The last round of the 2005-6 Hastings Masters started with Neverov half a point ahead of Gagunashvili and Pavlovic. With White against the former, Neverov took no chances and a draw was agreed in just 9 moves. This caused some consternation amongst certain of the spectators, including Guardian journalist and chess addict Stephen Moss, whose weekly column "The Rookie and the Grandmaster" is charting his progress under the tutelage of Nigel Short. To seasoned chess watchers, however, Neverov's quick draw came as no surprise, since it guaranteed him at least a share of first, whilst the only way he could be caught at all was if Pavlovic won with Black against Erenburg. He tried very hard, reaching a complicated Sicilian middlegame, with mutual chances. However, Erenburg forced off queens with a tactical trick at move 22, and thereafter gradually assumed the initiative in the ending, eventually winning in 55 moves. This left Neverov as sole winner, half a point clear of Erenburg, Gagunashvili and the Frenchman Vincent Colin, who won rapidly as Black against Kristjansson.

Pavlovic was thus relegated to a share of 5-10th places, where he was joined by Belov, who won the game annotated below, Bobras and Williams, who drew with each other fairly quickly, plus Hebden and Kobese. The former won a long and tough struggle as Black against Richard Pert, who thus ended the tournament with a disappointing run of 1/2 out of 3. Kobese secured his prize by grinding down Stephen Gordon in an ending with an extra exchange.

Thus, another Hastings tournament comes to an end, and it only remains to thanks Con Power and the whole organising team for all their work, and the all players for braving the snow and other obstacles to make this another highly successful and enjoyable event. At the closing ceremony, Councillor Paul Smith announced that there will be another Hastings tournament next year. On that optimistic note, I thank all of those who have followed my reports, which I hope you have enjoyed, and I look forward to renewing acquaintance with you next year.

BELOV,V - NEGI,P [D42]

HASTINGS (10), 06.01.2006

1.c4 Nf6 2.Nc3 e6 3.Nf3 c5 4.e3 d5 5.d4 Nc6 6.cxd5 Nxd5 7.Bd3 Nxc3 By a circuitous route, we have reached a QGD Semi-Tarrasch Defence. Negi's plan is rather unusual in such positions, more normal being 7...Be7 and 8...0-0. 8.bxc3 Bd6 9.0–0 0–0 10.Bb2 e5 11.d5 Ne7 12.c4 Qc7 13.e4 Ng6 White's passed d-pawn is securely blockaded, but still confers some advantage. Black's main problem is that he is relatively passive. 14.g3 Bg4 15.Re1 Rae8 16.Be2 Qd7 17.Nd2 The exchange of light-squared bishops helps White, who thereby rids himself of his relatively bad bishop. Bxe2 18.Qxe2 Qh3 19.a4 a5!? This is a rather radical decision. Black decides that since, sooner or later, he will have to play b7-b6, he would prefer to ensure that White cannot open the a-file by a later a4-a5 advance. The downside is that his b6-pawn is left backward, but Black no doubt reasoned that, being so close to home and on a dark square, it should be fairly easy to defend. This is indeed the case, but Black does thereby commit himself to rather passive, defensive tactics, and Belov now gives a nice demonstration of how to handle such positions as White. The key plan is to tie Black down to his queenside weaknesses, and then open a second front on the other flank. 20.Ra3 b6 21.Rb3 Rb8 22.Rb1 Qd7 23.Bc3 Bc7 24.Rb5 Ne7 25.Nb3! The knight is heading for d3, from where it will attack e5 and support f2-f4. Qd6 26.Nc1 Rbe8 27.Nd3 Nc8 28.Qg4 Qd8

White has reached his optimal build-up and is now ready to open the second front. 29.f4! f6 30.fxe5 fxe5 31.Nf4! Already virtually decisive. The knight threatens to land on e6, with devastating effect, and Black must surrender material. Rf6 32.Ne6 Rfxe6 33.dxe6 Qd3 With this move, Negi seeks counterplay, based on the exposed white king, but Belov has calculated an incisive finish. 34.e7! Nxe7 If 34..Qxc3, 35 Qe6+ Kh8 36 Qf7 wins, since the queen guards h5, so there is no perpetual after 36...Qe3+ 37 Kg2 Qe2+ 38 Kh3. 35.Bxe5! Qe3+ 36.Kg2 Qd2+ 37.Kh1 Bxe5 38.Qe6+ Kh8 39.Qxe5 Qe2 40.R5b2 Qf3+ 41.Kg1 Qe3+ 42.Kg2 Rf8 43.Qxe7 Qf3+ 44.Kg1 1–0

