4NCL - The Four Nations League

Daily Telegraph

Malcolm Pein writes a daily chess column in the Daily Telegraph. This article is used on the 4NCL web site with permission.

The 8th Gibtelecom Chess Festival starts next Tuesday 26 January and runs until 4 February 2010 at the Caleta Hotel. The Gibtelecom Masters will be a ten-round Swiss system event and goes from strength to strength. This year’s line up includes

Etienne Bacrot (France 2713), Sergei Movsesian (Sloakia 2708), Francisco Vallejo Pons (Spain 2705), Michael Adams (England)2694) and Gata Kamsky (USA 2693).

As always there is a women’s competition subsumed into the main event with many of the world’s leading female players including the Women's World Champion Alexandra Kosteniuk (Russia 2523) and Humpy Koneru (India 2614)

Also playing are the Peruvian brother and sister Deysi and Jorge Cori Tello. Jorge is the world under-14 champion Deysi the world girls under-16 champion.Both are rapidly apprpaching GM strength.

Michael Adams scored a fine win at the recent 4NCL weekend over Etienne Bacrot who will be one of his main rivals at Gibraltar. A full report and league standings tomorrow.

E Bacrot - M Adams
4NCL 09-10 (4)
Catalan

1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.g3 d5 4.Nf3 Bb4+ 5.Bd2 Bd6 (5...Be7 was automatic until Ruslan Ponomariov played the bishop here a couple of times last year. It's certainly a more active square) 6.Bg2 c6 7.Qc2 Nbd7 8.0-0 0-0 9.Bf4 Bxf4 10.gxf4 b6 11.Ne5 c5 12.dxc5 Nxc5 (White appears slightly better here but goes for a tactical sequence that leads to an unbalanced position where Black is fine) 13.Nc3 Bb7 14.Rfd1 Rc8 15.Rd4 (15.e3 or 15.Rac1 with quieter play) 15...Qe7 16.Rad1 dxc4! 17.Bxb7 Nxb7 18.Rd7 Nxd7 19.Rxd7 Qh4 20.Rxb7 Qxf4 21.Nf3 (21.Qe4 Qxe4 22.Nxe4 looks better for White so Black could take a draw with; 21.Qe4 Qc1+ 22.Kg2 Qg5+) 21...Rc7! 22.Rxc7 Qxc7 (Black is doing well know, endgames will be good for him as he can make a passed pawn easily and quickly) 23.Ng5 g6 24.Qe4 h6 25.Nf3 a6 26.Qe3 Kg7 27.Ne5 b5 28.Ng4 g5 29.Ne4 Qf4 30.Qh3 h5!

Adams

board

Bacrot

Position after 30...h5!

31.Ngf6 (31.Qxh5 Rh8 32.Qxg5+ Qxg5 33.Nxg5 b4 34.Ne3 c3 35.bxc3 bxc3 should be good for Black) 31...Rh8 32.Qc3 e5 33.Qb4 Rh6 34.Ne8+ Kg8 35.N8d6 (35.f3 g4 36.Qe7! holds) 35...h4 (Threat h4-h3 and Qc1+) 36.h3 g4 37.e3? (37.Qa5! Rg6 38.Qd8+) 37...Qf3 38.Qc5 Rg6 39.Qc8+ Kh7 40.Kh2 g3+ 0-1

Adams

board

Bacrot

Final position after 40...g3+

There was a rest day at Wijk aan Zee. The lowest rated player in group C showed he must not be taken lightly

N Grandelius - B Bok
English Opening

1.c4 Nf6 2.g3 g6 3.Bg2 d5 4.cxd5 Nxd5 5.Nc3 Nxc3 6.bxc3 Bg7 7.Rb1 Nc6 8.h4 h6 9.Qa4 0-0 10.h5 g5 11.f4 e5 12.Ba3 Re8 13.f5 e4 14.Bxe4 Nd4 15.Bg2 Bxf5 16.Rxb7 Nc2+ 17.Kf2 Qxd2 18.Bf3 Qe1+ 19.Kg2 Ne3+ 20.Kh2 Qf2+ 21.Bg2 Qxg2# 0-1