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ALL QUIET ON THE LIVERPOOL
FRONT
by John Saunders
It was a relatively quiet day in
Liverpool yesterday as nine of the top ten boards ended
in draws, the exception being the all-English showdown
between Nigel Short and British Champion Stuart
Conquest. The upshot is that we still have the same
three leaders – Mickey Adams, Jan Werle and Viktor
Laznicka – but there are now three players half a point
behind them - Alberto David, Erwin L’Ami and Nigel
Short.
Two games were over fairly quickly.
Mickey Adams baled out for a draw against Jan Werle.
There were two points of interest in this game.
Round 8
Werle - Adams
18...Nd3
Black has the interesting possibility
of 18...Nxe4!? 19 Qe3 (19 fxe4 Bxe2 20 Rf2 Nd3 21 Rxe2
Nxc1 when 22 Rxc1? is answered by 22...Qg5+) 19...Nxc5
20 dxe5 Rxe5 21 Qf2 Nb3 etc. But perhaps it is all too
computer-ish.
19 Bxd3 cxd3 ˝–˝
Adams offered the draw. White could
continue 20 Ne1 dxc5 21 dxc5 Qd7 22 Bf4 and secure an
extra pawn, but perhaps he felt that Black got too much
play for it.
The face-off between the two young
stars of England and France, David Howell and Maxime
Vachier-Lagrave, was something of a disappointment,
being drawn in 19 moves with nothing much happening. The
other two top boards moved almost instantly into
endgames. Bacrot managed to win a pawn against Jones but
it led inexorably to a drawn rook and pawns endgame.
Etienne Bacrot v Gawain
Jones
L’Ami-Laznicka was more interesting:
it came down to two bishops versus knight (no pawns),
which is a tablebase win for White but in more than 50
moves. As the last pawn disappeared, the tablebase told
us it was mate in 55. They played another 17 moves by
which time the machine revealed it was now mate in 60+
moves. Of course, the defender might have blundered and
allowed a much shorter win but L’Ami decided it wasn’t
worth playing on.
Erwin L’Ami
(right) v Viktor Laznicka
(left)
British Champion Stuart Conquest v Nigel
Short
Short-Conquest was a long manoeuvring
struggle in which White slowly exploited his spatial
advantage and Black’s kingside doubled pawns. Eventually
one of Black’s pawns fell off and the following position
was reached.
Round 8
Short - Conquest
Black’s two bishops give some
compensation for the pawn, but White now finds a neat
way to create a passed b-pawn.
53 c5! bxc5
53...Bxc5 54 Nxc5 bxc5 55 Kc4 Ra2 56
e5! Be4 57 Bd1 Ra1 58 Rxe4 Rxd1 59 Kxc5 fxe5 60 Rxe5 Kd7
61 Kb6 should win.
54 Kc4 e5
54...Ra2 55 Nxc5 Bxc5 56 Kxc5 Bxe4 57
Bd1 Rxe2 58 Bxe2 Kd7 59 Kb6 looks like a winner for
White.
55 Nxc5 Bc8 56 Kb4 Ra8
56...Bg4!? 57 Rd2 Ra2 58 b6 Rb2+ 59
Nb3 Bc8 looks like a more active defence.
57 Bb3 Ke7 58 Bd5 Bg4?!
58...Rb8 keeps the b-pawn at bay a
little longer.
59 Rc2 Rc8
59...Rb8 60 Nb3 Bb6 61 Na5 Kd7 62 Rc6
looks problematic for Black.
60 b6! Kd6 61 b7 Bxc5+ 62 Rxc5 1–0
62...Rb8 63 Rc6+ Ke7 64 Ra6 is
hopeless for Black.
For his exemplary positional play in
this game, the England number two was awarded the ‘game
of the day’ prize. It will also have been good practice
for him as he faces England number one Mickey Adams with
Black in the ninth round and we shall probably expect
something similar then. They met recently in the
Staunton Memorial (with the same colours); Short played
Alekhine’s Defence and a brief but interesting draw
ensued. I wonder what we can expect on Wednesday in
Liverpool...
Lawrence Trent’s loss to Alberto
David was down to a simple blunder losing a whole rook.
It is curious that so many blunders have still occurred
in this tournament despite the relatively generous time
allowance. Another player to blunder was Tiger Hillarp
Persson who lost his queen against Lorin D’Costa.
