European Individual Championships 2010 (6)
Adams and Howell in touch after 6 rounds of the European Individuals
IM Malcolm Pein - Monday 15th March 2010
Michael Adams and David Howell were making reasonable progress after six rounds of the European Individual Championships at Rijeka in Croatia.
Michael Adams and David Howell were making reasonable progress after six rounds of the European Individual Championships at Rijeka in Croatia. The objective for both players is to qualify for the next World Cup and a score of 7/10 may well suffice and 7.5/10 will surely be enough. With four to play Adams has an unbeaten 4.5/6 and Howell is on 4/6. Adams probably needs to win at least one more game while Howell may need 3/4.
Baadur Jobava of Georgia is one of the leaders.
S Sulskis - B Jobava
Caro Kann Defence
1.e4 c6 2.d4 d5 3.e5 Bf5 4.Nd2 e6 5.Nb3 Nd7 6.Nf3 Ne7 7.Be2 Bg4 8.0-0 Nf5 9.h3 Bxf3 10.Bxf3 g6 11.Bf4 h5
(Very provocative. Black relies on the solidity of his position)
12.Re1 Bh6 13.Bxh6 Nxh6 14.c4!?
(14.g3 h4 15.g4 f5 16.exf6 Qxf6 with good counterplay. 14.Rc1)
14...dxc4 15.Nd2 Nb6 16.Ne4 Nf5 17.g4
(Conqeuring d6 but opening the 'h' file)
17...hxg4 18.hxg4 Nh4 19.Nd6+ Kf8 20.Bh1
(Black keeps his extra pawn, if 20.Nxb7 Qxd4!)
20...Qg5! 21.a4 Kg7 22.Ra3 Nf5!! 23.Nxb7? Rxh1+ 24.Kxh1 Rh8+ 25.Kg2 Nd5 26.Re4 Nf4+ 0-1
There are some nice lines, 26...Nf4+ 27.Rxf4 Qxf4 28.Rg3 Qxg3+! or 26...Nf4+ 27.Kg1 Qh4 28.Qf3 Qh2+ 29.Kf1 Qh1+ 30.Qxh1 Rxh1 mate.
Baadur Jobava
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S Sulskis
Position after 26...Nf4+
Black makes too many early positional concessions.
M Adams - S Martinovic
French Tarrasch
1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.Nd2 c5 4.exd5 Qxd5 5.dxc5 Bxc5 6.Ngf3 Nf6 7.Bc4 Qc6 8.Qe2 0-0 9.0-0 Nbd7 10.Nb3 b6 11.Nxc5 Qxc5 12.b3 Bb7 13.Bb2 Qh5 14.Ne5 Qxe2 15.Bxe2 Nxe5 16.Bxe5 Rac8 17.c4 Rfd8 18.Rfd1 Kf8 19.f3 Ke7 20.Kf2 Ne8 21.a4 Rxd1 22.Rxd1 Rd8 23.Bd4!
Adams has the bishop pair and a queenside pawn majority. Keeping rooks on adds to Black's problems
23...Bc6 24.a5 Rb8 25.b4 f6 26.b5 Bd7 27.c5
1-0
S Martinovic
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Michael Adams
Final position after 27.c5! Black loses a pawn in all lines and White\'s advance is unstoppable. If 27...bxa5 28.c5
