British Championship, Round 9 and Playoffs
(With apologies for a lack of timeliness, but there really is a very good reason for it. I've got some more posts coming down the pipe, and the fun in St. Louis is starting shortly as well. Your favorite chess blog [or this one, for those who semi-unaccountably prefer other chess blogs] should resume something like normal service now.)
When we left off last time, Michael Adams and David Howell were tied going into the last round of the British Championship. That was a bit fortunate for Howell, as Adams was winning his round eight game against Nicholas Pert, but fortunate or not they led with 6.5 points apiece, half a point ahead of Luke McShane and Gawain Jones. For the last round, Howell had White against McShane, Adams Black against Danny Gormally, and Jones had Black against Ameet Ghasi.
Jones managed to put Ghasi under a little pressure, but not too much. Jones played on until bare kings were reached on move 72 before (of necessity) calling it a draw and dropping out of the picture. The other games were finished by then, and the one may have affected the other. Despite having the black pieces, Adams sacrificed an exchange against Gormally and eventually achieved a better, probably winning endgame with a pair of dangerous passed pawns. I didn't watch the games in real time so I'm not sure of the exact timeline, but judging by the move numbers it's plausible to think that Howell started taking extra risks to avoid a drawish outcome.
The big beneficiary in all of this was McShane. Howell's risky 23.Rxb7 created a situation where bad things could happen, and 26.f4? was the mistake that resulted in disaster. McShane finished brilliantly, catching Howell's king in a mating net. Meanwhile, Adams' 28...Rg8? and 31...Kd6? allowed Gormally to escape with a draw, and so it was time for an Adams-McShane playoff.
Here Adams dominated, but he once again made things more difficult for himself than he had to. The format was to play a pair of 20'+10" games, and if they finished 1-1 the players would try their luck at 5'+3", and then finally an Armaggedon game if necessary.
In game 1 Adams gradually outplayed McShane in an Italian, but it wasn't absolutely winning until McShane's big mistake on move 33. Now McShane had to win his white game, but he was again outplayed by Adams. Whether due to exhaustion or a (n excessive) desire to avoid complications, Adams sat on his positional pluses, not cashing in with winning ...Rxf3 and (later) ...Rxh3 ideas. McShane was suffering for a very long time (and way behind on the clock, as he was in all the playoff games), but he finally got his chance - and took it. Adams won a pawn on the queenside, and it came at the cost of a temporary lack of harmony in his position. With an accurate move or two it would have been reestablished and victory would have been his, but the careless 51...Qxd4?? gave it all away. After 52.Nd6! Adams was not only not winning, but was simply lost. 1-1, and on to the blitz games.
In the first 5'+3" game, Adams again had White, and again ground McShane down. As one might expect from a couple of exhausted players, especially in a blitz game, there were plenty of sloppy moves near the end, but the "logical" result eventually came to pass and Adams won. In the rematch, Adams again took over, and this time there was no "miracle". McShane was outplayed and then ran into one tactic after another, losing the game and the playoff by a 3-1 score.
Congratulations to Adams, who won his sixth British Championship title; and to McShane as well, who confirmed his unofficial title as the world's strongest amateur.
Adams' and McShane's final round games, and their playoff games as well, can be replayed here with my notes.