The participants in Mongolia included four former women world champions, playing together for the first time. The tournament was held from July 29 to Aug. 12 and the average rating of the 12 players was 2487, ChessBase reported, making this one of the strongest women’s events ever.
The winner was China’s Hou Yifan, 16, who got sick after round seven due to food poisoning. She won five games and drew the rest, scoring 8/11 points with a performance rating of 2649. Second was Bulgaria’s Antoaneta Stefanova, a former women’s world champion, and three players shared 3rd-5th places: Humpy Koneru of India, Zhao Xue of China and Tatiana Kosintseva of Russia.
From Aug. 6 to 8, Mainz, Germany hosted the world’s premiere main rapid chess tourney, attracting 701 players, including some of the world’s elite GMs: Gashimov, Aronian, Bareev, Karjakin, Grishuk, Shirov, Kasimdzhanov.
Russian-American GM Gata Kamsky, 36, and the current U.S. champ, scored 10/11 against mainly world class opposition to top the event. Kamsky, writes British IM Malcolm Pein, “wore his favorite New York cap throughout the event and it obviously brought him luck.”
In Canterbury, England, meanwhile, the 97th Championships of the British Isles were held. IM Jovanka Houska was crowned the women’s champ, while GM Michael Adams totally outclassed the opposition to win the men’s title. It was, as Pein put it, “the most emphatic victory in the history of the British Chess Championships.” The championship was an 11-round Swiss event with 78 participants. Former champ Nigel Short and Britain’s rising star David Howell didn’t participate.
Adams finished 2 points ahead of the runner up, GM Nicholas Pert. Mickey, Chessdom says, “never appeared under pressure and constantly created problems for his rivals…. Even at the highest level Adams makes chess look simple. There are few flashy moves, just relentless exploitation of small advantages, such as a knight outpost in front of a backward pawn, or maneuvering his forces to isolate and then capture one of his rival’s vulnerable pieces.”
Game of the week.
According to our annotator IM Malcolm Pein, Adams “has been nicknamed ‘The Spider’ and [in this game] he weaved his web to such effect, [it] only lasted 27 moves, when a black rook was snared on the edge of the board.”
White: GM Michael Adams (2706)
Black: GM Simon Williams (2511)
Sicilian Defense
British Championship 2010
1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 d6 3.Bb5+ Bd7 4.Bxd7+ Qxd7 5.c4 Nf6 6.Nc3 g6 7.d4 cxd4 8.Nxd4 Bg7 9.f3 0–0 10.Be3 (10.0–0 Rc8 11.b3 d5!=) 10…Rc8 (A more active plan for Black is 10…Nc6 11.0–0 Rac8 12.b3 e6 13.Rc1 Rfd8 14.Qd2 d5 15.exd5 exd5 16.c5? Nxd4! 17.Bxd4 Ne4! 18.Qe3 Nxc5 19.Rcd1 Bxd4 20.Rxd4 Qc6 21.Ne2 Ne6 22.Rd2 d4 23.Nxd4 Qb6 24.Rfd1 Rd5 0–1 Ivanchuk- Shirov Sofia 2009) 11.b3 e6 12.Rc1 d5?! (Mistimed) 13.e5 Ne8 14.cxd5 exd5 (14…Bxe5 15.dxe6 fxe6 and e6 is very weak) 15.f4 Nc6 16.0–0 (Black has two passive minor pieces and a weak d5 pawn) 16…Nc7 17.Nxc6 bxc6 18.Ne4! Ne8 19.Nc5 Qe7 20.Nd3 Qe6 21.Qf3 a5 22.Nc5 Qe7 23.Bf2 Rab8 24.Qh3! f5 (24…Nc7 25.Nd7 Rb7 26.Nf6+ Bxf6 27.Qxc8+) 25.Qc3 Ra8 26.Na4 (White dominates the queenside to such an extent he wins material) 26…Ra6 27.Qd3 and 1-0.
Puzzler.
White: Qa1, Nd5, Bg5, Kh7
Black: Ke5
White to play and mate in three.
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