At the start of round four of the 5th Kingston Invitational, Daniel Johnson of Sweden was the one remaining player with a 100% score, with 12 players half a point behind him on 2½, one of whom, Alfie Onslow, chose to sit out the fourth round with a half-point bye. That meant that all twelve players on the top six boards had hopes of being in the lead by the end of the round.
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| Round 4: players on the top six boards vying for the leadership |
Daniel Johnson was perhaps relieved not to be facing the tournament's one grandmaster in this round. Instead he played Black against M R Sooraj. The 28-year-old Indian-registered, UK-based chess coach played a conservative double fianchetto opening which started to fray at the seams around move 19 and he soon found himself the exchange down. A dozen or so moves later Sooraj tried a tactic which backfired. Johnson was able to add to his material advantage and free his pieces for a straightforward win, cementing his place at the top of the leaderboard for a further round. Sooraj-Johnson on LiChess.
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| Daniel Johnson won again and now leads the tournament with 4/4 |
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| M R Sooraj faced the tournament leader |
GM Danny Gormally was sitting next to M R Sooraj, with White against Jai Kothari. It was only when I processed the photos that I spotted a weird coincidence...
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| Danny Gormally |
... namely that Messrs Sooraj and Gormally were both sporting Tommy Hilfiger hoodies (other brands are available). Is that what the well-dressed chess player is wearing this season? I would have thought that Danny, as befits a member of England's forthcoming senior international squad, might have gone in for something more age-appropriate such as a tweed jacket with leather elbow pads, a style made popular by geography teachers the length and breadth of the country back in the good old days.
Returning reluctantly to the chess: the Gormally-Sooraj opening was a fairly orthodox QGD Tarrasch Defence, but Jai Kothari allowed a queen exchange which doubled his pawns and made the Gormally d-pawn into a passer. That said, Black made a very decent job of blockading it
à la Nimzowitsch even after White had snaffled one of the doubled pawns to make it a true pawn plus. After it came down to a knight endgame, the analysis engine was still defiantly proclaiming Liberté, Égalité, Fraternité (well, one of those anyway). But one always fears for the less experienced player in these circumstances. Sure enough, on move 57 Kothari unwisely abandoned the defence of his h-pawn and the grandmaster was able to win and reach 3½/4.
Gormally-Kothari game on LiChess.
Two of the other confrontations between leaders, Arya Cont v Adam Taylor and Peter Finn v Sanjit Kumar ended in draws, but there were full points for Henry Adams and Mikhail Sedykh, enabling them to share second place with Danny Gormally. In both of these decisive games it proved to be a case of "he who dares, loses."
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| Henry Adams beat Gabriel Sherwood to move into joint second place with Gormally and Sedykh |
Henry Adams versus Gabriel Sherwood began with a Catalan with Black going in for an early and unusual ...f5. Things seem to be progressing evenly until Black blundered with 28...Ra2, threatening White's queen, but overlooking an unusual double intermezzo tactic where White had two captures threatening Black's queen, ultimately netting him a piece for a pawn.
Adams-Sherwood on LiChess.
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| Mikhail Sedykh, 51, is a member of Lewisham CC and a qualified arbiter |
Balahari Bharat Kumar v Mikhail Sedykh started sedately with a near-symmetrical Q-side fianchetto system but gradually grew livelier as White started to attack the castled king position. However, he became over-optimistic and his tactical attempt at a mating finish backfired calamitously.
Kumar-Sedykh on LiChess.
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