Aug-07-10
 | | luzhin: Adams' 18...Nb4! is a lovely echo of Wells's daring 17.Nc5! -- you sac a Knight to open the b-file, I'll sac mine to close it! Perhaps 20.Bh4 would have been better, not allowing the ferocious counter-punch 21...Nxe4. Anyway, a great game. |
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Aug-07-10
 | | Ulhumbrus: The moves 5...h6 and 8...g5 disturb Black's King side pawns without necessity, and commit Black to castling on the Queen side. In the event that Black castles on the Queen side, the move 11 h4 invites the attack ...g4. This suggests 11 e4 playing to castle on the King side. If the attack 15 c5 is not going to quite succeed against the best defence, this suggests spending a little time preparing the attack c5 by such moves as Rb1, Nb3, Bd3 or even 0-0 as well. One justification for 23 Rh5 instead of 23 Bxc4 is that it is then too late for Black to cut the Rook on h5 off by 23...Rd5 and White can reply with 24 Rxa7. The sequel to 23 Bxc4 Rd5 24 Bxd5 exd5+ 25 Re5 suggests that after 23 Bxc4 White may as well agree to a draw. |
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Aug-08-10
| | luzhin: Ulhumbrus, if White had played 23.Bxc4 Adams would not have replied 23...Rd5 but simply have captured the Rook with 23...Bxh1! which wins. By the way, the h6-g5 plan was played a number of times in this position by Karpov, who knows a thing or two about chess strategy-- as, of course, does Adams. |
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Aug-08-10
| | Ulhumbrus: <luzhin> My last message contained a numerical error. I meant to say 24 Ra5 instead of 23 Ra5 and 24 Bxc4 instead of 23 Bxc4, and so on. I will post the message again, with corrections: The moves 5...h6 and 8...g5 disturb Black's King side pawns without necessity, and commit Black to castling on the Queen side. In the event that Black castles on the Queen side, the move 11 h4 invites the attack ...g4. This suggests 11 e4 playing to castle on the King side. If the attack 15 c5 is not going to quite succeed against the best defence, this suggests spending a little time preparing the attack c5 by such moves as Rb1, Nb3, Bd3 or even 0-0 as well. One justification for 24 Rh5 instead of 24 Bxc4 is that it is then too late for Black to cut the Rook on h5 off by 24...Rd5 and White can reply with 24 Rxa7. The sequel to 24 Bxc4 Rd5 25 Bxd5 exd5+ 26 Re5 suggests that after 24 Bxc4 White may as well agree to a draw. |
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Aug-08-10
| | luzhin: Ulhumbrus, there is no justification for 24.Ra5 -- Black would win trivially with, for example, 24...Qd7. The interesting question is whether, after the game continuation of 24.Bxc4, Adams could have held on to the exchange by defending the white squares with 24...Be4 instead of 24...Rd5. I suspect that he would have played the former had he needed to win the game. |
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Aug-08-10
| | Ulhumbrus: <luzhin> If 24 Ra5 loses to 24...Qd7 an alternative is 24 Rc5 and now 24...Qd7 loses to 25 Qa6+ Kb8 26 Rb5+ |
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Aug-08-10
| | luzhin: Ulhumbrus, after 24.Rc5 Black would obviously not play Qd7 but simply Be4, which should win. Honestly, 24.Bxc4 was the only good move -- which is presumably why Wells played it. |
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Aug-08-10
| | Ulhumbrus: <luzhin> If White has nothing better than to head for a draw by 24 Bxc4, this suggests preparing c5 by playing such moves as Rb1 or Nb3, and perhaps playing to castle on the King side by refraining from h4. |
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