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Malcolm Pein on…The Guildford Cruise

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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 Cooper’s 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 – V. Kovalev
European Online CC
Ruy Lopez 15+5

1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 a6 4.Ba4 Nf6 5.0–0 Be7 6.d3 b5 7.Bb3 d6 8.Bd2 (A tricky sideline. White prevents Black’s standard manoeuvre of Nc6–a5 and c7–c5) 8…0–0 9.h3 Re8 10.Re1 h6 11.a3 Bf8 12.Nc3 Nb8 (Playing ‘a la Breyer’ 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 – 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)

Guildford Cruise Adams

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 (f5–f6 was coming anyway) 26.f6 Re6 27.Bxe6 fxe6 28.Bc3 Qb7 29.fxg7 Be7 (29…Bxg7 30.Rg3) 30.Qd3 1–0

Test Your Strength

Guildford Cruise McShane to Play and Win

McShane – Gonzales
White to play and win

Highlight the space below this line to reveal the answer.

34.Qc4+ 1–0 If 34…Kb8 35.Rxf8+ or 34…Kb6 35.Be3+ Ka5 36.b4+ Ka4 37.b3+ Ka3 38.Bc1#.

Play Through the Game

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Malcolm Pein

Malcolm Pein

Malcolm Pein is a British International Master, chess organizer, author and journalist. He was a child prodigy and a former British Junior Champion. He qualified for the International Master title in 1985. Malcolm is a distinguished writer, journalist and editor. He has been a chess correspondent of the Daily Telegraph and Sunday Telegraph for over 30 years, has written numerous chess books and is the Executive Editor of CHESS Magazine. In 1992, he founded the London Chess Centre, a games store in central London and the UK's only chess shop. He is also the founder and CEO of Chess in Schools and Communities, a UK charity whose aim is to introduce chess to state schools and has taught the game to over 250,000 children since its inception in 2009. Malcolm is also well-known for his chess event management. He was responsible for the pre-planning of the World Chess Championship match between Garry Kasparov and Vladimir Kramnik in London 2000. In 2002 he was appointed as Technical Director of the 'Brains in Bahrain' match between Vladimir Kramnik and the computer program Fritz. In 2009, Malcolm devised and organized the 1st London Chess Classic - the UK's first world-class elite all-play-all tournament since the 1980s which ran annually until 2019. Malcolm is also very active with the English Chess Federation. In 2016, he was appointed as the Manager and Captain of the England national team. He was also appointed as English Chess Federation delegate to the European Chess Union and FIDE and is the Director of International Chess. In 2018, he also stood for the post of Deputy President of FIDE. In 2021, Malcolm joined the ranks of Chessable authors by bringing the highlights of his column in the Daily Telegraph in the form of an interactive Chessable course, titled Telegraph Tuesday. Profile photograph © Lennart Ootes

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