Steve Giddins reports from
Liverpool
I knew that I would not get
far in this event, before having to issue my first
apology. Sure enough, within an hour of the Round One
report going up on the website, I received an e-mail
from Scottish IM, Craig Pritchett, taking me to task for
using the dreaded "E-word". Of course, when I wrote that
"England" had lost the first round 5-3, what I really
meant was that the UK team had lost by this score. My
fulsome apologies to those of you North (or indeed,
South, West and East) of the border, but I fear that
similar lapses cannot be ruled out as the week
progresses. Old habits die very hard. Perhaps the safest
option is to de-nationalise the team altogether and
start referring to them as "Greater Liverpool", but I
will resist the temptation.
Anyway, the UK team
suffered another disappointing day yesterday, as they
again lost by a score of 5-3. This time, the score does
not really reflect the run of the play, as both Jovanka
Houska and Ketevan Arakhamia-Grant were exceedingly
close to winning. If they had been able to convert their
advantages, the round would have been shared 4-4, but
the pressure of the time-limit, plus ferocious
resistance from their Chinese opponents, proved too
much.
On top board, Mickey Adams'
Hedgehog led to heavy simplification and a steady draw.
Nigel Short, on second board, added another number to
his repertoire of non-Spanish 1.e4 e5 openings. Having
in the recent past employed the King's Gambit, Evans
Gambit and Ponziani, he surprised Wang Yue with the
sequence 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Nc3 Nf6 4.a3!? However,
Wang refused to be rattled by this choice, and although
White perhaps obtained the smallest of nibbles, the
appearance of opposite-coloured bishops on the board
soon led to a draw.
Jonathan Rowson reached an
acceptable position against Ni Hua's Scotch (or should
that be "British"?) Game, but drifted downhill.
Here, the tactical
trick 16...Nd3!? 17.Bxd3 Bxd4 18.Bc3 Bxc3 19.bxc3 Rab8
should leave Black standing satisfactorily. Rowson
instead played 16...Ne4 17.Be3 Bd7 Here, too, it
was possible to try to exploit the loose Nd4 by means of
17...Nd2!?, with an unclear position. 18.Nb3 a5 19.c5
Now 19...Ba7 20.f3 a4 21.fxe4 axb3 22.axb3 dxe4
leaves the bishop buried on a7, so Rowson tried to solve
his problems tactically by 19...a4?, but
unfortunately, the sequence is not adequate. After
20.cxb6 axb3 21.b7 Rab8 22.f3 d4 23.Bxd4 Nd2 24.Ba6 bxa2
25.Ba7 Be6 26.Bxb8 Rxb8 27.Red1, he played the
clever move 27...Nb1, which he had foreseen at
move 19, but after the simple reply 28.Rc1 it is
clear that Black is lost, in view of 28...Bd5 29 b3 Bxb3
30 Rxc6. Rowson resigned.
1–0
Nick Pert's game was
decided within a few moves of the diagram position.
With his more exposed king,
Black has a few problems, but one feels that he should
be holding. The game continued 28...Rb4!?, after
which Zhang Pengxiang seized the chance to
enter a queen ending by 29.Rxa7 Qxa7 30.Qxb4 Qxf2
The alternative is 30...Qxa2, but in queen endings, even
a single outside passed pawn is extremely dangerous, and
with his well-protected king, White may well be winning
this position. Nick instead tries to open up the enemy
king, so as to improve his chances of setting up
counterplay by threats of perpetual check, but Zhang was
able to keep his king covered and promote a pawn on the
other flank. 31.a4 Qe2 32.Qd6 Stopping the "perp"
on h5 and d1. 32...Qe1!? 32...Qh5+ 33 Kg1 Qe2 34
b4 f5, planning counterplay by 35...f4, is another try,
but White still looks to have excellent winning chances.
33.b4 f5 34.Qd8+
Kf7 35.b5 f4 36.Qd3 e5 37.b6 e4 38.Qd7+ Kf6 39.gxf4 e3
40.fxg5+ hxg5 41.Qd4+ Kf7 42.b7 Qb1 43.Qd7+ Kf6 44.Qd6+
Kf7 45.Qc7+ 1–0
Gawain Jones pulled back a
point for the hosts, by defeating Hou Yifan.
