Not the Open Golf; not Rory McIlroy

It has been a hot, sunny, balmy day in Manchester (these three words aren't typical of my beloved city) so what better thing to do than watch Rory McIlroy win the last round of the Open Mickey Adams win in Dortmund.

After year's difficult defeat against the up and coming Fabiano Caruana, unsuccessfully defending a Berlin endgame, today was a delight for fans of Mickey. A very smooth Closed Ruy Lopez.

It was classic Mickey, I first started to have a good appreciation of his style when captaining the England team in the Calvia, Mallorca, 2004 Olympiad. The chance to watch the games close up, and more than the chance, there being not many distractions (I took it as part of my role to be with the players for the vast bulk of the five, six or more hour sessions, in case the players needed me) meant it would have been foolish of me to miss the opportunity to learn. I wasn't foolish.

For Mickey, I coined the term 'Micklet', an ever so slight permanent advantage which, though barely perceptible, would in due course become apparent to all, and then be slowly converted to a tangible advantage, and then, in all probability, converted to a win through tactics. And his game today against David Baramidze was model exploitation of a Micklet. He was able to show, by a clever change of the structure by exchanging his bishop for a knight, that the advanced black pawn on b5 was a weakness, which eventually led to Mickey winning a pawn. Another facet of the structural change caused by 20 Bc5! was that it created a secure passed d pawn.

The next stage was what I used to think was shuffling around, but in fact was the steady improvement in placement and coordination of his pieces. And then, true to form, some tactics.

White to play and win

Worth analysing: the first move is 'obvious' but the lines are quite deep.

M Adams v D Baramidze 20/7/14 Dortmund

Solution

1 Nf5+! and the combination of various threats, including mating attacks in some lines by Qg3+ and Qg8+, is decisive.

Rather than give the lines here, they are in the attached game file. The game file also includes various comments about the game, including some thoughts on the strength of Mickey's creation and exploitation of a Micklet, and also one chance black had to create approximate equality.

http://www.viewchess.com/cbreader/2014/7/20/Game82707656.html

Oh, Rory won…the joy of being home alone (wife and daughter #2 being on a mum and daughter weekend in London, daughter #1 volunteering in Malawi, and son working in London, and Charlie the dog being under a vow of silence) is that you can watch both the chess and the golf.

The chess was more exciting.

Posted with Blogsy