Adams is the sole leader at the British

by Daniel Gormally
8/3/2019 – It's a familiar story: Michael Adams and Jovanka Houska are the leading contenders to be British Champion and Women's Champion heading into the final round. GM DANIEL GORMALLY brings us up to date on the action in Torquay, England, including several annotated games. Adams has a half point lead over David Howell, Stephen Gordon and Richard Pert. |Round 9| The final round starts at 9:00 UTC (11:00 CEST / 5:00 AM EDT). | Photos: Chris Stratford

This increasingly popular opening is easy to pick up as the Black pieces can usually be developed quickly and smoothly. Many of the ideas are thematic and Black can achieve attacking positions in several of the variations.

Why experience trumps potential

During one of my commentary sessions during the British Chess Championship, I managed to bore the watching audience with a discussion on the value of experience over potential.

What I was talking about was an article in the Harvard Business Review which focused on why people tend to favour potential over experience, and which was brought to my attention by the elaborations of horse racing guru Nick Mordin, who would never miss a chance to find some kind of obscure betting angle.

Essentially what the article said was that if you have two people, and one person has already achieved something but the other person has two potential outcomes, in other words he or she might also achieve that thing that the first person has achieved, or they might not, then the average person will tend to favour (or find more interesting) the second person. The reason for this is that it's more interesting for the human mind to have two potential outcomes. 

The reason I discuss this in relation to the British Championships is that what you tend to get is a scenario where the same sort of people win every year. It's a bit like Wimbledon. A lot of people tend to bet against Federer, Nadal and Djokovic, and yet they win pretty much every year. And not only at Wimbledon, but at every grand slam you could care to mention.

As far as the British is concerned, Michael Adams is rather like Fed, Nads and Djoko rolled into one. If you have any designs on winning the thing, you have to get past Adams. He's won it every year he's entered, for as long as anyone can remember.

In theory, in round four, Palliser had a good chance to do so, because he was already rested after the rather freak occurrence of having two people default against him in a row, and seemed to emerge from the opening with a rather playable position. Therefore, it seemed quite instructive to me how easily Adams managed to squash his dreams:

 
Adams vs Palliser, Round 5
Position after 23.Bxb5

I think a lot of amateur players would shy away from this, because subconsciously they'd fear opening up the a-file. But Adams proves that concrete calculation is more important.

23...axb5 24.d2 Consolidating and freeing up the knight to burst into d5. 24...e5?! (Better was 24...♞c5 25.♘xb5 ♛a5 26.♘d4 ♜fc8).

25.c1? — A tricky position, and apparently it was better to play 3.♕e2.

 
Position after 25.Rc1?

25...e6? Palliser collapses. 25...♜fc8 ties the knight down for the time being. 26.♖dc2 ♜c5 maintaining the tension. In the commentary room we were advocating 25...♜fb8 which also seems to be preferable to what Black played in the game.

26.xb5 b4 27.xd6 fd8 28.c3 forcing the queens off. 1-0

Richard Palliser

Richard Palliser is an Editor of CHESS Magazine | Photo: Chris Stratford

Keith Arkell, one of the default victims against Palliser, was recovering from an illness and got rather careless against Toma.

