Cooking the opponent's goose

Welcome to the round 9 report on the 2008 Staunton Memorial, which comes to you from sunny Clapham, on a beautiful Sunday morning. As I type this, I am sitting at the window, watching the joggers exercising on Clapham Common, and still savouring a breakfast of foie gras and Muscat wine jelly. The chess world is not generally known as a place where money is in plentiful supply, but it is nice to know that there are some corners of Caissa where one can enjoy a lifestyle, that would make a university professor envious. As a wise man once said, money may not bring you happiness, but it certainly makes misery a lot more tolerable.

For the players in round 9, there was happiness and misery in equal measure. Four decisive results out of six games saw Adams re-establish a one point lead over Van Wely. The latter drew an uneventful Closed Sicilian as Black against Short, whilst Adams overcame Speelman in an obscure game.

Adams,Michael - Speelman,Jonathan S [B14]

Staunton Memorial (9), 16.08.2008

1.e4 c6 2.d4 d5 3.exd5 cxd5 4.c4 Nf6 5.Nc3 Nc6 6.Bg5

The alternative 6.Nf3 leads to a well-known and very drawish endgame after the sequence 6...Bg4 7.cxd5 Nxd5 8.Qb3 Bxf3 9.gxf3 e6 10.Qxb7 Nxd4 11.Bb5+ Nxb5 12.Qc6+ Ke7 13.Qxb5 Qd7 etc.

6...e6 7.Nf3 Be7 8.c5 Ne4 9.Bxe7 Qxe7 10.Qd3 Nxc3 11.Qxc3 0–0

12.Be2

Apparently a new move, 12.Bb5 being more normal, to clamp down on Black's programmed break e6-e5.

12...b6?

During the game, watching GM Ray Keene was quite at a loss to account for this move, and afterwards, Adams confirmed that he should simply have take on b6, when Black does not have adequate compensation for the pawn. Instead, 12...f6 looks like an eminently reasonable move for Black.

13.b4?! e5 14.Nxe5 Nxe5?!

Possibly overlooking White's 16th. Fritz's suggestion of 14...Re8 offers better chances.

15.dxe5 a5 16.Qd4!

A very classy move, and typical Adams. Now White maintains his extra pawn.

16...axb4 17.cxb6 Re8 18.0–0 Qxe5 19.Qxb4!

The final point of White's play, initiated by 16.Qd4. Now 19...Qxe2? loses to 20 Rae1! (but not 20.Rfe1? Rxa2!, turning the tables). As a result, White keeps his extra pawn, and has two connected passed pawns on the queenside. Although Black has some initiative, and a passed pawn of his own on d5, he is unable to shake Adams's grip on the position.

19...Bb7 20.Bf3 Qe7 21.Qd4 Qa3 22.h3 Ra4 23.Qd2 Qd6 24.Rfb1 h6 25.Rb5 Bc6 26.Rb2 Qf6 27.Rab1 Rd4 28.Qc1 Bb7 29.Rc2 Rf4

30.Rb3?!

Not the most accurate, the immediate 30.Qd1 being better. Speelman was by now in extreme time-trouble, and Adams has only to avoid falling for some tactical trick revolving around such moves as Rxf3.

30...Rc4 31.Rb1 Rf4 32.Qd1 Rd4 33.Rd2 Rxd2 34.Qxd2 Re6 35.Qb4 Qg6 36.a4 Rf6 37.Rb3 Qg5 38.a5 Rf4 39.Qd2 Qf6 40.Re3 d4 and here, Black lost on time in the act of playing his 40th move, but the position was hopeless anyway. 1–0

Timman won in convincing style against Werle. The latter's early pawn sacrifice is well-known, but he followed it up badly with 17...b5 and 18...Ne7, after which Timman seized the advantage. The last moves were played with Werle in time trouble, but his position was already desperate and he would have struggled to hold the game even with another hour on his clock.

The tournament's two lowest rated players both had bad days at the office. After his tough defence on the previous two days, Bob Wade went doen to a very heavy defeat against Smeets. Wade's opening left him with a very passive Exchnage QGD structure, with his bishop shut on c1. His pawn sacrifice at move 16 was borne of desperation at the threatened mating attack on the kingside, and Smeets easily realised his advantage. Cherniaev has thus far looked very solid with White, but in this round he got into an awful tangle against Sokolov and was mercilessly despatched. The exchange on b3 left White with a hopeless weakness on the square, and Sokolov merely had systematically to train his fire on the point in question, until it dropped off.

L'Ami-Wells followed the latter's successful game against Speelman from last year's Staunton Memorial, until the Dutchman varied with 18.Qb3, instead of Speelman's 18.c5. White maintained the initiative, but went astray around move 25, and when he offered the draw a couple of moves later, it was doubtful whether he really had enough for his two pawn deficit. However, Peter's clock was doing its usual nasty things to him, and he decided to settle for the bird in the hand, rather than the brace in the bush.