And on the eighth day, man shall rest

Steve Giddins reports from round 7 of the 2007 Staunton Memorial

The Staunton Memorial is a tournament that is all about tradition, but not all traditions are as positive as they might be. One of the less fortunate traditions in chess is that the play on the day before a rest day tends to be quieter than usual. One might expect the opposite, since with a day's rest coming up, there should be nothing to stop players giving their all, knowing that they have a day off to recover afterwards. However, in practice, the fear of defeat usually takes precedence, and players are even more reluctant than usual to risk losing, if they know that they will have an extra 24 hours to brood on it.

Luckily, round 7 of this year's Staunton Memorial saw fit to break with tradition, as the players served up one of the most combative days so far. Only Speelman-Werle was a short and quiet draw, with the other five games all ending decisively. Co-leader Michael Adams stayed on course, by beating Gawain Jones, but it was not perhaps quite as convincing a performance as the opening suggested. The game began as follows:

1.e4 c5 2.c3 A quiet sideline that Adams has used a number of times before 2...d5 3.exd5 Qxd5 4.d4 Nf6 5.Nf3 g6?! An unusual choice. 6.Qb3 e6?! This weakening of the dark squares looks rather odd. Exchanging queens on b3 is possibly best, although White has a small advantage in the ending. 7.Bc4 Qd6 8.Na3 a6 9.dxc5 Qxc5 10.Be3 Qe7 11.0–0–0 Nc6

One of the visitors to today's round was IM Mike Basman, who was less than impressed with Black's opening play. Indeed, with his huge lead in development, many spectators were now looking forward to seeing Adams break through in sacrificial style, in the manner so often demonstrated by the leading masters in the 19th century heyday of Simpson's Divan. However, in these silicon-enhanced days of the 21st century, sacrifices have to be based on sound calculation, and it appears that White has nothing convincing here. After quite long thought, Adams chose 12.Qb6, and after 12...Nd7 13.Qc7 Nde5 14.Qxe7+ Bxe7 15.Nxe5 Nxe5 16.Bd4 Bf6 17.Be2, White had an obvious advantage in the ending. Adams went on to win, but it was not wholly convincing, and at one point, Jones looked as though he might be close to crawling out of his difficulties.

Interested spectator Mike Basman, studying the games on what else, but a Hook-a-Book chess set!

The other-co-leader, Loek van Wely, matched Adams' score, by beating Peter Wells. His 4 Qc2 Nimzo led to the following position:

Here, Wells played what appears to be a new plan 12...h6 12...Qc7 was played in Sokolov-Stefansson, 2004 13.Bh4 Ne5 14.Nc3 Rc8 However, after 15.Bg3 Qe7 16.Nb5, he was already facing material loss. He tried the neat tactical idea 16...Nc6 17.Rd1 e5 18.Nxd6 Nd4, but after 19.exd4 Qxd6 20.dxe5 Qe7 21.Be2 Ne4 22.Bf4 g5 23.Be3 Qxe5 24.0–0, White was well on top. With WElls running increasingly short of time, his position fell apart and he lost after 24...Qe6 25.Rfe1 Rfe8 26.b3 g4 27.Bf1 Qg6 28.Rd7 Bc6 29.Rxa7 h5 30.Ra6 h4 31.Rxb6 Re6 32.b4 g3 33.b5 Ba8 34.Rxe6 fxe6 35.c5 gxf2+ 36.Bxf2 Rf8 37.c6 1–0

Ivan Sokolov faced Jovanka Houska. The latter played extremely solidly against her powerful opponent, and by move 30, the position was looking perfectly satisfactory for Black.

Sokolov played 34.Bh5 g6? After the game, Ivan said that he was "very happy" to see this move, rather than 34...Rf8. Now White at least has a clear plan, namely to put a rook on the h-file. He felt that the position would be quite unpleasant for Black, although not by any means lost. On the other hand, 34...Rf8 would not leave White with very much. 35.Be2 Qc7 36.Qe3 Kg7 37.Bb5 Rc3 38.Qe2 Qe7 39.Rb2 Bc6?? A fatal time-trouble blunder, losing the exchange. Instead, 39...Ra3 would retain good defensive chances. 40.Qd2 Bxb5 40...Nd5 41 Ne4 is no better. 41.Qxc3 Bxa4 42.Rdb1 Rd7 43.Rxb4 axb4 44.Qxb4 b5 45.Rc1 Kh7 46.Rc8 h5 47.Re8 Qg5 48.Ne4 1–0 Another brave fight by Jovanka, all of whose losses have been the result of time-trouble blunders.

Jovanka Houska battled hard against Sokolov, but was finally undone by her opponent's experience and her own clock

The third Dutch-British clash of the day also went the way of the Orangemen. McNab was outplayed by L'Ami in a type of Stonewall structure, reaching the following position:

For the past few moves, L'Ami had been funnelling his pieces to the kingside with admirable consistency, playing Rg8, Ng6, Qg5-h5, Rg7, etc. Faced with this remorseless build-up, McNab felt that sooner or later, a breakthrough was inevitable, and therefore decided to provoke a crisis. In reality, though, it is not obvious exactly how Black can break through against solid White play, and in view of what happened in the game, waiting tactics were therefore to be preferred. Instead, play continued 28.g4? fxg4 29.fxg4 Qh3 30.g5 Nh4! This was the move Colin had under-estimated, and his position now crumbles rapidly. To add to his woes, he was also very short of time. 31.Bxf4 Nxg2 32.gxh6 Rg4 33.Bg3 Nh4 34.Rf7 Rg6 35.Rxb7 Rag8 36.Qf2 Nf5 37.Rf7 Nxg3 38.Nxg3 Rxg3+ 39.hxg3 Rxg3+ 0–1

Erwin L'Ami won his first game, and put another nail in the coffin of the British team

The other decisive game of the day saw Jan Timman slump to his third successive defeat, against Smeets. Timman seemed out of sorts from the start, using a great deal of time in a well-known position in the opening, and drifting into an inferior ending.

The most natural move now is 36 Ra7, freeing his passed pawn to advance, and allowing the rook to cover the b-pawn from b7. Instead, Timman wasted a number of tempi with his king and was soon lost: 36.Kd3 Rxb3+ 37.Kc2 Ra3 38.Bc1 Rc3+ 39.Kd2 b3 40.Kd1 Rd3+ 41.Ke2 Rc3 42.Kd1 Rc2 43.Bd2 Presumably missing the reply, but bthe position is gone by now anyway. 43...Rxd2+ 44.Kxd2 b2 0–1

So, going into the rest day, Adams and van Wely maintain a full point lead over Sokolov and Smeets. In the team event, the Dutch have extended their lead to a near-decisive seven points, but as the photo below demonstrates, I have come up with a way we can guarantee that the Brits will win next year...

Speelman and McNab polish off The Times crossword before the start of the game. In order to give the Brits more of a chance in the team match, perhaps next year the rules should stipulate that each player must finish the crossword, before being allowed to press his clock at move 1...