England takes silver
12th World Team Championship Astana, Kazakhstan
March 5-14, 2019
Final Standings
1. RUSSIA (Karjakin, Nepomniachtchi, Grischuk, Andreikin, Artemiev), 16/18
2. ENGLAND (Adams, Mcshane, Howell, Jones, Speelman), 13/18
3. CHINA (Ding Liren, Yu Yangyi, Wei Yi, Bu Xiangzhi, Ni Hua), 12/18
4-5. INDIA (Adhiban, Sasikiran, Ganguly, Sethuraman, Aravindh), USA (Swiercz, Sevian, Onischuk, Lenderman, Izoria), 11/18
6-7. IRAN (Magh- soodloo, Idani, Tabatabaei, Firouzja), AZERBAIJAN (Naiditsch, Mamedov, Guseinov, Safarli, Abasov), 8/18
8-9. KAZAKHSTAN (Jumabayev, Ismagambetov, Kazhgaleyev, Makhnev, Kostenko), SWEDEN (Grandelius, Tikkanen, Blomqvist, A.Smith, Johansson), 4/18
10. EGYPT (Amin, Adly, Fawzy, Hesham, Abdelnabbi), 3/18
Match Point System. Each match will be scored by match points as used in the FIDE Olympiad. Winner will get two points, a draw will give each team a point, and a loss is scored as zero point.
Time Control: 90 minutes for the first 40 moves, then 30 minutes playto-finish with 30 seconds added to your clock after every move starting move 1.
There was a time back in the 80s when England was considered the no. 2 chess power in the world. They won the Olympiad silver medals in three successive Olympiads: 1984 Thessaloniki, 1986 Dubai and 1988 Thessaloniki.
The core of the English team to the three Olympiad were basically the same: Anthony John Miles, John Nunn, Jonathan Speelman, Murray Chandler, Nigel Short and Jonathan Mestel. In 1986 Glenn Flear replaced Mestel (he was actually only fielded twice in the whole event) and in 1988 Miles was already having some problems with the Federation and IM William Watson replaced him on the team, albeit on board 6.
We all know what a monster of a player Tony Miles is and many of us were present when he won the 1974 World Junior Championship in Manila at the old Philam Auditorium in United Nations Avenue. The other three mainstays were very strong as well. Suffice it to say that in the January 1989 rating list all three of them were in the Top 10: 1. Garry Kasparov, 2. Anatoly Karpov, 3. Nigel Short,
4. Alexander Beliavsky,
5. Jonathan Speelman, 6. Vassily Ivanchuk, 7. Valery Salov, 8. Zoltan Ribli, 9-10. John Nunn, Ulf Andersson.
Anyway, that was 30 years ago. The English squad got the Olympiad bronze medals for Novi Sad 1990 but haven’t medaled again since then. Last year they came up with their best performance in years with a 5th place finish in the Batumi Olympiad, which qualified them for the World Teams.
England sent Michael Adams, Luke McShane, Gawain Jones and David Howell to do battle. They were expected to finish in the bottom half of the tournament table but instead strongly contended for the gold medals, and that is despite their top player Michael Adams being in poor form:
Bd01 Michael Adams 3.5/9 with two wins four losses and three draws
Bd02 Luke McShane 6.0/9 with three wins and six draws
Bd03 David Howell 6.0/9 with four wins a loss and four draws
Bd04 Gawain Jones 5.5/8 with four wins a loss and three draws
Bd05 Jonathan Speelman 0/1 with one loss
The Englishmen started with two 2.5-1.5 victories (Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan) and then surprised everybody with three straight 2-2 draws with the strong teams from the USA, Russia and India. They followed with two wins against Iran and Egypt before falling to China 1-3. In the final round Team England whipped Sweden 3.5-0.5 and claimed the silver medals.
Luke McShane is often listed as the world’s strongest chess amateur. He is a full-time financial trader (interned with Goldman Sachs in 2006) but has maintained his chess strength as can be seen from his infrequent chess appearances. Moreover his aggressive and creative style always makes him a fan favorite.
