Georgics

George Osborne is a supporter of chess. During the award ceremony at 11 Downing St for last year’s London Candidates’ tournament, he told me that as a teenager he attended the Kasparov v. Karpov world championship at London’s Park Lane Hotel in 1986, which I assisted in organising. Appropriately, the Tory party chairman Sir Jeremy Hanley had persuaded Margaret Thatcher to open the championship. ‘Why on earth should I want to open a chess match?’ she asked. ‘Because,’ Sir Jeremy replied, ‘they are crazy about chess in the USSR and you will be on the front pages of all their papers the day after.’ ‘So how can I resist?’ came the prime ministerial reply.
 
Magnus Carlsen, Viswanathan Anand and others v. Nigel Short, George Osborne and others: Consultation Game, Simpson’s-in-the-Strand, London 2012; Alekhine’s Defence
 
1 e4 Nf6 Alekhine’s defence is a favourite of Nigel Short. It is a provocative counterattack, difficult to face in a simultaneous display.