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11th Monarch Assurance Isle of Man Chess International 28 Sept - 6 Oct 2002
Round 6 - 3 October
John Saunders reports: Round Six Results
Sulskis, Sarunas - Stocek, Jiri 1-0 53 B96 Sicilian Najdorf Epishin, Vladimir - Lalic, Bogdan 1-0 45 D37 Queen's Gambit Grunberg, Mihai - Dautov, Rustem 0-1 38 A03 Bird (1 f4) Ledger, Andrew - Neverov, Valeriy 0-1 36 B26 Sicilian Closed Fridman, Daniel - Gladyszev, Oleg 1-0 41 E69 Kings Indian Shulman, Yuri - Kogan, Artur 1/2 17 D15 Slav defence Miezis, Normunds - Zapata, Alonso 0-1 33 A23 English 1 c4 e5 Goloshchapov, Alexander - Ward, Christopher 1-0 34 C02 French Advance Felgaer, Ruben - Rotstein, Arkadij 1-0 48 B43 Sicilian Hebden, Mark - Brady, Stephen 1/2 57 A46 Queen's pawn Burrows, Martin - Tyomkin, Dimitri 0-1 32 B33 Sicilian Sveshnikov Lutton, J.Ezra - Orr, Mark J L 1/2 26 C11 French Classical Daly, Colm - Ulibin, Mikhail 0-1 72 A30 English 1 c4 c5 Marchand, Francois - Kunte, Abhijit 0-1 59 E15 Queen's indian Rayner, Francis - Palliser, Richard 1-0 24 A28 English 1 c4 e5 Williams, Simon - Pert, Richard G 0-1 28 A45 Queen's pawn Grant, Alan - Ansell, Simon 0-1 47 A20 English 1 c4 e5 Gordon, Stephen J - Welling, Gerard 0-1 34 A35 English 1 c4 c5 Blackburn, Jonathan L - Hinks-Edwards, Thom 1/2 39 E13 Queen's indian Cafolla, Peter - Palus, Ryszard 0-1 27 D80 Grunfeld Collins, Sam - Hutchinson, Norman 1-0 36 B10 Caro-Kann Peralta, Fernando - Hanley, Craig 1-0 54 D94 Grunfeld Bennion, David - Cioara, Andrei Nestor 0-1 11 B15 Caro-Kann Cooper, Lawrence - Vuilleumier, Alex 1/2 65 B88 Sicilian Dougherty, Michael - Fox, Anthony 1/2 55 D37 Queen's Gambit Waugh, Jonathon C - Van Kemenade, Rudy 0-1 13 C42 Petroff Defence Ellison, Derek George - Ormsby, Alan 1-0 40 A03 Bird (1 f4) Shepherd, Michael - Lutton, E Josiah 1/2 25 E32 Nimzo Indian Cross, Glenn - Purton, Ben 1/2 26 A21 English 1 c4 e5 Goodger, Martyn - Hanley, James L 1-0 35 B22 Sicilian 2 c3 Harborne, Matthew - Kelly, David 1/2 40 C07 French Tarrasch Cheshire, Paul L - Spanton, Timothy 0-1 45 A37 English 1 c4 c5
Out and About
Anyone who has taken part in the Monarch Assurance over the years will tell you that it is not just a chess congress but a great opportunity to sample life on the Isle of Man. One of the features of the event is the free coach trip around this fascinating island which our genial host Dennis Hemsley lays on for the Thursday morning. It's a chance to take in the unique scenery and history of the island, and is given added interest by the cosmopolitan crowd who sign up for the trip. Gratifyingly, most of the top-name grandmasters come along for the ride. They appreciate the opportunity to unwind and focus on something other than chess for a couple of hours. They also mix and chat freely with us lesser players and hangers-on. It was nice to see tournament leader Sarunas Sulskis enjoying his coach trip, and you can see that, when walking around, he still likes to keep a few important steps in front of his chessboard rivals...
Sarunas Sulskis leads the tournament... on a walk over Tynwald Hill
Two of us were extra-specially lucky to get a guided tour round the Tynwald (the Isle of Man Parliament) on Wednesday, for which we have to be very grateful to hotel manager Tony Bridson. Tony fixed it for Michael Dougherty (a civil servant back home in Canada) and me to meet a very high-ranking official in the Manx parliament, Eddie Lowey, who then showed us round the House of Keys, the Legislative Executive and the Tynwald chamber itself. In some countries it might be regarded as intimidating to meet a senior member of the national parliament, but Eddie could not have been more down-to-earth or friendly. We could do with a few of his ilk over in England. By the way, don't make the mistake of referring to England as "the mainland", as Manxmen regard their own island as the mainland, and other areas of land surrounded by water (e.g. Britain or Australia) as other islands, just bigger.