 
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1.e4 g6 2.d4 Bg7 3.Nc3 c6 4.Nf3 d5 5.h3 dxe4 6.Nxe4 Nd7 7.Bd3 Ngf6 8.c3 0-0 9.0-0 b6 10.Neg5 h6?
11.Nxf7! This strongly brings to mind Deep Blue-Kasparov of course. It also reminds me of a game that Keith played as Black against Igor Rausis, where Igor broke through with a stunning series of sacrifices. There has been a lot of debate on the english chess forum other whether the disgraced Rausis was already using an engine in that game, and as I don't want to be dragged into any court cases, I have no desire to speculate. All I would say is if you cheat once, then you can't really complain if it becomes open season against you. Incidentally It seems ironic now that in the Deep Blue match, Kasparov was accusing the machine of receiving human assistance. Kxf7 11...Rxf7 12.Bxg6 Rf8 12...Nf8 13.Bxf7+ Kxf7 14.Ne5+ Kg8 15.Re1 just gives White a huge advantage as Black's kingside is shredded. 13.Qe2 Qc7 is the machines recommendation as being the best way to defend. 12.Nh4 g5 13.Ng6 Re8
14.Ne5+? As I said in the commentary at the time, in the 19th century they would have played 14.f4! without thinking. It just looks so natural that you don't even think here, you just play it. It brings the rook into the game, it threatens to take on g5, and Black is essentially being crushed right out of the opening. g4 15.hxg4+- 14...Kg8 15.f4 gxf4 16.Bxf4 Nxe5 17.dxe5 Nd5?
The only way to survive was to grovel with the extremely depressing 17...Be6 18.exf6 exf6 19.Qf3 f5 which would have maintained some kind of parity, even if you are left with a rather dire looking position. 18.Bxh6! Toma is still extremely alert and goes for the jugular, and this had already been suggested by the watching Lawrence Trent (no doubt with engine in hand.) Bxh6 19.Qh5 winning by force, and the game should have ended over the next few moves. Nf4 20.Rxf4 Qxd3 20...Bxf4 21.Qh7+ Kf8 22.Rf1 and Black will be mated 21.Qxe8+ Kh7 22.Qxe7+ Kg8 23.Qf7+ Kh8
24.Rf3? there was no need for such subtleties. 24.Qe8+ Kh7 25.Rf7+ Bg7 26.Raf1 was easily getting the job done. 24...Qd7 Keith threatens to edge back into the game around about here, but fortunately for Toma, her positional and material edge is so large that she manages to close it out anyway. 25.Qg6 Qg7 26.Qe8+ Qg8 27.Qxc6 Be6 28.Rd1 Re8 29.Rd4 Re7 30.Rh4 Qg5 31.Qa8+ Kh7 32.Qe4+ Kg8 33.Kh2 Rg7 34.Rf6 Qg3+ 35.Kh1
1–0
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WhiteEloWBlackEloBResYearECOEventRnd
Toma,K2229Arkell,K24451–02019B15British Chess Championships5

The tournament takes place inside the vast Riveria Centre, which has already hosted several British Championships.

On the walk down from the harbour to the Riveria, the intrepid traveller is generally assaulted by a kaleidoscope of sounds and sights as you break through the very heart of Torquay. Families frolicking around in their flip-flops, corpulent O.A.P.s racing down the sidewalk in their mobile scooters, and all the time the sea air whipping off the front, only adding to the atmosphere. Such is the allure of the panorama that one day I felt like parking myself in a deckchair and spending the rest of the day soaking up the suns rays. Alas, like the players, it wasn't a true holiday as I had to be somewhere at a certain time, in my case the commentary room.

Mistakes away from the board

You'd think that such an ambience would make the players more relaxed, but this isn't always the case. In round six there was a controversy that was not unrelated to some of the incidents that have been hitting the chess headlines recently.

In his game against Charlie Storey, Lorin D'Costa made the mistake of taking his bag away from the board when intending to visit the cafe to buy something. The problem for him was that he still had his mobile phone in the bag, and Charlie was quick to notice this. He alerted the arbiters who had no choice but to default the unfortunate Lorin.

This was careless on Lorin's part, although I wonder if his lack of recent tournament experience was partly to blame. In most tournaments now you are repeatedly warned not to take your phone around with you during play, and perhaps because Lorin doesn't play a lot he wasn't aware of the severity of this rule.

Nevertheless, he wasn't pleased by Charlie's immediate reaction, which was to ask the arbiter to ask Lorin to resign, rather than just default him, so that in Charlie's words Lorin "Could save his reputation". This seems like an overreaction by Charlie, as in my view it shouldn't be up to the other player to get involved in this way, and should be solely left up to the discretion of the arbiter.