ROUND 9

Norm-al service is resumed

We are now very much at the business end of the tournament, with both prize money and title norms to play for, and this was reflected in yesterday's leading games. Apart from Williams-Pert, where the former needed only a draw for his 3rd GM norm, all the other top boards saw bitter fights. Neverov made a giant step towards tournament victory, after emerging triumphant from a long and difficult struggle as Black against Erenburg. The former adopted the rock-solid Breyer Defence to the Lopez, but saw his early draw offer turned down. Erenburg looked to retain an edge throughout, but never really got anywhere, and eventually found the ending turning against him. His own draw offer on move 58 was rebuffed, and on the very next move, he committed the losing blunder, walking his king into a mating net. Gagunashvili won an impressive game against Belov, working up a nice advantage against the Queen's Indian and grinding his opponent down in the ending. Pavlovic triumphed in a sharp encounter against Kristjansson, whilst Bobras won a wild encounter against Zude.

As far as the norm-hunters go, Williams needed only a handful of moves against his friend Richard Pert, but the other main GM-norm contender, Negi, had to work much, much harder against Kuzubov. The latter rejected the early peace offering and soon had a large positional advantage. He proceeded to climb all over the white position for the next 60 or so moves, but the young Indian's defence held, and the draw was eventually conceded on move 86. Whereas Williams now has all three norms and needs only a 2500 rating to receive the title, this is only Negi's first norm. However, at just 12 years and 10 months old, he can certainly join in the Rolling Stones' anthem "Ti-i-ime is on my side". Other norm-hunters fared less well, with Kristjansson, Ashton, Rudd and Kwiatkowski all seeing their mathematical chances vanish.

In today's last round, Neverov goes in with a half point lead and the white pieces against his room-mate Gagunashvili, whilst Erenburg takes on Pavlovic with White and Bobras plays Williams.

PAVLOVIC,M - KRISTJANSSON,S [B70]

HASTINGS (9), 05.01.2006

1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 d6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nc3 g6 6.g3 This method of side-stepping the main lines of the Dragon has never been regarded as hugely challenging, but can be very effective against unprepared opponents. I remember that some 25 years ago, John Nunn used to describe it as his "mass destruction weapon" in simultaneous displays. Pavlovic had already used it to score a quick win earlier in the tournament - see Pavlovic-Colin, round 4. Nc6 7.Nde2 h5 One of the merits of 6 g3 is that it often provokes the black player into unjustified aggression, the aforementioned Pavlovic-Colin game being an good example. The text move is all very well if Black lands a sacrifice on the K-side, but if not, he may later regret the weakening of his own king's position. 8.h3 Bg7 9.Bg2 Bd7 10.b3 Qa5 11.Bd2 Some contributors in the commentary room questioned why White would play b3 and then not fianchetto the bishop, but in fact, such a scenario is very common in this line. The move b3 does not usually presage a fianchetto, but aims to take control of the c4 square, and prepare a later a4, Ra2, Nd5, and c4, followed by swinging the rook along the second rank. Rc8 12.a4 Qc5 13.a5 Nd4 14.Ra2 h4 15.Be3 Nxe2 16.Nxe2 Of course, 16 Bxc5? Nxc3 would give Black far too much wood for the queen, but White is instead happy to recapture calmly, freeing his c-pawn to advance. Basically, White's plan is to consolidate and castle, after which he should stand better with his extra space. Qc7 17.g4 Bc6 18.Qd3 a6 19.c4 Nd7 20.0–0 Nc5 21.Qb1 0–0 22.Rd2