Ulf Andersson is the ultimate
‘drawmaster’ who rarely prolongs his games longer than
20 moves and usually only punishes players who dare to
try and beat him. Unfortunately for Ketevan Arakhamia-Grant,
who had been on for a GM norm with 1/2 against the right
level of opposition in rounds eight and nine, he chose
today to make an extra effort (as he sometimes does
against sub-2500 players). The result was a classic
Andersson grind, winning a level rook and pawn endgame.
What made matters worse for Ketevan was that it meant a
ninth-round pairing which could not give her opposition
of sufficiently high rating for the purposes of a
nine-round norm (she still has a ten-round chance). The
effort of winning was too much for 57-year-old Ulf, who
has chosen to take a zero-point bye in round nine.
One of the most interesting games was
Sarunas Sulskis’s game against Slovenian IM Matej
Sebenik, which was also the last to finish, keeping us
on tenterhooks until 8.45pm.
Round 8
Sulskis - Sebenik
How to win this endgame? Fritz
doesn’t seem very sure, but the Lithuanian GM eventually
finds a way – with a little help from his opponent...
85 Rh5 Kb4 86 Bf7
Obviously White can’t play 86 Rxg5?
because of 86...Rg1 and the h-pawn promotes. So he has
to find a way to manoeuvre the black king into a
position where the capture is made with check.
86...Ka4 87 Kc2 Kb4 88 Kd2 Ka4 89 Bg6
Kb3 90 Bd3 Kb2?
90...Kb4 is a little more accurate.
91 Rh6?
91 Bc2 was possible here, which
forces either a retreat of the king or a rook move, e.g.
91...Rc1 (91...Ka2 92 Rh8! Kb2 93 Rb8+ mates) 92 Bd1 and
the h-pawn is lost.
91...Kb3 92 Bc2+ Kc4 93 Rh5 Kb4
93...Kd4 94 Bd3 forces the king into
the path of the capture with check.
94 Kd3 Kc5
94...Ka3 95 Kc3 and we are back to
the mating scenario.
95 Rxg5+ Kd6 96 Rh5 Ke6
OK, that’s part A of the plan
achieved - but how to corral the king in order to secure
a second concession by Black? This should have been a
much harder task for White but in fact it is soon
resolved, probably through tiredness on Black’s part.
97 Kd2
The white king has to stay on the
second rank to avert rook checks followed by h1Q.
97...Kf6 98 Rh6+ Ke5?
A bad mistake. Black should play
98...Kg5! when 99 Rh7 Kf6 100 Be4 Kg5 and it is not
entirely clear whether White’s rook and bishop can force
another zugzwang by themselves. By moving his king near
the white king, Black is effectively bringing it back
into the game.
99 Be4!
Forcing the black king to the fourth
rank.
99...Kd4 100 Rh5
Now White has the black king where he
wants it, and all three of his pieces can force it into
a zugzwang.
100...Kc4 101 Bc2 1–0
It’s all over. 101...Kd4 102 Bb3!
sets up a mating net; 101...Kb4 102 Kd3 forces either a
rook move or allows Kc3 and Ra5; 101...Ra1 102 Rxh2 is a
comfortable win for White.
‘LIVERPOOL OLYMPIAD’
The latest unofficial team scores are
as follows: England and Netherlands both on 23˝; France
22; Germany 21˝; Sweden 20˝; Lithuania 19˝; Spain 18˝;
Scotland 17; Ireland 16˝; Wales 14˝. The three-player
squads of Czech Republic and Greece have 16˝ and 14˝,
while England ‘B’ have 22.
PHONE A FRIEND
When I said it was “all quiet” this
afternoon, that was not strictly accurate. We had a
second mobile phone disaster in today’s round. Fifteen
minutes into the game and with only a handful of moves
played, Volfango Rizzi’s phone rang and he had to suffer
death by ringtone. In some ways this form of technical
knock-out is a disaster for both players and his
opponent, Chris Majer (chief executive of the English
Chess Federation) was a little disappointed to have been
robbed of a game which would have meant more to him than
a mere point on the scoreboard. But the application of
the rule has to be strict in a formal event of this
calibre.
Volfango himself was apologetic but
good-humoured about his fate. Incidentally, he now lives
in Chester and had previously spent some years living in
Aberystwyth in Wales. He asked me to write an email to
the Welsh Chess Union to apply for registration as a
Welsh player with effect from this tournament (where he
is currently listed as Italian). I wrote the email for
him, giving the Welsh federation official Volfango’s
contact details (phone and email). As I finished writing
it, something occurred to me, so I said to Volfango:
“Shall I put a postscript suggesting that the
administrator does not phone you tomorrow around 2pm?”.
To his credit, Volfango laughed. A good sign – he
already has a Welsh sense of humour. |