Perhaps he could be excused as we now live in paranoid times. Also in round six, Steven Gordon was starting to make his mark on the event after he defeated Simon Williams.

 
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1.Nf3 Nf6 2.g3 g6 3.b3 Bg7 4.Bb2 0-0 5.Bg2 d6 6.d4 c6 7.0-0 Qa5 8.h3! A good reaction, pre-empting Black's plan Qh5 8...Nbd7 would be more sensible. In fact in the main-line g3 Kings indian the plan of . ..c6 followed by ...Qa5 is fairly common, and it's something that I've toyed with myself. In that line the White pawn is already on c4 and in that case Black can counterattack with ...Qa6 and ...b5, but here he is denied that option, so Gordon's last move was fairly smart. 9.g4!
9...Bxg4? This is far too much. Before the game I spent some time with Simon, and he seemed extremely nervous, much more so than normal. I think he realized the importance of this game and was cramming in some last minute preparation, when he might have been better placed trying to get himself in a relaxed mindset. In sports psychology they talk a lot about the value of emphasising process over the end result. In other words, don't get ahead of yourself and start to think about winning. Perhaps Simon, in a slightly nervous state, was already thinking about the winning post in this game, and if so this sacrifice was the result and it was far too early. Black lacks the resources to launch such a crude attack. 10.hxg4 Nxg4 11.Nbd2 f5 12.Re1! Nd7 13.Nf1 Gordon chooses a quiet approach, to try and repel Black's attack. It probably says a lot about the contempt that the machine has for the effectiveness of Black's attack, that one of it's top choices was the seemingly irrelevant 13.a4 During the game I was beating the drum for 13.e4! and expected Gordon to punch that one out. For some reason I then made some weird comparison with the James Cameron film Aliens, when towards the end Ripley is rescued from a burning platform by Bishop. When in the spaceship and trying to escape from the forthcoming thermo-nuclear explosion, Ripley implores Bishop to "Punch it bishop". Nevertheless here, as in the film, it makes some sense for White to play in a slightly quicker way, as by creating threats himself he is likely to make Black's attack look even more redundant. fxe4 14.Nxe4 and the sacrifice on f3 doesn't work, and otherwise the knight on e4 will hop to g3 or even to g5 at it's leisure. 13...Ndf6 14.e3! Ne4 15.Re2 g5 16.N3d2 Nef6 17.e4 fxe4 18.Nxe4 Nd5 19.Neg3 Qh4 20.Bxd5+ cxd5 21.Qd3!
Creating a threat of Nf5. White also has f3 as a defensive resource, so already it is clear that White is completely winning. In Simon's defense he was quick after the game to disparage the sacrifice on g4. I guess it was just a bad day at the office, or a bad day at the leisure center. 21...Nh6 21...e6 22.f3+- 22.Rxe7 Rf4 23.Qb5 Raf8 24.Qxb7 Nf5 25.Qxd5+ Kh8 26.Re4 Qg4 27.Nh2 Qh3 28.Rxf4 gxf4 29.Nxf5 Rxf5 30.Qf3 Qh4 31.Kh1
1–0
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WhiteEloWBlackEloBResYearECOEventRnd
Gordon,S2468Williams,S25201–02019A49British Chess Championships6

Simon Williams

A bad day for the Ginger GM | Photo: Chris Stratford

One of the things I've noticed about the commentary is that most of the games have finished fairly quickly. My fears of having to stay for long sessions that go on for six hours plus have proved fairly unfounded, probably because the tournament has adopted a relatively quick time control, that you could argue has turned these encounters into glorified rapid play games. Some of the players have been complaining to me about not having enough time to work out complex positions after move forty.

And indeed it is also much more likely that you will get into time trouble early in the game if the position is complicated enough. Having so much time on my hands I was able to stumble across the excellent Perpetual Chess Podcast with Kenneth Regan, doyen of the FIDE anti-cheating committee, and in the podcast Ken discussed amongst other things how sharply the quality of play tends to go down from moves 30-40 when players tend to find themselves short of time.

