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.

Catching Up: MVL Wins Biel Blitz (and Gives a Master Class); Adams Dominant in British Championship

I'd already mentioned Maxime Vachier-Lagrave's dominance over Peter Svidler in their classical and rapid match in Biel, but it turned out that there was a larger blitz event that followed their match. As it turned out, ironically, MVL and Svidler tied for first and then played a 2-game match to decide the winner. Naturally, Vachier-Lagrave won this one too, 2-0.

A better reason to harken back to Biel is that Vachier-Lagrave gave a "Master Class" on a free day, which you can watch below.

More recently, Michael Adams won the British Championship in style, scoring an undefeated 10/11 to finish a point and a half ahead of his closest challenger. Along the way he defeated the next two seeds, David Howell (recently a 2700) and Gawain Jones, so it was in every sense a dominant performance by the strongest chess player in British history. Congratulations to GM Adams, who was at least once upon a time a reader of this blog, and someone whose success I appreciate as a player of my generation (more or less).

Grenke Chess Classic, Round 3: Carlsen Loses to Naiditsch, Who Leads With Caruana

Round 3 of the Grenke Chess Classic wasn't a display of great chess players at their best, and that could be why it was such an entertaining round. Maybe the one draw wasn't terribly interesting, as Etienne Bacrot and Viswanathan Anand drew in a theory-heavy line of the Berlin ending, but the other three games were lively and decisive.

The game of the round was of course the battle between Arkadij Naiditsch and Magnus Carlsen, or "Magnus Jobava" as some dubbed him after his questionable piece sacrifice on move 10. Neither human insight nor computer calculation could justify the sacrifice, and Naiditsch looked likely to win until his 31st move. After that a tense equality prevailed for almost 20 moves, but then Carlsen got in trouble again starting with 49...Kf6. (Or maybe before then. 49...Rf4 maintains equality, but Black has to find a lot of subtle and accurate moves to keep that equality.) The final error was 55...Rc7, after which Naiditsch accurately calculated things to the end, and won.

Two additional Magnus Carlsen-related tidbits. First, this is his second straight loss to Naiditsch; the first loss was in the Tromso Olympics last year. The second was noted by Carlsen in a tweet: this is his fourth consecutive third-round loss. The first three came in the Sinquefield Cup, the match with Anand, and at Wijk aan Zee. He didn't win the Sinquefield Cup, but he went on to win the other two, and as he's only half a point back with four rounds to go his situation is far from hopeless.

Naiditsch leads though, and so does Fabiano Caruana the latter defeated Levon Aronian. Aronian has been playing poorly (by his exalted standards) since last year's Candidates' tournament, and today's game won't do anything for his confidence. He started with a perfectly decent position, but a series of inaccuracies and errors (perhaps especially on his 31st and 34th moves) left him lost at the time control, and he resigned after Black made his 40th move.

Finally, Michael Adams bounced back from yesterday's loss to Carlsen with a win over David Baramidze. They played a Closed Ruy with 6.d3, and Adams didn't have much until Baramidze blundered with 16...Ne7?? Adams spotted the position and obtained a won position, and Black's dubious piece sacrifice on move 25 eliminated any last chances he might have had to hold the game.

Tomorrow (Thursday) is a rest day, and on Friday they'll play round 4, with these pairings:

• Anand (1.5) - Carlsen (1.5)
• Baramidze (1) - Naiditsch (2)
• Caruana (2) - Adams (1.5)
• Bacrot (1.5) - Aronian (1)

In the meantime, you can see today's games, with my brief notes, here.

London Chess Classic, Round 3: Three Draws, But A Near-Miss For Adams

There weren't any decisive games in today's action at the London Chess Classic, but there was some excitement in the games between Hikaru Nakamura and Viswanathan Anand on the one hand, and between Michael Adams and Vladimir Kramnik on the other. (The third game, between Fabiano Caruana and Anish Giri, also had some brief excitement as the players broke new ground in the Berlin endgame, but it fizzled out by move 23 and the remainder was just for the sake of appeasing the organizers.)

