Pert and Howell in British Knockout finals

Pert and Howell through to the British Knockout finals

The first edition of the British Knockout Championships is being held from the 1st to the 10th of December 2015, alongside the various events at the London Chess Classic. The tournament started with eight players. As shown in our quarter-finals report, four players were eliminated and an equal number advanced to the next round. The semi-finals were held on the 2nd of December and following was the pairing:

Nick Pert vs Luke McShane

Luke McShane (right), with a rating of 2687, was the clear favourite in this match. However Nick Pert (left), who had defeated the British Champion Jonathon Hawkins in the previous round, was on a high and definitely could not be taken lightly. In the first classical time control game of the match, Pert obtained a winning advantage after just 15 moves in the opening. He was dominating throughout the game, but McShane hung on, and finally was able to draw the game.

In the second game nothing spectacular happened and Nick was able to comfortably equalize with the Black pieces. In the end McShane managed to win a few pawns, but the opposite coloured bishop endgame once again resulted in a draw. After the classical games ended in a 1:1 tie the players went into a rapid game with 15 minutes each and five seconds increment per move. Pert showed his aggressive intentions in the first rapid game when the players reached the following position:

Luke Mcshane – Nick Pert, Rapid Game one

In the above position Pert, who was Black, went 8…g5!? Although this move is not objectively so great, in the game it worked wonders as McShane quickly exchanged the queens and gave Black very easy equality.

Nick Pert – Luke Mcshane, rapid game two

Once you are in the lead you tend to get a little defensive. But nothing like that happened to Nick. In the above position he went in for the very nice positional pawn sacrifice with 5.d5! After 5…exd5 6.exd5 Bxd5 7.Nf4, White had excellent compensation, thanks to the lead in development and the control of the d5 square.

With this win Nick Pert’s excellent performance at the British Knockout event continues, and he moves in to the finals. This also guarantees him a minimum £10,000 in prize money.

David Howell vs Gawain Jones

Howell against Jones was a bloody affair. In the first classical game David Howell came armed with an improvement over the game Rowson-Jones, which took place in the quarter-finals. This improvement which came up on the 19th move helped Howell played to take 1-0 lead.

Gawain Jones struck back in the second game. After the opening it seemed highly improbable that he could win the game – Howell had comfortably equalized. However David made quite a few errors and in the end he had to throw in the towel after 99 moves.

The two rapid games weren’t without excitement. In the first one it was David who was pressing while in the second it was Jones. Both were a pawn up in their respectively games but they ended in draws.

The match now entered into the Armageddon phase. Jones had six minutes and the white pieces, while Howell, who was black, had five minutes. If the game ended in a draw then Howell would go through. This last clause made Gawain’s life really tough as he failed to get any sort of an advantage. Rather than let the game end in a draw he tried to play for some winning chances, but they simply did not exist. Howell won the game and the match and entered in the finals.

Nick Pert and David Howell will now face each other in the finals in a six-game match from the 4th to the 9th of December 2015, with playoffs, in case required, on the 10th of December. The first prize is a hefty £20,000. Will Nick Pert be able to continue his excellent form and win the title, or will David Howell stay true to his tag of the top seed and win the event? It promises to be a highly interesting match.

Pictures by John Saunders

Did you know: GM Nick Pert has produced four DVDs for ChessBase!

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Links Official tournament site All Knockout Championship games in PGN The games are being broadcast live on the official web site and on the chess server Playchess.com. If you are not a member you can download a free Playchess client there and get immediate access. You can also use ChessBase or any of our Fritz compatible chess programs.