Michael Adams could not overcome tournament leader Ivan Cheparinov in the last round of the Ruy Lopez tournament at Zafar in Spain. Adams defended with the solid Breyer Defence to the Ruy Lopez and was fortunate not to lose after a defensive slip. Rather than complicate the game in search of what would have been a likely victory, Cheparinov steered the game towards a draw which gave him tournament victory on 5/7. Adams was second on 4.5/7, just a fraction below par for him. All the other games finished decisively. This was the pick of the bunch.

White sacrifices a pawn for the centre and development and Black is unable to stop the resulting kingside attack. After 16.Rd4! and 18.Rfd1 White dominates the board and I only found losing variations for Black.

a) 16...Nc5 17.Nf6+ gxf6 18.Bh6 Kh8 19.Rg4 Rg8 20.Rxg8+ Kxg8 21.Qg4+ Kh8 22.Qg7#

b) 19...c5 20.Bxe7 cxd4 21.Nf6+ gxf6 22.Bxf6 Bb7 23.Qh5 Bxg2 24.Qh6

c) 20...h6 21.Nxf7 Kxf7 22.Qh5+ Ke7 23.Bc6

d) 20...h6 21.Nxf7 Kxf7 22.Qh5+ g6 23.Qxh6 c5 24.Rf4+ Kg8 25.Rh4 Qc7 26.Qh8+ Kf7 27.Qf6+ Kg8 28.Rh8#

e) 21...g6 22.Qf3 Rb7 23.Rd6 Rbe7 24.Ne4-f6+

f) 22...Re7 23.Ne4 Bb7 24.Nf6+ Kh8 25.Rh4h6 26.Qg5 Nh7 27.Rxh6 gxf6 28.exf6 Rg8 29.Rxh7+ Kxh7 30.Qh5#

g) 30...Nf8 31.Qh3 Nh7 32.Bf3 - h5

F Caruana - M Perez Candelario

III Ruy Lopez Zafra (7)

Catalan

1.d4 d5 2.c4 e6 3.Nf3 Nf6 4.g3 dxc4 5.Bg2 a6 6.0-0 Nc6 7.Nc3 Rb8 8.e4 Be7 9.Qe2 Nxd4 10.Nxd4 Qxd4 11.Rd1 Qb6 12.e5 Nd7 13.Bf4 Qb4 14.Ne4 0-0 15.Rac1 b5 16.Rd4! Re8 17.a3 Qa5 18.Rcd1 Nf8 19.Bg5! Bxg5

20.Nxg5 c5 21.Qh5 Qc7

22.Rf4 h6 23.Nxf7 Re7 24.Nd6 Bd7 25.Rg4 Bc6 26.Qxh6 Rd8 27.Qh5 Be8 28.Qh3 Bg6 29.Rh4 Nh7 30.Qg4 Bf5 31.Nxf5 Rxd1+ 32.Qxd1 exf5 33.Bd5+! 1-0

At Bazda Vasily Ivanchuk refuted a new idea in the opening from Liviu-Dieter Nisipeanu of Romania and leads Boris Gelfand by half a point. Alexey Shirov defeated Gata Kamsky again.

1 Ivanchuk 4.5; 2 Gelfand 4; 3 Shirov 3.5; 4 Radjabov 3; 5-6 Kamsky and Nisipeanu 1.5

V Ivanchuk - LD Nisipeanu

III Kings' Tournament Bazna (6)

Sicilian Defence

1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 e6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nc3 d6 6.Be3 Be7 7.f4 0-0 8.Qf3 e5 9.Nf5 Bxf5 10.exf5 Nbd7 11.Bc4 Rc8 12.Bb3 d5 13.Nxd5 Nxd5 14.Qxd5 exf4 15.Bxf4 Bb4+ 16.c3 Qe7+ 17.Kf1 Rc5 18.Re1 Qh4

(18...Rxd5 19.Rxe7 Rxf5 20.cxb4 Rxf4+ 21.Ke1 Nf6 22.Rxb7 is better for White)

19.Qe4 Ba5 20.Bd6 Qxe4 21.Rxe4 Rxf5+ 22.Ke2 Nc5?

(22...Nf6 23.Re7)

23.Re3 Rc8 24.g4 1-0

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