Nakamura essayed the Evans Gambit against Anand, and while that may sound exciting to players who haven't looked at many games played with that gambit since Chigorin and Steinitz were duking it out for the world championship, they tend to be pretty dull. (Not always, but usually.) Anand came out of the opening in good shape, but small inaccuracies in the early middlegame gave Nakamura an initiative. Once in a bit of trouble, however, Anand defended like a lion, and he held his own through the complications. Eventually the players repeated, and while the engines on the Chess24 live feed makes it look as if Anand had an advantage he didn't. White remains quite active (look at the board!) and there are a lot of tricks, too. The position is equal even if Black continues, and there are probably many more ways for Black to go wrong than for White in a game between humans.

Finally, there's the Adams-Kramnik game. Like Caruana-Giri it went into the Berlin "endgame", and Kramnik found a significant new idea for Black in the trendy 9.h3 line. He equalized easily and could have forced a draw, but decided to press instead. The idea of running the a-pawn was a good one, but it would have been better without his rook on a3. A very long think on his 34th move led him into all kinds of trouble, and with his 40th move Adams could have put the game away. He saw the move and assessed it correctly, but to his misfortune decided that another move would give him an even better version of the same thing. As he surely realized very quickly, his assessment was completely mistaken, and Kramnik escaped with a draw without any further adventures. Ironically, both players made bad decisions based on overthinking a particular move: long think, wrong think.

Had Adams won, he would have taken over the lead. As things stand, Kramnik and Giri continue to lead with 5 points apiece on the tournament's 3-1-0 scoring system. Adams has 4 points, Anand 3, and Nakamura and Caruana have 2. Tomorrow's round starts two hours earlier, and has these pairings:

• Anand - Giri
• Kramnik - Caruana
• Nakamura - Adams

The games are here, with some annotations to Adams-Kramnik.

London Chess Classic, Round 1: Adams Leads After An Up-And-Down Win Over Caruana

Day 1 of the main event of the London Chess Classic got underway, and there was a bit of everything. Hikaru Nakamura and Anish Giri fulfilled their professional obligations by ensuring that the tournament had at least one Berlin. Nakamura went for the 5.Re1 line, which is one of the two main anti-endgame variations, and while he got a little pressure it wasn't nearly enough to obtain serious winning chances.

About the contest between Vladimir Kramnik and Viswanathan Anand, there are (at least) three possible reactions. If you've never before seen a game in the Botvinnik System, you're in for a thrill. If you have seen the Botvinnik System but don't really know much before the basic tabiya around move 16 or so, you too will find the game entertaining. If you are well-acquainted with the theory of the variation - and there is a LOT of theory to know - you'll find it a bit ridiculous. For once, Kramnik brought nothing new to the table, and Anand only needed to show that he was up-to-date in his knowledge. The first new move of the game was 39.Kf3, and by that point the game was already a dead draw for players of their caliber.

Finally, Michael Adams and Fabiano Caruana played a rather screwy game in which both players repeatedly enjoyed and gave away winning advantages. First Adams misplayed the opening, an Anti-Marshall with 8.d3, and Caruana was soon winning. He in turn messed up, and then Adams was winning. Fate smiled on Caruana for a while, as he escaped, got an advantage and made the time control too. And yet despite all of this, he suffered a double whammy. He missed a neat trick, but after his position was losing in any case he sidestepped it. Unfortunately for him, Adams hadn't found the trick, and if Caruana had put him to the test and he didn't spot it, the Italian player would have been alright. In the end, Adams showed good technique and won the game.

He leads with 3 points (they are using the 3-1-0 scoring system), Caruana has 0 and everyone else has 1. Here are the pairings for Thursday's round 2 action:

• Anand - Caruana
• Giri - Adams
• Kramnik - Nakamura

The round 1 games, with my comments, are here.

Dortmund 2013: Adams Wins, Kramnik Second

Vladimir Kramnik always seems to play well in Dortmund, an annual super-tournament he has won ten times (four times sharing first) over a span from 1995 to 2011. Michael Adams did win it once, sharing first with Kramnik, but that was all the way back in 1998. When we left off last time, they were sharing first with 4/5 going into the rest day, with the rest of the field already well in the rear view mirror.