McShane, Luke J (2661) — Mamedov, Rauf (2701) [B33]
England vs Azerbaijan WchT Astana 2019 Astana (2.10),
06.03.2019
1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nc3 e5 6.Ndb5 d6 7.Bg5 a6 8.Na3 b5 9.Nd5 Be7 10.Bxf6 Bxf6 11.c4 b4 12.Nc2 0–0 13.g3 Bg5 14.h4 Bh6 15.Bh3 a5
[15...Bxh3 does not wreck White’s position. After 16.Rxh3 Qa5 17.b3 Qc5 18.g4 Bf4 19.Rd3 Rad8 20.Qf3 a5 21.Rad1 White is doing well. Zinchenko,Y (2544)-Minko,V (2254) Paleochora 2012 1–0 49.]
16.Bxc8 Rxc8 17.b3 Kh8 18.Qe2 Qe8 19.Rd1 Qe6 20.Kf1 g6 21.h5 Kg7 22.Rd3 f5 23.hxg6 Qxg6
After 23...hxg6 24.exf5 Qxf5 25.g4 Qf7 26.Rdh3 Rh8 27.Rf3 Black’s position is very dangerous. For example: 27...Qe8 28.g5! Bxg5 29.Rg1 Bf4 30.Qe4 followed by Nce3 bringing his last piece into the attack.
24.exf5 Rxf5 POSITION AFTER 24...RXF5
25.g4! Rf7 26.Rdh3 Rcf8 27.R1h2 Bg5 28.Rxh7+ Qxh7 29.Rxh7+ Kxh7 30.Kg2 Kg7 31.f3 Nd4 32.Nxd4 exd4 33.Qe4 Rxf3 34.Qxd4+ Kh6 35.Qe4 Rf2+ 36.Kg3 Rxa2 37.Ne7!
[Targeting the d6–pawn so that he can get his c-pawn moving].
37...Bxe7 38.Qxe7 Raf2 39.Qxd6+ R8f6 40.Qe5 Kg6 41.c5 R2f3+ 42.Kh4 Kf7 43.Qc7+ Kg6 44.Qxa5 Rxb3 45.Qa2 Rff3 46.Qa6+ Kg7 47.Kg5 Rbe3 48.Qg6+ Kf8 49.Qd6+ Re7 50.c6 Ke8 51.c7 1–0
David Howell is a chess prodigy.
Born Nov. 14, 1990 he became famous as the youngest player in the world to have qualified to compete in a national chess championship, taking part in the British Chess Championship at the age of 10. In 2015 he reached a rating of 2715 and joined the ranks of the super grandmasters.
I believe that the reason for England’s great performance is that all team members played for a win in every game. They were not content to play for equality and strove hard for the initiative. The following game is typical.
Howell, David W. L. (2693) Fawzy, Adham (2461) [A04]
England vs Egypt WchT Astana 2019 Astana (7.11),
12.03.2019
1.Nf3 c5 2.c4 Nc6 3.e3 e5 4.Nc3 d6 5.d4 cxd4 6.exd4 Bg4 7.Be2 f5 8.d5 Bxf3 9.gxf3!
Looks risky but White wants to continue fighting for the advantage. After the “normal” 9.Bxf3 Nd4 10.Be3 Nxf3+ 11.Qxf3 g6 Black is doing well.
9...Nce7
[9...Nd4 10.f4!]
10.h4 g6 11.h5 Bh6 12.f4 Nf6 13.hxg6 Bxf4 14.Bxf4 exf4 15.gxh7 Qb6 16.Qb3 Qd4?
[16...Qxb3 17.axb3 Rxh7 18.Rxh7 Nxh7 19.Nb5 steals a pawn for White, but maybe Black should have preferred 16...Rxh7]
17.Nb5! Qb6 18.Qc3 Kf7 19.Bh5+ Nxh5 20.Rxh5 Raf8 21.0–0–0
In addition to his strong attack and Black’s exposed monarch White is ahead on material.
