FIDE WCC R7-5: Adams catches up in FIDE slugfest

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½-½, 1-0, 0-1, 1-0, 0-1

That is the incredible score after five rounds of this six-game FIDE world championship final. After the draw in the first game both players have been uncompromising, winning each of their white games. First Rustam Kasimdzhanov went into the lead, then Michael Adams caught up, then "Kasim" won again, then "Mickey" caught up. Tomorrow is the last regular game. If it ends in a draw then there will be tiebreaks on Tuesday. That evening a new FIDE world champion will be crowned.

Results of Semifinals

Finals – Game five

Rustam Kasimdzhanov of Uzbekistan vs Michael Adams of Britain, with FIDE officials (right president Kirsan Ilyumzhinov) looking on at the start of game five

Adams,M (2731) - Kasimdzhanov,R (2652) [C97]
FIDE WCh KO Tripoli LBA (7.5), 11.07.2004

1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 a6 4.Ba4 Nf6 5.0-0 Be7 6.Re1 b5 7.Bb3 d6 8.c3 0-0 9.h3 Na5 10.Bc2 c5 11.d4 Qc7 12.d5 Nc4 13.a4 Bd7 14.b3 Nb6 15.a5 Nc8 16.c4. The Chigorin Defence of the closed Ruy Lopez. Previous games saw 16.b4 with a 45-move draw in Kasparov,G-Ivanchuk,V/Prague 2002; and 16.Nbd2 in Karolyi,T-Siklosi,Z/HUN 1992 and Hertneck,G-Bachmayr,P/Austria 1997. 16...b4N. This is new. Earlier this year Shirov played 16...g6 against Topalov in Linares and lost in 45 moves.

Rustam Kasimdzhanov seems to know what is in store for him

17.Nbd2 g6 18.Nf1 Nh5 19.Bh6 Re8 20.Qd2 Bf8. This was the first time that Kasimdzhanov had started to think, spending 13 minutes to come up with the last move. 21.g4 Ng7 22.N3h2 Qd8.

23.f4! Adams makes it perfectly clear he's out to win this game. An aggressive move like this by the world's number six player is bound to shock and awe a player who is not amongst the top 50, although Kasimdzhanov has been 2700+ on the rating scale and has shown little fear for top GMs in this tournament.

Michael Adams in Terminator IV mode (with Ilyumzhinov watching)

23...exf4 24.Qxf4 Qe7 25.Nf3 f6 26.Ng3 Rd8 27.Rf1 Ne8 28.Bxf8 Qxf8.

29.e5! "Can he really play that?" asked Nigel Short incredulously in the Playchess.com broadcast, where almost 1000 spectators were following the game. "Yes he can," answered Fritz, running on most of the other visitors' computers. 29...dxe5 30.Nxe5 Ncd6 (since you ask: 30...fxe5 31.Qxf8#!) 31.Rae1 Qg7 32.Nd3. Already Black is in deep trouble. The main problem, as Nigel explained, is that he has no squares for his pieces, no constructive moves to play. 32...Rac8 33.Qf2 f5.

Kasimdzhanov needs space and plays this pawn sacrifice after 12 minutes of thought. 34.Ne5?! 34.Nxc5 was instantly winning, according to the GMs on the Playchess server (and Teimour Radjabov in Tripoli). But Adams has everything under control. 34...Nf6 35.Nxd7 Rxd7 36.gxf5 g5 37.Re6 Kh8 38.Bd1.

38...g4. A last desperate attempt by Kasim to create complications, but Adams displays excellent nerves and technique. 39.hxg4 Rg8 40.Qf4 Nxg4 41.Bxg4 Qxg4 42.Qxg4 Rxg4 43.Kh2 h5 44.Kh3 Rd4 45.f6 Nf7 46.Rf5 1-0.

• Replay and download all games of the final
• Replay and download all the semifinal games
• View all round five games online and download PGN
• View all round four games online and download PGN
• All the games from round three in PGN
• All the games from the first two rounds in zipped PGN

Previous reports

• BBC report: Gaddafi's strategic chess move
• FIDE report on round 3-1 with pictures and videos
• Interview with Zhang Zhong
• ChessBase pre-match report
• ChessBase round one game on report
• ChessBase round one report
• ChessBase round two game one report
• ChessBase round two report
• ChessBase round three game one report
• ChessBase round three game two report
• ChessBase round four game one report
• ChessBase round four game two report
• ChessBase round five game one report
• ChessBase round five game two report
• ChessBase round six game one report
• ChessBase round six game two report
• ChessBase round six game three report
• ChessBase round six game four report
• ChessBase round six tiebreaks report
• ChessBase finals round one report
• ChessBase finals round two report
• ChessBase finals round three report
• ChessBase finals round four report
• GM impressions by Sergei Tiviakov
• Postcards from Tripoli by Paul Hoffman
• Odds: Who will be the next FIDE world champion?
• Revised odds for FIDE championship
• Odds after round three

General information

The FIDE site, which is being hosted by Libya Telecom And Technology, contains the schedule, list of players, results tree, games, reports, pictures and videos. The start page is http://wcc2004.fide.com and http://wcclibya2004.com.

Live coverage

The live game transmission from Tripoli requires you to have Java Virtual Machine installed on your PC. This program is distributed free of charge by Sun Microsystems (and is useful for many other applications). Visit the Java check page to see if you have everything required for the live coverage and install Java if you don't. To follow the games click on "Live coverage" in the link list above. Then click on the "View" button. The games will also be covered and discussed on the Playchess.com server.

Schedule

Note that local time in Tripoli is the same as in Central Europe. The start of the games is generally at 14:30h, which is GMT + 2 and translates to 13:30 London, 8:30 a.m. New York, 16:30 Moscow, 18:00 New Delhi, 20:30 Hong Kong, 21:30 Tokyo, 22:30 Melbourne, and 03:00 a.m. (on the next day) in the French Polynesia-Marquesas Islands of Taiohae.