FIDE WCC R6-1: Adams wins with black

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Results of Semifinals

Report on semifinals game one

The four remaining players in the FIDE World Championship played the first game of the semifinals in Tripoli on Thursday afternoon. Two are absolute favourites, topping the seeding lists as well as the statistics charts. Bulgarian Veselin Topalov now has a 44% chance to win the tournament, Michael Adams a 34% chance. The underdogs Teimour Radjabov and Rustam Kasimdzhanov have a 13% and 9% chance respectively. Adams is the oldest of the four at 32, Radjabov the youngest at 17.

Rustam Kasimdzhanov at the start of his first semifinal game against Topalov

The Uzbek Kasimdzhanov is not to be underestimated, having already knocked out two heavy-weights, no. 4 seed Alexander Grischuk and no. 5 seed Vassily Ivanchuk. He has played just one game previously against Topalov, in 1999, which ended in a draw.

The game Topalov vs Kasimdzhanov ended after 15 moves in a draw

In round one of the semifinals in Libya the two players took just over half an hour and 15 moves to reach the same result. The game was a purely theoretical Queen’s Gambit Accepted. We do not know the tactical rationale behind this game, but since Topalov had black we can assume that he will play for a win in tomorrow's game.

Michael Adams vs 17-year-old Teimour Radjabov with his trademark shades

Adams and Radjabov also have only one classical game against each other in the chess databases, 2003 in Enghien les Bains. Adams won that one with white. In a rapid chess match in 2002 Adams was the winner with 2.5:1.5 (one win and three draws).

The two matches on the stage in Tripoli

The semifinal game in this championship began as a familiar Catalan, the open variation with 5..a6 and 6…Nc6. But then Adams uncorked two moves that have never been played in tournaments before: 9…Nb6 and 10…Na5. Radjabov was soon in trouble. Adams hung on to his extra pawn and Radjabov could not seem to find the compensation that White usually has in the Catalan.

The above pictures are brought to you be courtesy of FIDE (© FIDE.com)

Radjabov,T (2670) - Adams,M (2731) [E04]
FIDE WCh KO Tripoli LBA (6.1), 01.07.2004

In the above position Radjabov tried to get counterplay with 25.e5!?, but after a long think Adams came up with 25…Bc8. After the moves 26.dxc5 Nxc5 27.Bf1 Black defended the pawn on c4 with 27…Na3, a move that threatens a fork on c2. There followed 28.Nd4 Nc2! 29.Nxc2 Rxd2 30.Nd4 b5 and after 31.R3e2 Rxe2 32.Bxe2 Rh8 Adams was able to hold on to his extra pawn and win a fine technical ending. 31.R3e2 Rxe2 32.Bxe2 Rh8 33.exf6 gxf6 34.f4 Na4 35.Rc1 Kc7 36.Kf2 Nc5 37.Ke3 Bb7 38.Rg1 Bd5 39.g4 hxg4 40.Rxg4 Kd6 41.f5 e5 42.Nc2 Be4 43.Rxe4 Nxe4 44.Kxe4 Rxh4+ 45.Ke3 Rf4 46.Nd4 b4.

The final blow came when Radjabov (in a lost position) played 47.Ne6, attacking the rook. Adams coolly replied 47...bxc3 and Black resigned, since after 48.Nxf4 exf4+ neither the king nor bishop can prevent the c-pawn from queening. 0-1.

• 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
• 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, apparently of all games, 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. There is a "View" button behind each pairing of players. Many of the key 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.