21...Qxf2 22.Nxd6+ Kg6 23.Rhh1
Threatening Rdg1+
23...Qe3+ 24.Kc2 Qxc3+ 25.Kxc3 Kg7 26.Nxb7 Ng6 27.d6 Ne5 28.d7 Nf7 29.c5 1–0
Gawain Jones is probably the most active tournament player in the English team. He is an expert in the Sicilian Dragon and is a regular contributor to chesspublishing.com. He is currently 31 years old and rated 2691, on target to be the next Englishman to break 2700.
Many years ago I was addicted to the show NCIS (Naval Criminal Investigative Service). During one of the episodes Agent Dinozzo managed to go handto-hand and defeat a trained MOSSAD assassin. When his supervisor raised an eyebrow and asked how he managed to do that his reply was “I’m a scrappy fighter.” Well, that also applies to the following game.
Kostenko, Petr (2466) — Jones, Gawain C. B. (2681) [C50]
Kazakhstan vs England World Team-ch Open 2019 Astana (1.20), 05.03.2019 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.0–0 Nf6 5.d3 d6 6.a4 a6 7.c3 Ba7 8.Be3 Bxe3 9.fxe3 0–0 10.Nbd2 h6
The main continuation here for Black is Nc6–e7–g6 followed by ...h6 or ...Be6. GM Gawain undertakes a different plan which I cannot make heads or tails of.
11.d4 Bg4 12.Qc2 Bh5 13.Rae1 Nd7 14.b4 Qe7 15.g3 a5 16.b5 Nd8 17.Nh4 Ne6 18.Bd5 Ra7 19.Nf5 Qd8! 20.h3 Nf6 21.Bc4
White’s play is indecisive — he could have cashed in with 21.b6! cxb6 22.Qb3 Nxd5 23.exd5 Ng5 24.h4 Nh7 25.Ne4 with a big advantage.
21...c6 22.Bd3 Bg6 23.Nc4 Bxf5 24.Rxf5 g6 25.Rff1 Qe7 26.Kg2 Nd7 27.Qa2 Raa8 28.Qa3 c5 29.d5 Ng7
With the center finally closed Black starts to fight back in the kingside.
30.b6 f5 31.Qc1 Nf6 32.Qc2 Rad8 33.Kh2
Not 33.exf5 e4
33...h5 34.Nxa5 Ra8 35.Nb3
White misses his chance for 35.Nc6! Qe8 (35...bxc6? 36.dxc6 It is not going to be easy to hold back the three connected passed pawns) 36.Na7 White can play for a win at no risk.
35...h4! 36.gxh4 c4! 37.Bxc4 Nxe4
With the idea of ...Rfc8 together with ...Qxh4 targeting whie’s king and the poor bishop on c4.
38.Rg1?
Only move is 38.Bd3
38...Qxh4 39.Ref1 Ng5 40.Qg2 Qxc4 41.Qxg5 Qxb3 42.Qxg6 Rf7 43.Qxd6 Qxc3 44.Qe6 Qd2+ 45.Kh1 Qxe3 46.Rg6 Qxh3+ 47.Kg1 Qe3+ 48.Kh2 Qe2+ 49.Kg1 f4 50.Rf2 Qe1+ 51.Rf1 Qe3+ 52.Kh2
White has threats of his own. If Black is not careful he will be poleaxed by Rxg7+
52...Qe2+ 53.Kg1 f3 54.a5 f2+ 55.Kg2 Qf3+ 56.Kh2 Qf4+ 57.Kg2 Raf8 58.d6 Qf3+ 59.Kh2 Qh5+ 60.Kg2 Kh7 61.Qg4 Qxg6 62.Rh1+ Nh5 63.Rxh5+ Kg7 0–1
How is that for being a “scrappy fighter?”