Ne6? This looks like a major step in the wrong direction, after which White seizes the initiative. Black would prefer to play 22...b5, setting up some Q-side counterplay. It looks tactically impossible, due to 23.axb6 Qxb6 24.b4, but Fritz points out that this can be met by 24...Rb8, with advantage for Black, so this is therefore what he should play. 23.Bb6 Qd7 24.f4 Now Black lacks counterplay and the white K-side pawns are ready to roll. Black would very much like to have his pawn back on h7 - see note to move 7! f5? A panic reaction, after which his K-side turns into a dust-bowl. The threat of f4-f5 was anything but pleasant, but this is one cure which is worse than the disease. Black had to grin and bear it, with something like 24...Bf6. 25.gxf5 gxf5 26.exf5 Nc5 27.Bxc6 Qxc6 28.Rd5 Qe8 29.Rf2 Black is helpless as White takes aim at his king. Nd7 30.Rg2 Nxb6 31.axb6 Qd8 32.Kh1 Qxb6 33.Qe4 Rf7 34.Nd4 Rc5 35.f6! Rxf6 36.Qxe7 1–0

ROUND 8

The norm-hunters gather

The lead changed hands once again yesterday, as Neverov defeated the leader Pavlovic in a totally chaotic game, where Black eventually lost on time in a position that remained wholly unclear. On board 2, Richard Pert had a bad day at the office and lost control of some tactics early on against Erenburg, succumbing to that perennial tactical problem, the bank rank mate. Kuzubov and Gagunashvili battled each other to a standstill, whilst Belov downed Stephen Gordon. The big English interest of the day was the match-up between Williams and Hebden, which was won by the former - see notes below. This leaves Williams needing only a draw today to secure his third, and decisive GM norm. Given that he is paired with White against his friend Pert, it seems safe to assume that he will not have to suffer for more than 4-5 moves to secure the coveted title.

Other norm-hunters who did their chances no harm at all included Parimarjan Negi, who beat Lalic with ease, to stay firmly in the hunt for his first GM norm, whilst Jack Rudd beat Colin McNab to move within striking distance of the IM mark. But in the great crime mystery of the day, there was no sign of the 4pm Watch Alarm Fiend. Like his infamous 19th century near-namesake, it seems that the crimes of Jack the Beeper have ended as suddenly as they begun, and we will never know the monster's true identity.

1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 g6 3.Nc3 Bg7 4.e4 d6 5.Bd3 0–0 6.Nge2 Nc6 7.0–0 Nh5 8.Bc2 e5 9.d5 Ne7 10.a4 f5 Deviating from the round 6 game Lalic-Hebden, where he had preferred 10...Kh8. 11.exf5 gxf5 12.Bg5 a6 Now it was Williams' turn to think. His preparation had been based on a game I Sokolov-Stellwagen, where Black had chased the bishop with 12...h6. Hebden was sceptical about this, preferring to retain use the h6-square to activate his bishop later on, as well as keeping the h7-pawn defending the g6 square. 13.Ng3 Nf6 14.Qd2 Rather surprisingly, this move was accompanied by a draw offer, Williams having decided that he was not sure of the correct plan. As it happened, the offer worked to his advantage, because Hebden slightly lost the thread and reacted rather over-ambitiously. 14...Qe8 seems to give Black an excellent game. f4?! 15.Nge4 Nf5 16.Qd3 Qe8 17.Bxf6 Bxf6 18.g4 Qg6 19.Kh1

19... Nd4? The critical moment. Having allowed g4, Black must do something drastic to stop White consolidating, else he is in trouble. Hebden's original intention here had been 19...f3!, and after the game, he was at a loss to explain why he had not played it. A deep and profound analysis session in The Pig later that evening suggested that Black would have been OK after this move. 20.f3 Bh4 21.Bb1! An excellent move, preserving the important light-squared bishop. Now he intends simply 22 Ne2, removing Black's active minor piece. Kh8 22.Ne2 Nxe2 23.Qxe2 Qg7 24.a5?! Thematic in itself, but much stronger was 24 g5!, when Black is probably just lost. Now he is able to create some counterplay. Be7 25.Nc3 Bd7 26.Be4 Rf6 27.b4 Rg8?! Blowing his last chance. 27...Raf8, planning Rh6, Rff6, Rh3, etc. gives White more problems. 28.Rg1 Rh6 29.b5 Qf7 30.Rab1 Rh3 Black has finally created a threat to take on g4, but now a fine positional pawn sacrifice removes the light-squared bishops, after which Black's position falls apart in short order. 31.Bf5! Bxf5 32.gxf5 Rf8 33.Qg2 Rg3 Desperation, since after the rook retreats, simply 34 Ne4, and White will break through on the b-file at his leisure. 34.hxg3 Qh5+ 35.Qh2 Qxf3+ 36.Rg2 Qxc3 37.gxf4 exf4 38.Rbg1 f3 39.Qxh7+! 1–0 A small step for mankind, perhaps, but a giant leap for Williams' GM title ambitions.

