Steve Giddins reports from
Liverpool
Greetings from St George's Hall, Liverpool, where the
city's 2008 week started two days ago - appropriately
perhaps, on Monday 3 September, "the day war broke out",
as legendary Northern comic Rob Wilton used to say.
Communications have been somewhat delayed, as your
correspondent was delayed at another tournament, and
only arrived in Liverpool late last night. However, from
this point on, there will be daily reports on each round
of the UK-China match, which should be available before
the start of the following day's round. In preparing
these reports, I am delighted to have analytical
assistance from Jon Speelman, who is captaining the
England team and sharing with me his insights into the
games. In addition to the main reports, the games of the
Open section will be posted on this site each evening.
The main
event of the week, the UK- China match, got underway
yesterday. Each team consists of four boards, plus two
junior boards and two ladies boards. On paper, the two
sides are fairly evenly matched in rating terms, but the
Chinese team probably start as slight favourities,
thanks to their greater youth and the fact that they
have just come from a highly successful trouncing of the
Russian team, in a similar match played in Nizhny
Novgorod.
Round
one saw the Chinese visitors get off to a splendid
start, winning three games to England's one, with four
draws. On top board, Mickey Adams worked up some
advantage as Black against Wang Yue, but looks to have
missed an opportunity late in the game.
Here,
play continued 27...Qc6 28.Nd2 Ne5 29.Nf3 Nc4 30.Nd2
Ne5 ½–½ However, 27...Bb1! looks extremely
strong, eg. 28.Ra1 (28.Ng5 Qe5) 28...Rb2 29.Qd1
Be4, with a large advantage.
On board
two, Nigel Short went down to Wang Hao, in an
excellently-played game by the latter. After trading in
his early attacking chances for a favourable ending, the
Chinese GM steered the game into the following position:
Nigel
now played 41...Nxb4? after which he appears
definitely to be lost. However, the alternatives
are also grim. 41...Rb5 42.Nb6+ Kc7 43.Rc4 produces a
zugzwang; since 43...Kb7 44 Nd5 forces Black to move the
knight and allow White's rook to penetrate. Similarly,
41...Rh8 loses a piece after 42.b5! axb5 43.a6, when the
a-pawn costs Black a knight, in view of the fact that
43..Ra8 is not possible. Passing with 41...Rb7 may be
relatively best, but even then, 42.Nb6+ Kc7 43.Rh1 h4
44.gxh4 gxh4 45.Rc1 leaves White with a large advantage.
After Short's choice, the game continued 42.Rc7+ Ke8
43.Ne3!! when the black knight is stranded, whilst
white's steed is on its way to c4 and d6. 43...Nd3
44.Nc4 Rd8 45.Rc6 d5 46.Nd6+ Kf8 46...Kd7 47.Nxf7
Kxc6 (47...Rf8 48.Rd6+ Ke8 49.Nxg5) 48.Nxd8+ Kd7
49.f7 Ke7 50.exd5 is also decisive.
47.Rc7! d4 48.Rxf7+ Kg8
49.Rg7+ Kf8 50.Rf7+ Kg8 51.Rg7+ Kf8 52.Nf5 Rb8 53.Nh6
Rb2+ 54.Kf1 1–0
Rowson-Pengxiang was an example of just how much one can
get away with on the chessboard.
Here,
Peng continued 9...exd4!? 10.0–0 dxe3!?. It seems
extraordinary that Black should be able to do this with
his queen on e7, but there seems to be no clear way to
capitalise, since both 11.Bb2? exd2 12.Qxd2 Nc5, and
11.Re1 exf2+ 12.Kxf2 Ng4+ 13.Kg3 (13.Kg1 Qxe1+
14.Nxe1 Bc5+) 13...Nge5 14.Bb2 f6 are OK for Black.
Rowson tried 11.Nb3, which produced an unclear
position after 11...Ne5 12.Nxe5 Qxe5
13.Bb2 Qh5 14.Rae1 Be6 15.Rxe3 Bd6 16.h3 0–0–0
17.Nd4 Rhe8
18.Rfe1 Qa5! 19.Nxe6 fxe6 20.Bxh7 Nxh7 21.Qxh7 Qxa2
22.Qxg7? Correct
was 22.Qc2, with the point that after 22...Bb4 23.Ra1
Rd2 White has 24.Qg6! Now Black seizes the initiative.
22...Bc5! 23.Rf3 Rg8 24.Qe5 Qxc4 25.Qxe6+ Qxe6
26.Rxe6 Rd1+ 27.Kh2 Rd2 Black is now winning, and
his subsequently play was an excellent conversion job.
Pert-Bu
Xiangzhi was a quiet draw, but Gawain Jones looked to be
doing well, until he was hit by a very nasty
zwischenzug:
Here, he
played 34.Bxf8, only to be clobbered by
34...Qxa2! Objectively, the position is still
quite unclear, but the psychological shock saw Gawain
drift downhill. After the further moves 35.bxc4 Kxf8
36.c5 36.cxd5 Nd6 is also unclear. 36...a5 37.Re2
bxc5 38.dxc5 Qc4 39.Nd4 Qxc5 40.Re3 Nd6 41.Qe1 a4 42.Kh1
Ne4 the arrival of the knight on e4 was a clear
announcement that White's days are numbered, and Black
duly won in 52 moves.
Hou
Yifan and David Howell drew a short game, but British
Ladies' Champion, Ketevan Arakhamia-Grant provided the
hosts' only full point of the day, courtesy of a blunder
from Shen Yang:
32...Qd2
would probably result in a draw in short order, but Shen
instead played 32...Qa2?? and resigned after
33.Rc8 1–0, since mate follows rapidly.
Finally,
the game between Jovanka Houska and Ding Yixin was
something of a condemnation of the time limit (2 hours
for the whole game, plus 30 seconds increment per move,
from the start). At such a control, games can become
exceptionally chaotic in the post-move 40 period, as
happened here. The game lurched back and forth several
times, before finally being drawn.
Thus, day one ends with
Britain defeated by two points. It seems clear that the
match will be a tough battle! |