Here, the 13-year old girl
sensation initiated a tactical sequence, but perhaps
misjudged the resulting endgame. 16...Nc2!? 17.Rb1
Nxd4 18.Nxd4 cxd4 19.Qxd4 Bc5 20.Qxd5 Nxe5 This
back-rank tactic is the point of Black's play, but after
the simple reply 21.Be3, it becomes apparent that
Black has by no means solved her problems. After
21...Qxd5 22.Rxd5 Bxe3 23.Nxe3, White's much more
active pieces, and the unstable black knight on e5,
combine to give White a large endgame advantage. Gawain
duly capitalised, winning in 57 moves.
On the other junior board,
David Howell went down heavily to Wang Hao, in a
theoretical French Defence line in which the latter has
some past experience.
Howell played 22.g3?,
but after the reply 22...e5!, he was already
virtually lost, since he cannot avoid the destruction of
his kingside. Wang Hao cut him down in style after
23.gxf4 g4 24.Qd3 exd4 25.cxd4 Bc6+ 26.Kh2 gxh3 27.Qf5+
Qd7 28.Qxd7+ Bxd7 29.Be3 Rg2+ 30.Kh1 Bc6 31.Bxf7 Bf3
32.Be6+ Kb8 33.Bxh3 Rdg8! The crucial move, which
Black had to foresee when playing 30...Bc6.
34.Bxg2 Rxg2 0–1
As mentioned above, the two
ladies' boards both saw precious half-points slip
through the British players' fingers. Jovanka Houska
outplayed her opponent on the black side of a QGD, and
reached the following position:
Play continued 32...e5
33.Ne2 Qe3+ 34.Kf1 Now many moves win for Black, the
prophylactic 34...Kg7 being possibly the most precise.
But there is nothing wrong with Jovanka's choice.
34...Bd4 35.Nxd4 exd4 36.Bd1 d3 37.Qc7 Bf3 38.c6 bxc6
39.Qb8+ Kh7 40.Qb1 Be2+ 41.Bxe2 Qxe2+ 42.Kg1 Qe3+?
Having passed the time-control, all Black now needs to
do is spend 10 minutes or so, working out that there is
no perpetual check, and the she wins with a sequence
such as 42...Qc2 43 Qf1 Kg6 44 Qf3 d2 45 Qxc6+ Kg7, etc.
The same is true on any of the next 7-8 moves; with the
two pawns on h6 and f7, there is no way that Black is
ever likely to fall victim to a perpetual. The trouble
is, however, that with a time-limit of 2 hours plus 30
seconds per move, for the entire game, a player is
hardly ever going to be able to afford to sit back and
spend 10 minutes thinking about such an ending. Instead,
he/she is likely to have only a minute or two to spare,
plus increment time. In such circumstances, the play in
such an ending becomes totally random. 43.Kg2
Qe4+ 44.Kf2 Qe2+ 45.Kg1 Kg7 46.Qa1+ f6 47.Qf1 Qe3+
48.Kg2 d2 49.Qd1 f5 50.Kf1 h5? Finally throwing away
the win, by exposing her king too much. Bringing up the
king with 50...Kf6 should still win. 51.Qe2 Qd4
52.Qe7+ Kg6 53.Qe6+ Kg7 54.Qe7+ Kg6 ½–½ Chalk up
another triumph for the idiotic FIDE time-limit setters!
Arakhamia-Grant's game was
the same story - she outplayed her opponent from the
opening onwards, won a pawn, exchanged queens...and then
could only draw the ending, as the pressure of making a
move every 30 seconds proved too much. Once again, her
Chinese opponent deserves great credit for her tenacious
defence, but even so, it was all too painful to watch.
At one point, I feel sure I felt an earth tremor, caused
by Akiba Rubinstein revolving in his grave, at the
thought of what these FIDE dunderheads (to coin a
phrase) have done to the endgame!
So, after two rounds, China
leads the UK by 10-6. In the Open tournament being held
alongside, the lead after five of the nine rounds is
with Latvian GM, Normunds Miezis, with 4.5. Half a point
behind are Stewart Haslinger, Alberto David and David
Smerdon, ahead of a large group on 3.5.
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