ROUND 7

So far in this tournament, top seed Vladimir Belov has not looked close to losing a game, but in round 6, he went down to Milos Pavlovic in a slow Lopez position. Belov looked to be doing OK for some time, but his position later collapsed. More detailed comments on this game are precluded by the absence of a legible scoresheet, but I hope to be able to supply both the full score and some further insights at a later point in time.

On other top boards, there were wins for Erenburg, Gagunashvili and Pert. The former overcame Bogdan Lalic in a 70-move manoeuvering battle, whilst Gagunashvili notched his fifth successive win with a straightforward victory over Eric Zude. Pert's game against Greet was probably the most interesting of the day, and is annotated below. Other English players also made strides forward yesterday, as Stephen Gordon beat Houska in fairly short order, whilst Simon Williams' Dutch Defence claimed yet another victim in Wu Li. Another slow starter who has made a sharp comeback is Kuzubov, who beat his Ukrainian mentor Peter Marusenko with Black, and now has 5 points.

Today's 8th round brings together Williams and Hebden, in what should be an excellent slugfest. However, the arbiters are likely to be focused mainly on catching the Phantom 4pm Watch Alarm Fiend, whose incredibly loud beeping noises have disrupted the last two rounds just as much as would any mobile phone. Thus far, the culprit has escaped detection, but if you are reading this report, be warned - the authorities are on your tail and the net is closing in!

1.d4 d5 2.c4 dxc4 3.Nf3 Nf6 4.e3 e6 5.Bxc4 c5 6.0–0 a6 7.Bb3 This subtle retreat is currently the most testing line against the QGA. White withdraws the bishop in advance of Black's playing b7-b5, so as to provoke weaknesses by a subsequent a2-a4. Black could try to dispense with b5, for example by 7...cxd4, but Greet chooses the critical line. b5 8.a4 b4 9.e4 cxd4!? The most popular moves here at the moment are 9...Bb7 and 9...Be7, the former being a favourite of the new Russian champion and QGA specialist Sergei Rublevsky. However, Black is currently under pressure in these lines, and it is not clear what is best here. Greet's choice is a slightly older line, not thought good enough to equalize. 10.Nbd2 Bb7 11.e5 Nfd7 12.Nc4 Nc5 13.Bg5 Qc7 14.Rc1 d3!? An interesting choice, after which Pert was on his own resources. White has compensation for his pawn, in the form of better development and active pieces, but he needs to make something of it before Black completes his development and gets castled. One of Black's problems is that he cannot develop the KB to e7 without allowing the enemy knight into d6 with great effect, and this in turn means that it is hard to get castled without playing h6 and g5, a major weakening of his K-side. 15.Ba2 Nbd7 16.Re1 h6 17.Bh4 Rc8 18.Nd4 Bd5

19.Nf5!? Played after long thought. White is fully developed and needs to find some way to pursue his initiative. The other main option was 19 Nd6+, which Pert eventually rejected in favour of the text. Bxc4 20.Bxc4 g6 Fritz claims Black is better after 20...exf5 21 e6 Ne5 22 exf7+ Kd7, but it would take a very brave man to play this over the board. 21.Ne3 Bg7 22.Bxd3 g5 23.Bg3 0–0 24.Bxa6 Rcd8 25.Qe2 Bxe5 26.Bb5 Bxg3 27.hxg3 Qe5 Black has finally managed to castle, but he has had to return his extra pawn and accept a weakened K-side in order to do so. White has a clear advantage here and, short of time, the defence proves too much for Greet. 28.Qh5 Qg7 29.Ng4 Kh7 30.Rc4 Nd3 31.Rf1 b3?! The immediate 31...N7c5 is a better defence. 32.Rc3 N7c5 33.Bxd3+ Nxd3 34.Rxb3 f5? Losing immediately. 34...Rd7 was better, although White is still clearly better. 35.Nxh6! 1–0 35...Qxh6 36 Rb7+ is curtains.