They kept up their torrid pace in round 6, both men winning quickly. Kramnik won a remarkable attacking game against Daniel Fridman, while Arkadij Naiditsch's attempts to attack Adams quickly backfired. Round 7 was the deciding round. Adams won again, defeating Igor Khenkin with ease, while Kramnik lost to Dmtiry Andreikin for the second time in a month. Kramnik bounced back with an extremely hard-fought victory over Fabiano Caruana, who had a really awful tournament. Caruana defended like a lion and was on the verge of a draw, but made a simple error at what was probably the last moment requiring an even slightly subtle decision, and lost. (After 6+ hours and 75 moves of a very complicated game at the end of a tournament, even "simple" positions aren't always so easy to play.) Adams drew very comfortably against Georg Meier, and so with one round left he was half a point ahead of Kramnik.

The good news is that they were paired in the last round; the bad news (for those looking for drama) was that Kramnik had the black pieces. Kramnik played the Sicilian in hopes of stirring things up, but Adams played a c3 Sicilian (on move 3, after 2.Nf3 g6), and found a neat line that quickly forced Kramnik to take a repetition.

Adams thus took clear first with a great score of 7 out of 9, with Kramnik half a point behind. Adams' TPR was 2925, and moved his rating to a career high 2761 (rounding up), putting him at #11 in the world. (Not a career high.) Kramnik's successful tournament netted 10 rating points, undoing much of the damage suffered in the Tal Memorial and putting him back into third place on the live list with a 2794 rating.

To varying degrees of depth, I've annotated both players' games from round 6-9 - have a look. Meanwhile, for completeness' sake and to acknowledge the existence of the rest of the field, here are the final standings:

1. Adams 7 (of 9)
2. Kramnik 6.5
3-4. Leko, Naiditsch 4.5
5-8. Andreikin, Meier, Caruana, Wang Hao 4
9. Khenkin 3.5
10. Fridman 3

Adams and Kramnik Lead Dortmund At The Rest Day

Five rounds into the nine-round annual event that is the Dortmund super-tournament, and two players are sprinting away from the rest of the field. Michael Adams and Vladimir Kramnik both have undefeated 4/5 scores and lead the rest of the field by a point and a half or more.

You might remember that Caruana achieved a 2800 rating with his first-round victory. Unfortunately for him, that was the end of the good news. He drew in round 2 and then lost in rounds 3 and 4 before drawing in round 5 - with difficulty with the White pieces. So much for 2800 - he's 2787, rounded up. Meanwhile, Kramnik is back to his "rightful" spot in the top three, where he has spent much, probably most of the last 17 years. For Adams too the event is a big ratings success, and at 2754 he's just a point short of his all-time (official) career high. Life may not begin at 40, but it doesn't end there, either. (Except for Gata Kamsky, with reference to his chess life. As far as I know, he still plans to quit the game next year.)

For your entertainment, here, with some very brief notes, are six games from the last three rounds. Enjoy!

Mickey Adams in Chicago

A few weeks ago I mentioned that players in or near Chicago had the chance to play English super-GM Mickey Adams in a clock simul. The event has passed (but may happen again next year???), but you can read a short article on the event by Adams himself and download an excellent, much longer report by organizer Daniel Parmet.

Michael Adams Simul

Daniel Parmet writes in to announce that he's running a 10-board clock simul with English GM Michael Adams at the Downers Grove Chess Club (near Chicago) on May 23. Quoting Daniel:

Perhaps people traveling for the Chicago Open might be interested in coming a day early to play Adams.

The information is Entry: $90, Time control Game 90, 10 boards first come first serve (4 spots left), 7:30pm Weds May 23rd at Address 200 Village Drive, Downers Grove, IL, 60516

Those wishing to reserve their spots in advance can email Daniel here.

Gibraltar: Hou Yifan and Adams Lead After Round 8

After 8 of 10 rounds, Michael Adams and women's world champion Hou Yifan are tied for first in the Tradewise Gibraltar Chess Festival. Hou managed to beat Le Quang Liem in a tactical slugfest, while Adams drew second-seed Shakhriyar Mamedyarov. Hou and Adams are half a point ahead of 14 other players, including Alexei Shirov, the winner of a spectacular game against Artur Yusupov that may well be my ChessVideos show this week.