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11th Monarch Assurance Isle of Man Chess International 28 Sept - 6 Oct 2002
Round 8 - 5 October
John Saunders reports: Round Eight Results
Epishin leads with 6½/8
Daniel Fridman and Rustem Dautov are 2nd= on 6/8
Epishin, Vladimir - Neverov, Valeriy 1-0 43 E44 Nimzo Indian Stocek, Jiri - Dautov, Rustem 0-1 58 D11 Slav defence Fridman, Daniel - Felgaer, Ruben 1-0 44 B38 Sicilian Sulskis, Sarunas - Goloshchapov, Alexander 1/2 21 B30 Sicilian Shulman, Yuri - Ansell, Simon 1-0 60 D17 Slav defence Ledger, Andrew - Zapata, Alonso 1/2 73 B26 Sicilian Closed Hebden, Mark - Tyomkin, Dimitri 1-0 41 D11 Slav defence Welling, Gerard - Miezis, Normunds 1-0 45 B20 Sicilian closed Grunberg, Mihai - Rotstein, Arkadij 1-0 75 A03 Bird (1 f4) Cioara, Andrei Nestor - Lalic, Bogdan 1/2 15 C45 Scotch Game Collins, Sam - Kogan, Artur 0-1 28 B47 Sicilian Peralta, Fernando - Orr, Mark J L 1/2 63 A11 English 1 c4 Rayner, Francis - Ward, Christopher 0-1 73 E12 Queen's indian Pert, Richard G - Kunte, Abhijit 1/2 37 A45 Queen's pawn Brady, Stephen - Ulibin, Mikhail 0-1 42 C06 French Tarrasch Lutton, J.Ezra - Palliser, Richard 0-1 32 A00 Irregular Gladyszev, Oleg - Palus, Ryszard 1-0 34 D85 Grunfeld Marchand, Francois - Van Kemenade, Rudy 1/2 20 A80 Dutch defence Goodger, Martyn - Hinks-Edwards, Thom 0-1 21 B06 Modern Defence Cooper, Lawrence - Spanton, Timothy 1-0 26 B39 Sicilian Daly, Colm - Cafolla, Peter 1-0 42 E91 Kings Indian Classical Burrows, Martin - Hanley, Craig 0-1 42 C11 French Classical Gordon, Stephen J - Hutchinson, Norman 1-0 41 E48 Nimzo Indian Ellison, Derek George - Blackburn, Jonathan L 0-1 49 A40 Queen's pawn Dougherty, Michael - Vuilleumier, Alex 1-0 41 A71 Modern Benoni Harborne, Matthew - Grant, Alan 0-1 42 B22 Sicilian 2 c3 Fox, Anthony - Purton, Ben 1/2 30 B26 Sicilian Closed Bennion, David - Lutton, E Josiah 1-0 22 C10 French Waugh, Jonathon C - Hanley, James L 1-0 36 B26 Sicilian Closed Cross, Glenn - Kelly, David 0-1 39 A31 English 1 c4 c5 Shepherd, Michael - Ormsby, Alan 1/2 40 D19 Slav defence Cheshire, Paul L - Head,Graham 1/2 43 A38 English 1 c4 c5
And Then There Were Three...
After round eight, there are just three players left in contention for the £2,000 first prize at the 11th Monarch Assurance event here at the Cherry Orchard in Port Erin, Isle of Man: Vladimir Epishin of Russia, on 6½; and Rustem Dautov (Germany) and Daniel Fridman (Latvia) on 6. That is appropriate as they are also the three remaining unbeaten players, and probably the most impressive performers here over the last week or so. We should note that Epishin's current score was good enough to secure Mikhail Ulibin the undisputed first prize last year, and that gives a flavour of the aggressive and decisive chess which has predominated this year. In the last round Dautov has White against Epishin, while Fridman has Black against Neverov. No predictions, but we should assured of some real chess today.
All three of the aforementioned won their 8th round games to reach their exalted positions. Though Epishin looked somewhat nervous, and must have smoked around 35 cigarettes during the course of the game (he seems to go out and smoke one after virtually every move), he had a relatively easy passage as Neverov played a passive game and was handicapped by positional weaknesses. Epishin-Neverov.