Unfortunately, the dreaded commentator's jinx seems to apply to chess, as well as other sports. Ever since I commented on Bogdan Lalic's suddenly having stopped offering draws, he has reverted to type. Yesterday he managed just 15 moves, all but one of them theory, before popping the question. His opponent, Mark Hebden, having the black pieces, naturally saw no reason to decline. Rumours from Hollywood suggest that film studios are considering offering Lalic the role of Wyatt Earp, the Fastest Draw-offer in the West, in a remake of the classic film "Gunfight at the OK-let's-call-it-a-draw Corral".

Fortunately, the other top boards were not so peaceful. Belov won convincingly against Simon Williams, whilst Neverov handed Negi his first defeat. The young Indian accepted an IQP, and seemed to achieve good counterplay. However, Neverov's technical style is ideally suited to such positions, and he gradually neutralised Black's play, won the weak pawn, and converted the ending.

Pavlovic won a long, tough battle against Hendriks, whilst Gagunashvili won his fourth straight game, despite being under the cosh for much of the time against Simon Ansell. Richard Pert strengthened the English challenge by beating Madsen as Black, employing an opening novelty which he had been told about by Simon Williams on the phone that morning! Colin McNab continued his comeback with a fourth consecutive win, whilst Andrew Greet also reached four points, capitalising on an extra pawn in a rook ending against Arngrimsson.

1.e4 g6 An unusual choice for Williams, who usually prefers the French or Sicilian. 2.d4 Bg7 3.c4 Belov in his turn forces a King's Indian / Benoni structure, knowing that Simon has very little experience as Black in such positions - against 1 d4, he has hardly ever played anything but 1...f5, about which he has written an excellent book. d6 4.Nf3 c5 5.Be2 Bg4 6.d5 a6?! 7.Nc3 Nd7 8.0–0 Ngf6 9.Bg5 0–0 10.a4 Ne8 11.Ra3 Nc7 12.Rb3 Rb8 13.Nd2! This consolidates White's edge. Probably Black should have flicked in an exchange on f3 at some point, although White's chances would remain somewhat preferable. Bxe2 14.Qxe2 Qe8 15.f4 e6 16.Re1 f6 17.Bh4 Qf7 18.Nf3 Rfe8 19.dxe6 Nxe6 20.Qd2 Bh6? After the game, both players agreed that this was the losing move. It seems that Black should have tried 20...Nd4!, planning 21 Nxd4 Qxc4. At the board, Williams rejected this because of 22 Qe2, when 22...Qxd4+? 23 Bf2 traps the black queen. However, he can instead simply retreat with 22...Qf7!, when the position remains unclear. After the text-move, Black's game goes downhill rapidly. 21.Nd5 f5 22.exf5 gxf5 23.Rbe3 Suddenly, Black is in deep trouble, since 23...Nxf4 drops a piece after 24 Rxe8+, whilst meanwhile there is a threat of 24 Ne7+. Bg7 24.Ne7+ Rxe7 25.Bxe7 Nd4 26.Bxd6 White has won an exchange and soon wraps up the game. Rd8 27.Bc7 Rc8 28.Be5 Nxe5 29.Nxe5 Bxe5 30.Rxe5 Qxc4 31.Qe3 1–0

A peaceful spirit of New Year descended across the top boards yesterday, as the first four games were drawn, although only one was without a fight. This was top board, where the withdrawal symptoms of not having offered a draw for some 72 hours obviously became too much for Bogdan Lalic, and the inevitable offer popped out at move 21. By contrast, on board 2, Simon Williams avoided any early draws and took considerable risks. He snatched a pawn, at the cost of allowing Black's IQP to travel all the way to d2. However, it was thus far and no farther, and with Williams able to blockade the pawn, a draw resulted in the ending. Negi-Pavlovic was a balanced struggle, which allowed the young Indian to celebrate having gained enough rating points to take his rating over 2400. With three norms already in the bag, this secures his IM title. Negi is sponsored by the TATA Group, an Indian company which manufactures buses, so he is presumably hoping that, even if he has to wait some time for his GM norms, they should eventually all come along at once. The way he is playing in this tournament, he shouldn't even have to wait very long.

Jack Rudd continued his excellent tournament by holding Bobras, whilst Mark Hebden won an absorbing game against Kobese. Amongst other noticeable results was Gagunashvili's third straight win, lifting him to within half a point of the leaders, after his 1/2 out of 2 start. Kuzubov matched him, whilst Sergey Erenburg bounced back from yesterday's loss to Negi, with a convincing win over Dave Ledger.