As if to prove this point, Gary Lane, who was actually on move 25 when we pick the game up but already in zeitnot, missed a great opportunity against Ravi Haria.

 
Lane vs Haria, Round 7
Position after 24...Kh8

25.c2? Lane could have ended the game at once with a brilliant, yet in some ways logical, shot. Can you spot it?

SHOW

25...d3! 26.b3 g4 27.e1 e4 and Black was over the worst — he even went on to win!

Pert vs Pert

Nick Pert and his twin brother Richard have long been familiar fixtures on the British chess scene, and for many years Richard has to some extent lived in the shadow of his brother, but is a serious player in his own right.

Indeed, I think without having to try and juggle a family with a full time job I'm fairly sure Richard would have nailed down the GM title long ago, and when he does play he tends to be able to compete with professional players on an equal basis. In the game against his brother, he was able to show how dangerous he can be in opening preparation.

 
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1.d4 d5 2.c4 c6 3.Nc3 Nf6 4.Nf3 dxc4 5.e4 b5 6.Be2 6.e5 Nd5 7.a4 e6 8.axb5 Nxc3 9.bxc3 cxb5 10.Ng5 Bb7 is the mainline of the Geller gambit, and has been known for a long time to not hold any real theoretical fears for Black, so understandably Richard goes down a different, more modern route. White's idea is to mobilize his forces as quickly as possible and cause some disturbance on the queenside. No doubt Richard was also drawn to this Danil Dubov game that was played recently, where White scored a quick win. 6...e6 7.0-0 Bb7 8.b3 Bb4 9.e5 Bxc3 10.exf6 gxf6 10...Bxa1 11.fxg7 Rg8 12.Bg5! is the tactical justification for White's play. f6 13.Bh6 Bb2 14.Qb1 looks extremely dangerous for Black, with his king caught in the center. 11.Rb1 c5 12.bxc4
12...Bxd4? Up to this point they were still following the Dubov game, and Nick is to first to deviate, but this seems to be a mistake. 12...cxd4 13.Rxb5 Bc6 14.Rc5 Be4 15.Bd3 Bxd3 16.Qxd3 Na6 17.Rb5 Qd6 18.Nh4 Qc6 19.Ba3 Rc8 20.Qg3 Qxc4 21.Qd6 Bb4 22.Bxb4 1-0 (22) Dubov,D (2701)-Postny,E (2579) Batumi 2018 Was the Dubov game, where the ball is in Black's court in terms of finding improvements. 13.Rxb5 Bc6 14.Rb3
Black's problem is finding a long term shelter for his king, and it's a serious one. 14...Rg8 something of an admission that the opening has gone wrong, as this pressure down the g-file is easily repelled. Black would love to castle but then White can win on the spot. 14...0-0 15.Bh6! Kh8 16.Nxd4 cxd4 17.Bxf8+- 14...Ba4 15.Rxb8! 15.g3 Na6 16.Nxd4 cxd4 17.Bf3 Rc8 18.Bxc6+ Rxc6
19.Qh5! Having played Richard many times, mostly at blitz, I can testify that he is very good at playing these kind of power queen moves. f5 20.Qxh7 Rf8 21.Bh6? Something of a mistake as White can win the game at once, although with such a huge material advantage it is difficult to find a way not to win the game after this. 21.Qg7! would have paralysed Black. Nc5 22.Ba3 And next move White will move the rook from f1 to b1, when Black is helpless. 21...Qf6! Nick is a very good defensive player and he will try and wriggle in any kind of position, however hopeless it looks. 22.Bxf8 Kxf8 23.Rb7 Rxc4 24.Rxa7 Nc7 25.Rb1 f4 26.Rab7 Ke7 27.Rb8 e5 28.Qg8 Rc6 29.Qd8+ Ke6 30.Qxf6+ Kxf6 31.R8b6! It is a good idea to exchange material, especially as knights are notoriously bad at dealing with outside passed pawns. Rxb6 32.Rxb6+ Kf5 33.gxf4 Nd5 34.Rb2 Kxf4 35.a4 e4 36.a5 d3 37.a6 f5 38.a7 Nc7 39.Kg2 Ke5 40.Kf1 f4 41.Rb7
1–0
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WhiteEloWBlackEloBResYearECOEventRnd
Pert,R2430Pert,N25631–02019D15British Chess Championships7
Pert,R2430Pert,N25631–02019D15British Chess Championships7
Dubov,D2701Postny,E25791–02018D15EU-ch 19th3