Dautov's manner is in contrast to the edginess of Epishin and Neverov. He is always neatly turned out, sits calmly at the board throughout the game and never betrays any emotions via body language or facial expressions. Stocek started against Dautov with an enterprising pawn sacrifice which gave him some positional pressure well into the middlegame. Rather than attempt to hang on grimly to his material advantage, Dautov opted to give it back at an appropriate moment to break out and activate a bishop that had previously been every bit as bad as Neverov's in the top board game. Just before the time control there was a major liquidation of material, coming down to a bishop and knight ending with four pawns each. But Stocek had miscalculated because Dautov's a-pawn was passed and it could only be prevented from advancing to promotion by giving up his bishop. He managed to reach a position with three connected pawns against bishop and rook pawn; but it was the right pawn from Dautov's perspective and Stocek could not prevent the eventual capture of his three pawns. Stocek-Dautov.
Fridman was playing Felgaer, and he had clearly been busy checking his database. He chose to play against a rather passive looking line of the Maroczy Bind that Felgaer has tried twice before. Fridman varied with 20 Bg5 and Felgaer tried to fob him off with the offer of the d-pawn. But Fridman preferred to improve his position further. Felgaer resigned after allowing a back rank check followed by a tactic on h5 winning a pawn and gaining a huge positional advantage. Fridman-Felgaer.
Elsewhere
Mark Hebden (pictured left) moved back up to a respectable score
by inflicting on GM Dmitri Tyomkin his first defeat. This required a bit
of help from his opponent but the energetic finish was enjoyable. Hebden-Tyomkin.
The surprise of the day was Gerard Welling's defeat of Normunds Miezis,
his second GM scalp in successive rounds. The Dutchman dealt well with
a very complex middlegame, and a furious attempt to liquidate pawns by
Miezis foundered when he stumbled into a mating net. Grunberg-Rotstein
was a tough game where Rotstein tried too hard to win, and paid the price
when his opponent's two connected passed pawns outran his three 'passers'
on the opposite wing. This game gets the 'Handwriting from Hell' award
from your humble scribe, who could not make head nor tail of the two original
scoresheets, as well as a second copy of the winner's score which proved
to be only marginally more legible. Yes, that old Korchnoi anecdote has
come back to haunt me (see the round one report).
David Bennion once again showed an impressive ability to find his opponent's
king in a little gem from the lower boards: Bennion-Josiah
Lutton.
Blackburn Rovers
The Blackburns (left to right): Jon (snr), Sandra, Jonathan (jnr),
Suzie
As you have probably noticed from the gallery of players whose photographs have graced these pages to date, this year's open competition has been an exclusively male preserve. This is a great pity, especially considering that this event has previously included such players as Alexandra Kosteniuk and Ketevan Arakhamia-Grant. But there are female players playing in the overall Monarch Assurance congress. Mother and daughter Sandra and Suzie Blackburn are playing in the Major competition just down the road at the Erin Arts Centre. I managed to get down there yesterday to get some photos of the Major and Minor players, and took some photos of the Blackburns. We've got the whole family playing here; father Jon, mother Sandra, son Jonathan (who is playing in the Open) and daughter Suzie, who is in the Welsh women's squad for the coming Olympiad in Slovenia. The Blackburns play for Holmes Chapel, though they are all Welsh qualified.
The Major and Minor events in full swing:
IOM readers only - if you look carefully, you can spot 'Trompowsky'
in action...
A
round-up of the Major and Minor scores:
Major (after 6 of the 7 rounds): Martin Cutmore 5/6, David Cutmore
4½, Andrew Price, Paul Isherwood, Simon Hood, J Fraser Mitchell,
Suzie Blackburn 4, etc. Note: Mum and Dad Blackburn both have 2/6.
Minor (after 4 of the 5 rounds): David Curtis (pictured left)
4/4, Malcolm Roberts 3½, Norman Ingram 3, etc.