The Guardian

Chess

By Jonathan Speelman

Diagram 1

At the end of a madcap last-round game, White was down material and had much less time on the clock but was attacking. Can you see a way to force a draw and (an open question) how do you feel about trying to play for a win with 34 Nxf7!? ? (See the end.)

From what seems like time immemorial (or at least a lot further back than 1969, when I first played in the under14s) the annual British Championship has been held at the beginning of August or the end of July. It used to be a fortnight, but nowadays is a week bookmarked by two weekends.This year’s is at De Montfort University in Leicester from 21-30 July.

It was only in 2004 that the British Chess Federation (BCF) transmogrified into the English Chess Federation (ECF) and solely English championships are a more recent phenomenon. This year’s championship was held in Kenilworth, with 66 players in the open section and 22 in the women’s championship. The favourites were Michael Adams and (the originally Polish) Kateryna Toma and both ran out victorious.

Adams won his first two games, but had to fight a rearguard action against Hebden in round 3 to hold the draw. At that stage Marcus Harvey led with 3/3, but Adams caught up in round 4 and defeated Harvey in round 5 (below). He was a point clear before the last round but Jonah Willow put him under serious pressure before they finally drew (see diagram 1). Adams made 6/7 ahead of Harvey and Matthew Wadsworth on 5.5.

The early leader in the women’s tournament was Nina Pert - IM Richard Pert’s daughter - who began with 4/4. Toma had suffered a surprise loss in round 2 to Essex junior Abigail Weersing but recovered, beating Guildford player Audrey Kueh in the penultimate round and the then leader Zoe Varney, who plays for Blackthorne Russia in the 4NCL, in a very tense final round to finish clear on 5.5/7.

Adams’s sheer consistency is terrifying. Here Harvey got into trouble very early on despite playing White.

Marcus Harvey v Michael Adams

Kenilworth 2023 (round 5) Queen’s Indian

1 d4 Nf6 2 c4 e6 3 Nf3 b6 4 g3 Ba6

5 b3 Bb4+ 6 Bd2 Be7 7 Bg2 d5 8 0-0 0-0 9 Bc3 c5 10 cxd5?! Nxd5 11 Bb2 Black lost a tempo with Bf8-b4+-e7 but White lost two with Bc1-d2-c3-b2. The pressure on e2 is now annoying.

11 … Nc6 12 dxc5 Bxc5 13 Nbd2 Rc8 14 a3 Be7 15 Ne4?! 15 Re1 was better. 15 ... Nf6?! 16 Ned2 Repeating, but in fact 16 Nc3 was better.

16 ... Nd5 17 Ne4

Diagram 2

17 ... f5! The right choice second time around.

18 Nc3 18 Ned2 Bf6 was also grim.

18 ... Nxc3 19 Bxc3 Qxd1 20 Rfxd1 Bxe2 21 Re1 Bxf3 22 Bxf3 Kf7 23 b4 Bf6 24 Bxf6 Kxf6 25 Bxc6 It’s best to play this since Black’s winning chances would be even greater with the minor pieces on. However, Black is now a clear pawn up for nothing. Sixteen moves later they got to this position:

Diagram 3

44 … e3 45 Kg2 Rc2+ 46 Kf1 If 46 Kf3 Rf2 is mate!

46 ... Ke4 47 Rb5 Rf2+ 48 Kg1 Ra2 49 Kf1 Rxa4 50 Rc5 Ra2 51 Rb5 a4 52 Ra5 f4! 53 gxf4 Kf3 White resigned. The f4 pawn covers the black king and after 54 Kg1 e2 he will lose at least the rook.

In diagram 1, White very sensibly forced a draw with

34 Rc4 Qxe5 35 Qxf7+ Kxh6 If 35 ... Kh8 36 Rc7 Qh5+ 37 Kg2 Qe2+ Black gives perpetual check.

36 Rh4+ Kg5 37 Rg4+ Kh6 38 Rh4+ Kg5 39 Rg4+ Kh6

And they agreed the draw. Our silicon masters tell us that 34 Nxf7 Qf5+ 35 Qxf5 gxf5 36 Nxd6 Rxb3 37 Nxf5+ Kg6 38 Nh4+ Kg5 39 d6 is actually very good or indeed winning for White. Against a weaker opponent and with the clock times reversed, it would have made sense to try this but it’s still very unclear to the human eye and against Adams and desperately short of time it would have been very risky. I’m pretty sure that in the circumstances I’d have played Rc4.

Last week we looked at the rapidplay section in Warsaw where JanKrzysztof Duda won and Magnus Carlsen was below par. Carlsen recovered to win the blitz handsomely and when the two were added up, with the rapidplay counting double, finished first ahead of Duda. Carlsen is currently in battle in the Norway tournament in Stavanger. 1 Jonah Willow (to play) v Michael Adams 2 Marcus Harvey v Michael Adams (to play) 3 Marcus Harvey v Michael Adams (to play)

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2023-06-04T07:00:00.0000000Z

2023-06-04T07:00:00.0000000Z

https://guardian.pressreader.com/article/282424173608882

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