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TOURNAMENT STANDINGS
GLC Chess Challenge Tournament

Glenn Flear8.5/13(+5 -1 =7)[games]
Murray Chandler8/13(+5 -2 =6)[games]
Nigel Short8/13(+4 -1 =8)[games]
John Nunn7.5/13(+4 -2 =7)[games]
Zoltan Ribli7.5/13(+2 -0 =11)[games]
Lev Polugaevsky7/13(+3 -2 =8)[games]
Lajos Portisch7/13(+3 -2 =8)[games]
Boris Spassky7/13(+1 -0 =12)[games]
Jonathan Speelman6/13(+1 -2 =10)[games]
Rafael Vaganian6/13(+3 -4 =6)[games]
Bent Larsen5.5/13(+3 -5 =5)[games]
Harold James Plaskett5/13(+5 -8 =0)[games]
Maxim Dlugy4/13(+1 -6 =6)[games]
Andrew Jonathan Mestel4/13(+2 -7 =4)[games]
*

Chessgames.com Chess Event Description
GLC Chess Challenge (1986)

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 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 N 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 Nelson 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 (http://www.olimpbase.org/Elo/Elo198...)
Jaque 196, 15 May 1986, pp. 258-260 (http://www.bartelski.pl/olimpbase/l...)
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.

 page 1 of 4; games 1-25 of 91  PGN Download
Game  ResultMoves YearEvent/LocaleOpening
1. Polugaevsky vs Ribli  ½-½221986GLC Chess ChallengeD18 Queen's Gambit Declined Slav, Dutch
2. Larsen vs Speelman  ½-½321986GLC Chess ChallengeB11 Caro-Kann, Two Knights, 3...Bg4
3. Portisch vs A J Mestel 0-1421986GLC Chess ChallengeE81 King's Indian, Samisch
4. Short vs Plaskett 1-0391986GLC Chess ChallengeC42 Petrov Defense
5. Nunn vs Spassky  ½-½161986GLC Chess ChallengeC71 Ruy Lopez
6. Dlugy vs G Flear 0-1671986GLC Chess ChallengeE04 Catalan, Open, 5.Nf3
7. Chandler vs Vaganian 1-0371986GLC Chess ChallengeC18 French, Winawer
8. Speelman vs Nunn  ½-½161986GLC Chess ChallengeD78 Neo-Grunfeld, 6.O-O c6
9. A J Mestel vs Polugaevsky ½-½421986GLC Chess ChallengeB90 Sicilian, Najdorf
10. Vaganian vs Ribli  ½-½131986GLC Chess ChallengeD44 Queen's Gambit Declined Semi-Slav
11. Spassky vs Dlugy ½-½211986GLC Chess ChallengeB17 Caro-Kann, Steinitz Variation
12. G Flear vs Portisch  ½-½551986GLC Chess ChallengeE00 Queen's Pawn Game
13. Chandler vs Short 1-0581986GLC Chess ChallengeC01 French, Exchange
14. Plaskett vs Larsen 1-0391986GLC Chess ChallengeB30 Sicilian
15. Nunn vs Plaskett 1-0261986GLC Chess ChallengeC42 Petrov Defense
16. Short vs Vaganian  ½-½191986GLC Chess ChallengeC07 French, Tarrasch
17. Larsen vs Chandler 0-1461986GLC Chess ChallengeA20 English
18. Dlugy vs Speelman  ½-½251986GLC Chess ChallengeE06 Catalan, Closed, 5.Nf3
19. Polugaevsky vs G Flear 1-0311986GLC Chess ChallengeD44 Queen's Gambit Declined Semi-Slav
20. Portisch vs Spassky  ½-½361986GLC Chess ChallengeD55 Queen's Gambit Declined
21. Ribli vs A J Mestel  1-0291986GLC Chess ChallengeA88 Dutch, Leningrad, Main Variation with c6
22. Plaskett vs Dlugy  0-1301986GLC Chess ChallengeB17 Caro-Kann, Steinitz Variation
23. Spassky vs Polugaevsky  ½-½141986GLC Chess ChallengeE11 Bogo-Indian Defense
24. Vaganian vs A J Mestel  1-0281986GLC Chess ChallengeE66 King's Indian, Fianchetto, Yugoslav Panno
25. G Flear vs Ribli  ½-½101986GLC Chess ChallengeE00 Queen's Pawn Game
 page 1 of 4; games 1-25 of 91  PGN Download
  REFINE SEARCH:   White wins (1-0) | Black wins (0-1) | Draws (1/2-1/2)  

Kibitzer's Corner
Jun-26-19
Premium Chessgames Member
  GrahamClayton: Still one of the biggest upset wins in international tournament history.
Dec-01-19  spingo: Aside from Flear's result, which I believe coincided with his marriage, Plaskett's performance was considered unusual by the chess press. Thirteen games, +5 -8 and no draws. The kind of results people had 100 years earlier.

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