Britons at their Sunday best

Sunday's fourth round of the 2008 Staunton Memorial tournament saw the British players put up one of their best efforts in the informal match contest against the Dutch. Of the three decisive games, two saw Englishmen defeat their Orange rivals, thereby levelling the overall match score. In the three years of Jan Mol's sponsorship, I am not sure this has ever happened before.

Jon Speelman opened his winning account by ending Erwin's L'Ami's unbeaten start. The latter's Slav Defence produced its customary solid, but passive position, and L'Ami's attempts to free himself left White with heavy pressure against the enemy hanging pawn couplet. One pawn soon dropped off, and although a tactical trick at move 32 saw the Dutchman win the exchange, White had three pawns and a winning endgame by way of compensation. 

The other England-Holland encounter was the clash of the leaders, and produce an interesting battle:

Staunton Memorial (4), 10.08.2008

1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 a6 4.Ba4 Nf6 5.0-0 Nxe4

The Open Spanish has long been a regular feature of Timman's opening repertoire, which is only fitting; aside from Tarrasch himself, the man who did most to put the line on the map at GM level was Jan's "great predecessor" in Dutch chess, Max Euwe.

6.d4 b5 7.Bb3 d5 8.dxe5 Be6 9.Be3 Be7 10.c3 Nc5 11.Bc2 Nd7 12.Re1 Ndxe5

This looks a rather audacious pawn snatch, but in fact he players were still following well-known theory.

13.Nxe5 Nxe5 14.Bd4 f6 15.a4 b4

16.f4

This is the first new move. A game Svidler-Carlsen, Melody Amber 2007, saw White prefer 16.cxb4, but without any special success, the game being drawn in 31 moves.

16...Bg4 17.Qd2 Nc6

Adams had expected 17...Nc4 18 Qd3, which the players later concluded was unclear. However, there is probably nothing wrong with Timman's choice.

18.Bf2 Bh5 19.c4 b3!

White's main point is that 19...dxc4 is strongly met by 20.Be4, so Black instead deflects the bishop from the e4-square.

20.Bxb3 d4 21.c5 Bf7 22.Bxf7+ Kxf7 23.Qd3

23...Qd7?

Probably the crucial turning point. The text results in the rook being shut in on h8 after White's next move. Instead, Timman should have played 23...Rhe8!, with a satisfactory position. Then 24.Qxh7 is well met by 24...Qd5, whilst playing along the same lines as the game by 24.Qc4+ Kf8 25.b4 can be answered by 25...Qb8, with excellent counterplay.

24.Qc4+ Kf8 25.b4

Now Black has serious problems, since he cannot create counterplay on the queenside, his KR is out of play, and the pawn on d4 will eventually come under pressure. Timman continues to fight hard, but Adams' technique from here on is relentless.

25...a5 26.b5 Nb4 27.Nd2 Qd5 28.Qxd5 Nxd5 29.Nb3 Kf7 30.Rad1 Nb4 31.Bxd4 Rhd8 32.Rd2 Rd5 33.Red1 c6 34.b6 Na6 35.Be3 Nb4 36.Rxd5 Nxd5 37.Bd2

37.Rxd5 was the expectation of many spectators, and should indeed win comfortably enough, but Adams sees no reason to take the slightest risk.

37...Ke6 38.Kf2 Kd7 39.Kf3 f5 40.Rc1 Bf6 41.Ke2 Bb2 42.Rc4 Ba3 43.Nxa5 Bb2 44.Kd3 Bf6 45.g3 Re8 46.Rc1 Ra8 47.Rb1 Be7 48.Kc4 Bf6 49.Re1 Rb8 1-0

This is Mickey's third appearance in the Staunton Memorial, and according to my calculations, this game brings his cumulative score with the white pieces to 11.5 / 13!

The day's other winner was Alexander Cherniaev, who brought himself back to 50% by defeating Bob Wade. The latter's Antoshin Philidor yielded a satisfactory position from the opening, and only a serious tactical blunder later on cost him the game. With an extra exchange and several ways to win, and perhaps remembering that he was in the building where Anderssen played his Immortal Game, Cherniaev chose the most attractive knockout, involving a temporary queen sacrifice:

33.exf6 Rxe3 34.Rxe3 Qf8 35.Re7+ Kh8 36.Bf7 Bb5 37.Bxg6 1-0

Sokolov -Werle was a carefully-played draw, as was Wells-Short, whilst van Wely and Smeets hard a rather harder fight, which also ended peacefully. Incidentally, I must apologise to Peter Wells, for having quite unjustly deprived him of a hard-earned half-point, in the round 3 scores that I quoted in yesterday's report. With the draw against Nigel, he now has 2.5 / 4.

So after four rounds, the scores are: Adams 3.5, Timman, Wells and van Wely 2.5, Speelman, Cherniaev, Werle, Smeets and Short 2, Sokolov and L'Ami 1.5, Wade 0.