Kirsan Ilyumzhinov, eat your heart out. That's me, John Saunders, sitting
in the Isle of Man President's chair in the Legislative Executive of Tynwald
(the upper chamber). Left is Michael Dougherty, and right is
Eddie Lowey, MLC, who (unlike me) has the right to sit round that table...
Eddie - or to give him his full name, Edmund G Lowey, esq, MLC (which stands for Member of the Legislative Council) - has been in the Tynwald for 30 years and is its longest-serving member. He sat for years in the House of Keys, which is democratically elected by the Isle of Man electorate every five years and has 24 members. In recent years he has moved up to the Isle of Man's second chamber, the Legislative Executive, which consists of 11 people mainly elected by members of the lower house. Consummate politician that he is, Eddie is a brilliant raconteur, and kept Michael, Tony and me spellbound with his reminiscences of his life in politics which has not been confined to this island but taken him all round the world to major Commonwealth conferences and brought him into contact with world leaders such as Nelson Mandela, and royalty such as HM the Queen of England, whose constitutional designation here is 'Lord of Mann'. If you are reading this, Eddie, thanks for the tour, it was brilliant.
Michael Dougherty in the House of Keys Speaker's chair. He looks a bit
happier
than me in this role because at least his feet reached the floor (mine
didn't)
Travelogue over, and back to the chess. Once again tournament has a sole leader: Sarunas Sulskis of Lithuania, who beat Jiri Stocek of the Czech Republic. Most of the other leading games ended decisively and this included a virtual wipe-out of the top English competitors.
The
top board game between Sulskis (pictured left) and Stocek was always
likely to be an exciting game as soon as the players opted for the very
sharp Polugaevsky variation of the Sicilian Najdorf. The players exited
theory on move 15 when Sulskis played 15 c3. It's a desperately difficult
line in which to prove equality for Black, and Stocek never seemed to
be getting there. He couldn't seem to escape the cramping effect on the
f6 pawn and soon had a very bad position. Stocek fought back in time trouble
but blundered just as he seemed to be emerging from the worst of his difficulties.
Sulskis-Stocek.
This
put Sulskis on 5/6 but no less than seven players won games to tuck in
behind him on 4½. Tomorrow Sulskis will have Black against Valery
Neverov of Ukraine (pictured right) who brought Andrew Ledger's
fine run to an end. Ledger played the Closed Sicilian and Neverov responded
with great energy. Perhaps Ledger should have taken the proffered sacrifice
because he got a rather lifeless position as played and soon ran out of
play. Ledger-Neverov.
Another well-placed English player, Lalic, lost to Epishin. Lalic allowed
Epishin to develop a big centre and lagged behind in development well
into the middlegame. Epishin's exploitation of this was exemplary, first
giving up a piece to get a big attack and later simplifying down to a
rook ending when he could see that it was a technical win. Epishin-Lalic.
Completing the triple disaster for England's leading scorers, and a scoreline of Ukraine 2, England 0, was Alexander Goloschapov, who beat Chris Ward. Chris looked to be in good shape well into the middlegame but putting his knight on the edge of the board got him into trouble. Perhaps he missed the rather striking 30 Qh5! time trouble shocker. Goloshchapov-Ward. Meanwhile Normunds Miezis finally ran out of luck when he played Alonso Zapata who bounced back from his round five defeat.
Daniel
Fridman of Latvia (pictured left) played a beautiful tactic against
Oleg Gladyszev after taking control of the middlegame. I won't describe
it: just make sure you play through this game, which was probably the
game of the round. Fridman-Gladyszev.
It had plenty of opposition as there was a rich crop of exciting chess
in this round of 23 decisive games. 'Exciting' is not a synonym for 'good'
here, as there were quite a lot of blunders. Francis Rayner beat Richard
Palliser after the English IM overlooked a tactic (Rayner-Palliser),
and the wild game between George Ellison and Alan Ormsby was won by the
British Senior Champion after the Manxman overlooked a mate in three,
and then a mate in one, during a furious time scramble. Ellison-Ormsby.
Jonathon Waugh (pictured right) won a game in 13 moves two rounds
previously but this time he was on the wrong side of a 13-move game. Waugh-Van
Kemenade. That wasn't the shortest game of the round as David Bennion,
also a hero in round four, succumbed in an inglorious 11 moves. Bennion-Cioara.
You win some, you lose some.
Footnote: after the terrible battering the Brits took in this round, there is just one unbeaten Brit left in the field - it is Glenn Cross, of the Isle of Man, who has drawn four games since joining the tournament in round three.