I mentioned in yesterday's report that Tim Spanton, rated just 2018, had reached 3/4 and risen as high as board 8. He lost badly in round 5 to Dutch IM Willy Hendriks, but an otherwise uninterestingly one-sided game is enlivened by a truly remarkable piece of opening preparation by the Dutchman:

1.e4 e5 2.Bc4 Nf6 3.d3 c6 4.Nf3 d5 5.Bb3 Bb4+ 6.Bd2 Bxd2+ 7.Qxd2!? This is the start of the fun. Just about the only move considered by theory here is 7 Nbxd2, defending the e4-pawn, when White may have a small advantage, although it is not much. However, Hendriks revealed after the game that he had prepared the text-move with the help of Fritz. Spanton replied with the very plausible-looking dxe4 8.Nxe5 0–0 9.dxe4 Qe7 It looks as though Black should have a good game, as White cannot retain his extra pawn. However, Hendriks was still well within his preparation. He continued with the at first sight suicidal 10.Qf4 and after the natural reply Nh5 11.Bxf7+

Returning to the position after 11 Bxf7+, however, one can legitimately ask the question of what happens after the reply 11...Kh8. At first sight, White is losing material, but Hendriks demonstrated that Fritz had found the amazing move 12 Qg3!!. Now the queen cannot be captured because of mate in two after 12...Nxg3 13 Ng6+ hxg6 14 hxg3 mate. In fact, Black has nothing better than to take on f7, reaching a similar material balance to that in the game, but with queens on the board. A really remarkable example of the depths of modern-day opening preparation, and the effect that computer programs are having on the game.

2005 is likely to be remembered as the year when Veselin Topalov's uncompromising style dominated the world game, and it is therefore appropriate that, on the last day of the year, the Hastings Masters should see decisive results on 8 of the top 10 boards. Once again, the Indian prodigy Parimarjan Negi provided the best result of the day, beating Erenburg in a remarkably mature game. The latter's Caro-Kann resulted in an early queen exchange, leading to a position where White had a small edge, but Black was rock solid. The manner in which Negi then ground remorselessly away at his GM opponent was more reminiscent of a grizzled, pipe-smoking veteran, than of a 12-year old boy, but the result was the same - a 73 move endgame win and a tie for the lead. Belov's game saw a very strange series of opening transpositions: 1.d4 d6 2.e4 (It's a Pirc) e5 (no, it's an Irregular) 3 Nf3 (no, a Philidor), Nc6 (I tell a lie, it's a strange Scotch) 4 Bb5 (ah, after all, it's a Ruy Lopez, Steinitz Defence)! The Russian secured a space advantage, waited for Black to lose patience and try to break out, and then calmly dissected the remains.

Neverov's quiet technical style attracts little attention, but can be very effective, and today he won a pawn almost out of the opening, and converted the advantage confidently. Meanwhile, since his round 2 brevity, Bogdan Lalic has now gone over 48 hours without offering a draw, and consequently has 3 1/2 and a share of the lead. Bogdan is a past winner of the Challengers' and has a very deep knowledge of chess, so he is a player to keep one's eye on - only his tendency to offer so many draws holds him back from greater successes, so if he is able to conquer that, he will be a potential winner of the tournament. Amongst the other round 4 winners, Simon Williams hammered le Roux, whilst Hebden won a tough King's Indian battle to reach 3 points, as did Richard Pert. The most notable name of the 3-point score group is Tim Spanton, rated just 2018, who has now won three straight games to earn himself a spot on one of the top 8 boards today. He was given a major helping hand in round 4 by Hastings regular Peter Marusenko, who overlooked a mate in 2 on move 15.

