Scotland the brave leads at Simpsons
Steve Giddins reports on round 1 of the 2007 Staunton Memorial tournament

The first round of the fifth Staunton Memorial tournament took place yesterday (Tuesday 7 August) at Simpsons-in-the-Strand. The strongest field assembled for an international tournament in England for 20 years served up an entertaining afternoon's chess, which saw two decisive results and four draws.

Jan Timman and Ivan Sokolov share a joke, before the start of play.

The best result of the day was scored by Scottish grandmaster Colin McNab, who beat last year's tournament winner Ivan Sokolov. Colin's traditional Reti Opening was met by solid play from Sokolov, and after21 moves, the following position was reached:

With his two knights being at least the equal of White's bishop pair, Black looks to have equality at minimum, after a move such as 21...Raa8. Instead, possibly too optimistic about his chances, Sokolov played 21...a4? which was obviously based on an oversight. After 22.b4 b6 (played immediately), he was rocked back on his heels by the tactical blow 23.Bxd4! Now 23...cxd4 loses material after 24.c5 Raa8 25.cxd6 Qxd6 26.Qe6! After some thought and much head-shaking, Sokolov played  23...Raa8, but after 24.bxc5 Nxc5, he remained a pawn down. After the further moves 25.Rae1 Nb3 26.Bc3 Rae8 27.Qh5 Qxc4 28.Bb4 Nc5 29.Rc1 Qb5 30.Rfe1 f5 31.Rxe8 Rxe8 32.Bf1 Qd7 33.Bxc5 bxc5 34.Rxc5, any lingering hopes of salvation disappeared with the further blunder 34...Ne4? when 35 Bb5 Qd8 36 Qxe8+ Qxe8 37 Bxe8 Nxc5 38 d6 Kg8 39 Bxa4 left White with an elementary endgame win.

The firm hand of Colin McNab

The other decisive result came in Houska-Werle. White looked to be holding the endgame until quite late on, but then her position fell apart in the run-up to the time control at move 40.

 Play continued

27.Bf5?! 27 Rb5!?) Bxf5 28.Rxf5 c4 29.Rbb5?! (29 Rg5+!?) Rxa4 30.Rfc5 Ra1+ 31.Kh2 a4 32.Rxc4 a3 and suddenly the a-pawn is seriously dangerous. To add to her problems, Jovanka was now quite short of time. 33.Rbb4 Re1 34.Rg4+ Kf8 35.Rb8+? This appears to be the fatal mistake. 35 Ra4 should hold, eg. 35...Ree7 36 Rgc4! a2 37 Rc8+ Kg7 38 Ra8!, and the peculiar line-up of rooks on the a-file enables White to stop the passed pawn. 35...Ke7 36.Rgg8 Kf6 37.Rb6+ Re6 38.Rb1 a2 39.Rf1+ Ke7 40.Rg7 Kf8 41.Rxh7 a1Q 42.Rhxf7+ Rxf7 43.Rxa1 Rf2 44.Ra8+ Kf7 45.Ra7+ Kf6 46.Ra4 Rxc2 0–1

Jovanka Houska fought well, but missed a draw in the rook ending

The other big fight of the day was between Gawain Jones and Jan Smeets, and was a big disappointment for the latter. He outplayed Jones in the opening, and spent the next 25 moves torturing White with his powerful bishop pair. Jones eventually gave up a pawn in desperation, but it was not enough, and Black should have been winning comfortably.

Play continued 34.Rcc1 Bg7 35.h3 Bd7 36.Rfd1 Bb5 (36...Ba4 is probably even better)  37.b3 Bh6 38.Nd6 Rxc1 39.Rxc1 Bd7 40.Rc7. Jones has wriggled very well, but Black would still have very good winning chances after a move such as 40...Bxf4. Instead, the dreaded 40th move, the last before the time-control, took its all-too-frequent toll:  40...Ke7?? Blundering away the extra pawn. 41.Nxf7! Suddenly, Black has nothing. 41...Bxf4 42.gxf4 Kxf7 43.Rxd7+ Kg8 44.h4 Rb2 45.Rb7 a5 ½–½

The battle between the two most experienced ( it sounds more polite than "oldest"...) players in the tournament was also highly interesting. Speelman's sharp anti-Queen's Indian treatment led to the following position:

Here, Timman won the exchange by 20...Bd5, but after 21.Rxd5 exd5 22.Qxd5 Rc6 23.Qxf5, White certainly has compensation, in the form of an extra pawn, active pieces, and the exposed enemy king. After 23...Qe6 24.Qd3 0–0 25.Qxd7 b5 26.Qb7 a6 27.Rd4 Rc4 (27...Rfc8 is the computer's preference), Speelman cold-bloodedly grabbed another pawn by 28.Rxc4 Qxc4 29.Qxa6. Play went on 29...Qf1+ 30.Kc2 Qxf2+ 31.Kb3 Qxg2 32.Qxh6 b4 33.Na4 Re8, whereupon a time-troubled Timman offered a draw, which was accepted with alacrity.  The position is quite messy, but one feels that Black should certainly be better.

The playing room at Simpsons. Carpets on the floor, chandeliers on the ceiling, oil paintings on the walls, and not a basketball hoop in sight - can this really be a chess tournament?

The two remaining games were drawn fairly quietly, Adams achieved nothing in a 6 Be2 Scheveningen against van Wely and the game was agreed drawn at move 21, whilst Peter Wells' Vienna QGD achieved solid equality and a draw three moves earlier.