Tuesday, December 17

Shories defeats Yates in exhibition game

In an exhibition game held yesterday under the auspices of the Bradford Chess Club George Shories defeated British Champion F.D. Yates in a long and well-contested Ruy Lopez, the opening having been chosen for the occasion by the sponsors of the event. Shories, with the move, opted for the 6.Qe2 variation after the usual 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 a6 4.Ba4 Nf6 5.0-0 Be7, and later, in a maneuvering struggle, worked gradually to bring his pieces to bear on the Black King-side.  Yates defended ably, though after White's 39.Qh4 the need to guard against the possibility of a sacrifice by the White Rook on g6 rather limited the avenues of action open to the second player.  An attractive passage of play between the 47th and 52nd moves left Black with an extra exchange, for which White held three dangerous pawns as compensation.  Shories with some further accurate play succeeded in bringing about a position in which Yates found himself unable to prevent the further advance of the White pawn mass, and the British Champion duly resigned a short time later.

This victory is sure to be a sweet one for Shories, who lost an earlier match to Yates, also held at Bradford, by the score of 4-0 in 1910, shortly before the latter made his international debut at the Hamburg tournament.  We have heard that there is talk of staging two further exhibition games between the same players sometime after the first of the New Year, and will report on any such contests for which reports come to hand.

Herewith the score:

  

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