By Olly Godkin

After 5 weeks of some brilliant, textbook chess playing – and a good deal of somewhat less textbook chessplaying- the ultimate climax of the greatest RGS chess fixture of the year has been played. With 99 players initially taking part, the Senior RGChess finale had been narrowed down to Magnus “Carlsen” Borissow and James “The Deadly” Dicker.

Both put in strong performances with Magnus seeing off strong competition from the likes of Oscar Trott and Sam Alford in the qualifying rounds. But it was James’s superb win against bookie’s favourite Stuart Brown that cemented the line-up for the RGChess grand finale.

The 1509 caught up with both contestants before the match started to gauge the levels of preparation and their thoughts on the day ahead.

1509: Have you prepared any particular openings that you feel will give you the edge today?

Magnus: I’ve done a bit of preparation, but really, I just want a position.

1509: What do you think is your one weakness?

Magnus: I’ve got a lotta weaknesses, everyone.  

1509: What’s James’s one weakness?

Magnus: I mean like, his opening, his middle gameplay is a bit shaky, endgames – he always finds a way to lose them. Apart from that he’s solid!

1509: That’s fighting talk from you Magnus! James, have you any thoughts on the match ahead?

James: There’s no pressure on me really, all the pressure is on Magnus, and well I am the underdog.

After the contestants left JBS07 to go play in a secretive hidden bunker away from prying eyes (also known as JBF09), the game was streamed live on chess.com in JBS07 for all to watch. The room was packed full of RGChess fanatics, easily over 70 of them, crammed in like sardines in a tin to witness this monumental event. “The atmosphere was buzzing”, said one fan in the Lower 6^th, while another said, “I’ve never seen this kind of electric atmosphere”.

After a slight technical hitch with the livestream of the game on chess.com, the contestants were ready to duke it out in the chess game of a lifetime, with James as white, and Magnus as black.

James opened with a strong Grand Prix, countered by Magnus’s Sicilian defence. As the game progressed, even more people arrived to spectate the game of a century. By the time the middlegame came around, it was a draw on material, but James certainly had a stronger pawn structure, occupying the centre of the board, while Magnus had a fortress of pawns, a rook and his bishop all surrounding his king thanks to some clever castling. Neither player was yet to move their respective queens into the foray, but it was still all to play for.

The room became even further packed, as both players brought their queens out to threaten the centre of the board, but Magnus’s pawn structure was certainly lacking in comparison to James’s, although his dark squared bishop was limited in its use as James seemed to think it was just there to act as a spare pawn, holding together his control of the board. Magnus had to keep his pieces on the board at all costs if he wanted to win this game.

With Mr Foster providing in depth riveting analysis, the game was unrelenting, with back-and-forth trading of rooks, but it was knight h1 from white that swung the game towards black. With the clock continuing to count down, as the game reached the 20-minute mark, everyone began to wonder, what time were the contestants’ clocks on?

Magnus continued to press his advantage, kicking the door in of James’s pawn structure with rook b3, and cleverly evading James’s knightly counter-attack. As the pieces danced across the board, everyone waited with baited breath to see who would come out on top. The final move of the game was from Magnus, bishop f8, as afterwards, a single Microsoft Teams message sprang up onto the screen from the board referee, Dr Jackson – “James has lost on time”.

Meaning Magnus Borissow is crowned the undisputed king of RGChess 2023.

Mr Foster described the game as a “positional bind for James, which he struggled to escape from”, while Magnus himself later went on to say that “James played his best given the tough position he faced”.

And so concludes the senior round of this years competition, many thanks to Mr Hadley and the chess team for supervising countless matches and organising the highlight of the world chess calendar that is RGChess.