FM Steve Giddins reports from the Staunton Memorial tournament 2006

Friday’s 5th round saw Ivan Sokolov strengthen his grip on the tournament, whilst his closest pursuers dropped half or whole points.

Sokolov wielded the white pieces to successful effect against David Howell, in what was by far the most interesting game of the day. Howell thought for a long time, before accepting the second pawn with 19...Bxe5, thereby giving up his important dark-squared bishop. 19...Qe6 may have been more prudent, but Howell had apparently decided that his king could survive in the centre. Sokolov took a long time to decide on the crucial continuation of the attack with 30 Rxe7 and 31 Qh6, rather than taking perpetual, and was rewarded when a time-troubled Howell blundered with 34...Bb5? Instead, 34...Bb7 appears to limit White to a perpetual after 35 Rc1+ Nc6 36 Rxc6+ etc. After 34...Bb5?, the somewhat counter-intuitive 36 Bxa5! removed the last crucial defender of the Black King, which then perished at the hands of White’s major pieces.

Speelman opened his winning account by defeating Lawrence Day. The latter handled his Modern Defence in original fashion and seemed to stand satisfactorily in the early middlegame. 20...Bd7?! (20...Qc7!?) led to problems with his e- and c-pawns, but he regained his pawn and still had good chances, until blundering with 33...Bf8?, after which he was speedily despatched.

Werle-Adams saw a Reti-Queen’s Indian line involving heavy simplification. Theory considered for some time that White had good chances of a plus in the ending, but Adams’ defence suggests that this is not the case, and he even obtained somewhat the better chances, although not enough to threaten seriously to win.

Levitt’s 10...d4 was a novelty, 10...Qa6 having led to a short draw in Ehlvest-Chernin, European Team Ch 1997. Wells worked up a promising position, but with time-trouble looming, and probably mindful of his disaster the day before, he took a draw in a position where he still seemed (at least, to this commentator) to have clearly the better chances.

Visser showed some original play against Timman, but the eventual effect of his optimistic early pawn sacrifice was only minimal compensation. However, Timman’s 21...Bf8? looks like an oversight, allowing a forced liquidation and a clearly drawn ending. Instead, any of 21...b6, 21...Nce7 or 21...Nb6 ought to leave Black standing rather better.

Lanchava-L’Ami was another game featuring inventive opening play by both sides. The attack initiated by 9 h4 climaxed in 14 Qxg6, threatening mate by 15 Rh8+, but unfortunately, it was Black to move at that point, and Lanchava had overlooked the strength of the devastating counter-blow 14...Rxe2+.