amazon and Blackwells. His 208th, the world record for chess books, written jointly with chess playing artist Barry Martin,  Chess through the Looking Glass ,  is now available from Amazon. 

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