Pert

When twin brothers play, it's hard to tell who's winning | Photo: Chris Stratford

Adams' edge

In the penultimate round, Mickey faced Richard Pert in a sharp French Defence which ended up being a fairly one-way affair.

 
Adams vs R. Pert
Position after 18...Qd7

Black is desperate to trade queens with ♛g4 next, but Adams simple doesn't allow it: 19.h3 and White maintains a big edge in the position. 19...f7 20.c5 e7? 21.d6! e8 22.fe1 and the pin down the e-file is deadly. Adams is ready to pile on the pressure and pile on he did:

 
Position after 28.Rae1

Black resigned a few moves later.

The final round nine starts considerably earlier at 9:00 UTC (11:00 CEST / 5:00 AM EDT).

Standings after Round 8 (top 10)

Rk.NameRtg.Nt.Pts.nTBPerf.
1
2690
7.5
9
49.50
2714
2
2697
7.0
9
46.50
2636
3
2430
6.5
9
48.00
2586
4
2513
6.0
9
49.50
2595
5
2516
6.0
9
44.00
2478
6
2422
6.0
9
42.00
2487
7
2481
5.5
9
45.50
2455
8
2399
5.5
8
45.00
2628
9
2399
5.5
9
42.00
2364
10
2418
5.5
9
40.50
2400
TBs: Buchholz