1.Nf3 Nf6 2.c4 g6 3.g3 Bg7 4.Bg2 d5 5.cxd5 Nxd5 6.Nc3 0–0 7.0–0 c5 8.Nxd5 Qxd5 9.d3 Nc6 10.Be3 Bxb2?! This obvious capture was played quickly, but is not good, as White soon regains the pawn with heavy pressure on the queenside. Both 10...Bd7 and 10...Qd6 are known to be better moves. 11.Rb1 Bf6 12.Qa4 Nb4 This was the product of long thought, but Black already has problems. White has a number of threats, most obviously 13 Nd4, but also simply 13 Rfc1, when Black will be unable to hold the extra pawn, whilst White has strong pressure along the open lines. As the Russians say in such situations, "Chornim dorog horoshiy sovyet" - good advice for Black is expensive!. 13.Nd2 Bd7 14.Bxd5 Bxa4 15.Bxb7 Rab8 16.Bxc5 Winning a pawn. Rxb7 17.Rxb4 Rxb4 18.Bxb4 Rc8 Black has the bishop pair, but this is by no means adequate compensation for the pawn minus. Neverov had already shown his excellent endgame technique against Houska the day before, and here, he again wraps the game up efficiently. 19.Nc4 Bd7 20.Rc1 e5 21.f3 Be6 22.Kf2 Bd8 23.Bd2 Bb6+ 24.Be3 Bd4 25.f4! Creating another weakness in the Black position f6 26.fxe5 fxe5 27.Bxd4 exd4 28.Kf3 Rf8+ 29.Ke4 Rf2 30.Rc2 Rxh2 31.Kxd4 Rg2 32.Ne5 Rxg3 33.e4 h5 34.Rc6 h4 Already desperation, since after 34...Bxa2 35 Nxg6, White has stopped the Black pawns and is ready to roll his connected passed pawns down the board. 35.Rxe6 h3 36.Re8+ Kg7 37.Re7+ Kh6 38.Nf7+ Kh5 39.Re8 Rg2 40.Rh8+ Kg4 41.e5 h2 42.e6 Re2 43.Rxh2! 1–0 After 43...Rxh2 44 e7 Re2 45 Ne5+, the e-pawn queens.

ROUND 3

The last 100% scores disappeared yesterday, as all the top four games ended in draws, but in contrasting styles. Belov halved out with Kristjansson in a sharp line of the Scotch, where most if not all of the game is known to theory. Schoen-Pavlovic also saw the balance remain undisturbed, but Le Roux-Negi was a long battle, where the young Indian looked to have winning chances in the ending. As so often, though, it was Simon Williams who provided the best entertainment of the day, with a splendid slugfest against Erenburg. The game swung from one way to the other, and although the eventual draw was the least likely result for most of the day, it was probably a fair one. Readers can judge for themselves from the annotated game below.

On other boards, Neverov joined the leaders by grinding down Houska in a rook and opposite-coloured bishop ending, whilst Bobras beat Aangrimsson in a game on which I cannot comment, since I cannot decipher either scoresheet. Bogdan Lalic dragged himself out of his lethargy and won against Thompson, whilst there were also wins for Hendriks, Colin, Hebden, Gunnarsson and others.

Another encouraging aspect of the day's play was the increasing take-up of the Monroi devices. Today, some 32 out of the total of 50 games were recorded using Monroi, thereby saving your correspondent a significant amount of inputting work. The time thus saved can be devoted, inter alia, to devising some particularly fiendish chess trivia questions for next Tuesday's quiz night!

1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.Nd2 Nf6 4.e5 Nfd7 5.c3 c5 6.Bd3 Nc6 7.Ngf3 Be7 8.0–0 a5 9.Re1 cxd4 10.cxd4 g5 A razor-sharp idea, which has become one of Black's standard plans in such French positions. He aims to undermine support for the d4-pawn, but at the cost of rendering the K-side uninhabitable for his own King. 11.h3 h5 12.g4 Radical, but also the only satisfactory way to hold the d4 pawn. White faces some temporary coordination problems, but if he succeeds in unravelling and shoring up his centre, the weaknesses in Black's camp are likely to come back to haunt him. hxg4 13.hxg4 Qb6 14.Qa4 Nf8 15.Nf1 Bd7 16.Be3 Nb4 17.Qd1 Nxd3 18.Qxd3 Bb5 19.Qc2 Ng6 20.Ng3 Kd7 The only way to connect his rooks. 21.Nh5 Rac8 22.Qd2 Bb4 23.Nf6+ Ke7 24.Qd1

