CHESS
Rule Britannia
Raymond Keene
FOR A NATION whose chess, according to some commentators, appears to be in a `sorry state' (see last week's column) we have achieved some remarkable successes of late.
Apart from Nigel Short's exploits, men- tioned last week, Tony Miles dominated the tournament in Matanzos, Cuba, Jon Speelman has won the New York qualifier for the PCA/Intel Grand Prix, while Michael Adams (who also qualified in New York) has turned in two record-breaking performances. In Seville, Adams set up a British rating record for a closed tourna- ment, while in Ischia, Italy, soon after, he went one better and established a British rating record for any kind of tournament, open or closed. His rating average in Ischia was an astonishing 2935 international rat- ing points.
Nevertheless, it was Adams's exploits in Seville which were truly the better achieve- ment of the two. He shared first prize with Kamsky and Karpov in one of the strongest tournaments of the year and thus demon- strated that he has definitively broken into the circle of super-grandmasters. Adams's style is pragmatic, with no fear of extremely long games. His main weakness, perhaps, is a slight diffidence in the handling of his openings. With Black against 1 e4, he has honed the Caro-Kann into a reliable counter-attacking weapon but, paradoxical- ly, he has more problems with White in retaining a clear edge against strong oppo- nents. I am not convinced that he has yet worked out a full repertoire of aggressive and defensive systems that totally suit him. That said, his slightly unusual openings choices, such as the Trompovsky (1 d4 Nf6 2 Bg5) and various home-brewed methods against the Sicilian, do keep his opponents on their toes. The following game is typical. Adams—Piket: Seville, May 1995; Giuoco Piano.
1 e4 e5 2 Nf3 Nc6 3 Bc4 Bc5 4 c3 The true theo- retician would try 4 b4, the Evans Gambit, which Kasparov has recently popularised. White's choice here has considerably less bite. 4 ...Nf6 5 d3 a6 6 Nbd2 0-0 7 Bb3 d6 8 h3 Be6 9 Bc2 h6 10 0-0 Re8 11 Qe2 Nh5 12 ICU Nf4 13 Qdl Qf6 14 Ngl Rad8 It is difficult to believe that White's passive handling of the opening has brought him any real advantage. In particular, he has had to lose some time with his queen and his king's knight. However, this move by Black is insuffi- ciently subtle and serves no real purpose. He should have preferred to put his bishop on a safer square with 14 ...Ba7. 15 Q13 Qg6 16 Nb3 Nh5 It is either this, or lose a pawn on f4. But now White gains the bishop pair and has some- thing to work on. 17 NxcS dxc5 18 Be3 b6 19 Net Nf6 20 Qg3 Qxg3 + 21 Nxg3 c4 Liquidating a weakness, but White's slight advantage will not go away. 22 Rfdl cxd3 23 Bxd3 a5 24 Bc2 Rxdl 25 Bxdl Rd8 26 Be2 Ne8 27 Nfl Nd6 28 Nd2 (Diagram) White's advantage is almost invisible, Position after 28 Nd2
but he can torment Black with the threat of pawn advances on all sides of the board. In that case, if White's bishops break out they will become a formidable force. 28 ...f6 29 Kg' Kf7 30 Kfl Ke7 31 Kel Bf7 32 f3 Be6 33 Bf2 g6 34 b3 Kf7 35 Bd3 Nc8 36 Keg N8e7 37 h4 h5 38 Be3 Rd7 39 a3 Making Black worry about the threat of b4, but next move, Adams changes his mind. 39 ...Rd8 40 a4 Ra8 41 Nc4 Rd8 42 Rgl Probing again. Now g4 must be taken into account as a possible White initiative. 42 ... Nc8 43 Rbl Once more teasing Black. There is now a feint based on b4. 43 ...Nd6 44 Nxd6+ Rxd6 45 Kd2 Ne7 46 Kc2 Bd7 47 Rgl Be6 With the unsubtle counter- threat of 48 ... Bxb3 + 49 Kxb3 Rxd3. 48 Be2
Rd8 49 Rfl At last we have it. With Black exhausted by his long defence and continual cal- culation of different thrusts by White across the entire front, Adams finally decides on the advance f4 to smash a path into the game for his bishops. 49 ...Nc8 50 f4 Nd6 51 Bd3 exf4 52 Bxf4 Ne8 53 Bb5 Nd6 54 Bc6 Kg7 55 e5 Bf5+ 56 Kb2 Nf7 57 exf6+ Kxf6 58 g3 Rc8 59 Rel (Diagram)
Position after 59 Rel
It was unclear whether Black could have hung on against the combined power of White's two bishops roving on an open board. However, Black's next move is a blunder occasioned by the lengthy war of attrition he has suffered. 59 ...Rd8? 60 Bxc7 Rc8 61 Bxb6 Black resigns Black had hoped to win a piece with his skewer against the two white bishops on move 60 but now he realises that after 61 ... Rxc6 62 Bd4+ Ne5 63 Rxe5 he will, instead, be three pawns down, since the a5 pawn is indefensible.
Previous page
