Steve Giddins reports from round 3 of the 2007 Staunton Memorial

Firstly, a brief word of apology to those of you who logged on Wednesday evening, expecting to see the round 2 games. The file sent out earlier that evening, although purporting to be round 2, actually contained a repeat of the first round games. As to the question of who was responsible for this lamentable failure, I can only repeat the immortal words of Sir Humphrey Appleby, of Yes Minister fame: "The identity of the official responsible for this minor and entirely understandable administrative oversight is not shrouded in quite such impenetrable obscurity as the absence of revelatory disclosure hitherto may have led you to surmise, in that the person concerned is in fact one to whom it has become the invariable practice of your present interlocutor to refer by the use of the perpendicular pronoun". Alas, it was I, for which due apologies.

Turning to the considerably more cheerful topic of the round three game, I am delighted to be able to report - and in words of one syllable - that it was the most exciting day's play so far, with four highly tactical games, all of which ended in thrilling time-scrambles, plus some filigree endgame technique from the top seed. The only quiet game was the 19-move draw between L'Ami and Werle. It is with the game Adams-Smeets that we start. The latter's Open Spanish led to an endgame, in which Black had several pawn weaknesses, and was clearly battling for a draw. The Dutch GM defended stoutly, but Adams displayed technique worthy of a world-class player, and remorselessly ground his opponent down.

Black's pawns on c7 and e5 are somewhat vulnerable, and from here, the game continued 34.h4 Rd3 35.Ra7 Rc6 36.Kf3 Ke6 37.Ke4 (the king is ideally placed here, attacking e5 and threatening to penetrate to d5 or f5) Rb3 38.Rc4 Rb5 39.Ra1 h5? (weakening another pawn, after which the position is almost certainly lost) 40.Ra2 Bf6 (the exchange sacrifice 40...Rxc5 was the last hope) 41.Ra8 Kf7 42.Rca4 Ke6 43.Rh8 g6 44.Rh6 Kf7 45.Kd5 (the decisive penetration)  Rcxc5+ 46.Bxc5 Kg7 47.Ra6 1–0 A piece is lost.

Reasons to be cheerful. Adams' second straight win put him into shared first place with Wells.

Peter Wells joined Adams in the lead by beating Jon Speelman with Black in a sharp game. The opening followed a previous game Hodgson-Barsov to this position:

Barsov now played 18...Kf7 and lost. Wells, who had witnessed the earlier game, played what he had thought even at the time to be the best move 18...d5. The post-mortem concluded that White is probably in trouble already, and Speelman lost after 19.Bd3 ( 19.Bb5 axb5 20.Qxa8 Ne3, or 20...d4, gives Black tremendous compensation for the exchange) Ne3 20.Rd2 0–0 21.Re1 d4 22.Nd1 N7d5 White is in big trouble. Speelman speculated on 23.Be4? but it only hastened the end. 23...Nc4 24.Qd3 Ncxb6 25.Bxh7+ Kh8 26.Qh3 Nxf4 27.Qh4 Qxc5+ 28.Bc2+ Kg8 29.Qxf4 e5 30.Qe4 Be6 31.Nf2 Rac8 32.Qh7+ Kf7 33.Ne4 Qb4 34.a3? (34.Rf1 is a better defence, but also loses)  Rxc2+! 0–1

Colin McNab looked to stand fairly well early on against Timman, but weakened his position, and the Dutch chess legend turned on the class at the finish:

With his opponent in time-trouble, Timman unleashed the fine sequence 32...h4 Taking control of the dark squares on the kingside.  33.g4 Ng3 34.Re6 Rxf4! A fine exchange sacrifice. Now 35.Bxf4 Qxf4 gives Black great compensation on the dark squares. Colin instead tried 35.Rd6 Rf2 36.Rcxd4 Rdf8 37.Be1? 37 g5 was the last hope, although things are already very bad for White. 37...Re2 38.Bxg3 hxg3+ 39.Kxg3, and now Timman mated the enemy king by 39...Be5+ 40.Kh4 Qe7+ 41.g5 Qh7+ 42.Kg4 Qh5#

Dutch chess legend Jan Timman, who finished off McNab in style

The game Jones-Houska was somewhat unlucky for the latter. Jovanaka chose the Caro-Kann Defence, on which she has recently written an outstanding book, and reached the following position after 19 moves.

White has just played the grossly optimistic move 20.Rg1?, abandoning castling rights, and Houska immediately pounced on this, with a piece sacrifice of a type which is well-known in such positions: 20...Nxd4! 21.Nxd4 Nxe5 With two pawns, a powerful initiative, and the exposed enemy king, Black must be doing very well here, but unfortunately, Jovanka had just 20 minutes remaining on her clock, to reach the time control at move 40. Jones had well over an hour, and in the end, this advantage proved decisive. 22.Nb5 Bxh4 23.Ke2 d4 24.Nc4 d3+ 25.Kf1 Nxc4 26.bxc4 Bf6 27.g4 h4 28.Ra2 Rxc4 29.g5 Bg7 30.Qxd3 Now a move such as 30...Rfc8, maintaining the pressure, would be most unpleasant for White. Instead, with her flag hanging, Jovanka grabbed another pawn, but this exchange of her active rook for White's awkward unit on a2 eased White's problems. After 30...Rxa4?! 31.Rxa4 Qxa4 32.Nc3 Qa3 33.Ke2 Rc8 34.Ne4 Qxd3+ 35.Kxd3, White was out of the woods, and although the Black queenside pawns look dangerous, the weakness of the f6 square proves decisive. Jones went on to win after 35...Rd8+ 36.Ke2 Rd4 37.f3 Rc4 38.Rg4 b5 39.Rxh4 Kf8 40.Be3 a5 41.Bc5+ Kg8 42.Be7 Be5 43.Rh1 Rc2+ 44.Kd3 Rh2 45.Rc1 a4 46.Rc8+ Kg7 47.Bf6+ Bxf6 48.gxf6+ Kh7 49.Ng5+ Kh6 50.Nxf7+ 1–0 An unlucky break for Jovanka, although Gawain's coolness under fire was also praiseworthy.

A cool head - Gawain Jones survived Houska's dangerous piece sacrifice

Yet another burst of fireworks occurred in the game between the two top-rated members of the Dutch team, Sokolov and van Wely.

After a very sharp Meran QGD, the diagram position was reached with both players already in considerable time-pressure. Loek continued 21...g4 22.hxg4 Qxg4 23.dxc5 Bxe4, semingly with very dangerous threats against the white king. However, Sokolov found 24.Qxb4 Be5 25.Bxh6!, and after 25...Bd4, which appears to create a lethal attack, he uncorked the exchange sacrifice 26.Rxe4! Qxe4 27.Be3 e5 28.Bxd4 exd4 29.Re1 Qc2 With both players now extremely short of time, the game ended in an unusual repetition of moves: 30.Ne5 Re7 31.Nc6 Rxe1+ 32.Qxe1 d3 33.Nxd8 Qe2 34.Qf1! Qc2! 35.Qe1! Qe2 36.Qf1 Qc2 ½–½ Neither side can avoid the draw. A thrilling encounter.

Loek van Wely, who drew a thriller against Sokolov

So, after three rounds, the lead is shared by Wells and Adams, on 2.5, ahead of van Wely on 2 and a large group on 1.5. Coincidentally, Adams and Wells play each other in round 4. In the team event, the Dutch lead by just one point, 9.5 - 8.5.