Chess: When chess pulled the crowds; By SPENCER TILBROOK

Huddersfield Daily Examiner (Huddersfield, England), Jan 16, 2008

ANYONE who doubts chess's ability to both captivate and animate an audience should have been present at this month's York Congress.

A particularly engrossing game in the Open section reached its climax in the penultimate round and, as word passed round the leisure centre staging the Congress, more and more people were drawn back into the main hall to witness the event.

By the time White made what proved to be his final move - its threat was such, mate next move, that Black was forced to resign - a crowd of several dozen thronged the area.

And we were all moved to break into spontaneous applause, such was the quality of play we had witnessed.

You will no doubt be pondering the nature of the victory, imagining it to have been the result of an amazingly brave and imaginatively conceived attack or perhaps a win against the odds by a much lower graded player.

What we were acknowledging, in fact, was a combination of skill and perseverance.

For White had managed to effect a mate with Bishop and Knight against a denuded King.

Anyone with a small bit of knowledge of chess will know that a two-piece advantage should be enough to allow a lowly wood pusher to beat even a grandmaster.

But anyone with an extensive knowledge of the game will know that Bishop and Knight v Lone King is arguably the most difficult ending to conclude.

So much so that renowned American chess author Jeremy Silman, in his excellent Complete Endgame Course, explains that he left out this endgame, among others, because it occurs so rarely and feels the two or three hours it takes to learn would be better spent in other directions.

So, to find the solution over the board was an act worthy of an ovation - although the handful of players still immersed in their own endgames were probably not appreciative of that fact.