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1.e4 c6 2.Nc3 d5 3.Nf3 Bg4 4.h3 Bxf3 5.Qxf3 e6 6.Be2 Nf6 B11: Caro-Kann: Two Knights Variation 7.0-0 Bc5 8.Rd1 8.d3 0-0 9.Qg3 Bd4 10.Qh4 Nfd7 11.Qxd8 ½-½ (11) Buhmann,R (2568)-Rodshtein,M (2673) Skopje 2019 8...Bd4 9.exd5 cxd5 10.Bb5+ Nc6 11.Ne2       White has good play. Bb6 12.d4 Ne4 13.Ng3
13...Nxg3N Predecessor: 13...f5 14.Nxe4 dxe4 ½-½ (33) Ratsma,R (2295)-Yevseev,D (2514) Krakow 2017 14.Qxg3 0-0 15.c3 Bc7 16.Qf3 Qf6 17.Qg4 Qg6 18.Bd3 f5 19.Qxg6 hxg6 20.Bg5 Rac8 21.Rac1 Bd8 22.h4 Kf7 23.g3 Bxg5 24.hxg5 a6 25.Kg2 Na5 26.Rc2 Rc6 27.Re2 Rb8 28.Rde1 b5 29.a3 Ke7 30.g4
Black must now prevent gxf5. 30...Kf7 31.Kg3 Nc4 32.f3 Nb6 33.Re3 Na4 34.R3e2 Nb6 35.Re3 Na8 36.Kf4 Nc7 37.Bf1 a5 38.b3 White should try 38.Bd3± 38...Rh8= The position is equal. 39.Kg3 Ke7 40.Rc1 Kd6 41.Re5 Rb6 42.Bd3 a4 43.b4 Rbb8 44.Ree1 Kd7 45.Rh1 Rhg8 46.gxf5 gxf5 47.Kf4 Ne8 48.Ke3 Nd6 49.Rh2 Rbc8 50.Kd2 Rh8 51.Rch1 Rxh2+ 52.Rxh2       Endgame KRB-KRN Ke7 53.Rh3 Kf7 54.Be2 Rb8 55.f4 Kg8 56.Bf1 Rb6 57.Be2 Rb7 58.Bf1 Rb8 59.Be2 Ne4+ 60.Kc2 g6 61.Bf1 Kg7 62.Be2 Nd6 63.Bf1 Rh8 64.Rxh8 Kxh8 KB-KN 65.Be2 Kg7 66.Bf1 Kf7 67.Be2 Ke7 68.Bf1 Kd7 69.Be2 Kc6 70.Bf1 Ne4
...Ng3 is the strong threat. 71.Be2 Nd6 72.Bf1 Kb6 73.Bd3 Ne4 74.Be2! Kc6 75.Kd3 Kb6 76.Kc2 Nf2 And now ...Nh3 would win. 77.Kd2 Kc6 78.Ke3 Ne4 79.Kd3 Kb7 80.Kc2 Kc6 81.Kd3 Ng3 82.Bf3 Kd7 83.Be2 Kc7 84.Kd2 Kb6 85.Kd3 Ne4 86.Kc2 Ng3 87.Kd3 Kb7 88.Kd2 Nxe2 89.Kxe2 Ka8 Accuracy: White = 73%, Black = 64%.
½–½
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WhiteEloWBlackEloBResYearECOEventRnd
Haria,R2430Howell,D2697½–½2019B11106th British-ch 20198.1
Adams,M2690Pert,R24301–02019B12106th British-ch 20198.2
Gordon,S2516Tan,J25131–02019D45106th British-ch 20198.3
Fernandez,D2466Palliser,R23990–12019A02106th British-ch 20198.4
Eggleston,D2399Emms,J24810–12019B36106th British-ch 20198.5
Derakhshani,B2300Williams,S2468½–½2019A01106th British-ch 20198.6
Arkell,K2461Wadsworth,M24181–02019A22106th British-ch 20198.7
Houska,J2422Rudd,J22751–02019A46106th British-ch 20198.8
Storey,C2261Lane,G23641–02019A26106th British-ch 20198.9
Willow,J2343Pein,M2312½–½2019B09106th British-ch 20198.10
Moore,G2264Ward,C24180–12019B76106th British-ch 20198.11
Pigott,J2384Toma,K22290–12019D76106th British-ch 20198.12
Stoyanov,V2198Bates,R2352½–½2019E62106th British-ch 20198.13
Crickmore,N2187Ashton,A23230–12019E04106th British-ch 20198.14
Ogunshola,O2172Bradbury,N23220–12019A29106th British-ch 20198.15
Brewer,C2086Claridge-Hansen,W2297½–½2019B01106th British-ch 20198.16
Zapolskis,A2290Hand,F21420–12019C56106th British-ch 20198.17
Holland,C2143Rocco,F21570–12019E48106th British-ch 20198.18
Starley,R2058Smith,A2147½–½2019B56106th British-ch 20198.19
Wall,T2246Jones,S21170–12019C84106th British-ch 20198.20
Merriman,J2226Longson,S2095½–½2019D45106th British-ch 20198.21
Modi,S2098Ledger,D21681–02019E04106th British-ch 20198.22
Villiers,T2218Jaufarally,N19441–02019B07106th British-ch 20198.23
Player,E2202Krzyzanowski,P21140–12019B36106th British-ch 20198.24
Yoon,J1963Donaldson,T20651–02019A45106th British-ch 20198.25

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Daniel is an English grandmaster with a FIDE rating of 2498 and a peak Elo of 2573. He became a Grandmaster in 2005, and played for England in Olympiad and European Championships. Author of Play Chess Like the Pros, Calculate Like a Grandmaster, Mating the Castled King and A Year in the Chess World, Gormally is also an established chess coach at St Mary’s School in Alnwick, England, where he lives.

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