No player has managed to take the sole lead at any point during the first six rounds of the British Championship in Hull. Round 6 saw Matthew Wadsworth beating 15-year-old prodigy Shreyas Royal to join Gawain Jones and Ameet Ghasi in the lead. Jones and Ghasi agreed to a 27-move draw on the top board.
A crucial encounter was played on board 3, where top seed David Howell escaped with a draw against defending champion Michael Adams. Adams failed to find a tactical shot in the middlegame while having a 35-minute advantage on the clock. Howell, a time-trouble addict, showed his ability to deal with high-pressure situations, as he survived by finding one precise move after the other while "living on increments".
Howell and Adams are two of eight players standing a half point behind the co-leaders. In Friday's round 7, Ghasi will play white against Wadswaorth while Adams will play white against Jones.
In the race among the women participants, Lan Yao continues to lead, with 3½/6 points to her name. Elmira Mirzoeva, Trisha Kanyamarala and 9-year-old Bodhana Sivanandan have collected 3 points each.
The playing hall during round 3 | Photo: Melinda Wilde
The encounter between Wadsworth and Royal featured a tense early middlegame fight before reaching an equal - yet slightly asymmetrical - position with two rooks and a bishop per side. Royal faltered decisively by playing a natural-looking move.
Here 29...Bxc5, among other moves, keeps the balance. After thinking for almost 5 minutes, though, Royal went for 29...Red8, failing to sense the danger in the double-rook endgame that emerges after the following (forced) sequence: 30.Bxb6 axb6 31.a5
White gives up a pawn to create a quick passer on the b-file. Wadsworth went on to show the correct technique to make the most of his advantage in the technical endgame.
In fact, Black gets a queen before his opponent, but the doubled rooks on the seventh rank combined with the threat of promoting the b-file end up giving White a memorable win.
There followed 44.Kg2 Qa2 45.Rc7 Qd5+ 46.f3 Qa2+ 47.Kh3 Qe6+ 48.Kh4
The king has escaped the checks, and Black cannot defend against the simultaneous threats of checkmate and a potential promotion - resignation came after 48...Kd8 49.Rc8+.
It should be noted that after 49...Rxc8 the only winning move is 50.Rh8+, simplifying into a winning pawn endgame.
| Rk. | Name | Rtg | TB1 | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | GM | Jones, Gawain Cb | 2640 | 5 | |
| IM | Ghasi, Ameet K | 2495 | 5 | ||
| IM | Wadsworth, Matthew J | 2456 | 5 | ||
| 4 | GM | Howell, David Wl | 2675 | 4,5 | |
| GM | Adams, Michael | 2672 | 4,5 | ||
| GM | Mcshane, Luke J | 2617 | 4,5 | ||
| IM | Bazakutsa, Svyatoslav | 2490 | 4,5 | ||
| IM | Royal, Shreyas | 2487 | 4,5 | ||
| GM | Gasanov, Eldar | 2469 | 4,5 | ||
| IM | Palliser, Richard Jd | 2369 | 4,5 | ||
| FM | Balaji, Aaravamudhan | 2316 | 4,5 | ||
| 12 | GM | Conquest, Stuart C | 2510 | 4 | |
| IM | Grieve, Harry | 2477 | 4 | ||
| IM | Merry, Alan B | 2423 | 4 | ||
| IM | Lutsko, Artem | 2414 | 4 | ||
| FM | Derakhshani, Borna | 2351 | 4 | ||
| IM | Kanyamarala, Tarun | 2337 | 4 | ||
| IM | Ledger, Andrew J | 2334 | 4 | ||
| 19 | IM | Trent, Lawrence | 2416 | 3,5 | |
| IM | Pert, Richard G | 2415 | 3,5 |
