With the two leaders having already played each other, round seven of the 5th Kingston Invitational saw Daniel Johnson and Henry Adams, both on 5/6, paired with players from the next score group. One of them, Henry Adams, was successful and now leads the tournament on his own with 6/7. Graeme Buckley beat the other leader and is now in sole second place on 5½.
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| Henry Adams is now the sole leader on 6/7 with two rounds to go. |
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| Adam Taylor arrived ten minutes for his game vs Henry Adams - and eventually lost on time. |
On board one, Adam Taylor had White against the joint leader Henry Adams. The opening was an English, with an early b3 rather than d4 (which would have turned it into a Catalan. White secured a small edge by virtue of his opponent's vulnerable e-pawn. But Black defended calmly and there seemed no obvious way for White to increase the pressure along the e-file. White switched his focus to an advance on the b-file but by now he was close to living on the increment. Within a few moves Black had managed to advance his e-pawn and fully equalised. Then, calamity for White - he simply lost on time. This assured Adams of at least a share of first place at the end of the round unless Johnson was able to win as well. Taylor-Adams (LiChess)
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| Graeme Buckley has recovered from his first round defeat and is now in sole 2nd place. |
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| Daniel Johnson, having led from the start, drops to joint third place with six other players. |
On board two, Daniel Johnson was White against Graeme Buckley. The opening was a Classical Nimzo-Indian. On move 20 White played what looked like a temporary pawn sacrifice but, instead of recapturing, went in for a very shaky line where Black could have chosen to win two knights for a rook. Black thought for more than 20 minutes and opted instead for 21...Qa3 which also looked good, allowing him to retain his extra pawn. It also had the effect of slowing White down to the point where he was playing on the increments. This was not sustainable in a position where Black had an extra b-pawn and White had some tricky decisions to make. The end wasn't long in coming. Johnson-Buckley (LiChess)
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| Thomas Villiers vs Danny Gormally: drawn in 21 moves. |
Thomas Villiers was White against Danny Gormally. The opening was a King's Indian defence, Fianchetto variation, but Danny Gormally chose to play the unusual 6...Bd7 which didn't strike me as a KID-y sort of move. But it has a bit of theory to it, apparently. The bishop later found its way to b5. A few moves later, on move 21, Gormally accepted Villiers' draw offer and that was that. Villiers-Gormally (LiChess)
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| Jack Rudd v Peter Finn was a fast and even game, with just one difficult chance that went begging |
Jack Rudd v Peter Finn was an offbeat line of the Nimzo-Indian which involved a lot of exchanges. By move 23 only a pair of rooks and five pawns each were left on the board. The game sailed blithely on at pace - as always with a Jack Rudd game, but his opponent was no slouch either - until move 41 when Stockfish marked Black's move in its schoolmasterly red ink as a blunder. By now the pawns were down to two each, but the blunder cost Peter Finn one of his. It wasn't at all obvious to the human eye why the move played was significantly worse than the one recommended by the engine so you would have to be an endgame expert to make sense of it. Human chess played at such a brisk rate doesn't allow for such niceties. Four moves later White returned the compliment and the engine's numeric assessment was reverted to 0.00. On move 51 hostilities ceased. Rudd-Finn (LiChess)
THE BARDEN CUP
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| Jai Kothari on 5/7 is the current leader in the competition for the Barden Cup and £100 junior prize |
Now we're within two rounds of the tournament finish it's time to consider the possible destination of the Barden Cup, named after The Guardian's and FT's chess columnist Leonard Barden who happens to be celebrating his 97th birthday today. Stephen Moss said a few words before the round started but there were no extravagant gestures as it is known Leonard dislikes people making a fuss about such things. I'll confine myself to a simple "happy birthday, Leonard". A reminder that the leading junior (17 or under) will receive the Barden Cup and £100. At the moment the challenge is led by Jai Kothari who is one of the players on 5/7, having won his game against Zain Patel in this round. On 4½ are Aayush Wadhwa (USA) who beat Rob Willmoth, and Rock Yu who beat Balahari Bharat Kumar, with no fewer than eight other juniors still in contention on 4/7.
Round 7 Results (chess-results)
Round 7 games (LiChess)
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