Class will out

Steve Giddins reports on round 9 of the 2007 Staunton Memorial

"Class will out", they say, and that duly proved the case in Thursday's 9th round of the 2007 Staunton Memorial, as Mickey Adams showed once again why he has been one of the world's leading players over the past 15 years. The battle at the top of the table between van Wely and  Adams continued, and whilst van Wely could only draw in short order against the rock-solid Erwin L'Ami, Adams seized the chance to join him in the lead, by beating Jan Werle in the finest game played in the tournament so far. A classic Adams game saw him outplay his opponent in beautiful positional style, and then finish him off with a rook sacrifice. It is a game worth seeing in full.

1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 e6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nc6 5.Nc3 a6 6.Nxc6 bxc6 7.Bd3 d5 8.0–0 Nf6 9.Re1 Be7 10.e5 Nd7 11.Qg4 g6 12.Bh6 c5 13.b3 Bb7 14.Na4 Qc7 15.Qf4 Bf8 16.Bxf8 Kxf8 Novelty. 16...Rxf8 was played in Adams-Mamedyarov, at Sofia earlier this year. That game was drawn, but Adams stood better throughout and only missed the win late in the ending.

17.c4 d4 18.Qh6+ Kg8 19.Be4 Rb8 20.Nb2 Qd8 21.Nd3 Qf8 22.Qd2 Bxe4 23.Rxe4 Kg7 24.h4 h5 25.b4! Breaking up Black's central pawn structure, and creating a passed c-pawn. cxb4 26.Rxd4 Qe7 27.Rd6 Rhc8 28.Qe3 Rb7 28...Rxc4 29 Qa7 Rd8 30 Rd1 leaves Black bound hand and foot. 29.Qd4 Nb8 30.c5 a5 31.Rd1 Nc6 32.Qe4 Na7 33.Nf4 Rxc5

Having tied his opponent in knots, Adams now breaks through decisively to the enemy king , with the aid of a rook sacrifice. 34.Rxe6! fxe6 Declining with 34...Qc7 is no help, in view of the further sacrifice 35 Rxg6!+ 35.Qxg6+ Kh8 35...Kf8 allows mate in three beginning 36 Nxe6+  36.Qh6+ Kg8 37.Ng6 1–0 37...Qg7 38 Rd8+ is crushing. A beautifully smooth performance by Adams.

The game of the tournament so far - Adams on his way to winning a positional masterpiece against Werle

Peter Wells lost his fourth successive game, after walking into a long line of opening preparation against Jan Smeets.

This position arises from Wells' favourite Richter-Rauzer Sicilian. He has just played 12...b5, a pawn sacrifice introduced earlier this year by the Greek GM, Kotronias. Smeets responded with 13.Ne4, which I believe to be a prepared novelty. After lengthy thought, Wells played 13...Nxe4, and the players quickly rattled out the forced sequence 14.Bxe7 Bb7 15.Bxf8 Rxf8 16.Bd3 Nf2 17.Qxb5 Qxb5 18.Bxb5 Nxh1 19.Rxh1 Bxg2 20.Rd1 Up  to here, Smeets had barely used any clock time at all, and it was clear that his preparation had extended at least this far. White's queenside pawns look more dangerous than Black's majority on the other flank, although this is not 100% clear. In the event, Wells fell into serious time-trouble and could not stop the enemy pawns. White won in 34 moves.

Smeets (right) beat Wells with some serious opening preparation

The remaining winner of the day was Jan Timman, who beat Jovanka Houska. However, he was somewhat lucky, since he was outplayed early on and could have found himself in serious trouble at one point.

Jovanka continued 19...Qg6 20.Nh4 Qg5 21.g3. Now 21...Nd4 would leave Black with a strong initiative, and force careful defence from White. Instead, Jovanka grabbed a pawn by 21... Nxh3+?!, which allowed White to escape his difficulties after 22.Kh2 Nf4 23.Nf5 Ng6 24.Nb7 Rdb8 25.Rxc6 Rxb7 26.d4 Even here, 26...exd4 would keep Black well in the game, but Jovanka chose 26...h5?, and after 27.f4! exf4 28.gxf4 Qg4 29.Qxg4 hxg4 30.Kg3 White had a clear advantage in the ending, which Timman duly converted.

Ivan Sokolov, on the other hand, failed to convert a winning advantage against Gawain Jones. He outplayed the young English GM from the opening, and reached an endgame with an extra pawn, but in the face of extremely tenacious defence, he faltered when in sight of the winning post.

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Here, Sokolov found the fine idea 57.Nd3! Nxc4 58.Rc1 Nxa5. However, he now followed up incorrectly, with the combinational blow 59.Rxc5? , which misses the win. A brief post-game analysis with Jan Timman suggested that 59.Rc3! (controlling the activity of the knight on a5. By contrast, 59.Nf4 Nb3 is less clear), followed by Nf4, should win for White. 59...dxc5 60.Nxc5+ Kc7! This may have been what Ivan under-estimated. The obvious 60...Ka7 loses after 61.Nxa7 Kxa7 62.d6 Nc6 63.Kd5 Kb6 64.dxe7 Nxe7 65.Kd6 and the white king penetrates decisively. Instead, Gawain returns the extra piece, to reach a drawn N+P ending. 61.Nxa6+ Kd6 62.Nb4 Nb3 63.Nd3 Nd2+ 64.Ke3 Nc4+ 65.Kf2 Nb6 66.Nf4 Nxd5 67.Nxg6 Kxe6 68.Kg3 Kf5 ½–½ A bitter disappointment for Sokolov, but Jones deserves great credit for his tenacity.

Gawain Jones, whose tenacious defence thwarted Sokolov

Colin McNab was another who saw half a point slip through his fingers, thanks to Speelman's endgame defensive skill.

In the diagram position, McNab won a pawn by 16.Rxd7! Qxd7 17.Bxc6 Qd2 18.Bxa8 Rxa8 19.Qb3 It is not entirely easy to make progress, but Colin inched forward and looked to be well on the way to victory, before a slip at move 36 cost him his extra pawn and made the draw inevitable.

With just two rounds remaining, Adams and van Wely share the lead on 7/9, with Sokolov a point behind on 6. In the last two rounds, Adams plays McNab and Sokolov, whilst Van Wely meets  Speelman and Jones.  In the team event, the Dutch are already out of sight, leading by a full 10 points.