Steve Giddins reports from
Liverpool
After two days of slight
disappointment, the United Kingdom team found their form in
round three of the UK-China match, winning four games to
China's two, with two draws. With the match now at the
halfway stage, the Chinese lead has been cut to just two
points.
Adams led the way, with a
convincing demolition of Ni Hua. Capitalising on what he
later described as some "slightly strange" opening play
from his opponent, he soon established a clear
positional advantage. In the press room, England team
captain Jon Speelman was confidently expecting his top
board to bring home the bacon, and Adams duly obliged.
From the diagram, he
continued 28.Rxb7! Qxb7 29.Rxb7 Kxb7 30.Qxh5 g3 31.f3
Rg7 With two rooks for queen and two pawns, Black is
not badly off materially, but his remaining pawns are
all weak, whilst White's knight gets to f5 rapidly. The
rest was fairly straightforward for Adams.
32.Nd1 Re6 33.Qh8 Ree7 34.Ne3 Rh7 35.Qd8 Nb6 36.Nf5 Rd7
37.Qg8 Nxa4 38.Qxg3 Ka6 39.Qxe5 Rb7 40.g4 Rb2 41.Ne3
Rb1+ 42.Kg2 Nb6 43.Qxc5 a4 44.Qa3 Rhh1 45.c5 Rbg1+
46.Kf2 Ra1 47.Qb2 Nd7 48.Qd4 Nb8 49.Qd8 Rhb1 50.Nc4 Rb5
51.g5 1–0
Nigel Short has endured a
wretched run of form over recent months, hampered by
various health problems, but today he finally found his
true class once again. Bu Xiangzhi, perhaps unwisely,
chose to answer 6 Be2 with the classical Najdorf reply
6...e5, rather than the Scheveningen-style 6...e6. I say
unwisely, because Short has won several outstanding
games against 6...e5, and clearly feels very much at
home in the positions. This was soon evident in the
present game.
With his queenside pawn
majority on the march, White already has a substantial
positional advantage. Short continued 22.Nb3
Black now traded dark-squared bishops by 22...Bg5,
but after 23.Bxg5 hxg5 24.Qe3, he already has
serious problems defending the g5 pawn, since
conceding all the kingside light squares by 24...f6 is
too horrible to contemplate. Instead, he gave a
pawn to create some counterplay: 24...Nf4 25.g3 Ng6
26.Qxg5 e4 27.f4 b5 28.cxb5 Qc3 29.Nd4 Qe3+ 30.Kh1 Nde5
The watching Jon Speelman was initially a
little worried that his man might be losing control, but
in fact, Black's counterplay is insufficient and White
requires only due care. Short duly reeled in the full
point after 31.Qh5 Nd3 32.Nf5 Nf2+ 33.Kg2 Nxf4+
34.gxf4 Qxf4 35.Be2 Nxd1 35..Rc2 is adequately met
by 36 Rf1. 36.Rxd1 g6 Once again, 36...Rc2 fails
to 37 Rf1. 37.Rf1
Qd2 38.Nh6+ Kh8 39.Qh4 1–0
Jonathan Rowson has had a
tough week, and today slumped to his third straight
loss. He never quite equalized from the opening, and was
eventually ground down in a long BvN ending. Nick Pert's
game against Hou Yifan saw an amusing material
transformation:
Pert now snatched a pawn by
12...Ncxd4 13.0–0! The only sensible
reply. I once won a rated game in which White continued
13 Nxd4 Qc3+ 14 Kd1 Qxd4 15 Bxf5?? Qd1 mate! Well, it
was an evening game, the second of the day, etc!
13...Nxf3+ 14.Qxf3 Qxe5 Thus, Black has two extra
pawns, but his development is lagging and his dark
squares are very weak. Play continued 15.Bb2 d4
16.Raa1 Nh4 17.Qh3 Qf4 17...Qf6!? 18.Rae1 Qg4
19.Qxg4 hxg4 20.Bxd4 f6 21.f3! Bd7 21...gxf3 22 g3!
Ng2 23 Rd1 leaves the knight in trouble. 22.fxg4
0–0–0 23.Bxa7 and in the space of 8 moves, White has
gone from being two pawns down to a pawn up! Pert
struggled long and hard, but was eventually unable to
save the ending (1-0, 74).
