1977 'Lloyds Bank' Clock Simul: Karpov vs England Under-17s, Londoner Hotel, Leicester Square, London, 14 August

1977 Karpov Clock Simul		Age	School	Grade	Colour	Result
1	Nigel D Short	12	Bolton School	202/2216	w	0
2	Julian M Hodgson	14	St Paul's, London	198/2184	b	0
3	David H Cummings	16	Varndean, Brighton	197/2176	w	0
4	Nicholas R Benjamin	16	St Paul's, London	191/2128	b	0
5	Nicholas W Ivell	15	Arnold Sch., Blackpool	190/2120	w	0
6	William N Watson	15	St Paul's, London	188/2104	b	0
7	Daniel J King	13	Langley Park	187/2096	w	0
8	Richard M Webb	15	Forest of Needwood	185/2080	b	0
9	Tony M Williams	16	Clark's Grammar, Guildford	185/2080	w	½
10	Richard F Holmes	15	St Paul's, London	181/2048	b	0
Final score: Karpov 9½-½ England Under-17s
Time Limit: 40 moves in 2 hours

Front cover of CHESS, August 1977, Vol.42/775-6

Participants in the Karpov simul: standing, left to right, Nick Ivell, William Watson, Julian Hodgson, David Cummings (obscured), Daniel King,
Nick Benjamin (obscured), Richard Webb (obscured), Anatoly Karpov, Richard Holmes, Tony Williams. Seated: Nigel Short.
Photo colourised by John Saunders.

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BCM, October 1977, ppn 470-472

Karpov beats the Kiddies ... THE LLOYDS BANK JUNIOR INTERNATIONAL by W.R.Hartston

The Londoner Hotel was the scene of an entertaining and unusual chess event on August 14th. Taking advantage of the presence of the World Champion in England, for the BBC 2 Mastergame series, Leonard Barden's organisational expertise together with Lloyd's Bank's sponsorship combined to produce a simultaneous display on ten boards with clocks: Anatoly Karpov facing ten of England's most promising young players. The games were played at a rate of 40 moves in 2 hours and after just four hours play, resulted in a 9½-½ victory for the World Champion.

Why such a bad result for the juniors after their many recent successes? I think that two features of the play noticeably contributed to Karpov's big score. Firstly, the took the event very seriously, playing the same opening systems and risk-free style that characterise his 'real' games, without succumbing to the temptation to experiment or play light-heartedly. Secondly, it seemed to me that the juniors were (understandably) overawed by the occasion. They tended to play far too slowly in the openings, and showed little confidence in critical positions. One of the players spending 1 hour 25 minutes on the first ten moves suggests that he was mesmerised, though doubtless he and the others will all have benefited from the experience.

The one draw was not especially exciting, so I give a couple of Karpov wins which illustrate well the type of chess he produced. [Karpov 1-0 Hodgson annotated]

Karpov was more impressive in the game on board eight: [Karpov 1-0 Webb unannotated]

Despite the result the event proved very successful and attracted about 250 spectators. Karpov passed some complimentary remarks about the relative strengths of English and Soviet young players, and finished by awarding Tony Williams the Lloyd's Bank Junior Trophy for the best game by an English player.

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GM Daniel King on his endgame vs Karpov (YouTube video)

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File Updated

Date	Notes
8 July 2000	10 games posted as a zipped PGN file.
1 January 2026	Added table of results and images.