98th British Chess Championships 2011 (3)
David Howell and Stephen Gordon make early British Championship running
IM Malcolm Pein - Friday 29th July 2011
David Howell and Stephen Gordon made 3/3 starts to the British Championships whilst favourites Short and Adams conceded draws. IM Malcolm Pein reports.
David Howell and Stephen Gordon made the early running at the Darwin Strategic 98th British Chess Championships staged at Sheffield. The England internationals reached 3/3.
Gordon defeated WGM Susan Lalic who made a sensational start to the tournament by defeating GMs Simon Williams and Mark Hebden in successive games.
Michael Adams and Nigel Short conceded draws in round two but scored quick third round wins. White's move order looks inaccurate; the king's knight usually goes to e2. 6.e3 exd5 7.cxd5 Nbd7 8.Bb5 was played by Spassky. 10.0-0-0? was too optimistic
A Summerscale - N Short
Nimzo-Indian
1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nc3 Bb4 4.Bg5 c5 5.d5 d6 6.Nf3 exd5 7.cxd5 Nbd7 8.Nd2
(8.e3 Qa5! is already good for Black, Ne4 may follow)
8...Qe7 9.Qc2 0-0 10.0-0-0?
(10.e3 h6 11.Bh4 Nb6 wins a pawn but 10...a6 is also fine)
10...a6 11.e4 b5 12.f3 c4
(The Nd2 is a sorry piece and White's attack is non existent)
13.Be2 Bc5 14.Nf1 Nb6 15.Nb1 Bd7 16.Qc3 b4 17.Qe1
(17.Bxf6 gxf6)
17...h6 18.Be3 c3!
Nigel Short
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Aaron Summerscale
Position after 18...c3!
19.bxc3
(19.b3 Nfxd5 20.Bxc5 Qg5+ 21.Kc2 dxc5 22.exd5 Bf5+ 23.Bd3 Qxg2+)
19...Rfc8 20.c4 Bb5 21.Bxc5 Rxc5 22.Ne3 Bxc4 23.Bxc4 Nxc4 24.Nxc4 Rxc4+ 25.Kd2
(Your correspondent arrived at this point and concluded that 25...Nxd5 26.exd5 Qg5+ wins but Short played the even stronger)
Rac826.Ke2 Nxe4 27.Kf1 Qf6 0-1
Nigel Short
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Aaron Summerscale
Final position after 27...Qf6
M Adams - D Gormally
Sicilian Najdorf
1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 d6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nc3 a6 6.Bc4 e6 7.Bb3 b5 8.0-0 Be7 9.Qf3 Qb6 10.Be3 Qb7 11.Qg3 b4 12.Na4 Nbd7 13.f3 0-0 14.a3 bxa3 15.Rxa3 Nc5 16.Ne2 Nxa4 17.Bxa4 Bd7 18.Rb3 Qc8 19.Bxd7 Qxd7 20.Bh6 Ne8 21.Rd1 Rc8 22.Rd2 Kh8
(Not bad but 22...a5 to harass the rook or 22...f5!? 23.e5 d5 look sound enough)
23.Bg5 Nf6? 24.e5
Danny Gormally
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Michael Adams
Position after 24.e5. Now if 24...Nd5 25.Bxe7 Qa7+ 26.Kh1 Qxe7 27.exd6 Qd7 28.Rbd3 Rfd8 29.b3! and if 29...Qxd6 30.Qxd6 Rxd6 31.c4 so Black played
24...Qa7+ but that was worse, why?
Answer 25.Be3 wins a piece 1-0
