FM Steve Giddins reports from the Staunton Memorial tournament 2006

Today’s fourth round once again saw some highly interesting chess, but unfortunately, it was another bad day for the British players. The most eagerly-awaited game was the clash between the two top seeds, Adams and Sokolov, but this proved to be a rather quiet affair. Adams forsook his normal Ruy Lopez in favour of the Giuoco Piano with d3, but achieved nothing, and the draw was agreed at move 20.

Another short draw occurred between the two young Dutch GMs, L’Ami and Werle. This was no great surprise, since they are good friends, and had also spent a substantial portion of the previous night mounting a nocturnal raid on the famous Stringfellows nightclub! However, the game did contain a curiosity. Later that evening, I asked Erwin why his opponent had not claimed a draw by threefold repetition on move 14. “But he couldn’t, I only played Ng5 twice,” he replied. I pointed out that whilst this was true, the position before 14...Re8 had occurred for the first time after 10 d4, and so move 14 was the third time. A shocked Erwin stared into space for a moment, as he reconstructed the position in his mind’s eye, and then burst out laughing. Grandmasters require a variety of outstanding mental capabilities, but it seems that counting to three is not one of them!

The day’s other draw was a topsy-turvy affair between Levitt and Lanchava. The latter blundered two pieces for a rook when barely out of the opening, an oversight made all the more surprising for the fact that it was preceded by some 15 minutes’ thought. Levitt should have been winning easily, but his central push with 20 d5 and 21 e5 allowed some counterplay. With time-trouble looming and his control of the position appearing to loosen with every move, he offered a draw, which was accepted.

The three remaining games all saw Englishmen go down to defeat. David Howell was  surprised by Visser’s use of the old-fashioned 7...Qa5. Instead of the theoretically approved 8 dxc5, he chose 8 a3, intending 8...cxd4 9 b4, but had overlooked the effect of Visser’s 8...Nxd4! Black could have snatched a pawn with 11...Qc3+, but felt that White would get good counterplay, whereas the game continuation left Black firmly in control after 14...a5! Howell fought well, but his efforts took a high toll on his clock, and his position fell apart in the resulting time-scramble.

Peter Wells’ game was a tragedy for the English GM. He refuted his opponent’s over-optimistic pawn sacrifices 13 e5 and 17 b4, and by move 30, was two pawns to the good, and completely winning. Unfortunately, he had only a couple of minutes to reach the time-control, and with White’s pieces suddenly jumping out at him from all sides, the game turned around completely between moves 31-38. Day thereby opened  his account in this year’s tournament.

The biggest shock of the tournament so far has been the poor form of Jonathan Speelman, who went down to his third straight defeat with the Black pieces. His troubles started in the opening. Had he followed Jonathan Rowson’s advice, and “talked to his pieces”, I suspect the Black King would have had a few things to say about the move 8...Nc8 (the usual move is 8...Nf5), which left His Majesty rather short of bodyguards. Timman built up a dangerous-looking attack, but Speelman defended well, finding the crucial forced move 29...Nd2 (and not 29...Kh8? 30 Qg5, which wins on the spot). Immediately after the game, Speelman felt that things would have been quite unclear after 35...gxf6, although Fritz then indicates that White is still winning after 36 Rh6 (or even the remarkable 36 Nd3!!). As it was, Speelman blundered with 35...Qe6??, after which a rook was lost.