Chess by Malcolm Pein of the Daily Telegraph
Malcolm Pein writes for the Daily Telegraph (telegraph.co.uk)
you can read his chess columns along with those of Nigel Short and David
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Round 1 Monday 21st July 2003
Chess prodigy David Howell, 12 from Seaford in Sussex started the Smith and Williamson British Championships with a draw against Grandmaster Peter Wells in the first round played at George Heriot's School in Edinburgh.
In the only all GM game of the day on top board Colin McNab played his trademark Modern Defence and held number one seed Vassilios Kotronias of Cyprus to a draw. McNab used a clever pawn sacrifice to defuse the White attacking setup and reach an endgame where he had active pieces. At the end Kotronias had gone from being a pawn up to a pawn down but the endgame of rook and three pawns against rook and two pawns was a draw.
On board two IM Adam Hunt of Oxford smoothly despatched Indian GM Dibyendu Barua but Craig Hanley lost to GM Pentyla Harekrishna.
4NCL Webmaster Peter Sowray defeated his Wood Green team mate GM Matthew Turner in a major upset after the latter defended an inferior rook and pawn endgame badly. Scottish number one Jonathan Rowson looked to be in superb form as he began the tournament with a brilliant bishop sacrifice that overcame Neil McDonald's French Defence.
Smith and Williamson British Championships Top 20 results.
GM Kotronias draw GM McNab
IM A Hunt 1-0 GM Barua
GM Conquest 1-0 IM Al Abdullah
Hanley 0-1 GM Harekrishna
GM Rowson 1-0 GM McDonald
IM S Williams draw GM Ganguly
GM Motwani 1-0 S.Collins
IM Ansell 0-1 GM Z Rahman
GM Gallagher 1-0 G Lee
Sowray 1-0 GM Turner
GM Kunte 1-0 IM Mannion
IM Gwaze 0-1 GM Summerscale
IM N Pert 1-0 L Webb
D Howell draw GM Wells
IM J Shaw 1-0 Mohota
WIM Meenakshi 0-1 IM Gormally
IM Sattar draw WIM Ramsawamy
IM Muir 0-1 IM Neelotpal Das
IM E Hossain 1-0 IM Pritchett
A Ghasi 0-1 IM Kidambi
Hunt,A (2395) - Barua,D (2561) [C11]
ch-GBR Edinburgh SCO (1), 14.07.2003
1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.Nc3 Nf6 4.Bg5 dxe4 5.Nxe4 Be7 6.Bxf6 gxf6 7.Qd3 b6 Alexander Morozevich's favourite move in these positions is 7. ..a6 followed by . ..b5 which looks more active than Barua's plan that allows a central break. 8.0-0-0 Bb7 9.Nc3 a6? Tournament commentator IM Andrew Martin reveals that after 9. ..c6 Hunt intended 10.f4 f5 11.g4!? fxg4 12.f5 with sharp play although 10.Qg3 also looks promising. 10.d5! exd5 11.Nxd5 Bxd5 12.Qxd5 Qxd5 13.Rxd5 Nd7 14.Nf3 Bc5 15.Bd3 c6 [ 15...Bxf2 16.Rf1 Be3+ 17.Kb1 Bf4 ( 17...0-0-0 18.Bf5 wins.) 18.Re1+ Be5 was an alternate defence.] 16.Re1+ Kd8 17.Rh5 h6 18.Re2 Kc7 19.Bc4 Raf8 20.Bxa6 b5 21.a4 bxa4 In the endgame Black's pawns are horribly damaged and he can only hope for drawing chances because of the presence of opposite coloured bishops. The Rh5 is well placed tying down its opposite number while still influencing events elsewhere as illustrated by the variation 21. ..Kb6 22.axb5 cxb5 23.Rd5! Bb8 24.b4 Nxa6 24.bxc5+ Nxc5 25.Rd6+. 22.Bc4 a3 23.bxa3 Bxa3+ 24.Kd2 Nb6 25.Bb3 Rd8+ 26.Kc3 c5? A time trouble induced blunder. [ 26...Nd5+ Gives drawing chances.] 27.Re7+ Rd7 28.Rxd7+ Nxd7 29.Bxf7 Kd6 30.Bc4 Bb4+ 31.Kd3 Ne5+ 32.Nxe5 fxe5 33.Rf5 Ba5 34.Rf6+ Kc7 35.Bd5 Rd8 36.Kc4 Bb6?
Time but in the final position a second pawn falls and Black's bishop is out of play. 1-0