A critical moment. Black has played logically and seems to have made the best of his chances, but has come up seriously short. White has the huge threat of Bxg5, against which there seems to be no satisfactory defence. Williams now had a very long think, and launched into complications. Nf4!? 25.Nxg5 Nh3+ 26.Kg2? Erenburg played this very quickly, but it looks like a serious mistake. In The Pig later that evening, Williams demonstrated that he was very worried about simply 26 Nxh3, followed by 27 Bg5. Despite the best efforts of an assortment of mucky paws belonging to Messrs Hebden, Pert and others, no satisfactory line could be found for Black. After Erenburg's mistake, the game swings round suddenly. Bxe1 27.Nxh3 Bf1+!! This is the key point of Black's play, and presumably the move Erenburg had missed when playing 26 Kg2? 28.Kxf1 Rxh3 29.Bg5 Now this is much less effective. Qxb2! Suddenly, White is dead lost. 30.Ne4+ Kf8 31.Rb1 Qxa2 32.Kg2 dxe4 33.Qxe1 Rcc3 34.Bf4 Rcf3!? This is the start of a series of sub-optimal moves by Black, which eventually allow White to crawl out of his problems. Hebden's suggestion of 34...Rhf3 looks clearer. 35.Ra1 Qb3 36.Rb1 Qd5 37.Be3 Rh4 38.Qc3 Rxg4+ 39.Kf1 b5? The second-last move of the time-control and a clear mistake. After simply 39...Kg7, Black should not have any trouble wrapping things up. 40.Qc5+! Qxc5 41.dxc5 b4 42.c6 It is no longer clear that Black is winning, as White has dangerous counterplay with his passed pawn and active pieces. Williams now returned the exchange for what he thought was a winning rook ending, but he had missed White's 46th. Rxe3 43.fxe3 Rg8 44.Ra1 Kg7 45.Rxa5 Rb8 46.Ra7! Kg6 47.Rb7 Rc8 48.Rxb4 Kf5 49.Rb7! The point of White's play. Once he eliminates the f7-pawn, the draw is secured. Kxe5 50.Rxf7 Rxc6 51.Ke2 Rc2+ 52.Kd1 Rh2 53.Ke1 Rh6 54.Ra7 Kf5 55.Rf7+ Kg5 56.Rf8 e5 57.Rg8+ Kf5 58.Kf2 Rh2+ 59.Kf1 Ke6 60.Rd8 Ra2 61.Ke1 Ra6 62.Ke2 Rd6 63.Ra8 Kf5 64.Rg8 Rg6 65.Rxg6 Kxg6 ½–½

The most notable result of yesterday's second round came on board 5, where the 12-year old Indian prodigy Parimarjan Negi won with surprising ease against Mark Hebden. Despite the latter's decades of experience defending the Closed Lopez, things soon went wrong for the English GM. After being told that Chris Ward's commentary room audience needed over a dozen guesses to find Black's 13th move, Mark ruefully commented "I wish I hadn't found it at all"! Black was soon suffering from weak light squares and a weakness on d6, and was dispatched in convincing fashion, a queen sacrifice administering the coup de grace.

Whilst this was going on, the top seed Vladimir Belov was busy winning an impressive game against Gunnarsson. Belov's opening choice against the Petroff gives White only a small advantage, but should not be underestimated. I remember seeing Nigel Short give a fine demonstration of the merits of White's position in a game against Andrew Ledger at the 2003 Gibraltar tournament, and Belov too never let go of his edge. White retains the bishop pair, and the young Russian GM gave a textbook demonstration of how to utilize such an advantage in the ending - not a game for the masses, perhaps, but caviar to the general.

Erenburg overcame Simon Ansell's resistance to join the leaders on 2/2, as did Pavlovic, with a crushing win over Jack Rudd. Simon Williams was the only British player to match this, winning a longish King's Indian against Helgi Ziska. Jovanka Houska held Dobras to a very comfortable draw as Black, whilst both Francis Rayner and Ian Thompson won to reach 1 1/2. There were two other shocks for the pre-tournament favourites, as Gagunashvili went down to Wolfram Schoen, whilst Poor Colin McNab lost his second successive game, in identical fashion, over pressing in a long ending.

Lower down the tournament, the game Spanton-Makumbi saw the "Vodafone Gambit" claim its first victim of the tournament, as the African defaulted the game when his mobile phone went off (twice!) in a dead-drawn ending. The arbiters are thinking of running a sweepstake on how many such defaults there will be in the congress.