Evenly matched
On the occasion of its 30th anniversary, the London Chess Centre organized a match between two top grandmasters from England and Sweden, David Howell and Nils Grandelius. The competition took place on March 2-12 and was held at the Swedish Ambassador’s residence in London. No spectators were allowed.
Nigel Short takes us on an electrifying journey through a very rich chess career, which saw him beat no less than twelve world champions. His experience in tournaments and matches all over the world – Short has visited a total of 89 countries – can be seen in the narratives that precede the games which he annotates with humour and instructive insights.Ten games were played, five of them with a classical “slow” time control — 40 moves in 120 minutes with 30-second increments per move — and five games with the slightly shorter FIDE time control of 90 minutes for 40 moves and 30-second increments per move. Draw offers before move 30 were prohibited.
- David Howell, born in 1990, currently occupies fourth place in the English rankings behind Michael Adams, Gawain Jones and Luke McShane with a 2646 Elo rating. At 16, he was the youngest Briton to get the grandmaster title. Three times, in 2009, 2013 and 2014, Howell won the British Championship.
- Nils Grandelius, born in 1993, has been the highest-ranked player in Sweden without interruption since 2015. He currently has a 2663 rating. In 2015, he won the Swedish Individual Championship.
In the 10-game confrontation, the two grandmasters proved to be equally matched opponents.
After three draws, Howell grabbed the lead after winning a marathon 86-move encounter with the white pieces.
Some more chess in the beautiful hall | Photo: John Saunders
That win gave David Howell the lead, but Nils Grandelius equalized in the second game that was played with a FIDE time control. The Swedish’s remarkable win was analysed in depth by Daniel King in his Power Play show
In game 8, Howell immediately restored his previous advantage.
35.Re1 [35.Re1 Qd8 (35...Qf8 36.Ra8) 36.Qxd8 Nxd8 37.Rxe8+] 1–0
During the competition, 10,000 euros were collected to aid Ukraine.
All games
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