Adams-Gurevich: thoughts on captaining England

I will from time to time blog about some reflections on captaining England at the Calvia, Mallorca, 2004 and Turin, Italy, 2006 Olympiads.

One of my clearest memories was of this game:

One of the duties I took upon myself was to get the teas or coffees whenever the players wanted them: I became adept at knowing the preferences of each of the six players, so a simple nod was sufficient, or in some cases I just knew when players wanted refreshment. Michael Adams, for instance, as part of his professional approach, never drank during his games, taking his fluids (and his diet) sensibly, to maximise his effectiveness at the board.

The above position, from Turin 2006, was one such occasion. I left the boards at this fairly early stage, to get a round in. When I came back, Mickey had gone, and the pieces re-set, with the white king on e4, black king on d5: the protocol for 'white has won'.

Consternation. How could Mickey Adams have won so quickly after the above position? I checked with the arbiter, who confirmed that it was 1-0 and that the kings weren't misplaced.

The arbiter found the copy scoresheet, and it turned out that Gurevich has blundered,

27…b6?? and, following John Nunn, LPDO: the undefended Ra8 falls after 28 Nd5!

Game over.

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