Gawain Jones surprised his
opponent in the opening, and soon had a winning
position:
1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 a6
4.Ba4 Nf6 5.0–0 Be7 6.Re1 b5 7.Bb3 d6 8.c3 0–0 9.h3 Na5
10.Bc2 d5!? This
fascinating idea is a very recent invention of the
Polish GM, Gajewski. It had been drawn to public
attention by Tony Kosten, on his excellent
Chesspublishing.com website. Tony is present in
Liverpool as a trainer for the England team, and the
evening before this game, it had been decided to try the
line out on Wang Hao. The Chinese players are all
excellently-prepared, but maybe this remarkable gambit
idea had escaped their attention? 11.exd5 e4 12.Ng5
Nxd5 13.Nxe4 f5 14.Ng3 Two days earlier, the game
Jameson-Rudd, in round 2 of the Open section, had seen
Black win quickly after 14.b4 fxe4 15.bxa5 Bc5 16.Rxe4
Bxf2+ 17.Kh1 Bf5 18.Ba3 c5 19.Re5 Bxc2 20.Qxc2 Bg3
21.Rf5 Qg5 22.Rxf8+ Rxf8 23.Qd1 Qh5 0–1
f4 15.Ne4 f3 16.d4 fxg2
17.Ng3 Qd6 18.Qd3 g6 19.Ne4 Qe6 20.Bh6 Nf4 21.Bxf4 Rxf4
22.Nbd2 Qf7 23.a4 Bh4 24.axb5 Bb7 25.Rxa5
As the computer
points out, Black can now win by 25...Bxe4!, eg. 26.Nxe4
Rxe4 27.Re2 Rxe2 28.Qxe2 Re8 29 Qd2 Qf3, etc. Sadly,
Gawain missed this and instead played 25...Rxe4?
He did gain some advantage, but was unable to win,
despite trying for 104 moves.
David Howell outplayed
Zhang Pengxiang from the start, soon winning material
and eventually coming down to a delicate ending.
White's winning plan is to
annex the f7-pawn at the cost of the exchange, but the
implementation requires some finesse. Firstly, the white
king attacks f7. 56...Bb3 57.Re2 Bd1 58.Re5 Bb3
59.Kc6 Ba2 60.Kd7 Bb3 61.Ke8 Kg8 The next step is to
force the black king away by means of a check. 62.Rc5
Ba2 63.Ra5 Bb3 64.Ke7 Kh7 Bowing to the inevitable,
since this will be forced anyway, after a check on a8.
65.Kf8 Bc4 66.Ke7 Bb3 67.Rb5 Bc4 68.Ra5 Bb3 69.Kf8
Be6 70.Re5 Bb3 71.Rb5 Be6 72.Ke7 Bc4 73.Rb8 Be6 74.Rf8
After a few move repetitions, to build up some time
on the clock, Howell returns to the main plan. Now a
sacrifice on f7 is unstoppable. Black tries his last
chance. 74...g5 75.hxg5 Kg6 76.Rg8+ Kf5 77.g6 fxg6
78.Rxg6! Bd5 79.Rg1 Now the final step is to
neutralise the enemy h-pawn. 79...h4 80.Rd1 Bb3
81.Rb1! Ba2 The bishop runs out of squares on the
a2-g8 diagonal. 81...Bc4 82 Rc4 wins the h-pawn.
82.Rb2 Bg8 83.Rh2! 1–0 The h-pawn drops, since
83...Kg4 now loses the bishop after 84 Rg2+. A super
game by David Howell.
United Kingdom's fourth victory of
the day came from Ketevan Arakhamia-Grant, whose King's
Indian knights did nasty things to Shen Yang:
Keti wrapped things up with
30...b5! 31.Rxh6 Nxh6 32.Qh2 If 32 Nxb5?
Ba6 wins material. Nf7 33.Nxc5 Qe7 34.Qc2 Rxa5 35.Nb1
Ng5 36.Kh2 b4! Forcing the knight from c5 and
opening the a6-f1 diagonal for the bishop.
37.Nb3 Ra6 38.Rh1 Rh6+ 39.Kg1 Ngh3+ 0–1
With Jovanka Houska drawing
a sharp struggle against Ding Yixin, United Kingdom completed a
5-3 win in the round, thus halving their overall deficit
in the match score, which now stands at 13-11 to China.
In round six of the Open section, the leader Normunds
Miezis went down to Alberto David of Luxembourg. Wins
for John Shaw, Daniel Fridman, Emanuel Berg and Mark
Hebden saw them all join a tie for second place, on
4.5/6.
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