The GLC Chess Challenge was the fourth and last in the biannual series of tournaments which started with the Phillips & Drew Kings (1980). The Phillips & Drew company had pulled out as a sponsor and the tournament was bankrolled mainly by the Greater London Council (GLC). The GLC itself ceased to exist on 31 March 1986, so the venue had been moved from the County Hall to the Hamilton Room of the Great Eastern Hotel, near Liverpool Street station. The dynamic tournament directors under these circumstances were Raymond Keene and Stewart Reuben. The two had reserved a place for 1982 and 1984 winner Anatoly Karpov, but he preferred to play in SWIFT Brussels (1986) that began on March 23. Iossif Dorfman agreed to take his place, but then he too pulled out. Glenn Flear, an IM at the time, given a few days notice was asked to play. Flear agreed provided he could have Saturday March 22 off, as he was getting married then to Christine Flear, the French women's champion. Which was accepted: "We'll adjust the timetable." The Round 9 game G Flear vs Plaskett, 1986 was played one week earlier on Saturday March 15. There was no play on March 16 either as many of the contestants had to fly to Germany for the Bundesliga penultimate round.
Another distraction was that Short had a TV appearance planned for March 19. If his game vs Portisch ran on late, he would miss meeting fellow guest Samantha Fox. He reached liquidation in 34 moves, and this was apparently joked about in the bulletin (which was edited by William Watson and Richard W O'Brien). Yet the great feature of the event was Flear's success. The IM from Leicester lost only one game, played seven draws against the stars, defeated top seed Vaganian and four others, and reached his GM norm with two rounds to spare. He won the £5,000 first prize, and being the next to lowest rated player he also picked up a £400 rating prize. It was the biggest upset since Harry Pillsbury won at Hastings (1895), and a hint of what love can do. The brilliancy price of £1000 went to Chandler for Chandler vs Vaganian, 1986. Plaskett should have had a prize too, if he did not have one, for his 13 decisive games.
Great Eastern Hotel, London, England, 11-27 March 1986
Age Elo 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 Price
1 IM Flear 27 2485 * ½ ½ ½ ½ 0 ½ ½ 1 1 ½ 1 1 1 8½ £5000
2 GM Chandler 25 2535 ½ * 1 ½ ½ ½ 0 ½ ½ 1 1 0 1 1 8 £2500
3 GM Short 20 2585 ½ 0 * ½ ½ 1 ½ ½ ½ ½ 1 1 ½ 1 8 £2500
4 GM Nunn 30 2585 ½ ½ ½ * ½ ½ 0 ½ ½ 1 0 1 1 1 7½ £1250
5 GM Ribli 34 2585 ½ ½ ½ ½ * ½ ½ ½ ½ ½ ½ 1 ½ 1 7½ £1250
6 GM Polugaevsky 51 2575 1 ½ 0 ½ ½ * ½ ½ ½ ½ 1 0 1 ½ 7 £700
7 GM Portisch 48 2610 ½ 1 ½ 1 ½ ½ * ½ ½ ½ 0 1 ½ 0 7 £700
8 GM Spassky 49 2610 ½ ½ ½ ½ ½ ½ ½ * ½ ½ ½ 1 ½ ½ 7 £700
9 GM Speelman 29 2560 0 ½ ½ ½ ½ ½ ½ ½ * 0 ½ 1 ½ ½ 6 £450
10 GM Vaganian 34 2645 0 0 ½ 0 ½ ½ ½ ½ 1 * ½ 0 1 1 6 £450
11 GM Larsen 51 2575 ½ 0 0 1 ½ 0 1 ½ ½ ½ * 0 1 0 5½ £350
12 GM Plaskett 26 2435 0 1 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 1 1 * 0 1 5 £300
13 IM Dlugy 20 2545 0 0 ½ 0 ½ 0 ½ ½ ½ 0 0 1 * ½ 4 £225
14 GM Mestel 29 2525 0 0 0 0 0 ½ 1 ½ ½ 0 1 0 ½ * 4 £225
Category: XIII (2561). Chief arbiter: Robert Wade, assisted by Les Blackstock.
Sources
Wikipedia article: Phillips %26 Drew Kings
Wikipedia article: Great Eastern Hotel, London
CHESS magazine, April 1986 p. 29 and May 1986 pp. 60-65.
FIDE rating list January 1986 (https://web.archive.org/web/2022100...)
Jaque 196, 15 May 1986, pp. 258-260 (https://www.olimpbase.org/leagueES/...)
British Chess Magazine, pp. 178-179 (http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_klxcwTbD0...)
Robert Byrne in The New York Times, 20 May 1986 (https://www.nytimes.com/1986/05/20/...)
Chess in the Attic, March 1986 by Roger H Coathup. In Chess Tales, 15 May 2007
(http://chesstales.blogspot.com/2007...)
Previous edition: Phillips & Drew GLC Kings (1984)
Original collection: Game Collection: GLC Chess Challenge 1986 by User: Tabanus. Thanks to User: Paint My Dragon and User: Sally Simpson for help with the sources and the English. Round dates (March 11, 12, 13, 14, 17, 18, 19, 20, 22, 23, 24, 25, 27) are from CHESS magazine.
Kibitzing
