BritBase.Info - British Chess Game Archive
11th Monarch Assurance Isle of Man Chess International 28 Sept - 6 Oct 2002
Round 3 - 30 September
John Saunders reports: Round Three Results
Zapata, Alonso - Stocek, Jiri 1/2 27 B86 Sicilian Kogan, Artur - Epishin, Vladimir 1/2 19 E12 Queen's indian Dautov, Rustem - Hebden, Mark 1-0 54 E62 Kings Indian Ulibin, Mikhail - Goloshchapov, Alexander 0-1 56 B47 Sicilian Neverov, Valeriy - Miezis, Normunds 0-1 73 A40 Queen's pawn Tyomkin, Dimitri - Fridman, Daniel 1/2 11 D46 Queen's gambit Ward, Christopher - Shulman, Yuri 1-0 56 D45 Queen's gambit Lalic, Bogdan - Marchand, Francois 1-0 50 A52 Benoni Palus, Ryszard - Felgaer, Ruben 0-1 29 D10 Slav defence Rotstein, Arkadij - Rayner, Francis 1-0 34 C00 French Blackburn, Jonathan L - Sulskis, Sarunas 0-1 46 A44 Old Benoni Burrows, Martin - Peralta, Fernando 1-0 34 B07 Pirc Kunte, Abhijit - Dougherty, Michael 1-0 40 A07 Reti (1 Nf3) Grant, Alan - Grunberg, Mihai 1/2 51 A10 English 1 c4 Palliser, Richard - Gordon, Stephen J 1-0 34 E11 Bogo-Indian Vuilleumier, Alex - Ledger, Andrew 0-1 42 B12 Caro-Kann Ansell, Simon - Fox, Anthony 1/2 61 A07 Reti (1 Nf3) Van Kemenade, Rudy - Gladyszev, Oleg 0-1 62 B45 Sicilian Hinks-Edwards, Thom - Harborne, Matthew 1-0 43 D41 Queen's gambit Ellison, Derek George - Pert, Richard G 1/2 26 A25 English 1 c4 e5 Brady, Stephen - Hanley, James L 1-0 37 B22 Sicilian 2 c3 Cafolla, Peter - Cooper, Lawrence 0-1 56 A32 English 1 c4 c5 Lutton, J.Ezra - Daly, Colm 0-1 34 A00 Irregular Lutton, E Josiah - Orr, Mark J L 1/2 53 C10 French Hanley, Craig - Bennion, David 1-0 38 C17 French Winawer Purton, Ben - Williams, Simon 0-1 27 B23 Sicilian Closed Cioara, Andrei Nestor - Goodger, Martyn 1/2 39 C43 Petroff Defence Kelly, David - Welling, Gerard 0-1 36 C30 King's Gambit Spanton, Timothy - Hutchinson, Norman 0-1 45 A17 English 1 c4 Collins, Sam - Ormsby, Alan 1-0 51 B13 Caro-Kann Shepherd, Michael - Waugh, Jonathon C 1/2 52 E73 Kings Indian Cross, Glenn - Cheshire, Paul L 1/2 22 E61 Kings Indian
The leaders... Ward, Zapata, Dautov, Goloshchapov, Miezis...
Three Lions on a Shirk
Thus far we haven't heard much about the English grandmasters, have we? That is probably fair enough as our 'three lions' (Ward, Lalic and Hebden) spent round two as lions will: snoozing peacefully under a bush waiting for easy prey to come along. Well, not literally, but you get the picture. Round three was no easier for two of them, but all three were involved in some decisive chess in a round which produced relatively few short draws. After round three there are five joint leaders on 2½/3: Chris Ward, Alonso Zapata, Rustem Dautov, Alexander Goloshchapov and Normunds Miezis.
Foreground: Lalic v Marchand, (obscured) Ward v Shulman,
Tyomkin (looking towards camera) v Fridman
Bogdan Lalic had the easiest pairing of the three English lions, against FM Francois Marchand of France, rated 2237. The Frenchman's decision to surrender the two bishops looked doubtful and Bogdan soon had him in a half-nelson, and despite lasting 50 moves there was never really any doubt that Bogdan would win. Lalic-Marchand.
Hebden had Black against Rustem Dautov, now of Germany but a typical product of the old Soviet school. Dautov refused Mark's draw offer on move 24 though the position was fairly equal. Dautov indulged in masterly inactivity until after the time control when he launched a long-planned b4 assault. Mark should probably have played cxb4 but instead tried to work up some play against Dautov's king. This proved to be insufficient and Dautov managed to break through to Hebden's king first. Dautov-Hebden.
Ward had a surprisingly easy passage against Belarussian (but US resident) GM Yuri Shulman. Ward's aggressive intentions were obvious as he castled long and pointed his pieces at Black's king but Shulman could not seem to find a viable defence against this 'route one' approach. Ward found a tactic to exploit Black's weakened defences and won queen for rook and piece. Though Black played on for a long time, there was never really any doubt that White would win through. A good result for the former British Champion, who will be gratified to wake up this morning to a new FIDE rating of 2513. Ward-Shulman.
The
surprise of the round was Martin Burrows' excellent win against IM Fernando
Peralta. The Argentinian's choice of 10...e6 looked very suspect and Burrows
correctly opted for an immediate attack. He successfully defused Peralta's
tactical attempts to get back in the game and then exploited the manifold
weaknesses of Black's position. A great scalp for the 28-year-old English
amateur. Burrows-Peralta.
Last year's winner Mikhail Ulibin suffered defeat at the hands of Alexander Goloshchapov. Ulibin turned down the Ukrainian GM's draw offer early in the game but offered the draw a few moves later. But the Ukrainian wanted to play on, and proved his point as he got his rook to the seventh rank and marginalized Ulibin's knight. This was a very fine display of technical chess by Goloshchapov; I'm not sure I can do it justice in the time available, but have a good look at it in the play-through window. It would be a mistake to discount Ulibin's chances, however, as last year he suffered an even more painful defeat to Danny Gormally in round two and bounced back to take first prize. Ulibin-Goloschapov.
The
last game to finish ended with a huge blunder. Valery Neverov of Ukraine
was trying to win an interminable double rook ending with an extra pawn,
but, when down to his last two minutes, got in a tangle and allowed Normunds
Miezis to win a whole rook. The two players were a contrast in appearance:
Miezis is expressionless and like a statue at the board whereas Neverov
is a bundle of nerves, rocking back and forth in his chair and twiddling
his fingers in the air. Some consolation for the Ukrainian this morning:
his October rating is 2601 taking him into the world's top 100. Neverov-Miezis.
There was an unofficial England-Ireland match this round: Ansell-Fox, Brady-J.Hanley, Cafolla-Cooper, J.Lutton-Daly, E.Lutton-Orr. Ratings suggested a 3-2 win for the Irish and so it was to prove. Another Irishman, Sam Collins, took on Manxman Alan Ormsby and it took a hard fight for the Irish champion to get his first point on the scoreboard. Collins-Ormsby.