Malcolm Pein follows the Guildford cruise in today’s Daily Telegraph chess column, as he assesses the European fortunes of England’s top team.
Malcolm Pein on…The Guildford Cruise
Four English teams entered the European Online Club Cup, led by 4NCL champions Guildford. Guildford fielded the England top four of Michael Adams, Luke McShane, David Howell and Gawain Jones plus Bulgarian Ivan Cheparinov. Cheparinov scored 7/7 in the qualifying stage as Guildford breezed their way through to the play-offs.
Celtic Tigers, Wood Green and my team Wood Green Monarchs pretty much played to their seedings. Wood Green, seeded fifth, ended fifth in their 10-team qualifying group. Marcus Harvey gained some excellent experience on top board. IM Irine Sukandar was the only player to make a positive score, apart from team captain IM Lawrence Cooperโs 1/1. Cooper stepped in to replace Sukandar in the last round as she was playing in the middle of the night from Indonesia.
Adams in Action
M. Adams โ V. Kovalev
European Online CC
Ruy Lopez 15+5
1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 a6 4.Ba4 Nf6 5.0โ0 Be7 6.d3 b5 7.Bb3 d6 8.Bd2 (A tricky sideline. White prevents Blackโs standard manoeuvre of Nc6โa5 and c7โc5) 8…0โ0 9.h3 Re8 10.Re1 h6 11.a3 Bf8 12.Nc3 Nb8 (Playing โa la Breyerโ but it looks wrong here. 12…Rb8 13.Ba2 Ne7 14.Nh4 g5 15.Nf3 Ng6 was pretty unclear, although White won in 30 moves in Carlsen-Vitiugov, Wijk aan Zee 2020 and Adams won after 13.Nd5 Nxd5 14.Bxd5 against Wahls in the Bundesliga back in 1997. 12…Ne7 13.Ne2 c5 14.Ng3 Qc7 looks playable) 13.a4! b4 14.Nd5 Nxd5 15.Bxd5 c6 16.Ba2 a5 (Black has all seven pieces on the back row โ time to open it up) 17.d4 exd4? (17…Nd7 18.c3 Rb8 ) 18.Nxd4 Qf6 19.c3 Bd7 20.Re3! (Black is already in serious trouble)
20…Re7 (After 20…d5 21.Rf3 Qd8 22.Rxf7 Kxf7 23.exd5 is not strictly necessary, but very strong nonetheless) 21.Rf3 Qg6 22.Nf5 Bxf5 23.exf5 Qf6 24.cxb4 axb4 25.Bxb4 Qxb2 (f5โf6 was coming anyway) 26.f6 Re6 27.Bxe6 fxe6 28.Bc3 Qb7 29.fxg7 Be7 (29…Bxg7 30.Rg3) 30.Qd3 1โ0
Test Your Strength
McShane โ Gonzales
White to play and win
Highlight the space below this line to reveal the answer.
34.Qc4+ 1โ0 If 34…Kb8 35.Rxf8+ or 34…Kb6 35.Be3+ Ka5 36.b4+ Ka4 37.b3+ Ka3 38.Bc1#.