FM Steve Giddins reports from the Staunton Memorial tournament 2006

Today’s penultimate round saw another five decisive results, out of six, setting up the final round beautifully, and also provided a couple of flashes of deja-vu for two of the tournament’s “backroom boys”.

The one draw of the day came in Sokolov-Wells, which was a fascinating battle, well-played by both players. In the complications started around move 18, Wells appeared to have got his knight trapped in enemy territory, and most of the spectators, not to mention Sokolov himself, I suspect, were expecting an eventual verdict of “death by misadventure”. However, Peter had calculated things to a nicety, both with the move 23...Nd7 (although this would have been even better the move before) and the final key move 29...Rc2! This was the resource that Sokolov had missed, after which a draw was forced.

Adams and Timman both seized the opportunity to catch Sokolov up in the overall scores. The former departed from his customary Tarrasch French  in favour of 3 e5, against Jon Levitt. Play followed theory for some time, although as a French player myself, I have always preferred 12...a5, rather than the immediate 12...f6. Levitt’s exchange sacrifice is a known idea in such positions, although does not seem to have been played at GM level in this precise sequence. He got a pawn and a solid position, but found himself in trouble a few moves later. Adams later suggested 18...Rf8 as a possible improvement. Once White achieved 24 Rf3, the e6-pawn was a goner, and the rest of the Black position soon followed.

Timman joined the leaders by beating L’Ami. Avoiding the most critical lines of the Zaitsev System, Timman did not achieve all that much, but Black’s 25...bxc4 looks a somewhat strange move (25...Qd7 is more solid), after which White developed some pressure. Even so, L’ami was very far from being lost, when he blundered a whole rook with 34...Qa2?? Strangely enough, the game had almost ended with a blunder by White a few moves earlier. At move 29, Timman had at first put his knight on e3, allowing 29...Rxb2 winning, but fortunately noticed his mistake just before releasing the piece, and was able to substitute 29 Nd2.

After his excellent start, Yge Visser has had a wretched second half to the event, and today slumped to his fifth consecutive defeat. As usual, he avoided main line theory against Speelman’s Caro-Kann, and the latter equalized fairly easily. Speelman later mentioned the interesting try 10 Nxf7, although as he himself remarked, it is hard to believe that this can work, given that the knight has by then made 6 moves. As it was, Speelman developed comfortable play and was already better, when his opponent was tempted by the unsound sacrifice on h6. The concrete tactical manner in which Speelman refuted the attack and turned the tables was highly elegant, and Visser, in a hopeless position, showed his sportsmanship by allowing Jon to demonstrate the queen sacrifice mate.

The game Werle-Lanchava attracted great interest from Ray Keene, one of the principal organisers of the tournament. Lanchava’s Modern Defence led to a structure where her pawns on c4 and b3 shut out White’s rook and bishop from the game. Ray later revealed that he had reached an almost identical position against Terry Bennett, back in the 1970s. As he explained, it is essential for Black to play the move a5, preventing White from liberating his rook by a5 and Ra4. White can then throw everything at Black on the kingside and in the centre, but if Black can maintain a blockade on e5, even at the cost of material, he is effectively a rook and a bishop up. Lanchava failed to play a5, but even so, she obtained good play against White’s weak pawns, and was clearly better for most of the game. Unfortunately, a time-trouble blunder turned the game around. 39...Qe5? was presumably intended to prevent 40 fxg6 because of 40...Rg5, but then White has 41 Bf5+, winning. As a result, White suddenly had a monster passed pawn on g6, which soon decided the game.

So, the stage is set for a great last round. The three leaders, Sokolov, Adams and Timman, each have Black, against Speelman, L’Ami and Lanchava respectively. On paper, Timman has the easiest task, but last rounds tend to have laws of their own, and anything is possible. Play starts at 12 noon, two hours earlier than usual, so the results of this great event should be available around tea-time today.