As the middle round of the 5th Kingston Invitational got underway, the leader was Daniel Johnson (Sweden) with a perfect 4/4, followed by Danny Gormally, Henry Adams and Mikhail Sedykh on 3½ and another ten players a half-point further back on 3 points.
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| Daniel Johnson and Henry Adams awarded themselves the afternoon off with a steady draw |
The top board pairings were Johnson v Adams and Sedykh v Gormally. On board one where Daniel Johnson and Henry Adams were only separated by 20 rating points apart, the game started with a cagey line of the Catalan which elite players sometimes resort to when they play each other and fancy an afternoon off. The queens exited the board on move 8 as did a fair bit of other material. The game petered out to a draw on move 23, taking Johnson to 4½/5. Johnson-Adams game.
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| Danny Gormally couldn't make his higher rating tell against Mikhail Sedykh |
With a rating differential of 200+ it might have been expected for Gormally to try for the full point against Sedykh in order to tie with Johnson for lead. He opted to defend a line of the Nimzo-Indian which was enough to equalise but proved not to be enough to secure a realistic chance of winning. After further exchanges the position reached was a level rook and pawns endgame and draw agreed on move 35. A good result for Sedykh who played very solidly. Sedykh-Gormally game.
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| Adam Taylor's steady pressure induced a blunder from Bob Eames |
With draws occurring on the top boards, Johnson maintained the sole lead but now there are seven players in the next score as a result of four decisive results on the next few boards. Adam Taylor, playing White versus Bob Eames, nursed a solid plus into the middlegame and was rewarded by a blunder from his opponent allowing a simple transition into a position with two minor pieces against a rook. After that, accurate chess was enough to win the game. Taylor-Eames game.
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| Jack Rudd's expert handling of a rook and two bishops clinched victory over Arya Cont |
Jack Rudd vs Arya Cont was a Grünfeld which became a little complicated around move 15 but settled down after both players were understandably unable to find some abstruse moves advocated by the analysis engine. Though material was much reduced, White's possession of the two bishops became a key factor. Black committed a couple of inaccuracies which left his king under threat from White's remaining rook and bishops, followed by a more serious error which the West Country IM expertly exploited. Rudd-Cont game.
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| Thomas Villiers' sacrificial play was courageous and successful... |
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| ... but Alistair Hill had one fleeting chance of glory in this hugely entertaining game. |
The game between Alistair Hill and Thomas Villiers proceeded in fairly orthodox fashion for about 14 moves but suddenly exploded into life from the moment Hill, playing White, sacrificed the exchange and a pawn with 15 a3. A few moves later Villiers decided to spice things up by a counter-sacrifice of a rook - or was it two rooks? Soon it was complete bedlam on the board and I won't pretend I can understand the half of it. Eventually the queens came off and the position came down to an endgame where White had bishop and two pawns against Black's seven pawns. Yes, you read that right - seven pawns. Not the sort of material imbalance you see every day.
As you might expect from the foregoing description, the lonely cleric was no match for the horde of pawns which confronted it and Black finally triumphed. But it turns out that White, with just 2 minutes 35 seconds left on his clock, missed an astonishing opportunity to turn the tables by placing both of his remaining pawns en prise with a view to one of them sneaking through to become a queen. Now I've given you a big clue you should be able to find the right move on the diagram below - but can you analyse it all the way through to a win? I know I can't. That said, I might have punted it anyway on the grounds that everything else looks hopeless.
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| White to play and win |
Even with a lone queen against seven pawns (the bishop has to be jettisoned somewhere along the line), it would still have been no small task for White to round up Black's seven pawns - three connected passers on the kingside and a menacing phalanx of four pawns (three of which might have been tripled!) advancing down the queenside. It would have been next to impossible to calculate given the time White had left - or indeed 30 minutes or so - but it would have wonderful to behold.
It was a great game anyway: I salute both players for their courage and ingenuity which provided me with rich entertainment. Be sure to play through this game on LiChess.
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| Sanjit Selva Kumar lost to Alfie Onslow. |
Sanjit Selva Kumar v Alfie Onslow opened with a Nimzo-Indian which White transformed into something a bit off the wall, particularly after he developed his dark-squared bishop on b2. Not something you see every day in a Nimzo, and it left White's kingside dark squares very weak. There seems to be an epidemic of early queenside fianchettoing in this tournament. Onslow soon took advantage of the open diagonals to clinch the point and join the squad of players half a point behind the leader. Kumar-Onslow game.
Round 5 Results (chess-results)
Round 5 Games (LiChess)
